CDM2006: Contemporary Topics in Cultural Industry

In this course, the main project ongoing throughout the semester was to publish a magazine. Students were grouped and there were several teams composed of 4 or 5 students for each group, and we worked on writing articles every month after watching or reading arts and cultural sources available online or offline. There were several categories such as music, movie, art, design, and fashion, and each students within a group took roles to select one of them and review certain material they had studied or enjoyed.
In this project, I worked not only as a writer but also an editor who came up with the two-column layout utilising Adobe Indesign programme for the second time in my life. Remembering the previous experience of utilising this programme when I was making a thinner magazine with artistic topics in my first year of high school, I gathered my groupmates' writings, positioned in order, created visually comfortable layout, and actively communicated with the professor who gave me advice and recommendation for the overall process.
It was a challenging task without properly knowing how to deal with the design programme and also figuring out how I can effectively manage my time to devote to both writing and designing. However, I found it very rewarding and meaningful to me as I could learn how to deal with such demanding situations.

Other projects diverge from this main project. We watched various videos regarding artists, cultural and pop-related media, and dramas, especially Emily in Paris (professor's favourite Netflix series) for discussions about any insights or especially cultural difference we could notice from watching them.
Another one that was very exciting for me was the focus on art appreciation. The professor delivered lectures about specific paintings, and let students analyse and talk about them. At last, we had to upload a 5-min video about our individual research done for a specific artist we chose autonomously, and I delivered her a story of Jackson Pollock and the nature of fraction displayed on his paintings.

From this course, I could experience various media to gain knowledge and experience from, including appreciating artworks, as well as enhance my design skill.