UNTITLED FINALS – LABELS

https://vimeo.com/300188441

 

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” I’m sure we were all taught not to judge based on outer appearances since a young age, but yet sometimes I catch myself on the train or on the streets judging a person’s fashion sense and judging a person’s personality by their looks. This project attempts to amplify society’s views on individuals based on such appearances and acts as a social commentary towards society’s heavy emphasis and reliance on looks.

The class was told to write a one word impression for the rest of our classmates and no template or helping words were given. After collation, even without helping words or a template of words, everyone had at least 2 of the same word from the rest of the class, and the words written for each person were all similar (e.g funny, comical, goofy).

The number of times words were repeated could go from 2 times up to 6 times. This proves how strong impressions work and even though we might not really know a person fully, we still form impressions.

However, while some impressions of some people may be an accurate representation of themselves, most impressions don’t correspond to who we really are. Even if they do, these impressions don’t represent us fully. These impressions then become labels. Labels that society makes and covers up who we really are.

By compiling the most common words that appeared for each person and then compiling the words in an audio form, this project aims to let the audience experience the subtle day to day labels that’s been enforced on them, as well as to rediscover themselves and acts as a reminder that we are all more than what other people see us as.

This project will be presented in the form of an installation, where there will be booths for participants to take photos of themselves and type a description of themselves. These photographs will then be out up on the walls of the installation, and other people can enter to give an impression they have of everyone else. The most common words will then be compiled and the audio will then play.

Who – Any individual in society

What – The labels that society makes for each individual that hides the individuals true self

Where – In any social circle or space

Why – To encourage teh rediscovery of every individual and to remind the audience that they are more than just their labels

When – Whenever an individual feels jaded by society and society’s views of him/her, or when an individual is tired from society’s expectations of them

How – Through the use of audio, this projects aims to mimic society’s voices and simulate the audiences feeling against the words that they think society labelled them as.

There is the use of social interactivity, participant-centred interactivity and cognitive interactivity. The use of sounds engages the audience, as the audience is inclined to participate as they are able to relate to the subject presented. The social interactivity stems from the “grading of others by people”.

UNTITLED 3

I once had a very close friend, but drifted from her because of miscommunication and many little things in between. It been around 2 to 3 years since we drifted, but yet I catch myself still thinking ‘what if….’. I then realised that, although we are not close anymore, the friendship has still changed me as a person and helped me grow a a person.

While looking back at the impacts my friends had on my life, I decided to explore how time facilitates change in people through relationships. Inspired by the ancient Egyptian paintings, I used a series of photos put into a single strip to signify the documentation of time as time progresses, a strip itself signifying a part of a person’s timeline. The 2 people starts on opposing ends, and I wanted them to start on opposing ends of the strips to portray that people ‘come from different walks of life’. In other words, I wanted to show that the people who enter our lives all had different lives from us until our timelines collided when we meet. The background of the strips are also empty, to represent our lives as blank pieces of paper, making the relationships we form the writers of our lives. The first strip represents us, and the second represents the people we meet.

By the usage of the photo strip, I wanted to manipulate time by hinting at the repetition of this particular part of our lives. I wanted the photo strip to constantly “replay”, signifying the constant repetition of us meeting new people, forming new relationships with people that impact our lives and hence resulting changes. The photo strip allowed the constantly looping of the sequence of photos, hence achieving the effect of our lives constantly on replay. The girl in the first strip enters from the left while the guy enters from the left, and when their timelines collide, they break away from repetition and start doing things that varied more in terms of movement and emotions. They start doing the same things in the same parts of their own timelines, but yet they only share a single moment together when their timelines align in the centre. This is to signify the weaving of other people’s timelines into ours when we from relationships.

