Category: 2022

narrative interview.

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I chose to conduct a narrative interview with my dad, John Kairuz – an individual who works professionally in a way that is relevant to my future. And though my father’s position as the Head of People and Culture in field of Human Resources at his company doesn’t connect directly to my future as a Graphic Designer. The way my father conducts himself in a professional setting is something I idolise and strive for. He has worked in the Human Resources industry for the last 25 years. It was a combination of formal education, self-education, mentor relationships and coaches aswell as Christian missionary work in the Philippines that has lead him to where and who he is today.

When writing questions for my dad, I did feel a bit awkward in interviewing someone I talk to everyday. I ask him “how was your day?”, and he gives me a very summarised run down of his day in the office, or if he’s flying interstate he gives me a quick run down. But this was my chance to sit down and ask my dad in-depth about his career. I’ve always admired my dad and his work in his office, in fact before i started kindy, I used to accompany my dad to work every so often and colour in his office in the city while he did his work. I’ve always looked up to his work ethic. So I tired to put my relationship to my interviewee aside and just carry a narrative interview as seamlessly as I had seen done in the workshops weekly.

My dad said through time he has found that his elders had tended to have more experience thus providing him with more knowledge. But he said it’s funny now that he’s gotten older, he has learnt more from his younger peers. This stuck with me as it taught me that nothing can ever be assumed. My father through his experience has learnt to learn from others, from all ages, all backgrounds. So, I myself can learn from his narrative to never assume I know someones level of expertise or knowledge when I step into the professional world. But to be a sponge for good advice and valuable knowledge.

“The greatest element of communication is active listening and what I mean by that, is to make it your purpose to listen as to understand opposed to focusing on what is in your own agenda or mind.”

He feels as now he is in the final chapter of his career, where as I am at the beginning of my journey. Which is an interesting perspective to be in, at our two stages of life. Getting to act as an outsider witness to stories that occur through my dad’s workplace and through his eyes shows me another side of him yet allows me to know him at a deeper level. In hearing from my fellow classmates, I heard through conducting our interviews we were able to gain a greater appreciation for the people we interviewed that we thought we knew well.

“Good service can never be extracted it can only be volunteered”.

This became a topic of discussion in my class because the statement is so true. (also the fact that my dad is a veryquotable man 🤣) We have to be good people in the work force, we have to project what we hope to get back. And that comes with everyday life too. We are influenced by the people around us, but also by our own actions and relationships with others.

I asked him to leave me with one piece of advice for someone leaving university and stepping into their life long professional journey, he said “It’s not what happens to you that matters it’s what you do about it” He said he has personally gone through the mountaintops and gone through the deepest valleys. But this phrase has stuck to him because you believe WE can be better if we make it out choice. It is important to accept out disappointments, not deny them, but learn from them and use them in thinking what to do next because experience is the best teacher. And what comes after this, its always your choice.

My dad has always taught me the value of respecting peers, and maintaining workplace relationships. He has taught me to never burn a bridge, for you never know when you may need to cross it. Networking and Leadership are skills my dad flourishes use of in his proffessional career, and it isnt until I presented to my class, that I myself realised the power and also talent it takes to hold such skills. BCM313 and this interview process has taught me, the skills you need for success in the future of work, aren’t always the obvious choices. It takes special soft and hard skills as well as respect and compassion to do you best in any professional field. It’s the self-driven goal seeking and respect for relationship and the environment we’re in that’ll take us quiet far.

References

Carey M & Russell S (2002) “Remembering: Responding to Commonly Asked Questions” The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work. No 3

Carey M & Russell S (2003) “Outsider-Witness Practices: Some Answers to Commonly Asked  Questions” The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work. Volume 1.

listening essay.

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Listen; give one’s attention to a sound

By using the re-membering therapeutic practice to interview both Tom Bambrick (Global Academic Quality and Performance Specialist at UOW Global Enterprises)

and Elle Petrou (Senior Manager, Strategic Projects at University of Wollongong) brought a kind of narrative therapy giving us, the audience an insight into their work lives and personal attributes. Listening to them do this in an interview format helped to understand the importance of listening to one’s choice of words as well and the way they explore storytelling individually.

