2019 CPS Folio 1
WK 1 - Observation
Theme:
Observation ٩(͡๏̯͡๏)۶
Context:
Blind Drawing, Line Drawing
Allison Kunath website: http://www.allisonkunath.com
Observation is the active acquisition of information from a primary source. In living beings, observation employs the senses but not limited by senses. It is the product of individual thought and expression. Different from most of the blind drawing. In Allison Kunath's drawing practice, she draw the object through touch. Inspired by this practice. I want to explore use touching to create arts.
Method:
Explore blind drawing for the human face and try to capture the facial expression through touch.
Response:
In this practice, I used our sense to create art. Inspired by Allison Kunath’s work. I explored blind drawing for this practice with Sophia(Ang Li). We drew each other's face on paper and tried to capture the facial expression through touching instead of seeing. We perceived the face with one hand and responded with pencil marks made by the other hand.
This exercise created a route of communication between the two hands. The significance is that the hand that makes the mark with the pencil moves simultaneously and responds to the hand that is exploring the face. Information will be transferred, made visible and the drawing is made in response to touch. Moreover, supposedly is activated the part of our mind that genuinely observes shapes. When we try to perceive objects in a different way than before, we will get different feelings and results. ◈ ◈
WK 2 - Tinkering As Method
Theme:
Tinkering As Method ⸜(* ॑꒳ ॑* )⸝
Context:
Tinker is to play with the materials at hand, to iterate quickly, to make without a specific goal in mind and keep your mind open to the opportunities that arise through the process. For this practice, I am really interested in exploring ideogram.
An ideogram or ideograph is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiarity with prior convention; others convey their meaning through pictorial resemblance to a physical object, and thus may also be referred to as pictograms.
All Chinese characters are logograms, but several different types can be identified, based on the manner in which they are formed or derived. There is a handful which derives from pictographs (象形; xiàngxíng) and a number which is ideographic (指事; zhǐshì) in origin, including compound ideographs (會意; huìyì). Chinese character, essentially each character or graph symbolises a single idea and, by extension, associated with that idea. The ideographic, in which atomic ideas are symbolized directly and linguistic structures only by ‘extension’.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2385377seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Method:
Based on this principle, I picked three Chinese characters and play with them, tried to trace the origin of the ideogram and make some innovation, like create some new symbols or characters. Make the Chinese characters transition toward new symbol, picture or concept
through rearranging, constructing or deconstructing the characters through creating a 2D mini animation. I used TVPaint to create 2D frame by frame animation.
The Chinese character I chose :
1. 囧
Jiong is a once obscure Chinese character meaning a "patterned window". Since 2008, it has become an internet phenomenon and widely used to express embarrassment and gloom, because of the character's resemblance to a sad facial expression.
2. 人
Ren means person.
3. 大
Da means big.
Response:
The definition of ideogram is often used to describe symbols of writing systems rather than object/concept. When I come up with rough ideas. I try to split the characters into smaller elements to understand the structure of characters or give them meanings. Try to create something new by rearranging and deconstructing. As a result, I create a 'new' character. Different from a big project that requires a long time to think before the start, I prefer to start without planning. It didn't take me a long time to come up with the idea, around 10 minutes. Gather ideas and arranged them randomly. May have unexpected results. I think this method is more suit for people who want to make a design for experiment or exploration instead of a big group project.
WK 3 - Found Objects
Theme:
Found Objects
Context:
Life on earth begins with plants. Discover that much of life's quality and meaning is expressed through plants with a sensory experience demonstrating the richness of plant contributions to human culture. Plants play a crucial role in the development of human cultures throughout the world and are an important part of therapy, music, ceremony, language and many other enrichments to our everyday lives.
https://www.usbg.gov/plants-culture-sensory-experience
For this project I want to explore the plants contributions to human culture and what will happen when the plants meet digital technology.
