Cosplay culture

*Cover*

Hello there! keep scrolling to see the process of making this portrait

Intercultural Design Project

Hello there! this is a compilation of the whole process of working on the Intercultural Design project for 2022. Keep scrolling down to know more about what my group members and I had been working on from January to Feb...

Week 1 - Netnography (3/1/2022)

During our first week, the lecturers Mr. Asrizal Razali and (insert another name) were giving us an introduction about Intercultural Design and what will we have to do for the project by showing us the module information booklet - The given theme is purpose - We had to form a group that consists of 6 students from different programs. The meeting also was followed by a lecture about Netnography by Dr. Charles 

Week 2 - Lecture (10/1/2022)

During our meeting this week, Mr. Asrizal Razali was briefing us about our first project which is a proposal. He showed us an example from a previous group project to show us every requirement that we have to full fill to complete our proposal. He also asked us to watch a lecture video by Dr. Jinchi about Culture & Us to help us when we do our research on our selected culture

Project 1

Week 01 – Week 03 Deadlines Week 03 Description A proposal to concretize ideas, supported by research, for a final design revolving around a given theme that reflects students’ understanding and interpretation of global issues and design aesthetics.

Requirements

• The general theme is “Purpose”.
• In your group, select a particular culture in society and brainstorm to identify an area of interest you wish to highlight or bring awareness/attention to that culture.
• Conduct some research about the culture and the specific area you have identified.
• Produce some preliminary ideas on how you will apply your knowledge and creativity in design to communicate your message to an audience.
• Each idea is to be supported by a short rationale. Conduct visual research to help expand your idea generation.

Submission 1 Digital Submission (in one PDF File) in TIMeS:

A deck presentation of the proposal that contains:

• A 200-word rationale defining and interpreting the theme in relation to the culture and area of interest. Citation is necessary as evidence to the research. • A minimum of 5 preliminary ideas in detailed sketches, each with a rationale. • Visual references (visuals that inspire/influence those ideas). • Reference list • Picture credits

The Process

Week 1

(3/1/2022)

• We successfully form a group that consists of 6 students: Me, Michelle, Aimee, Peinyi, Steffi, June, and Owen.

(4/1/2022)

• we had our first group meeting together at 9:30 p.m to select our group leader.
• We did a spinning wheel to select a leader and it pointed at Michelle.
• We also used Miro board to brainstorm our ideas on a topic that we want to work on.

Week 2

(7/1/2022)

• We had our first meeting from 11 a.m to 12.30 p.m.
• We told sir that we would like to do our research on fashion culture but then he told us that fashion is too general and we have to narrow down our idea.
• After the meeting is over, the group finally decided to choose Japanese cosplay culture and the idea got approved.

Week 2

(14/1/2022)

• We had a consultation with Mr. Asrizal at 12 p.m.
• We had a group meeting at 4:30 p.m to work on the proposal together.
• We managed to finish almost everything except for the preliminary ideas.
• Then, Michelle send the proposal to sir to ask for feedback as we didn't show him.
• anything during our first consultation.

(15/1/2022)

• We received feedback from Mr. Asrizal on our proposal and he asked us to change our research questions as what we've written there is sort of pointless and it doesn't really serve the purpose that we're looking for.

Week 3

(20/1/2022)

• We managed to complete everything including our preliminary ideas and also changed our research question. At this point, we just have to record the presentation and send it to sir.

(22/1/2022)

• We all managed to finish recording the presentation and submit it.

Project 2

Week 04 – Week 05 Deadline Week 05

Description

Students will conduct a data gathering collection process about the culture with relevance to the theme and your research objectives.

Requirements

The students are required to collect visual, oral, textual and tactile artefacts that would be part of their research materials for the ideation in Project 1 (proposal). All collected artefacts and materials must be recorded, kept and documented, accompanied by necessary information such as the type of artefact and material, its purpose, its symbolism, its cultural/historical background, and more, depending on the kind of artefact and material.

Data Collection Methods

Some of the methods by which you can collect data:

• Online – interview of relevant stakeholders (from the lecture series, you may approach any of the guest speakers for an interview, if you deem their presentation useful for further research).
• Online and/or actual physical material* visual research of the selected culture (the people/arts/symbols/architecture/text/calligraphy etc.)

Submission

• In relevant ways that protect and preserve the collected artefacts and materials
• Accompanying descriptions that properly and clearly informs about important information of each artefact and materials

The Process

Week 4

(25/1/2022)

• We had a group meeting at 9:30 p.m to discuss our second project task.
• We categorized the research we have to into three parts such as observation, questionnaire, and interviews.
• The meeting was faster than I anticipated.
• we managed to divide the tasks for every member to do equally and set a deadline.

(28/1/2022)

• We had a consultation with Mr. Asrizal.
• He was giving some feedback on the proposal to the other group and we were just asking questions about data collection.