As an outsider witness I heard Elle speak to part of her job being to mediate between people and “helping people see situations using other views”, the difficulty of her job is to try to see and encourage others into different perspectives “so they can understand the impact of these decisions are going to have on people… try to open I guess the blinkers across their eyes at the moment.” It is so significant to her job because her job is people focused and communication focused.

Following, Carey & Russell’s described technique of outsider listening I used my role as such to really intake what Ell was saying to typing out key phrases and terminology to make my listening more meaningful. I interpreted how Elle found her path to this job in the way she clearly stated that one of her core values is people, she said “I’m truly passionate about getting to know people and understanding their stories and their background, and how decisions impact individuals.”

When asked about her club of life and if they too would see this core value reflected in her she whole-heartedly agreed. She mentioned her father was shocked she did not become a lawyer because of how passionate she is about injustice and people. “I would definitely say my parents would definitely agree that that’s my personality. I would step in if there was a crisis at home, or I felt that there was an injustice, or there was something wrong. I’m the first person to my hand up and question things. I’m not aggressive, though, so I’m one to listen first.” As an outsider listener is was my role to pay attention to preferred stories and alternate stories emerging from a spark of memory. And it was interesting that Elle brought in her upbringing and her pre-working pre-university life story in referring to who she has become today. I felt this was also an example of The understanding that no one is completely passive in the face of the circumstances that impact on them, “absent but implicit.  that they are always responding to what is being done and are active in that response, provides us with a frame through which we can always find pathways to stories of personal agency by which people can direct their lives.

When it came to Tom’s interview, I found him to be even more of a storyteller, it was as if I was in his mind with him as he spoke through his thought processed and became more literal in his recall of work and his professional field. Whilst Elle could not divulge too much because of the confidentiality of the projects she works on in her profession. Tom shared his quality of taking initiative in the workplace, “I’m worried for what’s going to happen if nobody else steps , and makes that decision, because it seemed as if there was a decision paralysis around like: Well, whose responsibility is this? Whose role is this? And because it doesn’t neatly fit into anybody’s role?”. Tom shared he is usually the first to put his hand up to take on these roles.

Tom attributes his growing qualities at work through building a trusted club of life. “I like to recognize the strengths that other people have and really draw on those strengths to solve problems. So, I do it in my own friend group as well. So, outside of work I will make friends with people who are different to myself, so that I can kind of challenge me, but also to help other people within my network.” Recognising a skill he may want to obtain, he learns from his surrounding relationships. This is exactly what Michael White meant when he coined the term. The idea that peoples identities are shaped by what relationships they build in their club of life with key members who have had particular parts to play in how we have come to experience ourselves. This is the key difference in re-membering and remembering, as it draws our attention to this notion of membership rather than to a simple recalling of history.

References:
– Carey, M. Walther, S. Russell, S. 2009. The Absent but Implicit: A Map to Support Therapeutic Enquiry.
– Russell, S . Carey, M. Year NA. Re-membering: responding to commonly asked questions.
– Russell, S. Carey, M. Year NA. Outsider-witness practices: some answers to commonly asked questions.

if you can dream it, you can do it.

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narrative reflection

I’ve always been a very creative person.

Before I settled on Graphic Design, I thought I was going to be an animator for Disney. But I considered after graduating high school that I didn’t draw and illustrate enough to take up a career in animation, still liking designing and creating, a career in graphic design seemed perfect. Aside from being creative, I can also get quite anxious to step out of my comfort zones, and safety blankets.

During 2021, I made the decision to colour outside the lines and apply for an internship, luckily due to the lockdowns, the only design internships available we’re operating remotely. (Perfect for little anxious me) The Internship I settled on applying to had the title, “Marketing Communications Intern” and in the description, the company was seeking an applicant to content create for social media with digital marketing skills. At the time, I was unsure where I want to land after my Media and Communications degree, so I took a chance. After meeting with the CEO of the not-for-profit company, she mentioned that she loved the illustration skills I had shown in some pieces in my portfolio (which at the time was very minimal) and asked if I would be interested in using these skills to produce content, in addition to what the internship was asking. *Sweaty hands and shaky voice* across a Microsoft Teams meeting room screen said, “Of course, I’d love to.” Before even signing a contract, I started to panic about the content I had to produce. I went to Pinterest and made mood board on top of mood board on the top of the company: sustainable fashion, and the circular textile industry, just to give myself some inspiration and direction to climb what felt like a mountain of undiscovered territory and challenges ahead of me.

