A New Language of Form

Presentation on A New Language of Form

Our presentation was conducted during the Week 3 lesson of Graphic Form. We shared with our fellow classmates how the New Language of Form emerged during the post WWI period and how its influences have made an impact from then until the world we live in today.

Our presentation focused mainly on the two key art movements that developed during the period, Russian Suprematism and Constructivism and De Stijl, which originated from Dutch. We explained their origins and history of each movement with visual examples of artists and their artworks. We hope that our presentation gave our classmates a deeper understanding and appreciation for these art movements.

Below is a picture of the class activity we held. We packaged a piece of white paper with colourful cut paper shapes to the class and gave them the freedom to create their very own Constructivist or De Stijl!

You can view our presentation through the link below:

A New Language of Form Presentation

A group effort with:

Cheryn & Hui Qin

Micro Project 2

Crowd-Source Art

What is the content of the work and who is creating it?

The work was a collaborative and “artistic” presentation slide on what people believed a designer was. This was created on a shared google slide document.

The topic of “What is a designer” was something my group mates and I could relate to, all being some sort of designer in various fields before entering ADM. Thus, we were passionate and truly interested in understanding what others would interpret a designer as.

Hence, we took to our mobile phones and sent out our google slide with minimal instructions, simply asking our crowd-source to create a slide telling us what they think a designer is with words or graphics. We sent the link to ex-colleagues, fellow design students, friends, family and basically whatever contacts we had in our phone.

And that was how our presentation was created, with a bunch of “anonymous animals”.

Where does this work take place?

This work generally takes place online. Honestly, we are unable to tell the extent of where our slide link has spread but we do appreciate the randomness and unpredictability of the answer we have received due to our varied sourced crowd.

How does this work involve social interaction?

I believe this work involved two forms of social interaction.

The first form was when we took to “mobile” friends to get them to participate in our micro-project. We interacted with our friends as we got them to participate.

The second form was when the sourced crowd came together to create a full presentation deck, literally out of thin air and zero connection to each other. It is pretty amazing how the internet connects a bunch of strangers, yet at the same time pretty shady…

How is your crowd-sourced project different from one that is created by a single artist/creator?

Our crowd-sourced project formed an online virtual platform where people of different upbring and background gave their personal opinions on our chosen topic, what is a designer. If such a project where to be repeated by a single artist, the result and opinions would solely be dictated by a singular person’s mindset. And although his or her mindset may not be wrong, it is not necessarily right as well. It is a biased opinion of that person’s judgement.

Using google slides as our collaboration medium, it gave our participants total freedom to create and express their thoughts. If it were a singular artist, the slides would probably cohesive and standardised, predictable throughout the whole presentation.

Well, to sum it up, the results of our art and its purpose would have been very different if it were to be done by a singular artist. Our artwork would not be able to derive at its state of unpredictability and personality.

It was really exciting to see how the internet could bring strangers together to create something bigger and this is definitely something to think about when coming up with new art or design projects.

A group effort with:

En Qi & Yi Xue

Micro Project 1

Creating the Third Space

Why did you choose this space or object to photograph?

Upon my first semester at ADM, this place has become a significant place for me. A place which became my escape from long dreadful classes, a place of refuge from hours of burning the midnight oil for submissions, a place where my friends and I could relax and laugh about our day. It was a place that literally filled me with warmth.

This place is none other than the sandwich vending machine. That ninety-second wait for a piece of warmth would get me through the toughest days.

What are some of the characteristics of this alternative virtual space you had created collectively?

Some characteristics of this alternative virtual space are its mysteriousness, ambiguousness and abstractness. From an outsider’s point of view, this collection of images may appear as rather odd and random as viewers do not understand the spaces captured and the meaning they hold.

Under what circumstance will this alternative virtual space change?

This alternative virtual space may change when the creators of the space move on from ADM. Regardless of how much one may love ADM, let’s face it nobody wants to be here forever. When the time comes, we the creators will graduate and move out of the school, ADM will no longer be the same without us. The space will change.

Another circumstance that would cause space to change is when physical attributes of the space changes. For example, when furniture gets shifted around, or when ADM undergoes renovation.

The last circumstance which would cause the space to change is time. “Time stops for no one”. As time passes, our memories fade. What we remember and feel about the space changes with our new experiences in life.

How does this project relate to what we discussed in the lecture regarding co-creation, the concept of Do-It-Yourself (DIY), Do-It-With-Others (DIWO)?

In this project, we were able to experience both the concept of DIY and DIWO.

Deciding on an individual space to capture gave us the opportunity to conceptualise our own view of the space and use our own experience and emotions. Everyone’s image was unique and different even when two individuals may have decided to capture the same space. What the space meant to them influence how they captured it.

We also got to experience DIWO as we create the collective Instagram feed under the #1010adm. Although the images are different, they make up a cohesive virtual space that becomes a united story for all of us. The collection of images represents us as a whole.

Yoko Ono Cut Piece 1964

Yoko Ono is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art. like Cut Piece she did in 1964.

In Cut Piece, Yoko Ono sat alone on a stage, dressed in her best suit, with a pair of scissors in front of her. The audience had been instructed that they could take turns approaching her and use the scissors to cut off a small piece of her clothing, which was theirs to keep. Some people approached hesitantly, cutting a small square of fabric from her sleeve or the hem of her skirt. Others came boldly, snipping away the front of her blouse or the straps of her bra. Ono remained motionless and expressionless throughout, until, at her discretion, the performance ended.

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Ono

https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/yoko-ono-cut-piece-1964/

How does it alter the way an artist or designer create the work, when there is an interactive component?

Having an interactive component makes a work unique and unpredictable. The audience, nor the artist/designer will ever know what to expect as the results, experience and messaging can vary at any time.

As individuals with different mindsets, we react to things differently and feel for things in our own ways. Thus, interaction ultimately alters a work and this is what creates an impactful experience, which may not necessarily be good or bad, for both artists and audiences.

Referencing Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece performance, although Yoko Ono created the setup, she only gave out minimal instructions, which was for the audience to cut a piece of her clothing. She was definitely unable to predict how much one would cut from her or how far the audience will go. Her performance created it’s very own messaging and impact on every individual and continues to do so for whoever watches it.

I believe this is the beauty of an interactivity component, it gives an individual the power to impact and appreciate art in their very own way.