For this assignment, I decided to walk around looking for fonts around school and the supermarket. I think this was the first time I was actually aware of the amount of fonts all around. In fact, I think this was the first time I actually noticed that Food Court 2 at NTU actually uses Comic Sans on their stall signs and surprisingly, it didn’t actually look all that bad.
Here are some of the fonts that I found:
The Nanyang Chronicle uses a san serif font for their headers and subheaders of their paper. It’s an interesting choice considering traditionally most newspapers use serif-ed fonts like Times New Roman since it looks more serious and is easier to read. The choice of sans serif in this case was probably to come across as more friendly and modern looking which is appropriate for their target audience: the students of NTU.
Ah yes, comic sans, we meet again. I’m surprised that the use of the font in this context did not annoy me enough to notice throughout my entire first year of study. I think this is actually one of the cases comic sans is actually an appropriate choice. It looks friendly and welcoming, can be read clearly from a distance and it can be used uniformly throughout all the stalls without affecting impressions of what could be sold there. I vaguely remembered visiting a food court once where all the stall names were in extremely bolded, capitalised and serif-ed. It was a very intimidating eating experience since it almost felt like all the stores were screaming their wares at me.
While looking for some serif font examples, I headed to the supermarket and directly to the wine section. As expected most of their selection was labelled in serif fonts or script fonts. In this case it’s name is in Old Style serif and the wine’s production location is in Script.
I think wine brands often try to portray themselves as refined and expensive, thus the use of serif fonts. Wine labels tend to use traditional, busier typeface styles and design that link to history and authenticity.
It also gives the impression of seriousness and maturity that is often linked to wine.
On the other hand the use of similar font at this hairdressing store seems an opposite effect on me. I think it’s because my impression of haircuts often involve colour, creativity and freshness. Thus I think the application of the font in this case does the opposite.
I think I have always been aware of how I felt about each subject. Such as how I somehow knew that the hair salon was dubiously boring or that the food court was warm and welcoming. But after this little adventure, I now know why.
I think it’s a known fact that Singaporeans love to travel. It’s the bi-yearly mass exodus from boredom during the school holidays that happens every June and December. A solid proof that I wasn’t alone in my thinking. Living here for all my life, I always thought Singapore seemed…kinda lame and boring in comparison to other countries that had four weathers and a longer history, especially in art. Which I suppose was the first hurdle I had to cross when it came to this project.
Locale’s goal was for us to conduct research on a location in Singapore and find out what was unique and interesting about it before producing a Zine that encapsulates it’s essence.
Which of course came the problem of Where? I knew from the start that I didn’t really want to go anywhere very touristy. Somehow, I felt Singapore’s tourist spots often seem to be where least of it’s character shines through. They always seem to be presenting the image that Singapore wants to be seen as rather than what Singapore actually is like.
So during my first consult with Joy, here are some of the places I decided to explore:
The Japanese Cemetery
Beauty World
Playgrounds in Singapore
Wet Market stores
After the consult, Joy suggested I look into maybe Beauty World or the Japanese cemetery. Since they were more focused within one location rather than being joined by less tangible factors like the patterns or stores, thus making it easier to focus the direction of my research.
Originally, I thought the Japanese cemetery would be interesting through the eyes of the grave keeper. However, I eventually found out that the man had unfortunately passed away a few years ago.
Thus I turned my sights to Beauty World, a place where I haven’t set foot in, in 15 years. Also a place that 5 year old me regarded as old run down and boring.
Yes I thought it was old and run down THEN.
Imagine my surprise when I arrived in there to find the place looking exactly as I remembered. There were only three food stores picky eater me liked to eat at in the food centre and one toy shop that I visited while waiting for my mom as a child. Every single one was still there, exactly like I remembered. It was a bit unnerving at first. I suppose one thing that definitely changed was the crowds. Perhaps it was the height difference of 15 years but back then, Beauty World felt really really crowded. Being at adult butt level at that time was understandably another unpleasant experience for me to say the least. So what changed? Or what hadn’t that caused this stagnation to happen within this place.
RESEARCH
This is where I angled my research on the place and subsequently presented to the class in Part one of the project:
Beauty World started out as an amusement park in 1942 that catered both to the locals and the Japanese that lived in Singapore during the Japanese occupation. It was a way to lift the spirits of the people during the occupation and give people a place to have fun and relax in. The world Beauty World actually came from the various names of the sections within the amusement park e.g. Happy World.
Aside from the usual amusement park bells and whistles, the place also had wayang and getai performances, gambling and films, altogether a pretty fun place to be.
However when the war ended, the place lost it’s purpose and was losing popularity and soon, it was replaced by something more practical to suit the needs of the people living nearby: Beauty World Market (1947).