Throughout the course of my six months with this company, I was producing more illustrations than I had done in the whole 2020 and probably 2019 combined. I was building up my portfolio one drawing at a time. Trying out different styles, trying to be as dynamic as possible. Something that I had lost my love for suddenly was becoming my day to day work for this company. The little voice in my head that was telling me, “You’re going to run out of things to draw”, suddenly disappeared and my mind had never been clearer as a designer, picturing the image in my head before I put my pen to paper. For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel like a fraud to call myself an artist.

I always knew I had a talent, having imposter syndrome I never thought I’d be able to go far, comparing myself to my peers. My friends as the ones who pointed out that I downplaying my ability. “Re-membering practices do not involve only looking towards one’s biological club of life. The focus of the re-membering conversation is determined by the particular person’s experience and values and the ways that any significant other has contributed” My club of life surprises me with their reactions to my work, “You made that?!”, which feels unusual to me, because I don’t feel like I’m necessarily doing something out of the ordinary or deserving of accolades.

After taking that internship, I started to gain some confidence. I started to implement my illustrations into my design projects at university, while also challenging myself to push the boundaries of design, while staying true to myself and my principles. In semester one of this year, I had one of my tutors (having preciously taught me), notice my illustration work and how it had evolved. Keep in mind this tutor, taught me via Zoom. Just by knowing my name, my voice and seeing my work in practise. My identity as a designer was built up by my relationship with him and forged through his memory of me. “Our lives have membership and this membership influences our experience of ourselves.” He put my name forward to his colleague who needed an Illustrator. I didn’t think anything of it until I received an email asking to arrange a time to meet. Again, I joined another screen-to-screen meeting, this time over Zoom, where I was interviewed, and offered a position working under UOW as a Research Assistant for the UOW Early Start, working on a project for children and their early childhood development.

Fast forward to today… I am currently employed under UOW Early Start as a RA in Illustration and Graphic Design. Being able to create recognisable characters for kids and parents alike, in the name of moulding future generations minds via PhD research at Early Start. I like to recognise this as a milestone in my life, as well as a steppingstone to a becoming a Disney illustrator… a career I thought I wasn’t allowed to picture for my future.

REFERENCES

Burey, J & Tulshya, R. 2021. Stop Telling Women they have Imposter Syndrome. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/02/stop-telling-women-they-have-imposter-syndrome

Cain, D. 2016. Where There’s Stress, There’s a Story. Raptitude.com. https://www.raptitude.com/2016/07/where-theres-stress-theres-a-story/

Carey, M., Walther, S. and Russell, S 2009, The Absent but Implicit: A Map to Support Therapeutic Enquiry, Family Process, 48(3), pp.319–331.

Carey, M., Walther, S. Remembering: reponding to commonly asked questions. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work.

skills, skills, skills

hannah kairuzLeave a comment

Asking myself to think about what skill/s I carry that are unique to me, was harder than I anticipated. I think, though it may come off as cocky, I find that I’m quite good at a lot of things, but I dont know if I’m extraordinarily talented at just one particular thing.

I’m pretty good at remembering really obscure movie quotes from old 2000s movies. I’m pretty good at day dreaming and creating fake senarios for myself. I’m pretty good at make-up and beauty. I’m pretty good at staying in one position for hours just to finish a book. I’m pretty good at illustrating and designing (seeing as this is my future professional field, it was only fair to mention it.)

I think if I had to highlight one thing about myself it would be my ability to understand colour and its effect. As a graphic designer I have found that through my years of building up my skills and my craft this skill is an important one to have. It helps me as a designer but also in the way I view the world. The expression and thought of “rose-coloured” glasses always appealed to me. To look at the world with a desire filter. But it isn’t like that. And building my relationship with colour helped me see the world through my clear glass specs.

