Creative Exploration, Transformers and Life Updates

Neu Work Updates



It’s been a very incredible month for me. I would like to wrap-up my January with amazing stuff in my latest entry. I would like to thank everyone who had been so helpful and supportive. My prop goes to friends of Flickr group ‘KLickrs’, Facebook and in real life who I couldn’t done it without your best advices and warm greetings.

Featured Interview this year!

I had the opportunity to be featured in two great art & design portal which is NOISE from Australia and After5Motion, a design portal run by my friend Vivian. Check out interview one; NOISE Artist Interview and interview two; After5Motion I was also invited to several upcoming exhibitions.



I will be participating in ‘GET MOOOVING MOVABLE ART 2008’, 2nd March, 2008 at Palate Palette, Kuala Lumpur. I was also request from Mr. Jay Lim to do a dance performance for that night, so those who’s curious to know how I move my freestyle dance, can come to our event!

A.R.T 2008, Shah Alam
My first serious involvement with the Sifoo Design Community together with ‘Layar Tanchap’ and ‘Click-A-Child’ (charity). I will announce the update for this event soon, meantime I’m coordinating few stuff in terms of design with the team headed by Imran Ijabar. I hope I am able to commit this task. I really want to help them as much as possible.

Photography & Creative Collaboration



Besides my great photo shooting activities with my Flickr KLickr group, I managed to create two (2) artwork during Thaipusam. Both of my digital work is a collaboration between notable photographers like Johan Sopie (which I had published earlier in my blog), K:REW, Syahrin Aziz. I would like to complete this into 7 images and later I will start with collective collaboration with fellow local and international designers. This is the year I need to start back my creative works after last year lest effort in contributing towards the scene.



I was invited by a very, very good friend of mine, K:REW at his studio to work on his new year team. He mentioned; “Oh what a treat it is to be working with Muid. Not only is he mad, he's brilliantly mad. I'm such a fan of his work and what he stands for. We need more people like him. Period”. Truly honored and appreciate for such valuable testimonial from him. Feel free to check out his great shot of me in his set, HeadSpace. So much to thanks K, I’m speechless!



By the way, I just submitted a photo entry to JPG magazine and would like to kindly ask you guys to vote for my photos to be published for the upcoming issue. Your vote counts!

Vote here: http://www.jpgmag.com/photos/437852

Life Updates

I would like to feature my latest entry of my fresh new poetry of 2008 for the upcoming Moetry: Volume One (Illustrated PDF book).

Berarak Bersama
Copyright © 2008 Muid Latif.

Disetiap sudut masa dan ruang kau mendamaikanku,
Gemilang jiwaku dibawa persona dirimu,
Membangkitkan semangat daya dan juang,
Untuk terus aku maju langkah ke alam semesta.

Kaulah aturan sumberku,
Yang memberi seribu kekuatan merentasi aral,
Agar kau dan aku terus berarak mekar,
Selagi masa berada di ruangan bima sakti.


Rescue Me
Copyright © 2008 Muid Latif.

From this crowded surroundings I seek you,
I saw you stood still but could not reach you.
I came to know my devastating truth so I broke down.

Went out of my mind that I could no longer breathe,
The hope that I found before was fading away,
Then people became fear of me and shred my door.

I became a cold sculpture surrounded by deep water,
an art piece nice to set eyes on but fear to touch,
my heart was wrecked without soul.

All of a sudden someone tosses me a penny,
With a wish I reminisce beautiful years I once had,
I felt affectionate but only for a moment.

Will someone rescue me from such devastation?
Will a fairy grand me my wish to be able to live again?
Will I ever be free again?


Am I A Substance?
Copyright © 2008 Muid Latif.

Lately I felt in fear and apprehension,
As the bitter breeze batters me,
A part of me begin to fall.

A reckless heart wails with agony,
For what this heart yet feel is nonentity,
My endurance weakens and became blurry.

Absurd it may sound but I’m blunt,
Through an ambiguous mind,
Integrity begins to wonder.

The reality seems to be unbalance,
For a soul condense faraway distance.
Set in a parallel creating solitary.


