Progress and Prototypes on our installation! (Amelia, Yit Ling and Natasya)

So here is the breakdown on some of the progress we made with regards to our installation on the sense of our starfish-nemo-anemone!

SCENT

For the scent portion of our installation, we decided that we would be hanging a contraption that once pulled it would release a powdered scent. We initially wanted to be more like a trip-over-a-string thingy and suddenly poof the scent comes out but we figured it that method could only be done once. Instead this way, it would allow to be done repeatedly.

As you can see here, it is basically a slightly cut balloon taped to an open end of a cup. Inside the cup for this case was baby powder that was sweet smelling. Tugging and releasing the end of the balloon slightly would release the powder in mid air and allow the scent to be released!

SIGHT

The sight portion of the installation ties in with the scent portion as little as there was an added idea whereby the cups would be painted with luminescent colours, and would hang in mid air. Upon seeing these blobs of light from afar, the user would move towards it, and try to reach for them. There would also be stationary white balloons lighted up by LEDs dimly all around. We also tried out and see different aesthetics of ballon to see what would fit out theme, but we settled with normal plain white ones!

TOUCH

As for the touch, we were inspired by this video of how a balloon contraption moves on the internet. A piece of balloon simply stuck on a CD and due to the pressure, it moves in a very anemone-ish kind of way!

We experimented and tried with different way but we figured that it wasn’t the most reliable method for the movement. We realised that the surface of the floor and also how heavy and wide the base was played an important part. So this is the more mechanical method we found that we would try out!

So the idea would be that these little things would be attached with balloons and feathers and would be wiggling about on the floor dancing as touching and tickling the legs of the user as they walk through the space. This would also be the surprise anemone essence of the installation.

Also upon reaching for luminescent cups as mentioned above, the users would be tingled by a small metal ball/fuzzy object at the tugging portion, before pulling it.

Overall our installation would be in a dark room, with the kind of white playful aesthetic feel to it with a tinge/speck of colours in the room.

 

4D II Project 3: Research on art installation of the late 20th and 21st century

Moving on into our final project, we were told that we could make reference to either one of our previous projects that we felt we liked and to me, it was the alter ego. I realised that I’m more into towards the sense of discovery of one’s self and decided I would focus my research for the next project a bit more into that genre.


Everyware –

Cloud Pink is an interactive installation by Everyware. Everyware is a creative computing group by Hyunwoo Bang and Yunsil Heo. The duo mainly do works that appeal to the human action, user interface and speech. Their works always consist of something that appears merely normal on the surface such as a projection or sand, however invites the user to come into contact with it without providing any specific details. Upon interacting with the installation it gives them a sense of discovery of what is possible.

I feel like their installation always taps into your inner child like behaviour towards nostalgic and dreams, such as cloud pink. The feeling of stretching out as the child and wanting to reach into another world that is represented by the clouds. These of fabric as opposed to just a flat wall to interact with also puts into place everything nicely. Their installations may be simple with only a purpose but it always has that sense of play and discovery about one’s self.


Honey Leong & Prue Stent

Moulding is a performance art piece by the duo Honey Leong and Prue Stent. Throughout this series, they deal with how the fluidity of materials interact with one’s body in the landscape. Generated spontaneously the wrapped bodies play with the idea of classical human forms and statues, making them dynamic, transient and ambiguous. The use of shrouds generates a sense of playfulness and freedom that comes with anonymity and acts as an expansive and weightless extension of the body. However embedded within their otherworldly beauty is also a sense of suffocation, restriction and alienation.

Majority of their works play with the discovery of the human body against various landscapes and material and though it may be a bit too gritty for some users due to the rawness of the human body, as for me, I feel that using the body as a medium to explore the perverse curiosity to interact with the allure of materials and objects. Their results are often unexpected and playful. It makes me question in what other ways can the human body be discovered within a constricted space, time and body.


Peter Campus –

Three Transitions is a video art created by the famous Peter Campus. The video consists of three short exercises or “transitions” in which he employs different visual and spatial effects. Throughout the video, he himself displaces and superimposes takes of his own body, which he makes interact with each other using chromo-key techniques. He deals with a lot of self-transformation and the body identity in his works while using a lot of studio camera work and video technology.

