KAD film night..and some thoughts

I received an email a few weeks back, it was an invitation to KAD Film Night. KAD stands for Kopi Architecture Design. I guess the name brings the meaning of enjoying design over a cup of coffee? Perhaps.

It's film night, which means people RSVP, pay entrance fee and watch videos of talks and design together. So people mingle and talk about it. The last talk which I received invitations for was about Le Corbusier. I wanted to go for that talk so badly, but nobody seemed interested.

This time, again, nobody was interested to go. Same ol' response..."is it interesting? it sounds boring...pay money to watch video? what is it about? " -__- which kind of threw me off. Like, I wouldn't even bothered to ask even further because if there was genuine interest the questions would be different. 

However, what was different is that I went! =) Braved myself to go alone. Thank goodness for GPS. *worships GPS* haha 

I was pretty excited but yet at the same time trying not to put so much hope. I know these kind of things, not many people are keen on going. They show and at the same time educate about design and people talk about them. 

I thought I prepared earlier but in the end it came out to about the same time. Boy! I didn't anticipate such a horrific traffic jam. @_@ Seriously, what are all these cars doing out on a Friday night?! hehe. Not only that, I am not familiar with directions and due to my "faith" on Malaysian signage I missed one exit. But luckily I wasn't too late, they haven't start. I was like about 10 minutes late? =( 

This was the program for the night. But I think they missed out TED Talks/Phillipe Starck. Because by the time it ended, it was like 10 minutes to mid-night. The first video, which was Genius of Design, I've watched it before. But it was nice to watch it again because VIMEO removed it. =( 

Then, there was one guy who shared his experience and his photos on this years Shanghai Expo. Very nice. I'm so sorry that I don't know his name. I'll take note next time. =)

Anyway, pleasant night. I don't mind going for more of these, one of the reason is because as I said in the earlier post that I'm starting to question my interest in Interior Design. Perhaps going for these kind of activities and learning more about what is design all about, that I could find my place and put my heart into it. I know I am not knowledgeable enough on design itself in terms of education, skill, current issues and so on so forth. Maybe this is one of the way that I could fine something to be enthusiastic about. Anyway, I forget that I still have a long way to go to learn about it. I just started like 2 years ago? and I just started to wonder about design like less than a year I think so it's like pretty fresh. 

As attracted I am to the passion that these designer have towards what their doing. I can see it in the people I've met during my internship, Student Workshop and even during lectures. I just hope I could find that same enthusiasm. 

From the videos yesterday, I see that these people have that wanting to make things better in one way or another. That is design in general I guess, to explain it as a whole, therefore you don't have to be a designer to eat,live and breathe design. 

In the past, design is to create for example cars, staircases etc. It's a need to make things better to create something new to enhance and develop the current situation. Now it is a little different. What other new things can we create? But at the same time, how can we make the current things better than they are? How to make it last? How to make it not last and go to waste? Like tooth brush..if it goes to waste, how do you recycle it? It's not biodegradable. There is a whole never ending list. I don't even know where to begin. Perhaps from the moment we wake up. Did you know even a tooth pick is design? Amazing.

From the beginning to the end user and until what happens when it's not in use. Design. 

Words to describe when I think about it? MASSIVE and OVER-WHELMING

I am thinking that my college should start implementing this sort of habit, awareness and thinking skill into the design education system. I honestly think we lack the awareness.. we have to start somewhere in order for Malaysian designers to come out! To see how other countries think about design even in terms of production, I'm wondering if that is going over here in Malaysia. 

Now, there are some are going towards Humanitarian Design. I don't know much about it yet though.

I know in most minds including mine, we would be blaming and wondering, why Malaysia isn't going to towards that kind of development. Imagine this, imagine how amazing Malaysia could be if we have that sort of initiative to go forward?!!! 

One information I found out yesterday about our Malaysian Pavilion for the Shanghai Expo 2010, in most countries, the government set up competitions for designers and architects to send in proposals for the Expo. But what Malaysia did? They chuck this project to the Ministry of Tourism and hired some contractor to build our Pavilion. No wonder we got slammed by almost 200 negative comments in Arch Daily. It was atrocious. When we saw those pictures, I can't express words at all. Just awed in a very negative way. Even Indonesia did a lot better by highlighting their culture, use of material and express it in a very contemporary way. We're a much more developed country but why with this outcome and with the expense of RM35 million. Gosh..

It's quite sad. 

Okay, I'm going to stop until here. I don't know where this would end if I don't. 

=)