Some Nobility

I met Azmil Mustapha, one of Malaysia notable actor who played Ali Setan back in the 80’s and been seeing him around in early 2001 when I did my practical in RTM. He came to MDeC last week, Friday the 25th to share his experience and journey of his migration to Syria. Salahudin, one of great Muslim warrior was buried in Syria. In his knowledge sharing session, there’s such amazing story that I heard from him including how different the Muslim practice their religion compared to Malaysian Muslim. From his experience, ours are very conservative and selective. We always have to define within different (4) Mazhab (School of thoughts), even perform their solat according to different coordinates. He told us when one of the Imam from Masjid Al-Haram to our national mosque, many things happened. In Syria, Muslim live in peace with Christians and the Muslim is not conservative as the Malaysian Muslim. Over there, everything heart for Allah and doesn’t have to be particular about which group you are from. Other Mazhab can get along with one another and respect each other.

Ours are slightly different. I was surprised to find out how complex the Malaysian Muslims practice their ways. Somehow I do find it is very discriminating to the same kind. No wonder they cannot get a long with each other. Well, to prove further, I remember having a solat in TTDI Mosque, there is this one guy sitting next to me with such great reciting and later perform solat. And you know what happen? After his ‘doa’, he just ‘blastoff out’ of the mosque without shaking hands with people next to him which include me and a pakcik next to him. Some of the Muslim in this country is not strong in terms of living harmony as we see, all are corrupted with such prejudice mind, because we all answer the same ‘amin’ after the Imam, but we never turn to our next person to give greetings or not even to smile. It’s pathetic. It’s like, "oh, I only solat for Allah, but to h**l with everyone around me”.

Update (25/2): Thanks to Mr. Aziph Mustapha for dropping by. I would like to share his input on my recent blog:

1. You have a right to your opinion, but to assume what a brother Muslim is thinking in his heart may be too much. He may have a myriad of different reasons for rushing out of the Mosque, and we must respect his right and keep good faith or think positive thoughts (husnu-zon) about what others are doing. Assume the best, not the worst of him.

2. Though greeting the person to the left and to the right of us after prayer is widely practised here, it did not come from authentic sunnah of the Prophet SAW. The authentic sunnah is to greet one another when first meeting, not at the end of the prayer. Since I am not a scholar, allow me to quote one:

a. "We do not know of a single Companion or Righteous Salaf, may Allaah be pleased with them all, that they used to shake hands with those on their left and right and give the tidings of the prayer being accepted after completing the prayer. If any one of them would have done this then it would have reached us, even it be via a weak isnaad and the People of Knowledge would have quoted it those who delved into every ocean and explored their deepest depths and derived from them many rules and regulations and did not neglect a single aspect of the Sunnah." ['Tamaam al-Kalaam fee Bid`iyyah al-Musaafaha ba`d as-Salaam' [pp. 24-25] and 'al-Masjid fee al-Islaam' [pg. 225]. - from Allahuakhbar.in

Thanks for allowing me to understand more about sunnah in greeting. This surely clarify my perception on what I had mentioned earlier. For more information on Syria, visit Wikipedia here.

Happy Birthday Mama Yatie!

We celebrated mum’s 51th birthday yesterday in Sri Petaling Driving Range Seafood Restaurant. Kak Yong (my eldest sister) brought Häagen-Dazs® Ice-cream Cake Together with a very nice present. We always go there for casual dinner due to their famous and amazing Butter Prawn. The best so far in any Chinese Restaurant.

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Waiting for more orders..

Check out our video:

Our family dinner / celebration video taken from my Samsung Blackjack (Much gracias Av).


Transformers Fever



Escaping from all my work stress and to fulfill my satisfaction of my childhood days, I finally regain my consciousness to rebuild back the collection I have. I had recently added few Auto-bots in the family including Grimlock, Jetfire, Rachet and both version of Jazz from the Transformers Movie including a pirated but amazing Transformers Powermaster Double Dealer (which I bought for RM19.90 in Selayang Mall) and the latest G1 Rachet and Ironhide (thanks to Wilson for selling this in eBay!), plus Metroplex! Yeay!

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New Work: Orcanius, New Jpod Baby born!

I promise Alvaro that I will be publishing my new work on my blog so here goes.