The place sold more provisional household items, toys, medicine and food, surprisingly similar to what Beauty World of now provides as well. However due to a slew of electricity, fire and drainage problems, the market was closed down and the tenants shifted across the road into the Beauty World Centre of today in 1984. The building itself was bought over by its 194 tenants and thus most of the stores within the place actually have full rights to their stores and don’t need to pay rent.
After spending an extended amount of time in beauty world interviewing people walking around the mall section of beauty world as well as the food centre here are some of my observations:
Most of the visitors are Chinese
Most people only come by around lunch and even then, it’s not completely full. For every ten seats at least one would be vacant.
The crowd peaks at 12pm-2pm but according to google statistics, it’s only considered “mildly busy” compared to other malls.
In a survey I sent out to over 80 people ages ranging from 13-70, 38% have visited beauty world once or twice with the least visiting a lot. Those results were from a group of friends I know from Ngee Ann Poly that visit quite often as it is nearby.
Recent news on Beauty World would be the 17.5 million dollar bid to buy over the food centre on the upper floor. The stores were asked to close by May 2017. However, due to lack of communication and updates between the buyers and the store holders, the bid was rejected. The food centre opened again in late April. However by then business had already been affected. For now, most of them are stuck in a limbo waiting for further news or buyers. This is especially urgent considering the building is almost halfway through it’s 99 year lease. The older it gets, the less attractive the place gets to potential buyers.
This could possibly be the reason why the place felt like it hadn’t changed much despite the amount of time since I last visited. With most of the stallholders in their late 60s and 70s, most of them are simply waiting to cash in their store and retire peacefully. Additionally, with most of them not needing to pay rent, there wasn’t much motivation to improve or change the stores to attract more customers. Instead most of them survive on a customer base built on friendships formed over the years. This was probably why the place felt almost like it was stuck in a limbo. Just waiting for something to happen so that life could go on. It almost felt as if the whole building and it’s tenants were waiting to retire; for something new or better to take their place.
This bittersweet tiredness and fond nostalgia that I gathered from the place while researching and walking around was also deeply reflected in the qualitative part of my research where I interview different tenants around the mall about their thoughts on the place and the future.
I also counterpointed my interview results with footage I got from the location. Things that I found nostalgic, things that I found reminded me of the place as a child and things I thought showed the vibe of the place fairly well:
The interviews really gave me a more intimate perspective of the place, especially since I had to get close and talk face to face with some of these tenants. It especially broke my heart when one of them started crying as well.
Heres the feedback I got from the presentation:
PART 2: ZINE
Now that the research was done, now came the hard part of trying to concise the place into it’s essence: How was I going to depict the a place in limbo while keeping the old school colourfulness and nostalgia that is still part of the places makeup?
I went on Pinterest to look for design inspirations. I knew going in I wanted the zine to contain old school elements I found in the place. Like the fonts and the object. I also considered looking into the signboards within the food centre to create a pattern out of it as well. Here are some examples I though about trying.
Source: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/0a/5a/26/0a5a263a3e01b6dd9164513c53766713.jpg Accessed on 26 April 2018
I also thought to do a flatly of all the items within a store like the example below to show the clutter and the items that make up the place:
Source: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/6a/4c/e1/6a4ce19744b91a7b7a43491a6afde09a.jpg Accessed on 26 April 2018
However, I had a lot of left over images that I took while I shot the footage for the research interviews so I was wondering if I could make use of those. A lot of them depicted the clutter and the dingyness of Beauty World very well so I researched on how to combine the two together.
Source: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f6/87/54/f68754115c6428ea53f8f1f91c1317ef.jpg Accessed on 26 April 2018
I liked how this designer made use of the shape of the font and made it seem like part of the environment and was peaking out from it. I also liked the solid colour of the font that created negative space within the clutter of the image.
Source: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/44/a2/65/44a2656560baa2af93e27d70ff7d7b08.jpg Accessed on: 26 April 2018
I also liked this design because the lines look a bit like blueprints or plans for the future that would tie in well with beauty world’s evident future.
CONSULTATION #1
Combining all this I consulted Joy with my initial art direction:
The picture on the left is taken from one of the provision stores within beauty world. The font is from one of the signboards within the place. Using the word 世 from 美世界 or Beauty World, I played around with the shape to form a frame around the shopkeeper. The font itself because of it’s bright colours also serves to create negative space within the clutter of the space.
Meanwhile on the left page would be a flatly of the items within a shop as well as an excerpt from the interview with the shop owner.
Joy liked the colours and the repurposing of the font as a frame. She also liked that the subject within the image was not looking at the camera and was instead profile. Giving of a sense of loneliness and obscurity within the image.
