#casebook

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

W.T. Stead (introduction by Leslie Shepard) - Borderland - University Books - 1970

[harrybushelldesignblog]

Week 13 - Capstone DES302

Finished. Submitted. Something that I’ve looked forward to for so long but also dreaded has come and gone! Everything is handed in and now my mind is free! I leave for China tomorrow, and am finally able to fully embrase the excitement of a World Cup opportunity. My mind has switched focus and the fact that I get to do what I love on an international stage is finally sinking in. This weeks main focus was around ensuring all of my deliverables were finished and ready to hand in. Outside of Uni, we had our last week of training and I created some great bonds with people that I hope will continue for a long time! The uncertainty of the future has been put on hold as living in the now and embracing what I have in front of me has really put my mind at ease, and allowed me to properly enjoy company and get fizzing for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Wikimedia Commons. (2004). Jingjiang.JPEG. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jingjiang.JPEG

The core context of this week was ensuring I had everything done on time. This was simple in principle, but with my constant desire to improve and change stuff, knowing when to stop and accept that something was done was a struggle. Thankfully, having a to-do list ensured that by ticking off little parts of each deliverable, I could figure out when something was done and also plan accordingly with the time I had left. I had also finished a few of the deliverables in the previous few weeks, meaning that all that was left was my visual summary and to polish and print the remaining deliverables. 

This week taught me a lot about myself. I’m extremely proud of the work I’ve produced and what I’ve been able to achieve this semester, as well as the determination and time management I’ve had to get everything done 2 weeks early. Planning was such a crucial tool for this project, and I think I set myself up to succeed by planning early and realistically, meaning that there wasn’t really a point in this project that I was overwhelmed by stress. However, when all is said and done I am incredibly drained and will be sleeping for many hours to recover from post capstone burn out. Roll on the World Cup!

[lilaceas]

[extraordinarilyextreme]

devotion not as worship. but as recognition. as "i want to stand with you, and beside you." as learning. as understanding. as "i want to know you." as "i am making the choice to get to know you." as persistence. as care. as "you are knowable." as "you are lovable." devotion not as idolatry. but devotion as mortality. as a reflection. "you and i, together. equals. partners." devotion as accompaniment. devotion as humanity.

[bisexualsherlock]

btw i’m obsessed with john knowing about tumblr. get out of here old man

[frodo-of-the-nine-fingers]

every polycule must have: the baby girl, the guy that's dying, and the mass murderer

[kingsandbastardz]

So for basically my whole life I'd grown up with and was resigned to accept that the chinese concept of formal/nice clothing of my and the previous generation has been western clothes. So at any awards ceremonies or performances, entertainers would show up mostly in western suits/dresses and maaaaaybe you'll spot the occasional cheongsam if they're going for a Wong Fei Hong vibe. Which, you know, kinda sucks if you have any concept of western cultural imperialism in asia.

So when the hanfu revivalist movement started, I was waiting to see when it would enter the mainstream -- my hope was for fashion designers to integrate traditional/dynastic elements into their work and make it common place enough that I can buy this shit online for ME. Because I WANT.

Though some of the designs can be a bit hit or miss, I am LOVING what various stars and entertainers are wearing out and about now.

Anyway - here's a collection of Xiao Shunyao's modern hanfu inspired/hybridized stage outfits from the last couple years. For his MLC performances, his stylists seem to be borrowing inspiration from his Di Feisheng and possibly other character costume silhouettes.

I'd been seeing a few comments about how his outfits play with gender - and some of his outfits do! But I think the interesting thing to discuss is from which standard is he playing with gender? Because from a western perspective, the things he does with his western suit tops, belting on top of the jacket for a tightly cinched waist, and the addition of a trailing skirt = femme. But if you're talking from a hanfu-hybridized pov, that's just a modern take on hanfu and having any of those elements is not inherently femme and would often read masc to me.

So these things aren't necessarily gendered because they exist traditionally in chinese men's clothing or costume designs (ie video games, comics, historical fiction illustrations and film, etc, so therefore in the modern lexicon of masculine/acceptable for men):

presence or lack of a skirt

silky, velvety, gauzy or sparkly material choice, esp in formal or stage clothing

short or long length of skirt

embroidery

flowers/floral/bird designs

folding fans

certain styles of makeup

beading, gold, tassels, jewels

non-chunky jewelry

headbands

widely flowing silhouettes

What XSY's stylists are doing with some western clothing items are interesting. I'm convinced there have been one or two western jacket tops made of thinner material that they're folding over the front, and belting down instead of buttoning (which then matches with his other outfits that are designed specifically to do this). Then they're adding a skirt, cloak or bracer element to it.

