Kelly's NM4226 Journal

After months of hardwork and preparation, Random Blends 2017: Interceptions was successfully held at ArtScience Museum! The process though stressful and sometimes chaotic, was ultimately very rewarding. Really thankful for all the nice and amazing people I've met in the module, from my beloved marketing team whom I'm extremely grateful for, to the events and curation team members, to the teaching team, and of course, our dear GM, Wayne! Pre-Event Reflection  The process of preparing for Random Blends took up the bulk of the module, so it wouldn't make much sense to skip this part in my reflection now, would it? 😆 To start off, I was initially assigned to the marcoms sub-team earlier on in the semester and helped with crafting the press releases, sponsorship proposal and content for ASM (i.e. featured works article). As someone who had little experience in PR, it wasn't a breeze for me, but thankfully it turned out well in the end!  As the marcoms duti...

As part of our online social media strategy, we've met and filmed the video interview with the artists of Isabelle and Breathing Bags respectively! Videos and visuals are generally more well received online, and hence, we're hoping that filming video interviews with the artists would give us better reach and engagement on our social media platforms. Personally, having done some filming 2 semesters back, I was ecstatic to be part of another video production again! Heh. Isabelle On the Monday of Week 8, we met with Janeen & Jiayu, the team behind Isabelle, to interview them on their experiences and hopes for their short-documentary film. I've actually watched the film before Random Blends, and was really touched by Isabelle's cheerful personality and positive outlook on life despite her disabilities. I felt that it was truly an enjoyable experience getting to know more about Isabelle through the artists, and also hear about the challenges they faced during their fi...

There will be 2 social media contests for the Interceptions showcase, one on Facebook and the other on Instagram to reach out to different audiences. After much discussion, the Facebook Comment Contest will be running from 8 Mar to 15 Mar 2017. Participants have to comment about a social issue they think is important and tag a friend to continue the discussion. The objective is to raise awareness and generate discussions on social issues. Tagging a friend would also help in terms of extending our reach. Likewise, the #VOICESintercept Instagram Contest is scheduled to run for 1 week, from 11 to 18 March 2017, shortly after the Facebook Comment Contest kicks off. Participants will be tasked to take a selfie holding a board saying “I CARE ABOUT _______”, and caption why they care about the particular chosen social issue on their Instagram. Here, we decided that tagging a friend here wouldn't be needed, as their Instagram post would already be available on their followers' fee...

Working with our limited budget, the marketing team brainstormed and came up with the idea to contact other Facebook pages that were similar in nature, in that they were advocating for social issues which our Random Blends artworks touched upon. Thought we understood that getting other pages to share our content would be hard, considering the lack of incentives and our limited "exchange value", we felt that we should still give it a shot. Joo Hwee and I were tasked to craft personalised messages for each of the following Facebook pages: To increase the chances of them agreeing to the collaboration, we tried to establish relevance between the specific page's genre of posts and the respective Random Blends artworks which talks about a similar social issue. Sample personalised message to "Journey to Zero Waste Life in Singapore" So far we've managed to get UNSAID Singapore, MWAW and CNM CARE to collaborate with us! Hooray! Reminder messages w...

NUS OPEN DAY is a university-wide event that happens annually and draws in large crowds of both prospective and current NUS students. It was a great opportunity for the marketing team to promote our social media contests, especially the #VOICESintercept Instagram contest which was scheduled to start on the same day. To maximise our promotional efforts, we had Hai En, Joo Hwee and Anton take the morning shift, whilst Ryan, Minyu and I came for the afternoon shift. We had a few objectives for our shifts, and I'm so glad that we've managed to achieve all of them!   Promote the Interceptions showcase   Encourage participation in the #VOICESintercept Instagram contest  Grow our Instagram followers  Video: Snippet of Instastory posted on Random Blends Instagram account during NUS OPEN DAY Prior to the NUS OPEN DAY promotion, we had an increase of 41 followers on Instagram (from 100 the day before, to 141) and managed to gather over 15 partic...

I was tasked to be in charge of the Humans of CNM Mini-Series, where there will be a total of 4 features of artists from JOE, Finding Strength, Parallel Paths and Unpretty. We want the series to be similar to other "Humans of -" series' that are popular online, but at the same time, have a Random Blends spin to it. Ultimately, the posts will feature a quote from the artists about the social issue their project is about, and also their personal experience throughout their creation process. As the timeline for the first Humans of CNM feature was pretty tight, I selected Ryan Chong, one of the creators behind 2D-platformer game, JOE, to be the first featured artists. This worked out great as Ryan is part of the social media team and hence, I was able to get the necessary information quick enough to make edits and finalise the post before it was due for upload.   Instagram post Facebook post We didn't expect Ryan's feature to be so well-received! Curre...

