Thanks!

I was wondering if 0APJIYUKK9 is still contactable.

After lots of soul-searching (more than that), I thought if he may like to tell me more about ops research and management?

A quasi-interesting discussion going on over at the Foreign Policy in Focus site regarding China’s proposed labor laws, entitled, Debate on Labor in China. The discussion is between the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham), which knows where…

Win-win: As Mr. Tooh Fee San taught me

Personal Particulars
Full name: (Mr.) Soo Kwok Heng
Date of Birth: 9 August 1980

Experience
2 May to end-Jun ‘05: Egg Creatives, Singapore
• Temporary Graphic Designer

24 Jan to 28 Feb ‘05: Ministry of Manpower, Singapore
• Temporary Filing Assistant

4 Nov 04 to 20 Jan ‘05: Awesome Design Kitchen, Singapore
• Freelance graphic design

23 Nov to 16 Dec ‘04: Plastique Kinetic Worms, Singapore
• Gallery Assistant (Intern)
• Performed administrative duties and researched artworks
• Assisted with arranging catalogue: suggested ordering
artworks in the way they are usually looked for (ie.
alphabetical) rather than in chronology

May ‘03: DesignStudio, Singapore
• Graphic Designer (Intern)

Jun ‘02: Coup Communications, Singapore
• Graphic Designer (Intern)

2002 to 2003: Apple Computer, Singapore
• Part-time Product Promoter

Aug ‘01 to Jun ‘04: National University of Singapore
• Volunteered as student helper for Graphite 2004 – an
international conference on Computer Graphics and
Interactive Techniques in Australasia and Southeast Asia, Nanyang Technological University
• Conceptualised and designed three student publications
for NUS Students’ Sports Club, Publication Cell (2004)
• Conceptualised and designed publicity campaign of NUS
Political Association’s Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum 2003
as Publicity Director on Organizing Committee

Jan 97 to Dec 98: National Junior College, Singapore
• Art Library Head on Art Club Executive Committee (1998)
• Co-founded NJC Arts Festival (1998)
• Volunteered and participated in the Inaugural NJC
Overseas Community Service Expedition in Indonesia
(1997)

Jan 93 to Dec 96: The Chinese High School, Singapore
• Active member of Electronics, Computer and
Communications Club (1995-96)
• Co-represented school in team web page design
competition organized by Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore
(1996)

Academic Achievements
Feb ‘06 to Present: Bachelor of Communication in Public Relations
• RMIT University
Jul ‘05 to Nov 05: Bachelor of Communication in Advertising-Creative
• RMIT University
• Switched to Public Relations in 2006
Jul ‘01 to Jul ‘04: Bachelor of Arts (Merit) in Political Science
• National University of Singapore

Other Qualifications
• Attended IAS Copywriting School at the Institute of Advertising, Singapore (2004)
• Merit Award in Young Designers Award, Advanced Category (2002)
• Grade 8 in Pianoforte Practical, Grade 6 in Music Theory (1997)
• Insatiable curiosity, very willing to learn, friendly disposition
• Volunteers within RMIT

I used to watch a lot of Bruce Lee movies when I was young; in primary school.

I remember as well, however, in one documentary on Bruce Lee, on how he concocted his own flavour of martial arts, that one should ‘be like water’—water takes the form of any container it is in and is able through time and patience despite being the ’soft’ element that it is, wear down any obstacle in its path.

In Zhang Yimou’s ‘Hero’, if you’ve seen it, Jet Li and Donnie Yen fight in a scene set against the backdrop of a courtyard in which pairs of people are playing weiqi.

The presence of weiqi in the scene is significant, particularly as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, that no actual fighting occurs between Jet Li and Donnie Yen.

The purpose of that scene, as Jet Li’s character does mouth in a soliloquy through the voice-over, is to demonstrate how in any battle, what is being fought are not fists or weapons but one’s mental will.

It is for that reason that the lines that Jet Li’s character mouths, summarily speak of how fighting occurs truly in the minds of opponents and not elsewhere.

Because ‘Hero’ was such a hyped-up movie, lots of people talked about it.

When I once met up with my relatives over some gathering, one of my cousins said that ‘Hero’ is a joke.

She said, ‘How can fighting occur in reality in the mind?’

I mentioned once before that the Chinese philosophy of aesthetics and war go together.

So do let me try to explain to you, why I think this is so. (In so saying, I mean to say that I have not actually studied Chinese philosophy formally; what I say in explanation is purely my own opinion and perspective.)

If you look at a Chinese painting, one of the first things you’d notice is that a lot of what is painted is rendered in black-and-white or, to use the one term of reference in graphic design/art, ‘grayscale’.

Most people would find that economy of means very boring, insofar as that economy does not allow them to enjoy ‘realism’; does not allow them to imagine the scene painting as though it existed in the full technicolour of ‘reality’.

The gist of war (and thus strategy) in Chinese philosophy is that you are to achieve the best possible result with as little resources as is possible.

The purpose of this is very simple, as does following Sun Tzu’s ‘Art of War’ (I follow the Stephen F. Kaufman translation because he is also a practitioner of martial arts): That lives for most part in war, are lost in combat. To have a solid strategy is also to be responsible in the planning/design of one’s goals because it reduces the heartache for many.

Thus the ‘true mastery’ of war consists in using as little violence as is possible, so that the costs to those around you are minimised and the war may be concluded as soon as it is possible.

Which was what previous Singapore Foreign Minister, Mr. Rajaratnam, was able to do—as I recall PM Lee’s eulogy.