The western portions often bring a military minimalist feel which they balance with a more gauzy material in the skirt or cloak portions.

Things I think are playing with gender:

row 1 - image 1: red di feisheng-inspired outfit

The lace-up girdle is there to match the bracers in both material and style. And it's positioned to be similar to the heavy belt that Di Feisheng wears. HOWEVER. That style of girdle/corset-like clothing item can't be divorced from the modern idea of sexy leather corsets. So imo, this waist piece on that outfit was a choice. Especially when paired with his allergic-to-collars-higher-than-his-sternum necklines. And if you take into context how masculine yet female coded his character is in the drama, the whole look evokes that.

row 2, image 1: black western suit with belt on top, hat, cloak, black boots and not-visible but also a black tassel fringe skirt

Hat and cloak moves the intention of the outfit from western toward a more Asian slant, because alone, it looks like a western black suit with western heeled boots, cinched waist with a lady's belt (seated photoshoot) and western style tassel skirt. The suit top consists of a vest and a shrug-like sleeve portion that appears masculine at first glance. But take the shrug and pair it with the tassel skirt (I can't find the red carpet photos but here is a better view of the skirt when seated), and I think you got a look that's both intentionally edging toward the femme in a western sense but also confusing matters by hiding within the parameters of both western and chinese traditional male styling.

row 2 - image 2 : white asymetrical western jacket styled in a front fold-over style, gauze skirt, trailing pearl embellishments

The more traditional leaning version of this is the white outfit in row 3 that he wears to the Hi6 Hello Saturday variety show -- the skirt portion on that outfit is one I'd consider non-gendered. Row 1, images 2 and 3 are examples of masculine/neutral uses of gauze that plays with flow of form but isn't inherently femme. This stage outfit is very western-appearing masculine suiting, until you hit the skirt which is giving me long ballerina tie-on skirt with the additional swan/mermaid pearl strings. Imo, another example of deliberately using traditional masculine styling but switching it up with the combination of material choice and make that is feminine.

row 2, image 3: black space military boots, black suiting, black -silver ombre sequin trailing skirt and white gauzy shawl with black floral design

The over all design is going for a masculine military-feel. (think this outfit for shen langhun) But instead of a thicker military cloak, it's replaced with a woman's gauze shawl and a skirt that trails behind him very much like the back of a woman's formal fish-tail gown when he moves around. If you take into context Wang Herun's outfit is a white-silver sequined dress cut in a way to also give a space-military-queen vibe, imo they both coordinated their outfits to balance out with both femme and masc qualities.

Thoughts? I'm curious what others think about this.

While I wait for the CNY photoshoot for XSY's red and black look, here's him with his stage collaborators with a nice range of skirt lengths, period influences and material choices. The woman in the center is the one with the most military-fighter design out of the bunch. The dudes are all in variations of formal-wear-with-good-kicking-boots (and lots of crotch space).

[bananaproved]

After passing peer review here is my drama recommendation tool

Maybe I will update it in the future but for now I am happy to have watched enough good dramas to make it.

[briannas-casebook]

ANIMATION 101: WIND UP MOVEMENT

During my latest Monday Animation 101 class, I was tasked by my teacher to expand upon my A to B animation exercises by creating an animation where I included a "wind-up" movement at the beginning. In Maya, I used the shape tool to create an object, a cube, to use in the animation. Initially, I wanted to add a rig that would allow me to stretch and warp the size of the cube in order to implement squash and stretch into the model while animating. However, I could not figure out how to add a grid-like rig to the model, so I left it as it was. I also had problems at first when trying to set a keyframe. I right-clicked the frame and selected "set key," but nothing happened. Thankfully, one of the other teachers gave me the tip to use the shortcut where you select a frame and click S to set a keyframe in Maya. With this problem out of the way, I pressed on and managed to create an A to B animation with some wind-up.

Overall, I'm proud of the result of this test. I wish I could've added more life to the movements with squash and stretch, though. Something which I need to learn for future work.