However, she felt that the clutter of the flatlay one the opposing side of the spread was a bit distracting and suggested I try incorporating it into the environment itself, just like my previous artist reference. Like a blueprint. I could also try repurposing the objects to bring new meaning to the place and also try to make them more like part of the environment.
By the end of the consult, I had a clearer idea as to what art direction I wanted with my zine. I decided to use each of beauty world’s chinese characters within each of the spread. And each spread would focus on one of the three main stores within the place: The Food Centre, The Toy Shop and The Provision Store. I thought this would tie in nicely with the stores of Beauty World Market from old as well as the three main kinds of stores found within the place. I wanted to structure it in a wat that it felt like the viewer was walking through beauty world itself and taking a peek into each of the places.
FRONT COVER:
First Attempt
This was the first attempt for the front cover. I used the original font found on the signboard of beauty world. Combining them together, I tried to form a pattern in the background, overlaid over the image.
However, after consultation with Joy, I took it out as we both found it a bit distracting at the end. Not to mention it altered from the colour of the image as well.
Originally, I also wanted to try getting rid of whoever was left on the escalators with content aware, like how I did with the cover image of this post. While it created and interesting glitchy result, the tech glitch feel didn’t really match with the overall old school vibe of the place.
Final Front cover
I picked the escalators of Beauty world as I felt that a shopping mall’s popularity can often be seen from it’s escalators. In a crowded mall, the escalators are often either full or or everyone on it was either rushing up and down to get to where they want to go. When I was at beauty world, I realised that no one really moved much. Whoever was on it, little as they were just stood on it, waiting, on limbo, to get somewhere. Thus I felt it would be appropriate as a front cover. Additionally, I wanted the viewer to be moving between the stores which were on different levels in the building and so the escalators kinda added to it.
As for the English font, I used a basic font I found on some of the directional signs within the place. I repeated it with each one more faded than the next, to illustrate how the place is still around but over time, it will eventually fade. But not yet.
Finally, the colours of the spread come from the old school colourful signs of beauty world as well as it’s old school retro amusement park aesthetic. I also made the image dual toned to imitate the effect of newspaper cuttings. This effect will be seen reflected throughout the zine. The font’s colours will thus also be chosen to contrast to the colours of it’s background.
SPREAD #1
Food Centre Attempt #1
This is the first attempt at spread number one. Looking back I feel it was too blue.
Attempt #2
As can be seen, I made use of the illustrations of things I associated with the place and incorporated them into the environment. To emphasise the cramped feeling within the space, I stuffed the 美 word into the background, having it peek from behind the stores, thus making use of with the symmetrical nature of the word so that viewers can still tell it’s the 美 word even though it is half obscured. Additionally, the font of the word is taken from the sign on the far right.
Within the image, you can see small illustrations. Two spoons conversing like stallholders and customer, a woman’s hair has become like the noodles she’s eating because you are what you eat. The woman in the next table is also eating a bowl of noodles (I’m assuming the noodles here are really good since so many people are eating noodles.) This time, I used the English font from the noodle store to form a humanoid figure sitting across from the lady. In a way showing how sometimes your meals are your only companion at lunch.
In the table over, a man and his wife are having a meal. She keeps moving the fishball in her bowl. So I made an actual ball with the word fishball from the font of stall they bought from and placed it within the bowl.
The man sitting across her is falling asleep. His drink seems to be the only thing keeping him awake in that moment. So I made a coffee his seat instead.
After consulting Joy, she said she enjoyed how the illustrations and letterforms came to play within the piece. However, she found the ceiling and floor of the outdoor food centre a bit distracting as they looked a bit like borders within the spread instead. The difference in colour also took attention away from the main image. She also found the natural tilt of the floor in the place a bit distracting. So she suggested I either emphasise it or cover it up.
She suggested since it was raining when I took the image, maybe I could play with the water on the floor outside the food centre.
I decided to use it to show a reflection of the food centre in the past when it was very busy and crowded, like I remembered as a child.
Final Spread 1
I tried looking for images of the food centre in the past but none of it would reflect properly in the water. Thus instead I took the original image and I flipped it onto the floor to create a reflection effect. However, I flipped it and doubled it over as well, thus making it seem like double the amount of people are within the food centre. This also let me hide the distracting tilt on the floor. I also changed the colour of one of the layers so that the reflections will appear slightly more colourful than the dulled out past.
I also cropped out most of the roof area thus showing that the food centre is on the rooftop (it’s unique aspect) while getting rid of the “borders” the image accidentally creates.
SPREAD #2
Attempt #1
I think the main problem I had with this image was trying to find a balance within the background image’s colours. As the toy shop was significant more well lit than the rest of the stores, I couldn’t pick too bright a colour or it would affect the visibility of the illustrations However too dark made it seem too dim and took away a bit of the details within the image.
