A little bit something about myself and our life in Ningbo, China. Ningbo is a home of 7 million people, 2 hours away on high speed train from Shanghai, and only an hour away from Hangzhou. Just a hop skip away. Ningbo is good compromise between urban life and nature, and the campus is our home. Matt and I came nearly 5 years ago to the University of Nottingham ( in its China campus. The university has 3 campuses in the UK, China and Malaysia). After 8 months I decided to pursue a PhD degree, and that is me for the time being :) Ningbo Foreign Ladies Group (NFLG) provides a great support system, thank you Ayleen from NFLG for giving me the opportunity. And also Ningbo Focus.
an article in The Design Journal (2017)
Interplay of Sketches and Mental Imagery in the Design Ideation Stage of Novice Designers.
Tedjosaputro, M. A., Shih, Y.-T., Niblock, C. & Pradel, P. (2017). Interplay of Sketches and Mental Imagery in the Design Ideation Stage of Novice Designers. The Design Journal, 1-25.
Link to article:Â Â http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2018.1395655
Life Cycle 7 Endurance Ride 2017
It is that time of the year again, Life Cycle time. The 4 days endurance ride covering up to 540km in Zhejiang province. We will be riding next week, from October 3rd to 6th. A much bigger riding team (18 cyclists) and a logistics team. Stay tuned for updates.
In the meanwhile, here is a glimpse of the endurance ride last year (LC6).
Upcoming on drawing circle: a short documentary
Our local TV station (NBTV- Ningbo TV) has plans to make a short documentary about the drawing circle project, this month. I am excited and stay tuned for a sneak peek!
Drawing circle is part of Brew Drawing Circle and head over the blog for the two years project. Bfn.
Drawing Circle 2 Mini Exhibition and the Opening Party
It was a wrap. This is the end of second year of the drawing circle, and I am happy to say that am glad I initiated the circle two years ago. Thank you for all sketchers, contributors and special thanks to James Johnson-Perkins for the music. I hope you all had a good time!! Links and some prep posters leading to the event as follow. Check out the time lapse video too, an embedded Youtube video. Â The sketches will be exhibited at the gallery until June 10th, feel free to pop in. Click here for more information about what is the circle all about.
 
Research seminar: Friday, May 26th
A quick heads up about an upcoming research seminar on a short paper I just submitted. It is part of my methodology exploration of my PhD project, illustrating a possible use of developed JavaScript program of adapted coding schemes. The developed scheme recognises distinctive processes within Cognition, Body and Environment categories. Linkography can be drawn within these categories with degree of flexibility in terms of data presentation. In this paper, a forty-five minute verbal data derived from a sketching session is used to illustrate to possible use of the program. The online program (hosted in Github) is in early stage of development and feedback is very much appreciated.
Date & time:Â 26 May (Friday)Â 2-3pm
Venue: PMB (previously SEB) 409, University of Nottingham Ningbo China
Topic: Cognition beyond Designers’ Thoughts, an Aid to Investigate the Interplay of External and Internal Processes
Note: the first program was developed last year to help to illustrate links between design moves, click here for more information. It is based on Linkography (developed by Gabriela Goldschmit), but in a very basic term. The program generates links’ illustration between moves rather than inferring links manually.
Big thank you to Haozhe Zhang.
MAD Talk 5:
MAD (My Awesome Doctoral) Talk is organised by some doctoral degree students in UNNC to promote cross-disciplinary research environment.
MAD Talk 5 “The use of sketches and mental imagery in the ideation process: A pilot study.”
Abstract: The research focuses on exploration of the design process in the early design stage. Different modes of representation are utilised during this stage, however, comparison will be conducted only through external and internal representation. The role of free-hand sketches is evidently indispensable, but the use of mental imagery and their interplaying roles are always assumed but not thoroughly observed. The aim of the research is to provide empirical evidence of the interplay and also to contribute to addressing the difficulty in measuring mental imagery. Protocol studies were conducted in two different environments, with and without sketches.
Cycling and camping trips
This trip is the second trip Simon Dawson has organised. Contributing on the catering side, it was a fun experience to brainstorm about feeding a big group of peeps. Each trip progresses, in terms of efficiency and speed. Matt and I have camped countless times in Europe and here in China, when it comes to food, we know exactly what we want: a hot cheesy pasta. Which sometimes for a big number of people is rather less feasible.
So for this time I came out with this menu:
- Dinner: cheeseburgers with homemade patties (made patties a day before), the classic mac+cheese and jacket potatoes
- Nibbles: tried the chocolatey banana split and the ultimate marshmallows on sticks. Subsequently Spencer and the guys went out for more tatties and fire wood, bless them!
- Breakfast: omelette in bags (Ida and I tried this a day before, with Ida’s meticulous skill on checking the eggs) and quick oats.
Thank you internet for providing accessible online recipes and made recipes research a lot easier. What kind of excitement for the next one? Contact Simon Dawson if you are interested, May the 16th and 17th.
Good to have a beer with view before cracking on with the cooking and stuff!
  
  
 
Ningbo Local Drawing Circle: the sketchbooks
Just a teaser, I have purchased a couple of sketchbooks to start with. Lovely texture, light, with stitches bits I like. Find my previous post here about the drawing circle. We still have available slots for you to join! Drop me a message if you are interested.
Flowers.
Photogenic flowers on campus taken by me, March 2015.