[tub3rculosis]

time to play my favorite game, "Is This From the Official AA Manga or a Fanmade Yaoi Doujin?"

if you said doujin to any of these... you're wrong!! these are all official canon moments from the manga 😭

[renshengs]

my ass will see a cunning older man with the kind of heartrending trauma that could burn down cities and a younger man who holds a devotion toward him that could tear apart whole landscapes and it's instantly over for me

[the-three-garridebs-destroyed-me]

gay people can never flirt normally it always has to be some shit like “It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light”

[harrybushelldesignblog]

Week 12 DES302 Capstone

One week to go… what a fantastic journey it has been so far! Going into week 13 is well and truly the home stretch. This week was solid, I got practically everything on my to-do list done and made some progress on what I had planned for next week already! Unfortunately, I’m struggling to know when enough is enough. I’m constantly thinking of new ideas and ways to change or improve what I’ve done, which is excellent when in the ideating phase but not so good when there is a week to go. I need to learn when enough is enough and that even though I think I can make something better, I need to shift my priorities to ensure everything is done for the headline. I’m still struggling with the sensation that I can’t get away from this project, but only a week to go before it’s just the report I need to worry about! Outside of Uni, We’ve got a week of training left and final preparations before we fly out to China, which is wildly exciting! It’s hard to fathom that it’s just a week away.

Going back to the reflection on my project, I’ll start with the context phase. Week 12 was focused on creating my final deliverable video - Recording, voicing, editing, sourcing, and all that jazz, finishing my casebook, touching up my packaging, sorting my final prints for my prototypes, and further working on my visual summary. This was a complete shift away from my comfort zone and threw me into a work world where I don’t feel the most confident (graphic design and aesthetic work). This is something I struggle with, as I know my strengths don’t lie in the artistic side of design, but I think being aware of my limits in this aspect is good, and I don’t hold myself to as high standards as I do with the other aspects of my work. This results in some work that might not look the prettiest, but I’m normally pretty confident with the actual content of what I’ve made.

Casebook Mock-up

The actions I took to address the context of this week were also pretty straightforward. For my video, I collected testing and urban space footage that I had taken over the last few months, combined it with a storytelling aspect based around the unifying power of football through a few stock videos and personal football footage, spoke over the video to address the issue and how my solution works, and put it all together on DaVinci Resolve. I spoke on the restrictions of DaVinci last week, so I won’t comment on it again. In terms of packaging, I added multiple other languages to the back of my packaged model to better emulate a market-ready product. For the 3D printing part, I attempted to print a few of model 6 to attach to a boot and take photos of, but the FabLab has been packed all week, and they haven’t got around to seeing my email yet. Hopefully, I can get this sorted out next week. For my casebook, I collated all of the research I had collected on sustainable practices in football, I commented on improvements around lighting, chemical use with fertilisers, different playing surfaces, better use of space, and a few local examples. This was pretty enjoyable to create, as a lot of the research I had done earlier in this project and for other projects. 

This resulted in what felt like a very productive week, and leaves me with only 2 deliverables to finish in week 12 - the visual summary and presentation. Along with this, the deliverables I did finish this week I’m pretty proud of, although I think it’s clear that my strengths lie in prototyping - which are the part of this project I’m most proud of. The others - the casebook, heroshots for ReDesign Submission, and the video, I’m also very happy with. I think with the time I’ve had and my limited graphical skills, they are both at a standard that I believe is good.

Again, I think this week has reinforced the importance of planning. My Gantt chart and to-do list were created at the start of this assignment just to tick off a section of a rubric, but now I think it’s been the MVP of this project. Being able to ground myself back into what needs focus and setting my own deadlines has been so important and has meant that I’ve never really felt horrifically stressed or overwhelmed with what is the most important assignment I’ve ever done. Despite this, coming to the end of this journey has also shown me how much I’m going to miss this part of my life. I never really thought past going to university, and the fact that I have a week of it left has put me in a position of insecurity that I haven’t experienced before. This has left me in a bit of an emotional limbo if I’m honest. There’s days where I’m super excited about the opportunities in the future, but others where I crave stability. In the end, I'm just happy that I've made it this far with this project and University as a whole, and have survived a pandemic ridden degree! One week to go...

[jiaoliqiao]

Fanghua + Calling for A-Fei (and the one time it wasn't needed)

[zishuge]

*boop* for @bbcphile

[ruanbaijie]

⚔️ CHOOSE YOUR HERO ⚔️ @asiandramanet mar creator bingo board ⎈ layer style [insp]