Simon Evans:
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/78953799688258131/
Mari Andrews / Gatherer &Artist:
https://fieldandsea.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/mari-andrews-gatherer-artist/
Method:
Inspired by Simon Evans and Mari Andrews work. I will walk around the school and collect the fallen leaves, branches or something else that I can use. Arrange and combine them properly on the paper to get some pattern & textures then integrate it with digital technology (Photoshop).
Response:
At the beginning of this exercise, I put objects deliberately, hoping to get a beautiful and meaningful pattern. But there's a big difference between design from an existing object and create from nothing. Think about too much will lose the organic beauty of plants. So I arrange the plants randomly then take photos, import them into photoshop and made adjustments. As a result, the same photos show different things, which I think reflects the integration of plants and digital technology in an effective way.
Simon Evans, Everything I Have, 2008.
Mari Andrews / Gatherer & Artist, 2011.
WK 4 - Discussions Of Place
Theme:
Discussions Of Place
Context:
As soon as you place a character within an environment the two become inseparable. The environment is the character and the character is the environment. They are woven from each other. An environment is not just a container in which unrelated events occur but still can telling a story.
In this practice, my concept is environmental storytelling, which is inherently minimalistic in its overall execution of conveying a narrative. This concept mostly applies to the game. Examples of environmental storytelling can be found in the Dark Souls games. I wonder if it can apply this concept in animation.
A site I chose: The Port Arthur Historic Site.
The Convict Era
Port Arthur Historic Site is a large site holding a great many stories. Places like the Penitentiary, which was originally constructed as a flour mill and granary in 1843, before it housed hundreds of convicts in dormitories and solitary cells; or the much-feared Separate Prison, where harsh physical punishment was replaced with the punishment of the mind. These men and women were convicted of crimes that seem trivial today, mostly stealing small articles or livestock. One in five was a woman. Numbers of children were also transported with their parents. Few returned home.
Nick Fouquet: https://blog.freepeople.com/2015/12/guy-meet-nick-fouquet/
Method:
Image source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTD8hfVhhKj/
I used the same character and environment but change the design of that environment to tell a different story and give the audience different feelings. I will use a photograph of the penitentiary and try to create a different view through integrating color and the place. See how the color evokes viewers emotion and give viewers different feelings (for the same place).
Response:
When I simply adjusted the brightness of the photo and added color and shape, it showed a completely different state. It looks like a fantasy story about a prison club at midnight. I think this technique can be appropriately applied in our project instead of focusing on the depiction of animated characters. In this situation, a story is imparted directly to the audience, with little or no interpretation necessary.
WK 5 - Objects Are Not Exhausted - Tree
WK 5 - Objects Are Not Exhausted - Test -1
WK 5 - Objects Are Not Exhausted
Theme:
Objects Are Not Exhausted
Context:
Object-Oriented Ontology - In metaphysics, object-oriented ontology (OOO) is a 21st-century Heidegger-influenced school of thought that rejects the privileging of human existence over the existence of nonhuman objects.
This week our theme is very philosophical and I love the calming feeling that plants bring to me. I also like objects which are far away from us, or something we can't see, such as clouds or wind. We can't see or capture the wind but still can feel it, Especially when I hear the rustle of the wind through the leaves, my first reaction is the wind rises rather than the leaves is rustling. I think this is a very strong point of interaction between objects.
In most of the traditional Chinese painting (ink), people present wind through drawing tree or grass. Present the wind by showing the relationship between wind and other objects. Inspired by Maomei Be's work "Reeds in the wind"
WK 5 - Objects Are Not Exhausted - Test -2
I want to observe the relationship between objects from the perspective of a tree.
Method:
I want to observe the relationship between wind and plants from the perspective of a tree. Therefore, I recorded 4 videos for a tree, in front of my apartment, then made an environment in Unity. It is much easier to simulate the effects of weather, such as wind and rain. Also, want a more realistic environment to generate viewers into the role.
Response:
We always go from individual initiative to other objects. Introverted attitudes view the outer world in terms of the self's subjective ideal, so we attempt to make the outer world more like the inner self. Try to let go of our subjective thoughts and observe the world, the objects around us. We may find a lot of novelty.