418A - Architectural Language

بِسْــــــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِارَّحْمَنِ ارَّحِيم

Alhamdulillah for another day to be alive :)

As usual towards the end of class, we'd form a circle and Prof would ask that we to give two good questions or comments before we leave.

I know for a fact that today I've been exposed to a new language - Architectural language. All the terms that we used today, though I thought I knew them, were actually defined as something else. Elevation per say, in architecture means frontal side view. Nothing like elevator-ish or increase in height of something. Floor plan equates bird's eye view. If this is not a clash of culture, then I don't know what is. In Creative Suite (designers' big time software package), to flatten text, Photoshop uses the term rasterize while Illustrator and InDesign use create outline. The same applies with a painting. People from different "tribes" may call it image, illustration or design. The painter, if you got the term wrong, he or she may get offended based on what he/she defines each of the implied terms as. Why? because the essence of what we mean to say is reduced down to a bunch of letters to make up words, a bunch of words to make up sentences and a bunch of that to make up language. None of which really omits feelings or intention. For instance, mamat ckp minah tembam. Minah marah. Tapi mamat tak faham sbb apa minah marah sbb bagi mamat, tembam tu comey. Minah pulak tak faham kenapa minah tak patut marah sbb bagi minah, tembam tu gemuk la. Haha. Bad example. Ok, for instance, to a painter, illustration may be something that is sketchy and done on paper while to a graphic designer, illustration is an image form which may or may not be filled with colors. Anyway, I'm off tangent now. What I wanted to say is that, I learnt a whole new set of language today. 

Best la prof ni for exposing us to this type of design. For our next project, we are assigned to design a museum layout. So that requires us to build a model using architecture methods. Bismillah Ar Rahman Ar Rahim! We had a workshop. Prof thought us the basics and how to look and use of the tools. At the end of class we all came up with 6x6 prison cell floor plan designs. Hmm. Imagine the imprisonment of the life in the grave. Siapa kata dalam grave tiada life. Astaghfirullah haladzim. 

"Just try. You're not going to get burned. But if you do, so what? You don't want to die like a die-nasour"  (that means extinct forever, without known legacy..at least that's what I think he meant. See. Language barrier again).   

"People trust you to have a good eye on things. So, once you're known for your profession, they'd consult you on something that's not even in the field of your concentration such as interior design, fashion etc" (ayah used to draw floor plans for architects. He also designed the layout of our house in Malaysia. Ya Allah please make the understanding and skill run in the family blood. amin)

"Specialization leads to obsolesce." (lol. there's no such thing as obsolization) I beg to differ on that. Specialization makes you valuable but of course, when you know a lot of languages instead of just one, that also could make you special. You become an all rounder...likewise Nabi Muhammad SAW (the all rounder) and his companions Bilal ibn Rabah (muadzzin), Khalid al Walid (sayfullah) whom had their own niches and areas of expertise. Of course, we're talking mastery. Not really like how I know my Spanish, French and Arabic. (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...Por favor, mon Dieu T_T -  a lil bit of Sprench there (Spanish + French)

Back to my rough notes - What are those little persons doing up there? Well, we had to practice and create our own version of architecture persons within the little amount of time and scale given. It had to be quick, gestural, sketchy but appropriately proportioned like real life humans. Everyone had their own trademark. My first ever version of people tend to have hunched backs and awkward head proportions. But prof said it's ok. Because we do have those kind of people in real life. Oh the irony. Hahaha. 

This part is really scruffy. I drew the Titanic-ky lady there while on the bus. Too freezing to be walking. -12oc a couple of days ago and today it snowed 5-7 inches :) Subhanallah. Seolah-olah duniaku disprinkle dengan white caster sugar all over again. Alamdulillah. So it was freezing to perfection with the presence of chilly winds. Student is as student does,  does a lot of walking. I remember once I said to mama, "Hu...ma, I dread walking back and forth to school in the cold winter weather. Harap2 tahun ni winter tak sejuk" Funny la manusia ni. Masalahnye, mana ada winter yg panas mcm bak pepatah ayah, mana ada kentut yang wangi. So mama dengan secara berhikmahnya ckp "It's ok. Then just pray for yourself." Pergh la mama saya ni :) Alhamdulillah thank you Allah for the gift of both amazing and funny guardian angels. 

Betullah. All I gotta do, under any circumstance, just pray for myself. I don't have to pray for "winter yang tak sejuk" or supaya Allah kurangkan tiupan angin yang dingin per say. If I kept on praying like that out of ignorance, kesian la kat sabahat2 kita di north pole - the penguins, polar bears dan segala makhluk Allah yang lain. They live on icy beds, icy food and icy weather. Kalau takda angin, mcmmana kincir angin nak berfungsi dan layang-layang nak terbang. Kesian kat orang2 yang suka main layang2 masa winter). "Pray that you'll be able to withstand the cold weather." See. mudah je! Subhanallah :) 

Kelolo. Bagi contoh, kalau tali kasut hilang, mulalah kita syak wasangka yang adik kita, kawan2 kita or tikus kita amik. Janganlah doa moga si fulan yang amek tu senak perut mcm typical orang2 dulu buat. Kang tak pasal2 orang2 yang tersilap makan or girls yang "in that time of the month" kena blame. Just pray that the tali kasut gets returned in good condition. Sedihkan. Most of the time, having to find out who the person that oppresses us, doesn't make us any happier. It doesn't make our life any easier. Bak pepatah mamat, "Takkan menambahkan iman pon kalau tahu..." Instead, we'd always feel apprehensive and having second thoughts on the person sbb dah ada grudge disitu. Especially when they're the people that we know quite closely. Tidak mudah untuk forgive dan forget rupa2nya. 

So anyway, the illustration above is a reflection of me *cewah* embracing the chilly winter winds. Gee..in my dreams, aight. I didn't even care that my glove didn't match anymore at that point because it was ce...ce...coldd~ Takpe. Kita doa untuk diri kita :)

p/s: Please ignord the Sektor Pengurusan IPTS, JPIPT etc iklan in the footnote.

This is another thing that I took with me from my wednesday class/workshop day. Alhamdulillah...all in one class :)