Spread #2 Final
As you can recognise, I tried to recreate the same effect with the letterform from my original play with the art direction. I liked the use of the font as a framing as well and thus wanted to recreate it over here. I actually went back to beauty world for this shot as I didn’t have a horizontal image of this store that could spread over the two pages. It was quite sad for me to realise that the uncle was actually closing his store, in the middle of a clearance sale. That’s why most of the toys were gone. What is in the image is all that is left of this little “Happy World”(The name of the store).
Thus with the illustrations of the old school toys I found there, I tried to create a world using the stacks of toy boxes. There was this overlying sense of waiting and ending that I got from the place that I wanted to convey with this spread.
I always hated the toy crocodile games where you had to press the teeth of the crocodile expecting it to clamp it’s jaws. Thus I placed them in the middle of the boxes like a pit of danger. The rubber duckies at the top sitting on the hoop and in the cage are to create a sense of anticipation and waiting for them to fall down to the waiting jaws. After I illustrated out the water guns, I though they looked quite futuristic and so I changed them to look like skyscrapers in the background, like a futuristic skyscraper blueprint in comparison to the lower “buildings” created by the old boxes.
To add to the futuristic factor, I also illustrated the toy cars and had the baby dolls sitting off the side ride away in them. Kind of like how the children are all moving away from such toys now. Finally, for the uncle in the image (you heard him in the interview), he is sitting behind the window, formed by the letterform, away from the toy world. He was doing paperwork for the closing of the store. He too was preparing to move on and progress ahead. To symbolise that, I gave him a futuristic toy helmet as well.
SPREAD #3:
Attempt #1
The final spread was the on the provision shop. I felt that the colours of the first attempt of this spread were a bit too similar to the first so I updated it again.
Attempt #2
I think one difference with this spread from the rest would be it’s lack of human subjects. Not for the lack of trying of course but there was just no one in the store at all. Thus I decided to play around with the letterform instead. Especially considering the font looks a bit like a human with their arms spread anyway.
While I was alright with the usual incorporation of the objects into the environment, aI wasn’t completely satisfied with their placement and use. Yes they are things I noticed hidden away in the cluttered store and I placed them as such within the image but something felt missing.
Additionally, after consultation with Joy, she felt that the objects felt like they were going in different directions and thus could be a bit confusing to the viewer as to what is the main point amid all the clutter.
Thus after consulting a few other classmates, a common trend I realise was pointed out was that the objects looked like they were almost falling off the shelves. I thought that was a nice point and would emphasise the clutter and cramped nature of the Beauty World provision shops nicely.
Spread #3 Final
As you can see there are some major changes. I darkened one of the tones within the image so that the yellow would contrast better within the image.
The chicken bowl I placed it within a fish bowl (yes its on purpose. I found it amusing how the whole section on bowls for food had fish bowl included as well). However I stacked it in a way that it appears that the bowls are almost toppling on the world itself.
There are also a few other pairs within the image like the pans and boxes to emphasise how there are a lot of the same things stacked side by side together. Unlike modern stores where the stocks are kept in the back and one display item is out front, old school provision shops have EVERYTHING on display. What you see is what you get. A porridge cooker is quite out of place with the pot cleaners just like certain misplaced items within the store.
The cane and teapot hand off the shelves also add the how things seem to be almost falling off or hung up out of convenience. As for the pineapple lantern on the ceiling, there was one outside the store and I figured it added to the old school aesthetic.
Now everything in the image is either pointing towards the 界 or falling on it. Kinda like how when a person enters the store, everything seems to either be unmoving and watching you in the dingy quietness of the store or falling on you in a surprise attack.
Back Cover:
The back cover corresponds to the front except this time you’re taking the escalator to leave the mall. It says” Thank you for shopping!” at the back thus rounding up your whole trip through the zine as one shopping trip in beauty world.
CONCLUSION
Here are all the spreads together: Overall I’m quite satisfied with my zine. I didn’t take the very direct approach in trying to point out the nostalgia and bittersweetness of the place in a more obvious manner because I felt that the vibes one could get from the images and the people within it would be enough to bring the message. The use of fonts was mainly to create negative space within the clutter and to draw people’s eyes to the illustrations of the same colour as well. The coloured illustrations are of the things that make each location within the mall special, little things that stood out to me when I was there that triggered memories. I feel that is the common experience with many that visits beauty world and that is what I wanted to achieve with this zine.
When someone thinks old school, they think faded and dull. Now after this project, I think old school is cluttered and oh too colourful with just a touch of whimsical longing.
I think it’s safe to say Singapore isn’t very lame to me anymore after this project. Not Beauty World at least.