(30/1/2022)

• We're still working on data collection at this point.
• A lot of progress has been done.
• I also created a google form to do a quiz about cosplay and share it with my peers to answer and managed to finish all of my parts later at night.

Week 5

(4/1/2022)

• I sent all of my recorded videos to Michelle for her to edit.
• Everyone successfully recorded the presentation.
• Finally, we have done working on data collection

Click here to view the compilation of projects 1 & 2!!!

Final Project

Timeframe Week 06 – Week 07

Deadline Week 07

Description

Upon the completion of the research, data collection, participation in all class lectures and tutorials, presentation of a complete proposal and research data, students are to produce visual design outcomes related to their interpretation

of the given theme.

Requirements

Utilizing the data collected from the research trip, students are to produce visual design outcomes that reflect their interpretation and definition of “Purpose”, bearing in mind to

consider cultural and aesthetic aspects, balanced with their design knowledge. Various directions and approaches can be engaged in, such as experimental design/art with the use of

manual/digital or a combination of both media.

Submission

This depends on the proposed medium

The Process

Week 5

(6/2/2022)

• Before we start working on the project, we decided to vote for our final idea first and the most voted idea was creating a cosplay. However, we are still unsure about this as we still need approval from Mr. Asrizal

 

Week 6 

(11/2/2022)

•  We had a consultation with Mr. Asrizal at 11:30 a.m. He was giving us some feedback on our Data collection and he said we did a great job at it.
• We also discuss a bit with Mr. Asrizal about our final step which is creating an artwork inspired by our selected culture. We told sir that we want to make a cosplay but then he said the message we're trying to deliver from it is too obvious and he asked us to come up with a better idea

• Then, we decided to go with our second idea. I am quite happy when they decided to go with this idea because it was actually the idea that I came up with for the preliminary ideas

• We start discussing how we want to create a portrait together as a group as we are doing it virtually

Week 7

(16/2/2022)

• We had a quick group meeting at 9:00 p.m together to present our ideas  and we made a lot of progress that night and all left to do now is to start painting it

• June came up with this great idea where everyone will get the opportunity to participate and show their creativity by slicing the whole image into a few pieces and everyone will get one part of the whole portrait as shown
• The square part pon the left side will be the natural part of the women's face to serve the transformation message

This is how we do it:

Main idea:

The reason why it's important to start with a base is that we want to use the body structure of  our portrait of choice as the foundation so the final outcome is going to look accurate

1. We number each slice and do a spinning wheel so everyone will get their part randomly

2. We also chose a ready-made portrait as our base in order to get a decent proportion outcome since each slice will be done individually to ensure they all fit together nicely once put every piece together

- The picture we use as a base to start our portrait is a photograph of Laura Gywneth Butler for  @britishgirls_magazine taken by @anyaholdstock -

• Then, I proceed with slicing the chosen portrait that we all agreed to work with so we all can start painting over it 

(17/2/2022)

• We just received feedback from sir and he's a lot more interested in this one

• Everyone continues to do their assigned pieces

I got number 6 and this is what I've done for my part:

The rest also will be doing the same thing and I'm just waiting for everyone to finish their parts

Week 7

• 23/ 2/ 2022:  After receiving everyone's outcome. We finally came out with the final outcome!

• 24/2/2022: we decided to record our presentation together at 10:30 p.m in Zoom as tomorrow is the submission day.

• 25/2/2022: Our group leader successfully submitted our final project and basically that's the ending of our journey.

Final Outcome

- The final outcome was put together by one of our members, June. -

The Message

..."The message behind the portrait is to bring awareness to people of the real reason why some people really enjoy cosplaying. From what I have seen and read throughout my exploration process, usually, people only see cosplay as a hobby or as a way to show people how you really love certain characters, and it's not hard to understand why people do it. But there's so much to it that makes cosplaying is so interesting and unique. As you can see, we deliberately emphasize the natural part of the lady’s face because we want to drag’s viewers' eyes directly to this particular part of the portrait because that is the focal point. the natural part of the face shows an individual while the customized parts of the portrait around the frame show freedom. Why do I say freedom? Because it's giving people the freedom to escape from the reality of who they are as an individual in real life where people can pretend to be in an anime/ manga or game world. So, it gives people the freedom to be someone else even just for a day. Cosplaying also gives the freedom to people to feel a sense of belonging like when they walk through a convention and see a community of people with the same interests. especially, When people make eye contact and smile when they recognize your character and ask to take pictures, it's giving you a moment to feel special and appreciated. Furthermore, the various parts of the portrait also show the creative sides of an individual because some people really enjoy the processing of planning and creating custom as it’s such a rewarding hobby."...

Thank you so much to everyone who's involved in the project. I enjoyed every moment of working with my group members. :)

However, check out our  slides to see what we presented to our lecturers:

Click here to see our Final presentation slides!!

" T h e E n d "