Follow Friday +04

If you know me, you know how much I LOVE K-POP (yes it is a love with capital letters, that is how much I love it lol). And now after more than ten posts, it is surprising that I have not written any single post about K-pop (at least it surprises myself haha).

But now I think it is time to finally reveal my love to not only K-pop, but Korean culture in general. I spent my junior high school days swooning over a Japanese boy group Hey! Say! JUMP because I used to watch Animax a lot back then. In the end of my junior high year, I got to know K-Pop because of TVXQ, and the rest is history.

Well this time, it is not the K-pop that I want to highlight, it is the Korean very own sport, Taekwondo.

Lots of people know that Taekwondo is a martial art. But, not so many people know that you can incorporate Taekwondo with K-pop! If you are imagining a dance choreography of K-pop songs mixed with Taekwondo movement then yes, you got it right. Another example of music and sport together (see World Cup post for previous example).

I am here to introduce you to K-Tigers! They are super duper talented! They are good in taekwondo, they are good in dancing, their movement is powerful and synchronized and bonus point, some of them are cute >__< haha.

They gain lots of popularity because of this cover dance video. They even got the approval from the singer himself! For the original music video you can check it out here.

Just recently, K-Tigers enter an audition to Dancing 9, a dance survival competition in South Korea. Needless to say, they totally left the judges in an awe. It is very smart to incorporate sport with modern music, isn't it?

I will definitely have the same reaction if I were those judges. So, makes sure  you check out their youtube page for more awesomeness.

And eye candy for you guys, here is EXO (one of most popular Korean-Chinese boyband right now) member, Tao incorporating Wushu with music.

Cheers,
filicia
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From Indonesia to the World: Sasando

As much as I love the contemporary music, it does not mean that I am not giving a deal about traditional music. I even played gamelan when I was in senior high school! Also, did I tell you that I was playing kolintang on my elementary school days?

So anyway, when I went to CBN Indonesia for the creative industry talk, there was this sasando player from  Kupang, Jack Bulan. He has been introducing Sasando to other countries by playing it in the foreign countries. Also he has been using modern technology by connecting Sasando to speaker.

Because I was in a studio, I was not able to record his performance there. Too bad :( He plays very very well. And also, talking about sasando, you might have seen this traditional instrument before from the survival audition Indonesia Mencari Bakat. There was a contestant who played Sasando. His name is Berto Pah.

Anyway, talking about collaborating Indonesian music with other country, I think this collaboration of Indonesia and Japan is brilliant.



Enough for the videos, here I present you, a selfie with Jack Bulan! Hahahaha.

Cheers,

filicia

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Culture in Creative Industry

We simply can not deny how culture is totally involving in our daily life including in business. This past few years, creative industry has become a hit with people becoming more and more creative with their business product and marketing.

(image via chuzailiving)

Regarding the trend, some weeks ago I went to the tapping with CBN Indonesia studio to talk about Indonesia's Creative Industry. It was a talk show called "Solusi Life". There are some speakers there including Arswendo Atmowiloto, and two young entrepreneurs working in film and batik field. While the keynote speaker is the ministry of tourism and creative economy, Mrs. Marie Elka Pangestu. I did not manage to take much photo or record any video because they are having a tapping in studio.

But we did take a lot of selfie after the talk show lol. Thanks to tongsis everyone can now fit in the picture. By the way, the man on the right is the director of CBN Indonesia. Oh and if you are wondering, the studio is in Lippo Cikarang.

Anyway, back to the talk show, with the creative industry being the highlight, it is stated that nowadays the industry is getting bigger and strongest as well. But on the negative side, there are more and more piracy, meaning that government has a big homework on the copyright in Indonesia. But it is such a relief that the government is supporting the creative industry in a good way. You can check out the website here.

That's all for now. Salam Kreatif!

Cheers,

filicia

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Let's Celebrate!

Everyone living in this world should have known that FIFA World Cup 2014 is happening right now! Though I am not a big fan of soccer or sport in general, I can not miss this glorious event. World Cup is obviously not just a game of soccer between countries. It is a celebration of culture, joy, and unity of the world.