Source: http://archive.furtherfield.org/sites/furtherfield.org/files/imagecache/content_width_598px/main_8.jpg Accessed: 20 March 2018
Do It With Others (DIWO) is a distributed campaign for emancipatory, networked art practices instigated by Furtherfield in 2006.
It is an extension of Do It Yourself (DIY) ethos of early net, art punk and Situationism, evolving it into a more collaborative approach, that focuses less on the ownership of the art and more on the possibilities of the use of the Internet as an experimental artistic medium.
This movement bypasses the curative restrictions within the traditional art world allowing artists to interact with their audience on their own terms.
Personally, I believe DIWO is an apt reflection of the monumental effect the Internet has on the world. Within a short span of time, walls such as countries, language, religion, distance, time have all suddenly been removed and everyone has been thrown into the infinite space that is the Internet. The possibilities behind this situation are endless.
With the crowdsourcing model in which DIWO operates, things such as copyrights for one’s part in a project is relegated to the backseat. Instead what we have is a pooling of specialist knowledge on a vast range of subjects but without the barriers of physical positions or power. This is also further enhanced by the economic nature of knowledge as a non-rivalrous good.
While copyrights and patents are key supports for information markets, both introduce extra costs to those buying the information, they do impose a significant brake on innovation by raising the cost of inputs to new ventures beyond the minimum required to produce that information. However, it does make one question, how long is one willing to “Do it with Others” without monetary recompense?
From the lecture and reading up more on Furtherfield projects, most of which are all voluntary based and done for free, I realised that this line of thinking is based off the assumption that people will be unwilling to do things for free. Yochai Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks suggests that people do not require monetary recompense for their help online. He theorizes that perhaps due to the accessibility of the Internet, and thanks to the plummeting cost of computer networking technology that allows for easy access to the Internet for free, the lack of physical capital required for production of information transforms network users from market actors acting through the price system to social beings.
Source: http://i.imgur.com/3bfSwzF.jpg Accessed: 20 March 2018
This format of decentralised, collaborative, non proprietary production that operates without a chain of command means that people contribute to the work in their own free time. That means that 1 billion people will have 2 to 6 billion hours of free time each day to “work” and contribute. That’s the equivalent of 340,000 people working full-time with no vacation for 3 to 8.5 years.
I think it is this no holds barred generation of information and creative ideas that draws from this infinitesimal well of knowledge that is the Internet that drives DIWO and brings like-minded people together to make great things, just because they desire to make great things. Call me idealistic, but I believe it is with this manner of thinking and collaboration, that we can unlock the true potential of humanity.
Starting out on this project, I was really confused as to how a line or more specifically the marks that make up the line could be used to express emotions, especially when cropped to a small line.
My initial impression of abstract art was that it was an emotion put on paper. Usually large and with a certain choice of colours to evoke a certain emotion when viewing the piece. This project challenged that view entirely with it’s requirement for small monochrome lines cropped and curated from a big piece. This forced me to focus on the values, the texture and the basic elements of design and make use of them to convey my intended emotions.
I first started out researching on the suggested reference artists to observe the mediums and methods that they played with and how it reflected in their work.
[ Research on Artists ]
ED MOSES
Medium: Ed Moses often worked with industrial materials such as polyester resin and latex, which he mixed with paint to create textures and marks.He also painted resin on the back of the canvases so that the liquid could seep through. Other examples of materials that he tried on his work include masking tape and snapped chalk. An example of works where such materials were applied are:
Source: http://www.albertzbenda.com/artists/ed-moses/7 accessed on 10 September 2017
This untitled 3 set piece made in 1975-77 was made on Strathmore boards with acrylic and masking tape. (With the exception of the last piece which was made with charcoal and ink as well.)
Technique: He often layered his different mediums which created different values on paper to invoke a sense of depth on his art pieces. Another way he achieved this was by paper collage where the paintings seem to be hiding under another layer that has been torn open. E.g:
Lewitt as an artist is intriguing in that he brought to question how much authority an artists needs in his art. He believes that the idea and concept of an artwork is an art on its own. Thus he gives instructions for his work to his assistants in “blueprints” that are deliberately vague so that the end result is not controlled by the artist that conceived the work.
Medium: Lewitt emphasized very often on the process or the lack thereof. Thus, he varies in terms of the simplicity of his materials. As compared to the other artists in this list, he does not use industrial materials to create his work, instead opting for more traditional materials such as wood, canvas and paint.
Techniques: Lewitt often used scribbles, doodles and geometric shapes to create a sense of chiaroscuro in his pieces which give them a 3D feeling on their 2D form.
