iS siGn UniVersaL?

May 13..Teresa has lectured us about semiology. This is not the first time that we learn about semiology this semester, however it still the basic only that we are learning since the graphic design class. There was not a lot of students attend the class, so Teresa separated us to 2 groups which are 5 students per group for a debate on “Is sign universal?”.

Back to the semiology, generally semiology is the study about sign processes. It calls semiotic also in other word. The field of the semiology is quite wide and basically it has 3 categories which are semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic. However, we just learn the basic of semiotic which is sign. There are 3 categories of sign which are icon, symbol, and index. As what we did for the graphic design, most of the sign is designed with ideograph to convey information to the peoples. Ideograph also known as pictogram, is a simplify image, that could be a movement image or just a symbol image of the thing. In general, semiotic theories take sign or sign systems as their object of study; it is the communication of information in human living organisms.

So, is sign universal? I with my group members who are Keivan, Park brother sister, Siao Hoon, and Hui Peng were against the title, mean we were proving that “Sign is not universal.” and Kevin became the “umpire or lecturer”. First of all, we got a lot of sign around the college and sketch on the whiteboard. Then, we start to debate on those sign that we sketch on the whiteboard. It just a simple debate actually, yet we got a lot of argument through the debate. We were not only debating on the sign even talked about international language, English, culture of Korean, Chinese, Iran and Malay. At last, we never get the answer whether is it right or wrong and added more argument in the debate. However, we have agreed with Kevin’s conclusion that there do not even have right and wrong because there is too many of different perspective that we can debate on.

Even thought we never get the answer on the debate, yet we have taught a lot from the debate esp. some life style of other cultures.

SuStAiNabIlitY tEchNolOgY pResEntAtIoN

Crazy Trip

April 29..we have to meet up at Starbuck Coffee, Pavilion. So after we finished our morning class, we have to go there before 2.30pm. The purpose for Pavilion trip is research on available new technology thingy. Before that, we have made a group which is 4 persons in group and my group members are Kevin, Keivan, and Bobby.

Actually when we made our group, we got an interesting idea to present on Urwerk 202 Hammerhead watch. It is a high-tech watch and it has designed without any battery required. The concept of the watch is based on the air friction and kinetic power to function it. Furthermore, the design is very interesting with technological style design esp. the unique of the turbine power. However, we decided to change our product at last minute, the night before the presentation day, even we did a discussion with Teresa about the watch before the presentation week, for certain reason.

Urwerk 202 Hammerhead

http://www.urwerk.com/watches_200.asp

Back to the presentation we had done at May 6, it is about Philips Daylight Window. This is another interesting product that Kevin found. And we agree with Kevin even we have to change all the things at last minute. Philips is an electronic company which is producing most of the family electronic product. Basically, it is based on the brand promise, Sense and Simplicity, to give the best service to their consumers. Philips also is one of the biggest electronic companies in the world. It has 128,100 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. To achieve their promise to the consumers, they always try to improve the quality of life with bringing sustainable innovation technology product into the market. And the product that we had present, Daylight Window, is one of the Philips products with innovation sustainability.

First of all, it is charge with solar power, Photovoltaic, PV, which is converting the sunlight to electricity directly. With this way, Daylight Window can be function for last long without any battery required. So, it could produce the minimal of the energy cost. The special of the product is the innovation design and lighting colour that you can control at anytime follows your habit. You only have to move your hand either right to left or up to down to control it. Somehow, it applies the innovation of design on the window can produce a pleasing environment for the consumers. It also sustains the range of the use of innovation design that we usually see on the poster and TV show either. Beside of this, it produces the natural light such as UV and blue light which is helping on consumer’s health. For those who are travelling a lot, it will reset your body clock and make your body relax. So it really helps either in mentally or physically. Furthermore, it can either block or allow the natural sound from outside and it functions as a alarm to wake you up in the morning.

Philips Daylight Window

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwPxh2n0ClI&feature=related

At last, sustainability technology is really help on improving the quality of life and the most important purpose is provide us a cleaner and pleasing green earth.