You can find the richest of colours in what’s made by nature and what’s made by man. And it is the way we use those colours that allows us designers to create a rich story through image and word. I used to appreciate colour, and the way it looks at a glance. But now I appriciate the story it can also tell.

Color theory encompasses a multitude of definitions, concepts and design applications. But to know one colour will always have a compatable partner and can work harmoniously amongst in a group is comforting to me. Colour is important in more than just aesthetics, it’s representative, it’s an identifier and it’s a comfort. And I’m proud as a designer and human to have found such an appreciation for it.

Rainbow appreciation is important, now more than ever.

blog post 6 | vcd302

hannah kairuzLeave a comment

project outcomes

Through creating “54th Street”, I’ve made major improvements to my graphic design toolbelt. Learning to cell animate has been one of the most challenging techniques, so much so that in my final project there is only a five-second sequence of cell animation, instead opting to use a puppeting and parenting technique to bring my illustrations to life. I’m proud of the work i’ve done with secondary camera motion in my design, and the way in flows with the primary motion of the character on screen because I knew that it would require carefully obsrving the relationship between the two and the way the primary and secondary motion complimented eachother.

The aesthetic I saw in my head, and made through my researching and prototyping stage was exactly how the end product turned out. In the end I feel I did meet my own brief I set for myself, and I’m extremely proud of what I was able to pull off through my own selfdoubting.

The particular sequence above where the camera zoom’s into the hallway, and follows the hallway gallery is something im particularly proud of the outcome. the way the painting flicker and at the end the light comes through the window to project the “shadows” of truth. I picked up this techniuqe by looking at Disney’s multiplane camera technique with the water colour backgrounds and inked character drawings. Another technique I implimented other than the many camera zooms – was the 3D tool. The tool in AE (similar to that which I used in task 1) allowed me to swing the door open into Evelyn Porter’s apartment. My original idea was to do many apartment doors and show those characters rooms, but I felt it might take away from my point of only showing select characters.

Three critical moment in my designing and animating would be:

  • Trying to create everything through cell animation. It was a big task, and I could have pulled it off if I set even more hours into the project, but I knew with my workload I would be overwhelmed. Switching to that puppeting/parenting technique really helped the work flow to continue moving, also drawing the limbs on seperate layers mader it easier to illustrate as well as animate.It also allowed me to do more with the characters and more with After Effects.
  • Trying to create a 3D rendered model of the house. I really invisioned a panning effect of the building so it would look like a camera was coming from the top of the building to a street view of the building. I tried to do it (picture by picture) but the building just didnt look right. And I tried to do it with the 3D effect in AE which I thought might give it a “pop-up book” effect, but it just didn’t work. So in the end I had to scrap the hours of tinkering and just stick with my flat building exterior, which isn’t awful, I just wish I could’ve master the technique to include it in the project.
  • The interior transitions. In the beginning story boarding I knew I wanted certain rooms shown in the sequence. I wanted the inside to show the contrast without the outside imagery of the ‘ghosts’ in the windows. As mentioned above other than the zooms into different feature of the hallway to the room, I wanted to be able to do this for several characters, but then the brief I set myself was an intro, and it was becoming too long to be considered an intro for a television program.

The next project I would set for myself would be the “season two” intro, with more character, more story to tell in a short amount of time, and maybe even a glimpse into the street rather than this one building. I started this project, out of an interest for architecture, so if i could expand on that and use the same technique as what I did with the hallway, I would love to expand on this universe. I really would love to master that 3D technique, which isnt even 3D animation, just the allusion of the building being three-dimentional. I would love to create another sequence combinion these two ideas, and using the parenting technique again, this time paying even more attention to whether I’m animating on the 2’s or 1’s for the animation to be seamless. Or using a mixed method like in the film “Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse”, would be really interesting to learn and delve into.