As the social media component of our marketing strategy is kicking off and most of the marcoms tasks have been completed, Trena, our new team head suggested for me to join the social media team as more manpower is needed there. Though this also means added responsibilities and tasks on my plate, I'm really glad that I've the opportunity to try out something new - managing social media accounts and coming up with content etc. Thanks Trena, and of course, the social media team (Minyu, Hai En & Ryan) for warmly welcoming me! (: I joined in on the social media team meeting this week, where we discussed in detail how to go about with the Isabelle & Breathing Bags video interviews, Humans of CNM series, posts about artworks, promotional posts, potential collaborations with influencers & Facebook pages. After discussion, we split the work and got down to getting the work done. All in all, it was a productive meeting and a great start to taking on social media tasks f...

6 works were selected by the curatorial team, as special featured works for the Interceptions showcase. With the information from the curatorial team, I wrote the artwork and artists description for each of the featured works  Trigger, Cracks, Depression, The Struggle, Breathing Bags and Isabelle using a marketing tone to generate more hype and enthusiasm for the reader . A total of 2 different copies were prepared - one for ArtScience Museum (with interesting facts about the works) and the other for the media, to be sent along with the press releases. The process of preparing the "Featured Artworks" document was quite challenging in a few aspects. Firstly, there was a lack of information which made it hard to craft components such as the artwork and artist descriptions. I coordinated with some of the artists personally (some were my friends), to obtain additional information that made writing easier. Secondly, we faced difficulties obtaining installation shots of the feat...

During the Tuesday of recess week, the marketing team attended a talk by the NUS Marketing and Communications Team, arranged by Prof. Nancy. It was such a nice gesture by the NUS Marcoms team, as they had to take time off their busy schedule to meet with us. Using the example of their 'Brave New World' campaign for this year's NUS Arts Festival, they shared with us how a school event can be publicised through both the various offline & online channels. It was truly very interesting to hear about their experience right from the early stages of brainstorming the campaign's branding, to finally executing their campaign strategy. For instance, they developed and executed creative offline strategies such as the placement of the 'Brave New World' cubes & DIY cube "decals" at the various NUS faculties to increase brand awareness. I personally felt that it was a great idea, as it created opportunities for students to take photo with the setup...

A press release issued to media outlets is a must-have, and is absolutely necessary in creating buzz for our Random Blends showcase. If our target is to get media coverage, both pre- and post-event, the sending out of a press release to the various traditional and non-traditional media outlets is very crucial. As part of the Marcoms team that I was allocated into, one of my first few tasks was to craft the pre-event press release along with Reynard, our marketing team head. I personally felt that the process of writing the press release was rather challenging, as I had only taken 2 modules in NUS that touched upon the mechanics of PR briefly. I was honestly, rather unsure of how to start on the press release. Headline, summary, dateline, lead paragraph, body, boilerplate and contact information ; this is the skeleton of a traditional press release, as I could vividly recall from taking NM4228 Crisis Communications, the previous semester. Thankfully, after drawing upon the referen...

The CNM cabinet and Prep Room is an important part of our Random Blends showcase. The former allows all visitors who pass by a glimpse of what the showcase would be like, and the latter is a space where the curators can brainstorm and visualise how the different artworks can be pieced together in various ways. The marketing team was tasked to decorate part of the CNM cabinet, in consistent with the Random Blends theme. During the brainstorming session on WhatsApp, we threw in many interesting ideas, such as creating a "string map" that passes across various different words symbolising the intercept of social issues at Random Blends. I was ecstatic when the others were supportive of my suggestion, however, due to the limitations of the cabinet's size & hinderance of the inner glass panels, it was very difficult to execute. Eventually, we decided to print out some relevant quotes and photos that were in line with the dark theme of Interceptions, and use that to decor...

During this week's lesson, we had a guess lecture by the very experienced Tracey, who provided us with great insights on how we could come up with a marketing strategy for Random Blends. She also introduced a few useful concepts such as the JTBD (Job To Be Done) statement, components of the creative brief, and the importance of building personas. This was what I came up with after the lesson: My JTBD: To project Random Blends 2017 as a unique art exhibition that combines artworks from NUS CNM students to highlight the presence of the many societal issues in both the local and global context. My persona: Daren is 25 years old, and is a Year 4 student who is currently studying Communications and New Media at the National University of Singapore. Daren’s hobbies include photography, videography and gaming. He is a fitness junkie, and is very passionate about weightlifting. In particular, he is very interested in exploring cinematography and colour grading of films and docu...

