Culture and Civilization

Assignment One

This assignment is divided into two parts which is group work and individual work. 

For the group work, in a pair, we are tasked to do a Graphical Timeline Calendar together with one family tree along with an eight minutes video of the research of the timeline that has been done. My partner and I has decided to do just one part of the family tree, which is hers to make it less complicated. 

Me & My Group Mate (Nurina)

Board 1

Board 2

As for the individual part, we needed to produce an A5 booklet. We have to explain on our own family's culture and traditions. 

The A5 Booklet

As for this assignment, it is a way of getting to know about the history of our own family as well as other families. The historical stories of each family has its own twist and its own interesting side of it that makes us curious and wanted to know more. From this assignment, it has taught me a lot especially on      

                       understanding other people's culture. Besides than that, it is a fun experience to                        see how people became civilized. 

From this assignment, I have learned a lot regarding my family's background, culture as well as traditions that normally I do not pay attention to. Besides than that, I have also learned that each family has their own culture and tradition and we must not judge or criticize them. It might be based on their 

                       religion or mostly just comes from the family itself. 

Based on the interview done with my family members, it has made us close to each other by knowing and telling the things that not much people wanted to know. It has also make the bond between us stronger. Other than that, it makes us know the family better when my grandparents told the story about their 

                       ancestors.

Assignment Two

For this second project, in groups, our lecturer has given each group a country to represent and to do research on characters of that particular country that relates to historical content. As for my group, we were given the country, Dutch. We are told to use padlet as a medium of information and progress of our group to be shown to our respective tutor. Each week, we are given the list of things to be posted in padlet to be checked by the lecturer and to be graded. 

The Padlet Page 

Here is the link to our padlet page :  http://padlet.com/dutch_culture/dutchladies


After all of the progress, we are then tasked to do a performance based on that country. All of us had to prepare our own costumes, props to show the amount of understanding that we have for this country. 

Below are the pictures during the making of our own paper dolls for our costumes for the play. 

The Costumes

The Video of Our Performance

The final part of this project is to create an A5 journal book. This is to explain more about my character with the historical background and what the character do for the country. 

The Cover for the Booklet

I have learned that communication is important between one another especially when it comes to a group project. The reason to it is because all of the group members has good understanding with other members. This is because different individuals have different thoughts and opinions. It is a good thing that all members contributes to generating ideas into getting a perfect play for the assignment. 

From this project, I have learned about the Dutch culture as well as their history. Besides than that, I get to know where all of the cultures of the Dutches came from. This has increased my knowledge.

As a group, we had to do a lot of thinking in order to get the perfect storyline that will directly convey the message that it is about the Dutch culture. Besides than that, we had to think of the best costume that portrays best on our character.

Assignment Three

For this final project, we are tasked to choose a theme out of four themes given which is Malaysian Architecture, Fusion Architecture, Spaces and People and Religious Places. From that chosen theme, we have to choose a specific topic about that theme. We have to choose 5 places from different locations. We have to do research on the places of interest, theme and the binding factor that connects between historical, architectural and social aspects. From that, we have to create a coffee table book within 20 pages. 

I have chosen the Religious Places theme. Below is my coffee table book.

As you can see from my cover page, I choose the mosque that does not look like one. This will attract people to get closer and flip through it. People might be wondering, why does the title says "The Domeless Mosques" but the picture of the cover page looks more like an old Malay House. Besides than that, I choose to do black and white for the pictures and choose just to highlight one picture per page. This is to really focus on the topic that the page is telling. 

Based on the coffee table book, we had to do a 1 minute video montage consisting of 10 of our best photos. Below are my video montage. 

This project will definitely be a life-long learning as I get to experience to create my own coffee table book. I had to do a lot of research on the places I chose, research on coffee table book as well as the techniques on getting the best pictures for the coffee table book. 

I had to do a lot of critical thinking in order to get the best layout for my coffee table book. Although it was really hard to get the greatest layout, it was a fun experience. I get to play with colours and effects for this coffee table book. 

From this assignment, I get to learn to use the specific software for the layout of the coffee table book. I did also learn on making the video montage to make it more interesting than others. Besides than that, I get to edit the pictures myself and I get to play with the exposures and effects to make the pictures interesting.