 

Signifier – The repetition of the characters walking from opposing ends of the photostrips

Signified – The difference in starting point of every other life that enters our own

 

Signifier – The blank background of the photo strips

Signified – Our lives as blank pieces of paper and relationships as the writer

 

Signifier – The repetition of the characters at the start of the photo strips

Signified – The monotonous repetition of life before meeting others

UNTITLED 2: Road to happiness

“I want you to be happier, I want you to be happier…”

Inspired by the song ‘Happier’, a song my instructor chose to choreograph to, I started wondering what happiness really means to me. Personally, dance gives me a lot of happiness and hence I portrayed happiness through the mixing of sounds that we commonly hear in daily life into a danceable rhythm. The footsteps before the rhythm reflects the nervous footsteps before going on stage to perform (the apprehensive footsteps when we search for happiness), and the ending breaths signify the satisfaction and happiness of being able to complete a choreography on stage (the satisfaction of finding the small things that makes us happy). The roads in the photo turned and hence we are unable see where the road ends and where it leads to. This suggests that happiness is a journey and not a destination.

Another meaning I gave to the piece is our pursue for happiness in life. The footsteps at the front hints the limited time one has in life, the breath at the back hinting at a person’s last breath. The rhythmic part consists of sounds that signify the hospital’s heart rate machine (the beeping), the hospital’s operation equipment (the clinks) and sickness (the cough). The road in the photo is seemingly endless, leading to a destination we can’t see. This signifies the limited time we all have and while still on life’s journey, I want people to ponder whether they’re really happy in life or not.

Putting both layers of meaning together, I want to portray the common misconception of people trying to find happiness as a destination instead of a journey, and how people still have yet to find happiness till the end due to the misconception, as they don’t realise that the process of finding something that fills you and makes you happy can give you so much more.

I used asynchronous and diegetic sounds throughout this piece to further highlight that happiness already exists, but we cannot see it because we are so fixated at believing that happiness is a destination we can arrive at.

Signifier – Roads

Signified – Journey of life to happiness

Signifier – Footsteps

Signified – Time

Signifier – Breathing

Signified – People chasing happiness till their out of breath/ out of time

Ultimately, I want to bring out the fact that the road to happiness is actually as common as roads are, but yet we are so focused to find happiness we fail to realise that happiness is a journey and not a destination till the end, running out of time first before even we can find that happiness.

UNTITLED 1

I got inspiration for the assignment one day on the MRT, as I was watching a man (dressed in a neatly pressed white shirt and a tie, with an office bag by his feet) type furiously away at his laptop. While assuming that this man was headed for work and settling work related issues on his laptop, I wondered if this man was happy with his career and his life, and whether he had dreams of his own.

As children, we were fearless and had big, unrealistic dreams. I realised, as we grow older, reality starts to kick in and our dreams get smaller and smaller, and also more down to earth. I remembered, as a young girl, I’ve once dreamed that I could become a princess, and I would then be able to wear beautiful dresses everyday, be able to sit at a nice table to sip tea from a porcelain cup,  and can also own many dresses and shoes, just like my dolls. Being one of the clearer childhood dreams I can remember, I decided to use a doll as the inanimate object as it represents childhood, innocence and children’s fearlessness towards dreaming. At the same time, the doll’s body is also very stiff and rigid, signifying the obstacles we have had as children while trying to attain out dreams.

I have decided to present my image through still photography, and through this image, I’m trying to portray the lost of unfulfilled childhood dreams (and hence the lost of innocence) of the working class, but at the same time reminding the audience that there’s still hope as long as they have the courage to chase their dreams again. This piece can be placed along the corridors of an office, as the intended audience are the working adults that have already given up on their dreams and have accepted the monotonous hum of their careers. This would allow the audience to reflect on their own experiences with dreams and allow them to gain courage and harbour new ideas and excitement towards life. This image has an emotional content, appealing to the audience’s innate desire of who they want to be and their desire to achieve their forgotten dreams.

The dreamcatcher and background with many pages of disney princess’s storybooks serves as the signifier of the image. The dreamcatcher signifies the good childhood dreams we once had. The background made up of pages of the fairytales such as Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty and The Beauty and The Beast reminds the audience that although their childhood has gone past (their time to fulfil their childhood dreams is over), they still have hope as long as they have the courage to pick up the ‘glass slipper’ (just like the Prince in ‘Cinderella’) and search for its’ owner.