Research and Process can be found here! https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/a170035/image-making-through-type/
PROJECT 1: ONG JIA YING
PROJECT 1 : IMAGE MAKING THROUGH TYPE
For the first assignment, we were to create typographic portraits by using initials that describe our future occupation.
I have lots of jobs in mind, however I narrow it down to 4 jobs which I thought will be more interesting to work with.
Maze Runner
Fish Expert
Surgeon
Horologist
RESEARCH ON TYPOGRAPHY
ARTIST RESEARCH
I found several Instagram artists that inspired me.
RESEARCH AND PROCESS
PROCESS
When I think of surgeon. I think of surgery. Where surgeons are contact with wounds and fractured bones. I thought of incorporating these elements into my type.
I started drawing in out of Ai. However, I felt that the type is plain and flat. It needed some shadows.
I add shadows and I am pretty pleased with the result. However, when I ask my friends for their opinions, they felt that the legs are too straight. Skin should be more curve and not so rigid.
After making the changes, it look more like ‘skin’. I am glad I ask friends for their opinions. I also added splash of blood as the background to represent what the surgeon face daily. After consultation, the feedback that I get was that the splash of blood background makes it looks more like a murder and was a little to bloody. And that I should change it to something that is more related to my occupation.
Creating my own surgical cloth
As I could not find a suitable image of cloth for my background. I decided to create my own! I cut up a unwanted top and took photo of it. Then I edit the colours on photoshop. I also added more shadows and textures to my cloth.
FINAL
For my final work, I tried to arrange the letters in the form of the open wound. Wounds are normally in different sizes, therefore I increase and decrease the size of letters. By doing that, it also gives the name a little more dimension and depth.It will not looks so flat.
I when on the research more on surgeon. And I thought maybe I could use surgical cloth as a base. With the shade being darker at the tear open wound.
The main colour used in this composition is green, red and beige. I made used of like complementary colours. So that my name will start out more.
PROCESS
Some of the elements that I have pulled out from the clock is gears, screws and the knob. I wanted to try out a different style, therefore I hand drew the entire work. It actually turn out better that what I image it to be.
I added some dots to create depth to it. Which helps to make the letters stand out more.
FINAL
My final work, I scan my drawing and tried to create a perspective. The main colours used was brownish, as it gives off a vintage effect.
PROCESS
How I define a fish expert is someone that know everything about fish. Like the parts of the fish, the different segments of a fish. How many bones they have and the dimension. So I thought of doing like a see through of fish bones.
I started by sketching out my idea. I drew it out and scan it to ai and Image trace the image. I like how it creates a more structural edges.
After I add in the colours, I feel that it looks more a caterpillar instead. So I receive some feedbacks that maybe I could add in the fish head.
FINAL
I place the tail at the start of the composition and the head comes after they tail. However, we could still clearly identify that it is a fish. Our brain will naturally arrange and form the fish.
I placed the fish bone in a lab setting, Because I am a fish expert. I have to study on the fish. So the I have to exact with the dimensions and measurements.
SKETCHES & IDEATION
PROCESS
I started forming the maze of my name with Ai pen tool. It gives me a better ideas of where should be the positive (grass) and negative space.
I add grass to the background. However, I felt that my name does not stands out. It is not very obvious. I asked my friends and some comments given that there were to little grass.
FINAL
For my final work, I added more grass to the background. I chose to use a darker and thicker line for the name so that it will stand out more.
PRESENTATION
OVERALL
The challenges that I faced for this project was the interpretation of jobs. I misunderstood it and produce many wrong compositions. However, after the first consultation, I was clear of what was expected to be done. I felt that it was a lot easier after that. So, consultations are very important! Secondly, it is very important to test print. The first day I printed, the colours came out darker than what I expected. After editing the images, I had to head back to Bugis to print again. But after printing it for the second time. This time the colour was too light. I suspected that the printer ran out of ink, so I went to another shop to get it printed.
Through this project, I thought it help me move out from my comfort zone. I explored with different mediums. Instead of just sticking to one, I tried out ai, ps and also hand drawing. Although I am familiar with ai, this project allows me to explore with more tools and techniques that I am unfamiliar off.
And thank you to my friends, as I kept asking them for opinions. They always give me very truthful and useful feedback!
Micro Project 4 – Glitch
Original Image
First Edit:
I glitch it with photoshop to increase the noise level of the image. I also tried to distort my hand by swirling the image.
Second Edit:
May Thu used photoshop and added some oil painting effect.
