Author: weiting360

【Invention Mob】 Lessons learnt through the process

The main purpose of our invention mob project is to ask people to reflect upon their life by picturing and imaging as if they were dead. After this process, hopefully, people will realize what most important things in their life are and thus treasure the gifts life offers them.

Death is always a controversial topic of mankind. People are afraid of death yet the death is inevitable no matter how strong our fears are. However, as what Steve Jobs mentioned in his speech, “…Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.” In other words, death acts as a double-edged sword. All it matters is your attitude towards it.

This invention mob project certainly benefits me in many ways. One important lesson it teaches me is well concluded in Steve Jobs speech, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, you should have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

The Following is the link to the speech made by Steve Jobs:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

I highlighted some inspiring quotations:

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.


【Invention Mob】 Change of Ideas

On last Wednesday, our group presented a blog. There were discussions on our blog outlook. We took in those comments and changed the whole theme into a more positive color.

I was thinking how to make our project more insightful and more attractive. Moreover, how can our project arouse people’s interest and thus participate in our project? Then I reflected on the ‘Chill Out’ and ‘Earth Sandwich ‘ projects. Suddenly, I was looking back in my childhood. At those innocent ages, I was very afraid of death. At present, my fears for death is not diminishing.

However, we are doing a project related to death. Will I face death with courage after all we have done? I talked to my team mates and they were willing to help me through this project. Therefore, our project changed. There is a story line according to my experiences. It goes like this:

“When I was a little girl., I was very afraid of death.
In my dream, I felt extremely helpless when both of my parents were dead.

At the age of 8, my grandfather went away. It was the first time I experienced death around me.

As my ages grow, my fear of death increases instead of diminishing.
In the year of 2011, my grandmother wen to meet my grandfather in heaven.

What if my parents went away? I really cannot take it. I was very anxious and terrified by the fact that they would eventually leave me.

So I ask for help from people around me.

They came out with this idea:
1) Picturing themselves dead
2）Reflecting upon their death
3) Encourage me with their thoughts  “

So I made a poster for our project.

 


【Invention Mobs】 How to make it more insightful?

Finally, I finished all my mid-term exams today and was free to write my blog.

Last Friday, our group presented a promotional video during the class to persuade people to participate in our project. The feedback was quite good. However, some comments caught my eye in the chat room. One person was asking how we connected all those dead body pictures together while the other was concerning about purpose of our project.

I started thinking of the question ‘ how to make our project more insightful?’

Then I come out with this idea :

We would not only ask people to take a picture of their pretending dead but also ask them to do some reflections on what if they actually died. What would be people’s responses to their death?  Would there be anything that they will regret about? What would they do if they have more time being alive? … The question list goes on and on. After the reflection, hopefully they would see the beauty of being alive and become treasuring their lives not wasting their precious time.

Personally I think this purpose is more meaningful and insightful for a project involving many people.

I voiced my idea to my group mates and they all liked this idea.

However, it is not very suitable for us to present all those unrelated pictures in a comic. Therefore, Mike suggested the idea of making a blog containing all those pictures and people can add on the comments.

 


If God close a door…❤

If God close a door, he will open a window for you. There will always be another way out. I understand this principle more thoroughly by undergoing today’s problem solving process.

Target:  Making a promotional video for our Invention Mob project

Problems: 1.Inspiration on how to make the video

2. Getting dead body pictures

3. Finding the suitable music

Solutions：

1.I just randomly clicked any web link to see if I can be inspired by anything on the web page. However, the inspiration did not come so easily.

Then I started watching anime. In a fraction of time, the anime ‘Detective Conan’ came to my mind. Therefore, I wanted to make my video related to it.

2.  I shall get some dead body pictures from my group mates.

However, as next week is the mid-term exam week, they are quite busy and I only receive one dead body picture.

So how can I get those dead body pictures I want? I started to google. However, the result was poor as those pictures were far too scary which defeated our theme of being funny.

I thought of those dead bodies in ‘Detective Conan’. I tried to search them in the Internet. Nonetheless, I failed as dead bodies were not the main part of this anime.

So what can I do? I watched those videos and printed screen the dead body pictures. The process was tedious as I wanted to find different kind of dead bodies.

3. I rarely listen to music at present. I do not know much about English music. I want to find a piece of music which will intensify the situation.

How can I find it? I searched the Internet and found nothing. I thought of the theme song of ‘Bleach’ – a Japanese anime. However, there was no way for me to download it.

