My Work – Page 2

HyperEssay2: Miss Beauty 2018

Miss Beauty 2018

Click on our project page to find out more.

For our final execution, Viena and I decided to focus on people perception of beauty and aim to find out what makes a women beautiful from our online audience. We have created 10 different avatars, where their facial features are combined from our online data collection of what makes a female attractive. We also came up with 3 different avatars’ personalities from our data collection of what female characteristic is attractive.

The comments that I received from my friends are mostly negative, where they mention that the “contestants” that we created are not pretty or look photoshopped. Responses like this make us question “Ain’t all these features the one that you guys find attractive?”

*PS, well… our photoshop skills might have reveal that its photoshopped somehow

I feel that live broadcasting have helped us to reach out to audience from all over Singapore where we bring the performance to them instead of having them visiting the performance site itself. However, viewer who enter the broadcast late will have no idea what is going on as the performance was ongoing. I have friends who texted me and ask what is going on and also they pointed out the technical issues that we faced during the broadcast too.

From the live broadcast, I understand that some mistakes cannot be unseen by our viewers as everything is real-time. Also, internet connection is a big issue as we have to stop our broadcast half way through as our viewers start commenting that they are not able to hear anything. Which brings us to another point where we have direct communication with our viewers through an online platform, unlike the usual first space communication.

In a third space, we are able to create a “fake” world where we are able to execute our concept. With 10 avatars created from the data we collected, it is impossible to bring them to life as they do not exist. Therefore, carrying out this performance in a third space will make it easier by playing some trick with pre-recorder voiceover as well as portrait of the contestants to showcase to the online viewers.

Ultimately, I am impressed at how much an online platform are able to do such as collecting data, comparing data, having live interaction as well as direct communication with the viewers.

Final Project

HyperEssay 1: Another Me

For my final project, i would like to explore on the aspect of beauty with makeup. I believe that women puts on makeup to either camouflage themselves, to boost their confidence or to portray themselves in a way that the society wants. Why do they choose to camouflage themselves? They are usually more anxious and insecure about their looks thus they tend to use makeup to cover up their “flaws”. Where as some women wear makeup to boost their confidence and look more sociable. They wear makeup purely for themselves and not for others. How about portraying themselves the way that the society wants? Many are convinced that wearing makeup helps in many aspect in life such as from dating to job interviews. While others is affected by the fact that people judged them for their “original” face.

Humans are always so concern about their own physical appearance. Besides the factors listed above, there has been influence from social media where it makes people want to change their appearance. In fact, its their own insecurity kicking in, it starts to shape their self-image and affects their behaviour.

Embrace your looks

This video above shows a lady being criticised about her looks, all those comments she received was mean and demoralising. Thus, she decided to put on makeup to conceal all her flaws in order to please the public. All her acne was gone, her face look flawless and “beautiful” according to the public. However, all these did not last long. People start judging her for putting too much makeup and she is not as beautiful as she was. In the end, she accept the fact that no matter how much she try to please the public, it will never be enough. She realised that being herself is more important and learning to love herself more.

This video above shows a group of people trying to spread the message that everyone is beautiful and the flaws in them is what makes them who they really are. They went online to find online status where people are insecure about their looks or was affected by people judgement on their looks. They then proceed to comment on their post to let them know that they are beautiful. They should not let the media dictate what is beautiful or attractive.

Research Critique 2: The Collective Narrative (Hole in Space)

“Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz has created this installation to show that size and bandwidth matter can be used to question and promulgate the emotional effects of communication.”

Hole-in-Space was tagged as the “Mother of all video chats”, where it kickoff a conversation between different group of people across two different cities. In the past, nobody have seen a person on television reacting live to one another on a screen which was an eye-opening experience to them. One even asked if those were actors on screen, where they find it hard to believe it was real time interacting with someone else (video 3.02mins). No doubt that how accurate the timing was in transmitting the data over plays a huge part in this artwork. Who would have expected that they could see each other emotions through a screen and not just through the usual talking through the telephone.

In addition, this artwork allows audience to linkup via satellite between New York and Los Angeles. They collect data from one city and placed into a “third space” for the use of art where audience could interact with someone from another city, be it playing charades or having a conversation in real time. This creates temporary connection between people which help to bring a diverse community together with the use of advanced technology.