I like the idea of how he uses his own body as a paradoxical space and as a medium of self discovery though different reflections or mediums. I think it would be interesting to see how one’s self can be displaced in various ways  in different spaces and the effect it will take on for the user interacting with it.

 

 

4D II PROJECT 2 – SOUNDSCAPE

Being A Lifesaver (please use headphones)


Artist Statement

Immediately upon hearing how interesting it was to do a sonic portrait someone, I immediately thought of my very close friends that works as a paramedic. I have always been fascinated with the different types of cases she always told me whenever I asked about her job and they never fail to surprise me. She alway claim to have “seen it all” or “the worst possible” so for this project I thought I would make the listening feel what it feels like to be here. The ambulance siren is something very familiar to us all, however there are certain sounds in the soundscape that may seem bit odd, however has a very specific meaning. That if only you are experienced in the field, would know what type of case the paramedic is handling.

Research and Concept Development

So it was very exciting to start researching on the different sounds. AND as it turns out there is a specific signal/coding that they will play to alert the alpha/ambulance that they have been assigned to handle a case immediately. The coding here is the original sound recoding from the fireboats that I was lucky enough to have my firefighter friend record for me! I have never heard this before so it was very interesting.

So upon planning out the sequence of the sounds, I decided I would give the listener a little tidbit starting of the victim so they would have a head guess what the victim did. I then decided to put a short pause before transitioning to the paramedic portion.

Upon interviewing my friend, it seems that there is a lot of talking that goes on while they are on the way to the scene of the patient, however words would give way what happened to the victim so I decided to take it out and then just leave in as much sound effects as possible.

It was so fun because of the naturally chaotic scene, to play around with the left and right panning of the soundscape! So played around and decided to edit a lot into the panning to make the listener feel more affected 🙂

2D and 3D animal movement analysis

So after being informed about the class activity, this is my 2D analysis on the movement of the sea anemone.

I used different coloured crayons to show the different positions the sea anemone has stayed before moving off again.

As they are fairly slow creatures, i felt like they don’t make much difference in space as they move and is quite slow thus the numerous rounds of circular scribbles.

I choose a circular shape as the body of the sea anemone is cylindrical and it is not a perfect circle as i feel that its movement its quite random and it is going against water currents so it would be gripping onto anything it can.

The middle portion that i yellow and more directional is the sea anemone being attached onto a hermit crab. I figured it was also another way the sea anemone would move.

Moving on this is my 3D paper sculpture on the creature.

I decided to keep the circular pattern and decided to make it more varying is sizes from it going from smaller to bigger and then smaller again. This depicts the sea anemone ‘speed‘ on whether it was staying in that place or moving. The bigger the circle is the longer the presence of the sea anemone.

The way the circles wrap around really feels like how the sea anemone would move, almost sluggish and random, clinging onto anything it can.

Thats all!

Animal Research: Sea Anemone!

So the creature my group was assigned to was the relationship between the sea anemone and other animals, mostly the hermit crab and the clownfish. They share a symbiosis relationship which means that, it is a mutually beneficial relationship from both parties in close physical association.

The structure of the sea anemone

To understand how the anemone bonds with the hermit crab and clownfish, it is first important to understand the structure of the anemone, how it moves, defends and other actions it may take.

  • surrounded by numerous tentacles,  studded with nematocysts and are actively used in food capture and defence.
  • the nematocyst, or stinging capsule, similar to that of a jellyfish.
  • they have single sack-like body cavity that performs digestive, nutrient absorption and, gas exchange functions.
  • this single opening  is the mouth, through which food, water, and gametes must pass.
  • several kinds of muscles can be found, and are used to contract and bend the column in various directions.
  • the pedal disk, used by burrowing anemones to anchor in soft substrate.

So we can conclude there are numerous movements which the anemone takes which is, the stinging action by the tentacles, the column that contracts for digestive functions or just bending into directions and finally the pedal disk which sort of anchors the anemone or while it moves around.

Symbiosis with clownfish

The clownfish is the only fish that doesn’t get affected by the sea anemone stinging tentacles as they have a special mucus that protects them. They get accustomed to the sting as they lightly brush their bodies against the tentacle.