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/175905 accessed on 10 September 2017
For example in Sol Lewitt’s Scribbles, the works are built up using basic shapes and simple marks of layered graphite scribbles. The end result “renders for without space” and create a sense of depth and curvature despite being on a flat wall. The varying layers and density of the gray bands of graphite scribbles thus take on a temporal, undulating quality.
CAI GUO QIANG
https://www.artsy.net/show/fundacion-proa-cai-guo-qiang-impromptu accessed on 10 September 2017
Cai’s work can be considered by some as a performance pieces. Often due to the massive scale of the marks made, he makes them on location before installing them directly.
Medium: He works mainly with gunpowder and fire on specially made paper as he “wanted to investigate both the destructive and the constructive nature of gunpowder, and to look at how destruction can create something as well.”
Technique: He arranges gunpowder fuses, loose explosive powders and some times cardboard and paper stencils on sheets to create silhouetted forms on the sheet. He also adds wooden boards to disperse the patterns formed on the paper from the smoke and adds rocks to intensify the explosion.
The resulting marks created by the explosions and resulting fire create a long flowing pattern across the sheet with tinges of yellow and varying shades of brown and black creating an interesting texture.
http://www.caiguoqiang.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/1993_GreatWall_pet10_0087_002ltr_cc-web.jpg?itok=cX_Vn5c1 accessed on 10 September 2017
One example how such looks were applied was in his large-scale explosion events, “Project to Extend the Great Wall of China by 10,000 Meters: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 10 (1993)”, for which Cai ignited a line of fire—evocative of a dragon gliding across the land—using 10,000 meters of fuse extending from the end of the Great Wall into the Gobi Desert. The drawing is mounted on 12 oversized panels, and the viewer must walk along the length of the work to fully experience it. The panels of the folding screen are displayed in a pattern that shifts the perspective of the drawing in and out, mimicking the peaks and valleys of the Great Wall while also suggesting, as does the wall itself, the undulating body of a dragon.
http://www.caiguoqiang.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/1993_GreatWall_pet10_0085_003h-web.jpg?itok=MtzXLs3n accessed on 10 September 2017
[ LET THE FUN BEGIN ]
During this session, I wanted to experiment on just to see how texture and the hardness of the medium affecting the emotions they generated in the viewer due to the marks as well as how the techniques the materials were used in would affect the final outcome.
I realised that most of the marks I made with soft materials or when I mixed ink with water generated more happy and gentler emotions.
Mixed bubble solution with ink, blew with straw and placed calligraphy paper on bubbles.
Bubble marks made interesting swirls on the calligraphy paper.
For example, I mixed bubble solution and ink and blew bubbles onto paper to form a fairly consistent and soft pattern.
However not all “soft” materials were a success. I tried imprinting the dried flowers from my graduation bouquet but they just fell apart in the ink.
The before and after.
I also experimented with a makeup sponge. As the one I brought was a triangular one, I was able to make geometric shapes on the paper. When layered it formed an interesting, spray paint like quality.
Sharp edges with high contrast and varying darkness of marks create a sense of depth and form to the paper. Marking the paper in a circular manner draws the eye to the centre of the image when negative space is left.
Experimenting with a straw..
On the other hand, sharp objects with hard edges often projected harsher emotions or emotions with more energy due to the tight distance between the marks and their high contrast. For example, I experimented with satay sticks, metal, brushes, straws and seashells. I particularly liked the variation in the thickness of the marks for the satay stick.
Made by dragging satay stick across the paper as well as hitting it after dipping in ink.
I also experimented using the hard objects in varying movements. Hitting the paper, dragging across the paper and rolling the material across the paper. The movement often generated elongated and explosive splatters which conveyed a sense of energy and guided the viewer’s eye across the canvas due to the decreasing size of the “dots” the further they were from the source of impact.
Made by hitting paintbrush on paper.
Consult Critique
My original idea of using mark making to express my emotions“Growing Up” was first born when using the medium of bubble blowing. Firstly the medium and messiness of it reminded me of my childhood.
From there, I started crafting my concept around the theme of childhood. I started using materials that related to childhood to see how they translated on paper.
Materials such as bubbles and the makeup sponge translated quite well on the paper.
The memories I associated with the materials and emotion all seemed to revolve around my mother and thus Joy suggested that I narrow down my theme to my childhood memories with my mother. This led to the idea of doing a collaboration piece with my mom and make it a sort of dialogue between the two of us as we revisit portions of my growing up.
[ ROUND 2 ]
Bubbles
The bubbles turned out well in the original attempt but the emotion I was trying to convey was drawn from the memory of my annoying habit of blowing bubbles in my drink. (And doing it further to because I knew how much it annoyed my mother.) The emotion I concluded was akin to glee.
However mainly due to it’s consistent and equally dark pattern of the bubbles formed by bubble solution, I decided to experiment with other kinds of bubble making solutions to see if I could form a more chaotic pattern which would create more texture and a variation of dot sizes on the paper.