I am very happy and joyful to hear the news from Orcagirl about the new Jpod Baby born. Thanks to Orcagirl for the linkup. Truly honored and flattered. Congratulations! Check out her blog here.

The raw sketch had been made when I was at the Photoshopworld Asia 2007 together with Yahoo! Flickr Malaysia group on November the 6th, and this artwork is actually dedicated to my dear friend who's an environmentalist who is now in Mexico looking after the adorable killer whale name Orca.

I decided to use very minimal duo tone colors. I will be producing more of this soon, after my visit to Niah Caves in Miri, Borneo this weekend.


above is the brief artwork process like what I did for Merdeka series.

A Happy Deepavali

To all my Indian friend who's celebrating Deepavali, wishing you guys a great holiday and may the lights colors your life with love, prosperity and happiness to you and your loved ones.


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Happy Eid Mubarak / Eid Ul Fitr

I would like to take this opportunity to wish each and everyone of you a blessed Eid Mubarak. Thanks for all your support and looking forward to see you guys in my (*ehhemm*) open house second week of Raya (by invitation only, special privilege to my fellow KLlickr).


Family portrait (Gambar raya) with my brother in law's parents.
This is eventually my first day of Raya.

To Kamal, Ezat, Hasnul's (G&K), I couldn't spend my Raya happily if it wasn't for you guys! Thanks and much hugs. And guys, thank you for sending those beautiful sms'es and greetings cards (Wan Peng, unexpected, and really appreciate it). I have not been getting those in years. Note to Teong Hin, Adibah Noor, Kevin Zahri, abang Mahathir Lokman, Steve Bristow and many more, thanks for your kind greetings!

Have a nice festive holiday!

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First in 2007: Creative Exposure

Giving a talk each year has been a must for me. But this year, it started slowly. Due to heavy commitment of work, I make more time to increase my understanding and observation towards what we call the Creative Multimedia Industry, by coordinating and supporting a lot of launches and events throughout the year.

This year, I admit, I put my pencil down and do more typing. There wouldn’t be more of those 170 layers of Adobe Photoshop that I normally do over weekly basis. But recently, it’s about time. I don’t want to waste half of the year not doing anything in the digital art scene.



British Council invited me to present our group, Digital Malaya Project (DMP) collective for the Love & Money Design Dayz event, called 'Pecha Kucha Night'. The whole session from 8.30 pm - 10 pm was a blast aligned with great speakers from Juan, Chun Woei, even Sharon Chin, Jerome, Michael (Gilamon), Morag Myerscough, Matt Armitage, Aiko (FuriFuri) and others.



The rest of the pictures can be found in my flickr page.

For the first time this year, Abby, my sister had showcased her photography works together with Riz Ainuddin, and the key people of DMP, Perez & Shieko that night. It was a good crowd. I'm also glad to meet my friends from Bigbrosworkshop (Juan), Chun (UrbanCr3atures), Jay Lim & Vivian Toh, Simon (VectorBross), Tintoy, Gilamon (Lefty, Michael), Radio & Driva, Weng Keong (Arachnid), Salmi & her friends, Shafina and her cousin and the rest. Everyone had been very supportive and looking at them, they do care about education and creative awareness.

For more info about Design Dayz: Pecha Kucha, click here.

I have two upcoming art exhibition, and one upcoming talk in Johor Bahru called 'Menjana Kreatifiti Melalui Interaktif: Proses Animasi' will be held next month. I will keep you posted.
Web Design by Content that features my work are now available at Amazon.com


I had a good hangout session with DMP Collective (Abby, Shieko & Perez), Elyna Shukri, along with Ibah, Eka, Tini, Zatyl and 84Cube (Najib, Acit, and that guy) at Pelita, near KLCC.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank British Council Malaysia, especially to Patriana & Sunita for having us on the show, and thanks to all of my friends who came to the event yesterday to support our group. It was pleasure to see all of you guys. We have a lot of fun!

Like Paul Arden said; “Accentuate The Positive, Eliminate the negative.”


New Work: 'Cacausia'

New artwork that I created last three days back in the office.



