Visual Book Idea/Research

After having research in Bukit Bintang/Kuala Lumpur area, I started doing my research for my visual book. From what I understood after reading the brief that our lecturer gave us, we had to draw a story. The story had to related with the place that you had chosen. For me, I chose KL area.

KL is a city in Malaysia. There are many foreigner will come and visit there. Bukit Bintang is one of the place in KL area, and it is popular for the foreigner to visit when they are in Malaysia. You can go there by public transport, like MRT.

What inspire me?

When I went to Bukit Bintang to visit Changkat and LINC. I saw a scene which really attracted my attention. It was a scene when I sat and looked outside from the car. I was on my way going back my college after I visited the places, and I was stuck in traffic. When I looked out from the car, I saw a man who was driving. However, he was still reading his working stuffs.

This scene really inspire when I saw it. I was thinking "Why the people nowadays looked stress? Even though you are driving, you still have to think about your working stuffs." After I had this kind of thinking, I started thinking about the people who had mental health problems.

Research

After I did dome research on internet, I found that the people who are living in city will be more possibilities to get mental health problems. The possibility of getting mental illness will be more and more bigger in the coming future.

I also tried to research about depression before I started drawing my visual book. I found there were many people facing mental illness, even though it was not depression. Anxiety was on of the mental illness that the people will get when they stay in city for a long time.

I found a very interesting video on Youtube when I am doing research. It was a video which introduce depression. "Black dog" was using to represent depression in this video. In fact, "black dog" was a term Winston Churchill used to describe his own depression. There are many people using "black dog" to represent her/his own depression nowadays.

KL area is the main city in Malaysia. There are many people who are from other state come and get a job there. KL is a busy and crowded city. Yes, the living quality may be better than other state, but the cost that you have to spent will be higher. Thus, the level of stress will increase as well. This was what I was thinking after I saw the scene in car.

---

After doing research, I wrote down some notes and drew some sketches in my sketch book. Because I thought I may need to use these information when I did my visual book.

---

Reference

Editor. (2017, May 15). Being Better, Living Better: Is Living in The City Affected Your Mental Health? Retrieved from https://www.aia.com.my/en/what-matters/health-wellness/is-living-in-the-city-affecting-your-mental-health.html

Editor. (n.d). Our Log.|Black Dog Institute. Retrieved from https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/about-us/who-we-are/our-logo

WHO. (2014, September 4). Living with a black dog. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VRRx7Mtep8