Third Edit :
Brendan edited the colours. It reminds me of Vincent Van Gogh paintings.
Final Edit:
I pixelate the entire image.
There are no rules or boundaries, we are allowed to edit the photos however we want to. Each of us have a different style and we have no control as of what the next person will be doing.
At the end of the transformation, I could barely recognise my hand. It looks more like a distorted chicken. I felt that this project is similar to our DIWO assignment as it is a artwork made by the 3 of us. Which prompted us to realise this effort was truly collaborative.
Research Critique 2- The Third Space
The third space has been compared, by Randall Packer, to “a space of invention and possibility, like lucid dreaming, where participants might assume their avatar identities, engage in post-human, cyborgian manifestations, or perhaps reinvent the world in the image of their own making”.
The third space refers simply to the “networked-ness” of relationships – be they in the form of interpersonal relationships or virtually collaborative performances. To “assumer avatar identities” and “reinvent the world in the image of their own making” is, in less bombastic language, simply called imagination. It is human nature to imagine – in fact humans are distinguished from other sentient creatures by our ability to project unto the future, a process that would be impossible without imagination. So to suggest that it’s “post-human” and “cyborgian” is sensationalist at best, and at worst, simply inaccurate.
We don’t behave the way we are around friends when we are around our in-laws; we don’t behave the way we are around our spouse when we are around our boss; we don’t even behave the way we are on Facebook when we are on LinkedIn. These are all different ways in which we “assume an avatar identity”, and herein lies the criticism of Packer’s article, because the inhibition of the third space should be viewed not in absolute terms, but along a spectrum.
Of course there have been cases of people living their lives on Second Life at the expense of their real lives to tragic consequences, but these are at the extreme end of the spectrum and should be viewed as what they are: anomalies.
Reading Packer’s article, with his apocalyptic declarations that “the laws of the known world have been all but abandoned in the third space”, one gets a foreboding sense of pessimism; that society today is at a sorry state of evolution. But i would argue that to live in the third space, to have the ability to “inhibit a swath of networked space, no longer constrained to the singularity of a single moment or place” should be viewed instead as a great enabler that has allowed us to collapse previously insurmountable boundaries
As i type this in my room, i am looking at my boyfriend who’s in Taiwan via Skype while messages are constantly coming in on Whatsapp from friends scattered around the world. Just the other day, I “attended” Jay Chou’s concert despite being at home in my pajamas because it seemed everyone at that concert were posting live stories on Instagram.
In that sense, I would align my views more closely with those of Maria Chatzichristodoulo as her article on Cyberformance paints the “third space” in a more optimistic light.
Written in 2012, she is prescient in her prediction that streaming platforms will “become more ubiquitous and embedded within our daily lives”, and that there will be greater “use of Skype, VOIP and other internet telephony protocols to converse with family and friends”. In fact, the most popular messaging apps today (WeChat, Line, Whatsapp) all have call functions and they have proliferated to the degree that we take the closeness and intimacy that this third space provides for granted.
From having to wait for a myriad number of factors to converge before we could meet a loved one residing overseas, we are now complaining when the Facetime connection is poor. The extent to which we are able to touch, feel and connect with another person remotely is so embedded that it is no longer possible to imagine a world without it.
Where her prediction falls short is with regard to performances moving towards a virtual world. Performances have been increasingly consumed online, but a live performance being streamed online is still not the same as a performance that exists solely in and for the virtual world.
And as for collaborating with one another remotely in the third space, it is telling that Paul Sermon’s Telematic Dreaming does not sound dated despite it having been conducted 25 years ago. While the technology has so greatly advanced that anybody can easily do it now – for our micro project 3, Kai Ting and I made a symmetrical drawing despite being in different locations – the demand for such performances have not kept up.
That’s because performances are emotive experiences after all, and the feel of a live performance will never, in my opinion, be exceeded by that of a virtual one. The knowledge that “very single moment of a theatrical experience is entwined with the loss of a specific and unique relational experience that cannot be preserved or reproduced exactly so” is irreplaceable.
So I am, in Packer’s words, a “digital native”, and I am proud of it. But i reject his notion that we “cannot separate the real and the virtual”. The third space is indeed “an integral fact of everyday life in the 21st century”, but just because we embrace it does not mean we are consumed by it.
Pandora Revisited
For this assignment, we are suppose to manipulate a basic 3D volume with the three words we got. The key words I got was Extrude, Skew and Pack.