We can't own them, but treasure them for the beauty of God's creation. Inspired by Cockatoo, our local call 'em Kakak Tua, I present to you my latest artwork, ‘Cacausia’ . This is a part of the continuous series from 'Obourius', in conjunction of ‘Extinction of the Wild Life’ series.

Facts:
'Caca' taken from the word 'Cacatuidae'. Cockatoo belongs to 21 bird species in the family Cacatuidae. 'Usia', means Age in Malay language. In Malay language, we called Parrot, ‘Kakak Tua’, meaning ‘Old Sister’ (or whichever you prefer :P).

Colors:
I would like to bring the warm colours to make it more emerging. Previously, my artwork ‘Obourius’ had been very ‘de-saturated’ where I set the color palette slightly pale. With ‘Cacausia’, this version will create more vitality and oriental.


Sony PSP Fever
This is not an ordinary gadget. I was way behind getting myself updated with handy tools lately (orang kata ketinggalan zaman) after givin' away my iPAQ to Abby for her birthday. I remember when I was somewhere in The Curve a couple of months ago, I saw few kids playing PSP. I thought it was cool for such a small age to have such privilege to own a PSP. I said to myself, once in awhile, I do need these kind of escapism, after all, you need to focus on some other things, before you turn old.

Last two weeks, I was thinking of buying iPod video but it turns out PSP was the right and perfect choice. For RM690 (Basic kit) + 4GB of Memory Stick Pro - RM170, (together cost RM860). Adding a UMD game, 'Open Season' - RM140. Now, TOTAL cost = RM1000, this amazing gadget gives you 5 power function;

i) Playing amazing 3D games (UMD), Well, original UMD games costs RM80-170.
ii) Downloading and viewing photos, (good for portfolio review for interviews & clients)
iii) Videos (Elyana told me most of the directors uses PSP to showcase their film on PSP)
iv) Music playback and download (depends on your card. In my case, i have 2 GB of MP3s!, 1GB of videos)
v) Internet (Yes, check email here, Adobe Flash enabled, Portable TV, RSS, wi-fi surfing baby!)



Now, my iPod Nano merajuk. I think I lost it somewhere in my room, or in the office, or forever gone! Anyway, with PSP, I have saved a lot of money comparing to iPod Video. You get five (5) major function (giving you the resolution of 480x272) of PSP for RM1,000 while for iPod Video, they offer few functions and small resolution (320x280), without cool games and Internet surfing for RM1,099! The price different is RM99, but think of the big features that PSP offers. Plus, with MemoryStick, you can even store your documents and files (like a thumbdrive) whenever you are connected to your USB cable and a computer / laptop. Of course PSP doesn't offer playlist for MP3 playback and bigger size compared to iPod, but they also have art album cover and great quality of sound. The battery last longer than iPod, plus I don't need to find weird USB cable to connect to my psp, as I can borrow anyone's USB cable (camera, external hardrive, etc).

I also purchase Tekken Dark Resurrection (probably the best!) and the worst game ever, which is the new Transformers: The Game. Oke la, maybe the game trailer looks fantastic, but the game NOT! Well, since I'm a big fan of Transformers (Collector of G1, Masterforce and Cybertron), I would say it's a good collectible items, but not meant to be played. The game sucks! Not worth any of my penny.

To add more suprise, in my office, there are 7 people who owned PSP including two of my great bosses! Hasnul helped me to get the best deal of PSP in Gamers Hideout, Cineleisure, Damansara. Although they have limited PSP games on their rack, but their customer service support was good. At first, I bought UMD game called 'WTF' (Work Time Fun, yeah right!). I played this game (WTF) for one day and later I was not even satisfied (for RM80, giler rugi oke). I trade it with 'Open Season' UMD a week later at Games Hideout. Those guys are great!

With this PSP, I get to spend more time especially Ramadan is coming soon. I have my al-Quran PSP installed in my memory stick, thanks to Ikhwan Nazri from Flavert and his friends for developing a holy application for this. Good job!

Next year, there's iPhone arriving in Malaysia right? Let's just see.

Btw, Angel, a visitor from my blog informed me that she got to know my blog from a local TV station. Thanks for informing me. Now, I have to find out how my blog got on the show :) If you guys have any news about it, do let me know.

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