The Marketing Team's first task was to come up with the branding and logo of Random Blends 2017: Interceptions. As it was pretty early on during the preparation process for RB, our team was unsure of what form the exhibition would take. Hence, we came up with the idea of creating a mood board on Pinterest, where all members of the team could collaborate and add pictures they think would be suitable for RB into the 2 "boards" of "Logo Design" and "Art Direction". I really liked this idea of individually sourcing for inspiration, and coming together to discuss and determine which art direction we should go for. Out of all the pins, the ones with a glitchy effect stood out the most to the team and thus, we decided to go for a glitchy effect, combining it with the "E3, B" illusion style (pic above). We went ahead with that art direction having received good feedback from Prof. Nancy, Eve and the curatorial team during the presentation in cl...

Liu Kang (1951) Building Site / Samsui Women Oil on canvas 151 x 212.5  cm Group art critique written collectively with Joshua Tan, Audrey Chiang, Ang Minyu and Ryan Chong. Response When we first saw Liu Kang’s painting, we were intrigued by its depiction of the samsui women in Singapore during the period of 1920s-1940s. The vibrant red colour of the hats immediately captured our attention and fuelled our curiosity to further analyse the art piece. Being Singaporeans ourselves, we’ve all heard stories of the samsui women and the hardships they’ve had to endure. As we observed the painting in detail, we started to pick up on the emotionless and exhausted facial expressions of the samsui women, as well as the kind of harsh environment they were made to work in. We felt a sense of sympathy and empathy then and there, as we started to recall the experiences and stories of the samsui women we’ve seen on TV in the past. Though the documentaries and TV dramas, coupled wi...

Liu Kang Artist and Model 1954 Oil on canvas 84 x 124 cm Response When I first saw the painting, the bold use of colours instantly captured my attention. I felt that it was portraying a very pleasant yet simple scene of an artist drawing a sketch of his model. The artwork’s vibrant colours also brought about a sense of peacefulness and calmness I couldn’t really understand. Description  Liu Kang’s Artist and Model is a moderately sized oil on canvas painting. The painting features 2 figures, an artist and his model sitting opposite each other. The model is holding a pose, while the artist is sketching a portrait of her. In the foreground, there’s a round table with a tea set and some extra sketching paper. In the background, one can observe lush greenery, mountain and a meandering river, set against a backdrop of light blue sky and white fluffy clouds. The combination of colours used in the foreground is vibrant and warm, whereas the colours in the backgrou...

As a continuation of the discussion I’ve had with Joshua, Minyu and Insyirah in Week 1, we came together to discuss and brainstorm, what digital art & culture means to us. We came up with the following definitions that best reflect our perception of Digital Art and Culture: Indispensable part of our everyday lives (art is everywhere, although it might be invisible)  Ever-changing and fluid  Redefines the way we live, learn and communicate Digital Art in specific is contemporary art that uses the methods of mass production or digital media For instance, art that uses interactive online media, social media, mass collaborative platforms  Digital Culture is is the social relationships that occur in the realm of new media Experienced by everyone, but often goes unnoticed This discussion was done online, using Google Slides as a platform for collaboration. To facilitate easy and fuss free discussion, we had a Skype call concurrently. It definitely made things m...

Hi 4226 classmates, Here’s my submission for the “Observations of a Space” homework. I’ve chosen to observe the space “Story of the Time When Gods Were Everywhere” , which is part of the “FUTURE WORLD” exhibition at Art Science Museum. (photo source: http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/teamlab-tokyo-based-digital-artist-collaborative/) What I Saw/Heard and Reflection of How People Interact with the Space Basically in the space, there’s a large wall with projections that are interactive in nature. One can touch the many icons on the wall, and watch them transform into various natural elements such as fire, rain, trees, mountains and even animals. In that sense, the participants in the space can be considered as “creators”, as the selection of which icons to activate changes the world depicted on the wall. Of course, their “creations” are pre-programmed and are limited to a certain number predetermined by the artist. Visually, this is very interesting to ...

Hi Everyone, I'm a year 4 NM major taking "NM4226 INTERACTIVE MEDIA DESIGN CAPSTONE PROJECT" this semester. Thought it would be pretty interesting and rewarding to take a more hands-on module in my graduating semester, as supposed to the typical academic-driven modules. I will be using this platform to share my thoughts and experiences from the module. Do stay tuned for my journal submissions! (: Kelly