A few months ago, by coincidence, I was finally introduced to the world of ChatGPT – or in layman’s terms artificial intelligence. It was in a writing workshop, where our tutor who was running lessons on copywriting demonstrated how he uses the infamous function to assist with their writing. While many of us left the class with laughs, the humour quickly simmered down to a sombre tone when many of us pondered about our future in writing.
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Do You Believe In Astrology? (2016)
Hero Phenomina VI: When Was The Last Time You Held Your Own?
It took me nearly four years to finally grasp that feeling of wanting to design something for myself – where the direction, while guided and navigated by my peers, but towards the end came into fruition of something that I believe in.
Looking back at my architectural education – it felt like majority of my work was predominantly shaped by a combination of envy and the desire to feel validated for my design. A deep level of insecurity was sparked from jumping into another world without being aware of the lingo nor the terminologies others have been equipped with already. For me, coming from a school that prioritised final grades for reputation – it seemed like the only solution for me to understand or adjust to each semester was designing through the lens of my tutor.
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Still from Barbie (2023) - Courtesy of People Magazine
Barbie Movie - A Film that I Observed
Last week, eyes coated in hot pink and armed with three Barbies and one Ken, I became a part of the pink-cladded audience to watch Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated. After all the intense marketing from the franchise that included Architectural Digest’s coverage of the captivating Barbie set to the two hundred plus Barbie Pink collaborated everyday products – I was anticipating that this movie would rewrite Barbie’s political rhetoric that has continually evolved. However, I later found myself watching the film but with exhaustion…
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That Time Where I went to Tasmania to Sit with Sadness - 14 July, 2022
Captured on Minolta Riva Zoom 75w, Film - Fuji Superia Premium
The Variations Of A Blur - A Year That Has Been
I won’t deny that this year has had its various ups and downs. What felt like a year that was filled with starts and stops also felt like a year of wandering through a blanket of haze. There would be days when I wish time would slow down for me, and there would be days where I resented the slowness of time. I watched people whom I admire opening themselves to another avenue, while I am asking myself whether I am demanding enough to meet the expectations of myself at work. The dynamic of spectating others and their growth while struggling to witness my own was distinguishable – added the internal reviews asking me whether I am getting what I want in a relatively mentally fatiqued state made me wonder if I felt satisfied from those discussions after all.
Read MoreWhere Writing Builds
The space was filled with a complete minute of silence when my colleague posed this question to me. Having giddily shared my freelance writing during idle moments at work, my colleague humoured me with a challenging prompt. To choose between writing or architecture initially felt like a demand to choose my favourite child…
Read MoreLike Really? You Want Me To Think Like That?
It's an exhausting and ongoing cry for journalism when it comes to the treatment and portrayal of women in the eyes of men. So I would like to share with you a rant that I’ve had with my friends three years ago – one I was terrified of sharing publicly but now feel confident in sharing now.
Read MoreGirls' Generation 'Forever1' MV - A Review
in Social, Review, Just a thought
For a K-Pop enthusiast who was first introduced to Girls’ Generation (SNSD), I thought it’d be fitting to write about SNSD’s comeback video. After all – who wouldn’t like to celebrate and reminisce on some of their highlights while sneaking in a tiny review of my thoughts on this glittery video?
Read MoreWhere did written criticisms go?
Recently, during a lunch discussion about an architecture the architects was reviewing, I raised sarcastic laughs from them when I absent-mindedly asked if their review was a ‘glowing one’. In the landscape of Architecture media, or media in Australia – in which defamation cases can receive severe punishments, there is a semi-walking-on-eggshells feeling when it comes to leaving your opinions about something you’re not particularly fond of. Where reviews are often a poetic description and capturing of the project, and critique is perceived to be dragging the project through the mud, the opinion piece becomes difficult to distinguish whether it’s a review or a constructive critique.
Read MoreArchimarathon Studio: A Remedy to the Studio Culture Missing in the Digital Realm
I think I’ve spoken quite publicly about the fatigue that washed over me while I taught architecture online two years ago (my my how time flies). While we are in an age in that grants us various ways to connect in a digital replica of a studio, the lack of interaction among the students without the occasional dialogue of ‘no you speak first’ has really diminished the support system for architecture students (or any students let’s be honest). More importantly, watching hopeful eyes slowly lose their shine has been difficult to watch. Where we’ve been conditioned to learn physically (and also understand the importance of in-person engagement), the digital studio culture has severed that liveliness often bubbling from the physical classroom.
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New self-portrait - Pro Create (2021)
Words of Affirmation : A Year On
It’s been a while since I’ve written here.
It’s also been a while since I’ve written another reflection piece for the public to read as well. (Currently I’m trying to rest my shaky hands because I was so close in winning in Hades - but unfortunately, I lost at the very last minute!)
Evidently, this year hasn’t been the smoothest for many of us - especially for those who’ve been jostled by the ins and outs of lockdown restrictions and being confronted with uncertainty that has been magnified more and more by the curveballs that we’re faced with everyday.
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