Likewise, in graphic design, the best designer who is seen to have mastered his/her craft is one who is able to create a salient communicative piece with as little resources as possible.

For that reason, the most able graphic designer can create a very exciting piece of graphic design with as few colours as possible and with as few fonts/typefaces as possible—with as little budget as is possible. (Kindly reflect on the re-design of The Straits Times while you’re thinking about this point. It _is_ an aberration and, very clumsy.)

And for that reason, if you order a prospectus package from Cranbrook Institute of Design—even though Cranbrook is very radical; it led the ‘postmodern’ design revolution against Modernist/’International Style’/’Swiss’ design, which is why you’re seeing such ‘artsy’ graphic designers these days—you would receive a copy of their student publication, which in this context, must be noted as a very visually-exciting piece of layout-design executed purely in black-and-white/grayscale.

Because as I’ve mentioned before, graphic design is about one’s management and manipulation of space. If one can grasp the subtleties of space, then even if you just had merely pen-and-paper, you could design something very exciting and worthwhile.

(Which is what Melbourne designers manage to do, by the way—I think Singapore regrettably is at a stage where you just have waayyyy too much money to spend. To the extent that this is true, I am often reminded of what I learnt from my high school Art teacher: The best way to prepare for the future in a world where the status quo is continually being challenged is to go back to the basics—to go back to The Fundamentals; philosophy, art, mathematics—philosophy for ‘how to think about things’; art for ‘how to make/work with things’; mathematics for ‘how to measure things’.)

To go back to Bruce Lee’s paradigm of ‘[being] like water’, one must refer to Sun Tzu’s ‘Art of War’ where he does intermittently mention that you cannot control Fate or for that matter, in the usual lingo of the Chinese, ‘Heaven’.

To ‘be like water’ is to be very reflexive, nimble and flexible.

To ‘be like water’ is to be ready to change course as necessary.

To ‘be like water’ is to see that there _is_ a balance and there must be a balance if things are to go, smoothly.

Just as how I came by to think that a community/society/country must have both freedom and security; that the two are not, contradictory but really, mutable principles of the same thing.

As following, John Harrington’s notion of ‘ancient prudence’.

You are welcome to pick the ideas, but I will not comment.

I’ll just be putting out what I have. These are just the more speculative ideas that were sent upwards as well.

—

A very lovely day (Monday, August 21st, 2006)

Today was a very good day.

Almost like the best day I’ve ever had.

I did my presentation, and was surprised that I was not as nervous as I thought I would be.

I did follow the requirements of the assignment—I even coloured (since I’m so particular about audience perception) the back of my business card-sized cards yellow so that they looked more professional—and presented with having my eyes for most part, on the audience.

Even though as usual as blur me goes, I forgot that my tutorial was on Monday and because my internet connection was cranky throughout the weekend, I only did up everything—research and the hand-cards—in the morning.

Then I went for a lecture at Melbourne University.

It was titled, ‘Politics and Ethics in the Age of New Media’, and it was organised with the assistance of the Sydney-based robotics/transhumanism artist, Sterlac. He was there too.

There were two presenters: Gary Hall from Middlesex University and Joanna Zylinska from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Both identify with the post-Birmingham School of cultural theorists.

When they finished and people were leaving, I went up to ask Gary Hall about something he mentioned regarding cognition and re-cognition with regards to the effects on perception and knowledge/understanding of online publishing vs. print culture and their effects on the institutions of knowledge production.

Then I floated my ideas to him: That if the credibility of institutions of knowledge slide, then the credibility of experience may go up. I pointed out that while this may not be what academics themselves see or may do, that’s not to say that the people living their daily lives, when confronted with the range of interpretations regarding key texts in cultural studies, will not do.

That the verification of knowledge and their ideas of truth developed things like the dialectic and logic. That the place of the intellectual as the one who ‘knows’ is a phenomenon of Modernism, which itself was more or less founded on the background of Gutenberg’s press.

Then Gary raised the point, ‘Wouldn’t there be problems as well, with the verification of experience?’

I said, ‘Yes, but that’s only one strand of development. The other strand that’s taking place at the same time has to do with transhumanism and biometric verification.’

And alongside this development of technology comes with the development of reputation systems, things like Identity 2.0 for Web 2.0.

So the verification of knowledge may eventually be passed onto reputation systems of the transhumanist nature. And again, even if the academics don’t use it, if the technology does become wide-spread then like the news you get from newspapers, common folk will not be able to divorce themselves from it because if they do so, they risk cutting themselves off from society.

Which is then again, where all the theories for politics and hegemony will come in, alongside Lawrence Lessig and his ‘code is law’.

Then to his question of how transhumanism might take place in the first place, I brought up the question that I’ve been thinking about the wide-spread implementation of Wi-Fi hotspots and said that Wi-Fi is essentially radiation; if people in all eventuality decide to adopt some transhumanist device that allows them to shield their cells from mutation, there’s no saying where all that use of augmented technologies will develop into.

Then he asked what I was doing in Melbourne.

Then he asked if I’m thinking of doing post-grad after this.

And I said I’ve no money since this is my 2nd degree and it’s all paid by my parents.

So too bad: He said I’ll make a good theorist; like Dr. Alan Chong said; like Dr. Irina Aristakhova said.

Too bad I’ve no money—too late.

Even though he gave me his card and told me to email him.

Still, a very lovely and beautiful day.

Everything’s in that Gmail account already.

I apologise: I don’t have a webbie. I like doing print design and most of my stuff are pretty modernist. I like it very, very clean.