Symbiosis with hermit crab

As for the hermit crab, it is intelligent enough to find sea anemones to hook onto its shell for extra protection against predator. This makes the sea anemone seem as though it has a moving house! It doesn’t need to stay in one position waiting for food as the hermit crab does all the work for it.

I also came across two very interesting documentaries on the sea anemone so do take a look. Thanks for reading!

Neighbourhood Explorer Round 2: Deep in Geylang

Hello! So I took a second round around Geylang to observe more closely if there was anything that I missed out from the first round. As for the first round, I only noticed the shopping malls, Malay cuisines at the marketplace and other normal stuff. So this round I made sure to stop at everything. In the end there were three elements that caught my eye, the architecture, doors and windows and the signages. These elements seem to breathe in more life and vibrancy the deeper I went into Geylang. On the surface, was a cold and commercialised place, loosing what we imagined Geylang to be.

Architecture

As you can see, infront there is a lot of construction going on and also the shopping malls placed all infant were grey in colour. It felt very foreign and cold and not what I expected of Geylang. However the deeper I went into, I discovered more character as I looked around and up. I made me feel as sense of warmth and life.

Doors and Windows

The deeper one goes into Geylang, you can see how colourful and unique each shophouse or homes are from their doors and windows. It makes me feel like each shophouse is expressing their own character from the way their doors and windows are painted or decorated making it different from one another, no two doors or windows are ever similar.

Signages

As you can see, in the front there were a lot of construction signs and with different fonts. The fonts were sans serif and very stiff and stagnant, whereas as you walk in deeper the signs became more decorative as they are hidden. If you don’t look up and around you probably won’t notice any of them. It took my second trip here to start noticing all this.

Conclusion to my findings: Geylang is cold and commercialised construction upfront, but behind it it full of colour and character!

My idea for the zine would be uncovering the layers of Geylang! I can do so in many ways, following by colour, or even just the 8 pages being the difference doors and each expressing different characters.

Attached is my presentation slide. Thank you for taking a look!

Neighbourhood Explorer

Thats all!

 

Final Sound Texturizer

So here is my first prototype for the rain texturizer.

So basically this is a simple slide for the sago seeds to slide and make the rain sound. However I felt like this texturizer was too rigid and stagnant.  So I decided to go back to my  initial idea of the headphone and surround sound and made this instead!

It is a helmet that you can wear, with two different tubes varying in lengths. The sago seeds are inside so, as the tubes slides, one sounds heavier and louder than the other. Placing the tubes near the near and sliding them the same times gives the effect of the surround sound.  Here is a video of me using the rain texturizer!

Also enjoy the few pictures of me and Vienna as since we both did on rain, we decided to combine our instruments. Attached is also my pdf for viewing 🙂

Sound Texturizer

Overall it was such a fun project!

Dialogue in the dark Experience!

So we went to Dialogue in Ngee Ann during one of the lessons. It was my first time being there so I didn’t know what to expect. I thought the journey would be kind of short but it took longer than expected. Here is my experience journey map of the entire journey through.

As you can see from my mapping, I have also drawn out how certain areas I felt were like in terms of their shape and the ”x” i drew represented me in the scale of each area. As for me the journey continued to grew more and more exciting for me as i grew more anticipated to experience what awaits. The most interesting and fun part for me was the cafe, because it was not like a staged performance, we really got to buy, eat, seat and do everything like a normal cafe would in the dark.

What could have been improved: I felt like one segment they could improve on was the walls? Because at the moment it is all flat and only varying in different materials. Maybe, there could be indents or more tactile stuff to make it more fun.

So after the entire experience, we were told to make interpret the space into a paper form, and this was how mine looked like!

I felt like the beginning was very narrow and winding, which then lead us to more natural surroundings that i felt were more safe and comfortable thus i made the paper more flow. I felt like the boat experience I was in a deep hole and I was quite small. As for the marketplace i felt like it was very linear and straight kind of orientation? The car park felt more open and the cafe at the end I felt like it was entering a big space that gradually.

Overall it was a great experience, that’s all!