indieGENIUS - life as a design thesis begins!

I haven't told u about my second proposal. we were suppose to present two proposals on thursday. up to tuesday night, i haven't a clue on my second proposal but i've firmed up on my first topic, which was the Environmental Awareness Centre. i was pretty confident with the first topic. having read a lot of materials and even watching documentary movies for it. i really wanted the project 'cause i kind of have an idea what it'll turn out. but i have to comply to my lecturer's instructions - the second proposal.

at first, i thought of taking it lightly so i'll end up with the first but there are cases when they don't accept both... then i'll end up with having nothing but probably a bruised ego. so i went looking for my second topic. i was browsing the internet for something i really have deep interest with - arts/culture. and i came across this street art graffiti on the walls of a building in Malaysia.

I thought, hey that's really cool... but i bet DBKL will have them clean in no time. so i thought it's pretty unfair for the graffiti artist to have his work done but only acknowledged as a work of vandalism and damaging public property. so i thought of having a centre for street art for them to express their art in a more positive way. having discussed this further with a friend, i kind of doubted this because i am suppose to proposing an 'architecture' in the end... and a street is not 'architecture'. and my friend told me why don't you try Indie Arts? it suddenlt triggers an idea! because i've always love Indie arts but i didn't notice it because i love a lot of things ;)

i chatted up with a few friends from other architecture schools, who are indie artists and asked them what they thought of the Centre.4.Independent Arts? and they thought they were cool. it got me even more excited when i get positive feedbacks from Indie artists. so i studied further...

The most general definition of the word is to be independent from the mainstream. The word has become most often associated with a subculture defined by its associated music, fashion, behavior and beliefs. Indie culture is an avant-garde lifestyle which follows social trends that are considered to consciously deviate from the mainstream. One common belief within indie culture is anti-conformity. The major influence for the indie culture came out of the indie music scene, associated with the DIY culture to the arts. Many followers of the indie culture are associated with local independent art and music scenes.

from the star online, June 2006,
The textbook definition of the word indie was derived from the term “independent”, forming its ethos around the notion that being indie meant being independent from the mainstream (a simplistic description, but one that cuts to the core). But the term has taken a whole new meaning over the years, used as a means to describe a niche subculture, its fashion and of course, the music involved. Not many indie acts can boast continuity and popularity here.

The issues i've looked into are that Indie Culture has become a subculture in Malaysia but they are often seen as bad influence (vandalism etc). Artists often have to travel to spread their creativity but they don’t have that much money. So to solve this, hence the Indie Cultural Centre, which i'm attempting to call indieGENIUS. so the aims and objectives of the centre is to create a centre as a medium for the indie artists to collaborate, exchange ideas and spread the movement and as a transitional stage or to help the artists go a step further in their pursuit of stardom. A centre as a culture check on the movement so that it won’t portray bad influences to fans and artists alike. A community/commercial to market indie arts.

So it's more like a cultural arts centre. rather than defining it as the conventional Malay cultural or chinese or india cultural arts... i'm doing it indie style. Indie cultural arts centre a.k.a indieGENIUS!

wish me luck!



btw, i havent printed my other presentation board but i was already sleepy. this was 6am (note that, i didn't sleep for 24 running hours) presentation starts at 9.50am so i figured i'd wake up at 830am and i can leave the house by 9am. get the thing printed by 930 and zoomed off to faculty. but after, what felt like a few seconds of laying my head down, i got a phone call from a friend. i woke up and it was too late to answer it. and i notice the room was all bright - daylit bright. and i saw the clock says, 10am!!! shiiiiiiiiiittttt!!! the first thing i felt like doing was cry... or scold someone... but it was my fault and carelessness so i had to be responsible for it on my own.

i arrived at the faculty at 11 am. at the moment when i came in, a fellow peer was presenting his proposal - one of it happens to be a street art centre... which was totally denied by the lecturers... so am i lucky or what??? fiuhhhh~ what.a.day!