Reflection

To be honest I was quite excited for this project as I felt it had lots of room for appropriation, which is something I quite enjoy doing and have done in previous projects. (https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/awong011/2016/03/22/research-paper-on-chinese-paintings-lol-jk-project-2-final-post/) I feel that appropriation, if done well, can better express information about an object/person by letting viewers see it in a totally different light.

When our group first met up in class to discuss possible objects I had lots of fun coming up with ways to appropriate various objects/artworks we came across this semester. I had ideas like making a statue of a Buddha where one hand was raised in the ‘do not fear’ mudra while scrolling on a smartphone in the other, painting weird images on chinese ceramics and a lot more that were pretty wild. But after awhile I realised that I had difficulty forming a thesis statement with these wild ideas, which was a problem I faced in semester 1 where I would have grand concepts that lacked a coherent message.

After consulting with the stand-in teacher (I forgot her name I’m sorry) and Sujatha I got a better idea on how to form a relevant thesis statement for our object, rather than just flipping things on its head for fun.

Another thing I learned from this process was that too many options limited creativity, which was evident when my team and I had lots of ideas but couldn’t quite settle on a object to focus on. In the end we chose a plate we saw at the Asian Civilisations museum and from there began the process of visual analysis/research/idea generation/consults to arrive at our final product.

In the end, I really enjoyed this process of working with my 3 other teammates (Chenyue, Fern and Ziyu) and is definitely more enjoyable than studying for a paper like we did last semester. See everyone around school next year! Cheers!