I’m stuck in a pit and this post explains why 🙁

Xiantian and I took a second trip to Ng Teng Fong Hospital. This time from 6pm to 8pm.

A Second Look

– Horizontal bars (!!!!!!!!!!)
– Dark and gloomy
– Mostly staff, patients’ families, and random passers-by, who are either in a rush or on their phones
– Distraction galore – exhibition, tv, clock, etc.

Time to Say Goodbye…

…to my initial idea. The bars are just too distracting and restrictive. Besides, since there are already enough information taking up the J-walk users’ attention, I figured that my artwork shouldn’t add to the distraction. Rather, I should take an immersive approach to set the mood of the pathway.

Therapeutic Elements

I felt that the gloomy walkway seriously needed a huge dose of vibrant colours (primarily yellow, with maybe a hint of orange) to brighten it up. Only by doing this can the spirits of those passing through be lifted, even if just momentarily.

Sunshine

sunshine, daisies, butter, mellow

The first thing that came to mind when I thought of bright cheerful sun colours is sunshine. Other than being our primary source of energy, light has always been closely associated with the idea of hope and warmth.

I’m walking on sunshine

I believe that the best way to represent light is in its abstract form – to let the colours of the aureate rays speak for itself. Hence, I felt that a collage is an appropriate method of execution for this idea. If the design is to be printed on translucent decals, light would pass through and cast different shades of yellows on the floor which would give the illusion of “walking on sunshine”.

However, I am concerned with the jarring bars that line the outside of the window – to make the decals translucent means that they would become part of my design. And I can’t think of a way to make it work because horizontal lines would only serve to break up the light rays.

Walking into the light

From last week, my classmates brought up the point that hospitals tend to steer away from abstract art because there’s a high tendency of them being taken negatively. Hence apart from the horrid grills, I am also concerned about the notion of light being interpreted as death or the afterlife in a highly stressful environment such as the hospital.

Sunflowers

Taking both the above considerations into account, I felt that light might not be such a good therapeutic element to work on after all. So I came up with another therapeutic element which combines the sun and a more explicit form of nature – sunflower fields.

reminder of the source of life and all that is good

However, I am stumped as to how to bring a field of sunflowers into the hospital graphically.

And here is where I’m stuck. *pulls hair*

Presentation & Feedback

Seeing my classmates’ works today, I am well aware that I am lagging one week behind everyone else and it’s pretty stressful, haha. After speaking to Michael, he mentioned at the end that the forest shadow art which I presented last week seem to have potential.

Now I think I kinda have an “aha!” moment but… to be continued.