This year, the championship takes place in Brazil, a country well-known for its soccer and also the culture. Take a look at the video of the official World Cup song here. You can see how the culture is incorporated here. And it is so visually entertaining, I mean, look at the burst of bright and cheerful colors.

And also Coca Cola as one of the sponsor released the Indonesian version of "The World is Ours", one of the World Cup song.

Though they do not visually show the traditional side of Indonesia, but Angklung, one of Indonesian traditional music takes part in this song. Cool!!!

Anyway, as a design student, I can not miss mentioning the Google doodle! If you open google as frequently as I did, you will notice then change of the google image everyday. Here is a recap for you guys.

And on the happier note, guys, guess what happened to me because of the World Cup??? I won a dozen of soccer donut from Krispy Kreme!!! You may have known how I like donut from this post, but to actually win free donut, OMG >___<

So, what I did was basically just retweeting a twit, and guess the score for the match between England and Italy. I have to thank my brother for his great intuition in guessing the right score!!! And talking about culture, don't you think that it is very smart of Krispy Kreme to create special donut in the celebration of football fever? And even better that they are having a giveaway by guessing the score. Thanks Krispy Kreme! Yeaaah!

Cheers,

filicia

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Follow Friday +03

This time in Follow Friday, I want to introduce you guys to the infamous Sacha Stevenson. Sacha is a Canadian who's been living in Indonesia for twelve years, thus it explains how fluent she is in Bahasa Indonesia.

As she lives here, she observed the culture and the habit of Indonesian people and share her point of view through her videos.

Haha, I think it's fun to see a foreigner act out Indonesian's habit. And the way she acts it out is hilarious. Can you relate yourself with her? Haha.

Beside of showing 'How to Act Indonesian', few years ago she also created a song with the title "Culture". You may want to check it out! She's got a pretty good voice ;)

Cheers,
filicia
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Glee!

I am not a big fan of American TV series, but Glee has successfully captured my heart. I have been watching since season one and have been hooked since then. What attracted me at first is the concept of Glee that combined stage musical with drama. I love most of the songs they covered.

 

As I continued watching the TV series, I realized how Glee successfully portrayed the diversity among the American teenagers. Since the story involved around senior high school students in Lima, Ohio, it somehow depicts the real situation of American teenagers these days.

Also, the thing about American TV series is that they are very open about people's sexual preference. Glee's characters are not only straight but also lesbian and gay.

Brittany and Santana, the lesbian couple who unfortunately broke up in the later season.

Kurt and Blaine, the gay couple with golden voices and still going strong till the latest season.

Also Mercedes who first thought of Sam only as a summer fling. Later she realized that she fell in love with Sam. Though people are against Sam and Mercedes dating because of the racial differences, they decided to just brush it off and believe in their love. Sweet!

At the earlier season, Glee portrait the character's life in glee club where the cultural diversity among them is highly accepted. As they are graduating and moving out to New York, to the real society, as people said, they realize how life is not as easy as glee club. It seems that not everybody can accept the differences as much as glee club. So, are you guys curious? I really recommend you guys to watch this series! ^^

Cheers,

filicia

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Culture and Branding: Aswaaq

In the process of learning as a designer, I become more and more conscious about how culture plays a big role in a design. I remember writing down an answer on my mid-exam sheet, asking about how culture gives an impact to politics, and decided to make a u-turn and write how culture gives an impact also in design field.

(also, Miss Witri if you read this post, I was making a huge mistake by writing Dubai as the capital city of Istanbul, I think I was so nervous and my thoughts were jumbling randomly. Istanbul is obviously not a country but the largest city in Turkey. Also, I meant to say that Dubai is a city in UAE. I am terribly sorry for my stupid mistake)

I knew about aswaaq while learning the case study from Landor associate that you can find here. Landor is one of the oldest and most popular branding company in the world based in USA. 

