CRITICAL CONTEXT  STAGE 3

     I became aware of the problem of compassion. This is the problem that I would like to solve and investigate more throughout my projects as I realised that Compassion, this topic will be required prompting self-reflection, igniting the imagination, and effecting positive social change. It is natural to work in discursive design only through new thinking (innovative) in order to change our sociocultural futures with a more compassionate heart.  Therefore,  I came up with the idea of compassion and also tried to communicate through the thing that I love, which is flower. This is so because we are living in a world and generation where talk is cheap, we definitely need an application of extra something as an assist to deliver our message, gratitude, love and also compassion. With the help of flowers, people get to receive the meaning well without any words.It is to bring out awareness, Balance, and Connection (ABC’s) in our life and relationship with someone. 

     Previously, my expectation throughout this project was to create placards and bring awareness to compassion. However, the longer I research on this topic (Compassion), the more I feel a heat moving over my face and the expectation of my approaches become more detailed as I realise that Compassion is slowly fading away in this generation. It needs to be survived and rescued just like how the world is trying to save our nature. Compassion is our deepest nature, it arises from our interconnection with all things. Once it is extinct, our connection between all things will be broken. 

     The key moments of my practice throughout were the research and brainstorming period. During these moments, I get to know and figure out deeper in what compassion is in different angles, how we can learn to act compassionately, how compassion can be communicated through the power of flowers, what flowers is more suitable for each content, and how I can propose and convey this message in more effective ways to my target audiences. While brainstorming, I personally think that it was the key moment as I got to understand myself, get to know what society needs and try my best to bring awareness of compassion through visual communication.

     With this reflection, my future approaches will need to be changed in a way that is more powerful as compared to my current approach outcomes. This is because my current approach outcomes are still quite poor in problem solving, such as what my target audiences can do or should do after looking at my designs.  Besides that, my future approaches will need to try to explain more in a way to educate and also let my audiences understand the problem clearly. Other than that, it is also important to bring out the solution in a more straightforward manner, so that my audiences are able to understand the initiative that was brought out from my outcomes. 

Contexts

    Through my external and independent projects, expectation for my contexts and initiative has not changed. However, my context has become more mature than before through my data collection and analysis. With that, I am able to seek different perspectives on how my respondents react to my topic.  During this progression, I learned how to be receptive to perspectives other than my own through my primary research, such as surveys and interviews, and also through the suggestion from my lecturer. As a designer, I should always be able to listen to others. It is the one of the keys to be a compassionate designer and this is what I want myself to be positioned. Moreover, I have also done a lot of amendments and corrections throughout my project outcome in order to fulfill more in my initial proposition. For my independent project, my first outcome idea was to create an animation video but the storyboard did not link and utilise as much with my research. Therefore, I created a simple pop-up book to insert as much relevant context through my research and experiment. Besides, I also have chosen the suitable flower for the right meaning for each page. While for my external project, my visual design flowers are based on flowers that I liked at first. Then, I decided to study more in the meaning of the flowers, and added up choosing Peonies flowers and Gerbera Daisy flowers where they are the representatives of compassion.

In a nutshell, Compassion is to suffer alongside one who has a mistrust of society, which is to feel their pain and continue loving them. As a designer, I should always position myself in having the sense of concern that arises when we are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to see that suffering relieved. Thus, I should be able to place loving-kindness at the heart of the design process, ensuring that design validates and maintains one's dignity. Moreover, by finding the pain points of others, we as designers, it’s our job to listen and observe in order to improve our work by giving a positive impact on others. Hence, A good design is a byproduct of compassionate behavior. 


 

APA Referencing:

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