HELLO, MY NAME IS KIKI MARISA.
I’M A WRITER AND STRATEGIST WITH EXPERIENCE ACROSS EDITORIAL, EDUCATIONAL, AND BRANDED CONTENT. MY BACKGROUND IN MEDIA AND GENDER STUDIES, AS WELL AS DIGITAL STORYTELLING INFORMS MY RESEARCH-DRIVEN APPROACH TO COMMUNICATION.
I ENJOY EXPLORING HOW PEOPLE INTERACT WITH NARRATIVES, PLATFORMS, AND EACH OTHER, ALONGSIDE HOW DESIGN AND LANGUAGE FURTHER CURATE THESE NARRATIVES.
KIKIMARISA1999@GMAIL.COM
RESEARCH AND WRITING
I tend to research as both investigation and curation.
These essays were written during my undergraduate studies at Monash University. Each piece clearly reflects my interests in media, identity, and theory-informed writing. I find gratification in the process of curating references and building structured truths that underline cultural and social phenomena.
Longhouse Settlers, Urban Displacement, and Taman Tun Dr. Ismail (2021).
This essay explores the scenery of gentrification within Malaysia's favourite mid-sized township, Taman Tun Dr Ismail.
Here, I cross-referenced a Malaysiakini article on longhouse displacement with journal articles, government sources, and news reports to substantiate observations of urbanisation.
The Impact of Tumblr on Online Feminist Activism (2022).
This essay explores the amplification of power young women receive through the experience of the Internet, drawing into perspective the latter-day formation of online feminism on the Tumblr platform.
The concept of digital identity is then brought to the fore.
#GadisMalaysiaMenyalak: The Malaysian woman finally barks back (2023).
Written for a Freedom and Control in the Media course, this essay analyses a media campaign and includes a speech component developed as part of the assignment brief.
Drawing from the #MakeSchoolASaferPlace campaign, I proposed a hypothetical campaign titled #GadisMalaysiaMenyalak, supported by a range of references including screenshots, scholarly articles, policies and news media.
STRATEGY AND CONTENT
I thoroughly enjoy the notion that ideas have the chance to be studied, shaped, then brought to life through the right format, whether it's a video, social post, or even an event.
Here, is a mapping of DIRI's Master the Model Employee mindset course, in attachment to HRDC's 2024 National Training Week.
1. IDENTIFYING AUDIENCE NEED AND BEHAVIOUR
During HRDC's 2024 National Training Week, the DIRI team and I saw a recurring need. Employees wanted to grow, but lacked guidance on how to show up as promotable, dependable talent.
Definitively, low self-confidence and lack of provided reskilling were major blockers to growth (TalentCorp, 2021; randstad, 2023).
2. PROBLEM SOLVING
The goal was to foster the pipeline: from merely good workers to model employees.
The Model Employee is framed as adopting a mindset that cultivates traits underrated to the conventional office worker (soft skills).
3. DEVELOPMENT AND APPROACH
I curated a mentor-led video course track, in which each module unpacks a soft skill; from how to actively listen to refining observed problems within work processes.
These modules are anchored to a well-known Malaysian leader, to encourage cultural resonance and leverage credibility.
4. MAKING CHOICES
Supporting these modules were community discussions and quizzes.
Each activity feeds into the next, crafting a scaffolding learning experience to ensure microlearning that sticks.
Tonally, I avoided HR-speak. Instead, I mirrored a person-to-person dialogue to break the barrier between course and participant.
* Modules encouraged accountability through handwritten mind maps and work reflections uploaded within DIRI's discussion forum. These instances ensured knowledge was further translated into action.
KLCC + MERDEKA 2024
What's two towers got to do with memory, identity, and legacy?
For KLCC's 25th anniversary and Hari Merdeka, DIRI Productions was tasked to commemorate a quarter-century of national pride into 2.5 minutes of emotional resonance.
Watch the video here.
1. HERE, I LED THE IDEATION AND STORYTELLING
* Honing on DIRI's specialty of personalised narrative, I concentrated an emotional arc that is fostered through scriptwriting.
* The video gathers a storyline of a girl named Yaya and her grandfather, drawing a parallel between national milestones with personal memory.
* Think shaped pacing, Wes Anderson, and smart transitions.
2. GROUND ZERO + MERDEKA
* The film is framed as a scrapbook conversation.
* To narrate, the team and I flipped through archival material supplemented by KLCC. Each spread chosen is combined with imagined mographs, alongside relevant dialogue.
* Here, we blend the monumental with the intimate.
3. NARRATIVE ANCHORS
* 2 teams, 2 towers, 1 finish line.
* "Atok takkan ada dengan Yaya sampai bila-bila. Tapi, Menara Berkembar ini selalu ada."
4. PRODUCTION NOTES
* God's-eye angles, ambient overlays, and tactile textures.
* Shot at Storyfrontier Studio and Rocketship Recording.
* Scrapbook, clippings, and drawings stitched together like personalised memory.
5. WHAT I TOOK AWAY
* How to execute broad national stories, with a specific emotional angle. And, how to craft visuals that speak in layers.
CREATIVE WRITING
Hélène Cixous, in her essay, “The Laugh of the Medusa” has my being.
In it, she’s conjoining writing spheres and publishing work, as deviation from upholding a woman’s voice. The reality unfurls: it’s a man’s world to write. But Ms. Cixous doesn’t help herself from chiming into patriarchal contexts obviously, she’s like “—And that’s why women have to write”. Literally, that’s why women have to keep writing.
AS A GIRL ON THE INTERNET: HERE'S WHAT GROWING UP ONLINE FEELS LIKE (2022).
This interview formulates a discussion on Internet infamy with actress Mia Sara Shauki. She discourses her negotiation between TikTok, and an acting career.
"Mia had somehow found herself in the gravy of TikTok, and she was steadily gaining her cult following. Tonight, I travel through hollowed-out backstage areas to meet her in the dressing room of her life."
Together with Bang Bang Zine, I co-created a zine alongside Gladys Lee on the dysregulation attributed to non-conformity in a binary world.
Come On Pretty is written as a back-to-forth conversation as two identities sit at the fray of gender's hem, dialoguing inadvertent frustrations. The deft visual indicators for "boy" and "girl" are left confronted for each reader. Is it a boy? Is it a girl? A knife? A heap of landmass?