The original test runs with body soap and ink solution were a failure as I tried to figure out the right balance of ink and soap. The bubbles were either too dark or too light. But I soon got the hang of it. I created patterns by blowing into the mixture with a straw before scooping up the bubbles and spreading it on the paper.
The makeup sponge
The original imprint created shapes that made a spray paint like pattern across the work giving it an interesting texture and depth. However when I chose to squeeze the makeup sponge instead, the whole look of the piece changed.
This created soft swirls which were darker on the center of the mark creating emphasis. This felt really interesting to me because it felt as if I were trying to pinch and mould the mark.
Cling Wrap
Left: A gradient can be created by varying the thickness of ink layered on cling wrap. Right: Negative space creates sharp contrast drawing the viewer’s eye to the darkest parts of the image.
I wanted to use cling wrap to show how frustration at my childhood messes not only came from myself for making a mess but also from my mother who often had to clean up after me. So my original intention was to make a mark using cling wrap and have my mother literally “clean it up”. Unfortunately it didn’t translate as well on paper and the smudges ended up destroying what original marks were left.
Wiped off ink on cling wrap. Does not translate well as marks are mostly gone.
Water
I wanted to convey saddness and remorse with water and so I tried wettting the whole calligraphy paper and dripped black ink at the top and let it seep down. However all it created was a gradient. I also needed a way to insert my mom into it to show her side of causing my remorse.
[ FINAL ROUND ]
Making art with my mom was probably the most fun both of us have had in awhile. Busy as we are, we never really found much time to do stuff together and my mother has always never really been all that supportive of art dreams. So this making art together thing was really a first.
For each of the pieces, we both created a portion of the art. How or where we did it varied in terms of the piece.
Bubbles – Glee
Observe the master bubble blower at work.
For the first piece with bubbles, I gave my mom a crash course on blowing bubbles into a “drink”.
My side of the paper
It was fun making my mom do something she abhorred so much in my childhood and making her the “child” for once. I would daresay what I felt was very much the “glee” i was trying to express.
She had trouble blowing bubbles. And when she finally got one, it burst before it even hit the paper.
She clearly hasn’t had much practice.
Although, in the end, her fear of ruining my “section” of the piece made her kind of stick to her own corner of the paper. Thus the distance between the two sections made me decide to just crop out a part of mine and a part of hers before piecing it together to the final piece.
Final piece before cropping
This difference in our bubbles (my tightly packed layered and darker bubbles vs her widely spaced lighter ones with dark accidental drops of ink) created an interesting contrast that met in the middle thus looking like how we clashed over this issue.
Final cropped line
I believe the viewer would have gotten the emotion of glee from this line firstly due to how obvious the medium used was. Bubbles are often associated with fun and happiness. Secondly, the contrast due to the varying the number of bubbles suggest that one person is having more fun than the other. Which I feel sums out glee about right because glee is defined as “great delight, especially from another’s misfortune.”
Cling Wrap – Frustration
From my second experiment, I had knew I had to find another way to show my mom’s side on the piece. Remembering how Ed Moses painted on the back of his canvas and let the paint seep through, I decided to do the same with cling wrap by having my mom place the cling wrap marking on the other side of the paper to give her mark a more faded quality to show where the “mess” I made on the front used to be. Also, the faded quality of her mark also gave a sense that her “frustration” was boiling below the surface and as a child I could not perceive it as well as my own.
Darkening my side of the paper again to increase the contrast between the marks.\
Uncropped version
Again, this piece uses contrast to show the two different perspectives in the mark. I believe frustration can also be conveyed through the marks due to the jagged and generally dark texture of the marks as well as how tightly spaced the marks are between each other creating a sense of tension and chaos.
Final cropped line
Friction Mat – Surprise
Here the restrictions of working with my mom finally made itself known. She was fine with using bubbles and cling wrap but she drew the line at our bike.She “wasn’t spending the weekend cleaning tracks up”. So I had to make do with friction mats that were placed under a lot of things on my desk. This is mainly because of how clumsy I was. I wanted to use the bike originally to convey the surprise I felt learning to ride a bike and getting it right on my first try and also the surprise that came when I crashed into someone within one minute of being let out into the proper cycling track.
I had to find something with a similar texture to wheel marks which I originally intended to use as the constant appearing and disappearing marks as well as the drag marks it would have made on paper.
Friction pads had a similar effect, but on a smaller scale. In fact they reminded me a bit of the black tire marks I’d get on my leg after every cycling trip because I kept bumping my legs into the tires.
I made the marks by letting my mom make the constant marks until when she decided to “let go” of the bike. I then added the drag marks where her prints stopped to show the surprise of suddenly having to do something on your own.