As you guys can see, the letter 'a' in aswaaq resembles woman wearing hijab. We can see how powerful the culture is in designing an identity of a company. As the majority of UAE citizens are moslems, and the women are wearing hijab, aswaaq wants to take an approach by having an emotional connection to their customers.

(image via behance)

Also, just from the letter 'a', there are so many things that they can make. You can see in the picture how the letter 'a' is developed into signage and symbols. 

(image via behance)

Also quoting from the case study that I stated previously, here is how Landor explains the overview:

Prior to its launch in 2008, Aswaaq, a Dubai supermarket, conducted an in-depth audit of the local retail landscape. It learned that although the emirate's other supermarket giants had a strong foothold in the market, most had difficulty making an emotional connection with customers. Most supermarkets offered the same products without a truly differentiated shopping experience. Additionally, Dubai has very unique cultural characteristics based on a blend of its own national heritage, ethnic diversity, and a strong international influence. Aswaaq aimed to offer a more community-minded supermarket catering to the diverse needs of a unique population.

(image via aswaaq)

aswaaq is only of of uncountable example of how culture is super relevant in designing. Even though Landor is from USA, the team learn about the culture in Dubai and implement it to the branding of aswaaq. As a result, not only is it a good design, but also it attracts people visually and emotionally.

To find out more about aswaaq, head over to the website here.

Cheers,

filicia

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42

Earlier in the cultural diversity class, my lecturer showed us a movie which revolves around America's cultural diversity in the past. The movie title is "42". I have not watched this movie before and I think it is interesting.

(image via thrilermag)

Here is an excerpt of what I wrote on my review about the movie.

‘42’ is an American movie which is based on true story. The movie talks about an African-American baseball player, Jackie Robinson who becomes the first black member to play on the American Baseball Major League which is played with white players. The movie took place back in 1945 when the racial issue in America is still a huge thing.

Baseball, just like any kind of sport is supposed to be something democratic, and not in any way racial. But in the past, racial issue seems to be very essential. The black and white people were treated extremely different. The example is shown in the movie like how Jackie Robinson is not allowed to use the restroom in the gas station, also when Robinson and his wife could not board on the airplane and their seats were given to white people instead.

Moving on to the discussion, earlier this week, some students have shared their perspectives about the cultural diversity in America. One of them talked about how America is a big nation. Americans come from different races and it is multicultural. Another student said that Americans seem to be superior towards other countries and therefore they become arrogant. Later on, students were given this movie in order to compare their point of view and the “reality” in the past (author has to quote the word reality because even though this is based on true story, there are some historical inaccuracies).

(image via warner bros)
 

Based on E. B. Tylor, there are some aspects of culture, such as knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law and custom. There are three aspects that are directly related to this movie which are belief, law and custom. Belief can be defined as the world view of the unseen which is different from one person to the other. On 1940s, the white people in America have a belief that the black people are not a part of America. The belief has been planted on Americans even before 1940s, which then becomes a law –meaning social culture. The belief has become the part of the culture, where the black must be treated differently and poorly by the white.

Culture is also something derived from what people do. What the white people did back then during 1940s were the part of their culture. They have not realized the cultural diversity yet, therefore the racism could happen. But, since culture is an ongoing process, it could change. Robinson took his part in changing the culture by changing people’s belief and what people did. He showed his art through his baseball skills and his moral through his good moral. 

Nowadays, the diversity between the cultures in America has been much more tolerated. But then it doesn’t mean that there are no racial issues at all. Often times races become the subject of bullying or out casting. It doesn’t happen only to African-American but to other races as well. Culture after all is the pattern of interaction between people, the rules of behavior in social group. It is safe to say that the pattern of interaction might evolve from time to time, or the behavior might change in the future. That’s why, culture is something dynamic. It has been proven that what happened in the past has now changed in the present. The cultural diversity has now become much more appreciated and tolerated.

  

Sorry, if they are quite jumbled and incoherent. If I put down the whole review and opinions here, it will be too long and you will be bored haha. But at least you guys got the main point right ^^ If you are interested in culture than this movie is recommended for you.

Reference

Cheers,

filicia

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