INT SEM 1: LEARNING PORTFOLIO REFLECTION POST

 

My name is Eewen Chew and I’m majoring in illustration. I’m generally interested in storytelling, and the ways that people choose to express themselves through different mediums such as in animation, writing, video games, and film.

For this research project, I wanted to take a deeper look over the past decade as a whole, both in terms of its cultural memorabilia and the significant events and changes that occurred within it in an attempt to explore and deconstruct what it was like to grow up as a millennial.

I was first inspired to pursue this idea when I randomly came across the opening theme song for Kim Possible while browsing through Facebook. Upon hearing it, I was immediately hit by waves of nostalgia that made me think about my childhood and the shows that I watched while growing up. It was then that I realized I wanted to capture this feeling of nostalgia in my project and in turn, give people the chance to reflect on their own childhoods.

In beginning my researching for this project, I first decided to watch a documentary which highlighted the significant events of the last decade, as well as linking them to each other and showing how one event acted as a catalyst for another. My initial idea for my memorial was centered on the idea of childhood memorabilia like television shows and toys, but upon finishing this documentary I realized that there was a lot of untapped potential that I could dig into as the last decade proved to be a particularly interesting one. As such,  I decided to deeper explore as to what makes the millennial generation unique, and broaden my scope to cover the events of the decade as a whole rather than merely childhood memorabilia.

Upon further research and some retrospection, certain aspects became increasingly obvious in their importance in shaping society as we know now – the invention of the smart phone and the rise of social media. Articles I read on the topic included research into internet trends among teens of that decade, the rise in popularity of citizen journalism, and the way smart phones not only changed  every aspect of our lives, but how we must learn to include it in education and in the workplace going forward. I felt that these articles brought understanding on their pivotal role in the last decade and it solidified my understanding of the necessity of its inclusion in my memorial to really capture the uniqueness of the decade. As such, it led me to rethink my whole idea of the actual necessity of a memorial that was purely physical and move towards an idea of a memorial that existed in both the physical and digital world.

 

Ultimately, I decided that my memorial would come in the form of an Instagram account which anyone could submit pictures which in some way reflected their childhood in the last decade. They could share any aspects of their childhood that they wished, which may range from their favourite television show as a child to their feelings on a significant event. The content – which would be moderated by me to ensure that they are no irrelevant posts – would then in turn be fed onto a large screen that would be installed in the lobby of the Parsons building. This will act as a live feed that allows people to see content as it comes in, similar to how a feed on social media would work. Ultimately, I felt that the ability for people to contribute to the project was one of its most important and unique aspects and it would truly embody the spirit of the decade.

I think that this project taught me the importance of researching my initial ideas into a deeper level in order to fully understand and express the entirety of the concept. This is something that I feel that I will carry over into my future projects as I think that without the backup research, this memorial would have felt lackluster and boring.