Final un-cropped piece
I believe viewers can get the feeling of surprise from this line due to the sudden variation of texture. The constant flow of the friction mat’s almost dot like texture also leads the viewer’s eyes across the line before it suddenly smoothes. This variation in texture also creates a sudden contrast thus also invoking a sense of surprise.
Final cropped line
Makeup Sponge – Adoration
Growing up, I remember constantly being fascinated by makeup. I would sit and watch as my mother put it on her face and hope that she’d offer to do me too. Never happened until I grew older and I could buy makeup on my own. In a way, this sense and need to use makeup to make myself look prettier has thus always been ingrained since young.
To show this emotion, I let my mom apply the ink to the center of the canvas using the sponge however she liked. Layering it till it created a dark circular shape. I then surrounded her marks with mine. But as I was making my marks, I squeezed the sponge as I tried out in the test run. This created a dark dot surrounded by a soft swirl which I layered more nearer to my mother’s marks. I left more negative space the further I got from the center.
Uncropped version of the piece
This created an emphasis on the center of the piece and thus my mother’s marks, which was what I felt I was doing as a child. She was the main ideal and I was always moulding and shaping myself to be like her.
Final cropped line
I feel that adoration could be conveyed to the viewers through this line once they know the medium used. The more darker marks made by my mom as well as the use of circular swirls on the sides also create a sense of movement that lead the eye to the center of the image. Makeup and it being the centre of attention would lead the viewer to infer that makeup was a means to achieve an ideal that was in the middle.
Pencil on Essay Papers – Anxiety
Test run on paper with pencil
The use of the pencil was originally inspired by the satay sticks. I liked the sharp meandering lines made by the sticks but I wanted to use a medium with more significance to make the mark. Thus I chose the pencil due to it’s similar shape and greater symbolism in terms of study.
The original essay which I photocopied to make it monochrome.
My mom is a chinese tuition teacher and thus the pressure to do well in chinese was very prominent growing up. This was an essay I got my mom to pick out for me from a stack. I did particularly badly for it scoring 17/30. Ironically, it was an essay on how I got lost in a shopping mall because I didn’t listen to my mother.
I printed it out on two a4 papers to make it monochrome before using a pencil dipped in ink to make swirling patterns all over it. I tried to apply principals of automative drawing and tried not to think about where my pencil was moving. Interestingly, I appeared to be subconsciously trying to cover up my mistakes.
Final un-cropped version
The marks made by the pencil worked well in conveying anxiety due to it’s tapered tip. It ended up making uneven marks across the paper that conveyed a sense of uncertainty as it guides the viewer’s eyes across the piece and also my horrendous essay.
Final line
I think the viewers would be able to get the feeling of anxiety from this piece firstly due to the commonality of how much anxiety the learning mandarin brings, especially to the Singaporean audience. The meandering lines and it’s uneven texture also leads the audience in crossing leading lines across the essay showing how anxiety leads one in meanders across the mistakes and how in the end they form a cage on the whole thing.
Remorse – Paintbrush and water
Caning is definitely a lot more fun now than it was in the past.
I decided to let my mom use a paintbrush dipped in ink and make a caning motion on paper. I then sprayed water on the canvas and let the ink smudge. When the piece dried, the caked ink at the point of impact also cracked.
I felt that making this piece also did well in conveying my mother’s emotions on caning as well. She does not like caning us as she always said it felt like she was caning her own flesh. The cracked ink did well to show the heartbreak it brought her to cane me growing up as well.
Before “crying”
I then proceeded to spray the cane marks to symbolise my tears of remorse after getting caned.
The cane marks on the paper formed dynamic stroked across the paper which contrasted nicely with the soft lines that were formed by the water smudging the ink which gives the marks the impression that they are bleeding.
Final un-cropped piece after “crying”
I believe that viewers will be able to derive the feeling of remorse from the marks due to this contrast and would be able to understand it even more due to the method used to create the marks. Caning after all seems to be a pretty common part and parcel of growing up and making mistakes.
Final cropped line
[THE FINAL PRODUCT ]
Top down: Glee, Anxiety, Frustration, Remorse, Surprise, Adoration
Final Critique from Joy:
Good use of theme to bring together the whole concept. However how the marks have been curated ( i.e why this section of the entire piece has been picked) can be further expanded on. The original piece was placed vertically and would work better when viewed horizontally so the audience can see the dialogue and contrast between mother and daughter more clearly.
I wanted to convey saddness and remorse with water and so I tried wettting the whole calligraphy paper and dripped black ink at the top and let it seep down. However all it created was a gradient. I also needed a way to insert my mom into it to show her side of causing my remorse. 