REFERENCES:
– Author NA. Year NA. Walt Disney: Animation Pioneer. National Inventors Hall of Fame. https://www.invent.org/blog/inventors/walt-disney-multiplane-camera
– Jan Cloud. 2017. How to draw 3D building in Adobe Illustrator step by step. [Online Video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zzejjcMftk
– Krasner, J 2013, Motion Graphic Design : Applied History and Aesthetics, Routledge, Oxford. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central

blog post 5 | vcd302

hannah kairuzLeave a comment

In this stage of my project I’ve been looking at more opening seuqneces and cartoon sequences to inspire me with moving ahead with my project. I know more of less I will be using the secondary camera to can over my building, and ill have two character appear in the exterior. What I’m unsure of is how to nail the transition between the exterior and interior.

Research

In the weeks prior I had been looking at different TV show intro’s and how they simplify a story to a minute or less to introduce a show. That’s something I have to be careful of in my making

I watched some opening that immediately came to mind when I thought about exterior to interior. I think I stick with a black background, even if my illustration hav black-outlines. That way I wont have to create backgrounds for ever scene. As well I think it plays more into the “spooky” and haunted theme of it all.

The purpose of the brief I’ve given myself in a title sequence is to set the tone for the film or TV show itself. And this is what I’ve done with the aeqthtic i=I chose, and the way I’ve introduced the audience to the “sppoky” element. The show isn’t a horror, its a comedy with horror vibes, and thats what my sequence emulates as well.

I will have at least two interior scenes:
1. An explanation for the blood on the windows
2. The other main character’s (Evelyn Porter) room.

Something I’d really like to incorporate is a continuous background, that looks like a camera panning a scene. Something similar to the watercolour backgrounds used in Disney movies. That would make it easy for me to show motion while also showcasing my illustration skill. But I dont want to get lost in the detail, because I have tendency to do so, and I have to be aware of my timeline. With animating the first exterior scenes, I don’t think I’m going great for time, but I’d really like to honour this technique – maybe a character running through a hallway.

Prototyping & Making

I know my animation will start with a pan of the building. But I want two of the characters I created, so walk across the screen in some way emerging when the camera zooms closer to the details of the building. The problems I have encountered, is the image clarity not being crisp, when the building moved in because of the detail I’ve drawn. Vectorising the image to shapes in AfterEffects (AE) is just too much for the program to handlt. And because I want to keep the style and the detail I’m going to take the risk to leave it as is, the quality isnt terrible… it just isn’t 100% how I’d like it to be.

Detective Song is one of the “human” chracters I’d created in my own brief. He (and the other chracter on the outside of the building) are the only who characters I wanted to literally draw cell by cell. The other characters I might just try and puppet in AE by making their limbs detached from their body, and move them using different AE’s tranformations.

I’m really happy with how the Detective walks. And seeing how long it took me to make him walk for not even 10 seconds, I have such a deep appreciation for cell animation and the time it takes to complete. I have been jumping between Prototyping and Implementing throught this stage of my work. In animating its just about trying and seeing if it works at all. A big change in my project, was wanting to include a 3D pan of the building.

The biggest “flaw” in my planning for this project is the expectations I’ve set for myself. In my mind I can create a feature film if i just keep pushing. But then the perfectionist in me, keeps chopping and changing and re-doing. But their just isn’t time for all that. Throught creating I’m still focusing on cell animation, but I think I’ve also pivoted to puppet animation. Something thats changed through blending these techniques is how many frames I’m animating in, by the 2’s or 1’s. Using this kind of “puppet feature” I’ve just been using my own sight as a indicator for if the movement looks correct, which isn’t in the “science” of animating, but it is working for this project.

You can see the difference in what I’ve done for animating Detective Song and Archie. Archie has many different key frames because he was a one still that I needed to just had a simple peeping motion. For Detective Song, I had to draw him by cell because of how I wanted him to walk.

REFERENCES:
– Lang, A. 2019. Night of the Demons (1998). Art of the Title. https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/night-of-the-demons/
– Scott, M. 2022. How to Make a Captivating Titel Sequence. Sound Stripe. https://www.soundstripe.com/blogs/tv-film-production-how-to-make-a-captivating-title-sequence
– Sushobhan Das. 2013. Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends – Opening Track. [Online Video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZiB_S9VpiU
– WDW News Today. 2012. Art of Disney Animation – Backgrounds at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. [Online Video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP-kxv6u6Lo