Therefore, I tried to relax by using Chinese version of Facebook. Suddenly, a melody came into my ear and it was what I wanted. Though it was in mp4 format, I used some software to transfer it into mp3 format which then I can use it in movie maker.

After all those process, this is what I finally make:


All roads lead to Rome

The idiom goes ‘All roads lead to Rome’.

The game named ‘Thinker Ball’ makes me understand this idiom better.  In this game, you are supposed to use the tools provided to create a routine which will lead the ball to its final destination.

At the first trial, I failed as I did not think much of the consequence. I just did whatever I thought would be useful. I did not consider much about physical relationship such as inertia.

I played for more than three times using different method. The game taught me that you should jump out of the old-minded thinking process. For instance, a hammer is not for the purpose of forcing in a nail but can be used as a short piece of wood.

However, the game ‘puzzle’ let me have a different feel towards the idiom. In the puzzle game, there will be only one way which will let you to succeed. I have tried to use different way but failed. This game is more about seeing the big picture and focusing on details. In a simple sentence, you will look at the puzzle as a whole before you searching for small pieces which will fit in the shape. Then you look for those matching shapes.

I personally love to play the game named ‘Matching Up’. The game is designed to match up two identical images which could be connected within three straight lines. If you want to do it fast, you need to look at the whole picture. When you finish clicking one pair, you should directly click the image next to you and finding the matching image. Moreover, in this game, only when you finish matching some images, there will be a way out for another pair. It really requires some sort of thinking.

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Childhood Memory❀

I carried out the exercise ” Play at Inventing” which suggested you to play simple games at the following web page:

http://www.inventionatplay.org/

After playing all those games which reminded me of my childhood, I wrote a simple poem named “Childhood”.

                       Childhood is a kite
                       Flying dreams in the sky
                       Childhood is a bar of chocolate
                       Bitter and sweet at the same time
                       Childhood is a hand-made swing
                       Touching leaves  Seeing the sight
                       Childhood is a wooden bridge over the stream
                       Watching fishes swimming by the side

I tried three out of four games in the web page. I am quite impressed with the game “Cloud Dreamer”. Without thinking,  I just stretched any points I liked. The outcome was amazing. One of the cloud looked like a cute squirrel while the other portrayed a clown wearing special kind of hat.

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What you need from Five to One❤

What is ‘ Symphony’?

If you Google search it, you will find most of the description are related to orchestra and musical composition.

Here is an example of explanation in Wikipedia: ” A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. “   * source comes from the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony

However, it is only literal meaning. From what author Daniel Pink states, symphony is the ability to put together the pieces. My understanding of symphony is the ability and capability to see the whole picture.

I have carried out the exercise of “Draw” — that is drawing your self-portrait using only five lines.

Firstly, I tried using five lines. It is kind of easy. I wanted to challenge myself. Therefore, I drew my self-portrait using four lines, three lines and even one line. From this practice, I discover that what you need from five lines to one line is the ability to combine and connect. For instance, I used two lines to draw my hair and fringe in Five-lined Self-portrait. However, I found out that I actually just needed one line to combine them together to present my hair style.

Another ability you need to reduce the lines is the courage to discard the old mind and find a new way out.This is equivalent to what is stated by Trevor Raylis:” The key to success is to risk thinking unconventional thoughts.” For instance, in generalization,  people regard glasses and hair as two totally unrelated things. However, in drawings, you can combine them together just in one line.

In conclusion, what you need from five to one is to be more creative and think a bit more.

Click to view slideshow.

Love Pen Holder – handcrafted object

I made a pen holder using recycled paper and candy wraps.  The paper is folded into a shape of cylinder. Candy wraps are folded into the butterfly shape. The theme of my pen holder is love.

My idea comes from an ancient Chinese love story, Shanbo Liang and Yingtai Zhu. Zhu was an ambitious young lady who desired to learn knowledge despite the fact that females were not allowed to enter a school at that century. Therefore, Zhu pretended to be a male and entered the same school as Liang. Zhu and Liang became good friends and later soul mate. Later when Liang discovered Zhu’s actual sex, he fell in love with her. However, when Liang proposed to Zhu, Zhu’s family refused his request. Liang fell sick severely and then died. Zhu felt heart broken and ached so badly with sorrow. She went to see Liang’s grave.  Zhu cried sadly and fell into Liang’s grave. Thunders roared and rain fell.

A spit second later, there appeared two butterflies flying together into the sky. People believe the butterflies were the soul of Liang and Zhu. In my pen holder, I stapled each of two butterflies face to face to represent this love story. I also drew some thistles and thorns to represent those difficulties they needed to go through.

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