IN ADAPTATION
The everyday life of cities and its banality is a scene that has been taken for granted. While the experience of the everyday life is banal, there are a plethora of mediums/channels by which stories of cities are told/expressed, one of which is literature. Literature is a medium in which stories are told, some of them original but most are tales from across the centuries adapted to a contemporary of different context, or to a modified theme to enhance the storyline. Using ltalo Calvino's "Invisible Cities" written book as the basis, students are to study, analyse and creatively adapt and extract the ideas from the chapters of Calvino's book through a visual representation with any choice of medium. Students are to then identify a selected area in Greater KL and adapt the observations utilized by Calvino into a series of graphical/visual representation of the city.
Assignment 1
Project 1A. The Art of Adaptation
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Task
For this part of the group assignment, students are required to select and read the chosen chapter from Italo Calvino’s – Invisible Cities. Subsequently, students are to extract the ideas and describe the story through a series of mind-maps. The extraction should focus on three distinguished elements and methods to resemble the characteristics of the story. Students are then to creatively adapt the story by way of graphical/visual representation
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Submission Requirement: One A3 sized artwork or a diorama no bigger than 15cm x 15cm Assessment Criteria The assessment for this part of the assignment will be based on the following:
• Analysis of a theme or subject matter from an artistic medium and its translations (e.g. art/architecture/film/literature).
• Using appropriate materials and methods of research when analysing a subject matter.
• Source, cite and discuss themes and references.
Artwork
Project 1B. Observing the Everyday
Task
Using the same chosen chapter from Calvino’s - Invisible Cities in Assignment 1A, along with the findings, analysis and artwork produced, students are required to identify the tools/perspective/lens that Calvino used to identified the city’s characteristic. With the identified tools/perspective/lens used by Calvino selected, students are to apply those outcome to a chosen area in the city of Kuala Lumpur in a one-day observation and narrate the scene observed. Students are to record and document their observation through various mediums necessary and highlight main physical character of the city (i.e. architecture language, planning pattern, landmarks, etc.) Students are required to select a minimum of 3 images (A3 size) from the site to describe their findings.
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The assessment for this part of the assignment will be based on the following:
• Objectivity in observations
• Application of Calvino’s ideology in observations
• Students understanding and translation of the current society’s situation in the studied area
Assignement 2: RE-SYNTHesized: An Experiment
Task
Where Assignment 1A was an attempt to adapt literature into graphics/visual expression of the city, and Assignment 1B was an attempt to “see” the ordinary city in an extraordinary or unique way; Assignment 2 is a synthesis of the surrealism and imaginary in Assignment 1A, and the realism and physical fabric of the urban conditions in Assignment 1B. This assignment stretches further the idea of ‘adaptation’ in the style of how a film maker would overlay an imaginary (Utopian/Dystopian) city into the real space. In brief, this assignment is about the exploration of an adaptive process between the imaginary and the real, the non-physical and the physical.
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The assessment for this part of the assignment will be based on the following:
• Objectivity in observations
• Application of Calvino’s ideology in observations
• Students understanding and translation of the current society’s situation in the studied area
Boards