Pack: very close together / a few items Extrude: being forced out Skew: slanted / distorted in a way
Module 1:
For my first module, I define pack as a group if cubes being stick together ( a pack of 4) And I combine extrude and skew into a single object.
Module 2:
The second module, I started skewing the entire model and adding a little knot at the side to represent extrude. I thought of replicating the same models and placed them closely together to represent the word pack.
I like this module more than the previous, as it creates a more interesting composition when being placed together.
Process:
I tried out both the silicon and the later method to replicate my model. I started with the silicon method and most of my models crack when I was removing the plaster from the cast. Therefore I tried using latex. Latex was able to capture more details.
Final :
For my final ice tray, I place 4 replicas of my module. I like this configuration most, as it best conveys my key words.
Initial Layout
The modules very too spaced out.
Final Configuration 1
Final Configuration 2
Process Images :
I was helping out with the pouring of silicon , hence I do not have images of process. The process of casting the mold requires teamwork, it was fun and interesting. It was a new learning experience.
Final :
Micro Project III
Posted by Kai Ting on Wednesday, 31 January 2018
The objective of this project was to make use of the third space to create an interactive artwork. To me, a third space to me refers to the ability to connect to people in the space regardless of the location. For instance, connection over a phone call, or Skype.
For our third space micro- project, Kai Ting and I took advantage of the split screen to create a symmetry drawing.
We initially had the idea of playing tick tac toe. However, we realised that we were unable to create a symmetrical template for the game hence we scrapped off that idea.
Kai Ting and I started the activity in different rooms seperately. However, we faced some technical issue with our connection therefore we had to troubleshoot it by moving to the same room while sitting at two different ends.
Besides, we tried to make our idea more interactive by introducing an activity where both parties had to create a drawing to mirror each other. In order to match each other drawing to create a perfect symmetrical shape, each party has to pay close attention and follow each other closely.
The poor internet connection was a major obstacle. Due to that, we had trouble coordinating as it was lagging. Another difficulties we had was the time constraint as we had to come up with an idea within the 30mins. As a result we were unable to practice our concept fully.
Overall, we felt that this activity was a good learning experience for us to understand the concept of the third space and how it works. The third space is important as it serves as a platform for people to connect with one another.
Research Critique 1: CrowdSourcing (Micro Project 2)
“It can collide with mainstream culture but also exist deeper in the networked shadows, in accordance to the needs of whoever participates at any given time. It is creativity with a radical edge, asking questions through peer engagement, as it loosens up infrastructural ties and frameworks. It is a contemporary way of collaborating and exploiting the advantages of living in the Internet age.”
Inspired by the above quote from Garrett, we aimed to pursue his interpretation of D.I.W.O. in the most literal sense.
For our project, we decided to collaboratively produce a simple piece of artwork with an Internet audience. The mechanics of our project was simple: starting with a blank canvas, our Instagram viewers will – through a series of votes on our account – choose what is the next item for us to draw.
The voting between 2 simple choices – examples included “moon or sun”, “sand or grass” – could only be done via Instagram. This in turn meant only those viewing that Instagram account at that point in time were able to participate. We were literally “asking questions through peer engagement”, with the final artwork created being “in accordance to the needs of whoever participated at any given time”.
With Instagram being arguably the most influential social media platform for millennials right now, it is the most “contemporary way of collaborating and exploiting the advantages of living in the Internet age.”
As the voting progressed, we realised that while we have ceded the decision making to the voters, we still retained a large amount of creative control of what was actually drawn.
For instance, while the voters might have decided on “moon” instead of “sun”, there were many ways we – as the artist – could have interpreted this. While we eventually drew a simple crescent moon in the sky, ideas brainstormed along the way included using the surface of the moon as the setting for our artwork; drawing a rocket on its way to the moon; and even aliens.
Final Artwork
That prompted us to realise this effort was truly collaborative in the spirit of Garrett as it has flipped art making on its head. Whereas traditional art making installed the artist at its head and with it – full autonomy and control – this project ceded the decision making to the audience.
Yoko Ono’s Conceptual Art Performance
While not to the same extent as Yoko Ono (her’s involved ceding total artistic and physical control), she remain motionless and the audience had the freedom to cut off as much cloths as they wish. I would argue that our project is more in line with the spirit of what Garret has described as it is more collaborative.
After all, D.I.W.O. stands for Do-It-With-Others, so it is imperative that the artist also has some artistic license and creative control. Otherwise, the artist would just be another cog in the machine producing exactly whatever was dictated of him, which would tragically be the very thing that inspired the emergence of D.I.W.O. in the first place.