With reference to Randall Parker, Collective Narrative, where this virtual space allow sharing and exchanging of ideas among a group of people, creating shared experiences. Also, how it encourage different action happening concurrently in remote locations, an idea of how live telecommunication works.

Reference link:
https://iphiahenry.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/hole-in-space-1980-installation-by-kit-galloway-and-sherrie-rabinowitz/

Interactive II: Concept Development V (By Margaret, Yuqing & Jinyee)

27 March ( consultation )

We showed LPD our videos of our progress so far. The following are the comments:

When down up to a larger scale, it may not work due to the elasticity of the paper and weight.
It will probably need around 20 motors for it tow work… Unless you scale it down a lot.
Maybe it can be a projection of their face or a distorted face
Can even be done in a game that follows the mapping of the paper tessellation, like snakes sliding down the triangle vertices and line.
Or instead of presenting the paper vertically above the people’s heads, the paper can be holstered upright vertically, with a camera reading the movement of the paper after which it gets transferred to a top down projection.
Go another level higher if the whole tessellation can be mapped with the projection visuals accordingly when at rest, when the paper moves, the projection mapping follows along mapping the new changes in real time. LPD tested with his cam and codes by changing the threshold, the computer could easily detect the rifts of the tessellation via light and shadow area, however, MAX could barely detect the folds. We felt that it was quite overly ambitious.
It was also suggested that we may want to think of having the paper tessellation placed horizontally on a table, the audience can interact with it by tugging at the strings.

We mentioned another idea of weaving, since interconnectedness can be represented by the idea of weaving. After explaining the idea and how the work would look, LPD felt that there was barely any interaction between the audience and the work, and that to make the motorised weaving machine from scratch was too difficult.

Things we did for the rest of the class time

We decide that it was paramount to try it on a larger sized paper, as what LPD said in point 1 made sense. We went to get brown paper (it was thicker due to the larger GSM weight than the A4 paper we’ve tried) to test. As of now, the colour and opacity is not of importance as our biggest problem might just be the weight and how it affects the way the paper tessellation moves.

Before folding, we decided to go for the flatter tessellation instead of the ones we tried that had more 3D form as we felt that it would draw away from our main concept of the ripple.

The following are the two larger tessellations folded. They are of the same pattern, however the difference is the size of the triangle foldings. We prefer the smaller foldings, as it looks more interesting as well as having greater structural integrity.

4D II – Project 3 Process and Final

Process

Project 3 is a continuation of my Project 2, I will be using the same video thus I have to focus on setting up of the space.

I am doing regarding my backbone condition, Scoliosis. In my space, I will be including these few items:

Background information of Scoliosis
Health booklet, information of my backbone during Primary school times will be seen
Doctor appointment receipt, it shows the interval of visiting the doctor
Photos of the clinic environment
Brace, which was “given” to me in Primary school
Monitor to display the video

The space that I will be using is in the classroom. I want to keep my space simple and straight forward where everything can be easily understood. This is the illustration of the space.

References

My artist reference was from the museum visit with the class. I feel that even though there is a lot of information pasted on the wall but yet not too overwhelming.

Setting up

Insecurities

A project talking about a girl insecurity where she was troubled by her back problem, Scoliosis. In this set up, she wants to show the viewer how long has this problem been stuck with her and allow the viewer to have a better understanding of Scoliosis with the information provided. The video shows a record of her problem with sounds that she always hear in the clinic which is something familiar to her.

2D II – Project 2 Part II – Zine Neighborhood Explorer Process + Final

Part II of Zine: Neighborhood Explorer we are required to create a 8-page zine design. The previous post was some research that I did on zine layout.

Concept 1

The zine design will be based on the food around Boon Keng. Initially, I planned to focus on 3 restaurants from the previous project. There will be description of the restaurant, address, opening hours and travel distance from Boon Keng Station.
*Last spread layout is not done yet.

Sample Layout

The feedback that I received was to categories the food type according to the customer that will be attending the restaurant. Some examples are hipster favorite spot, supper lover and etc. I need to take note of the style that I am going for.

Concept 2

There will be 3 different themes and each for one spread respectively.

Theme 1: Café Lover

Hungry Heroes

10 mins walk from Boon Keng Station
Tuesday – Friday, 4pm – 11pm
Saturday – Sunday, 12pm – 11pm
Closed on Monday
33 Tessensohn Road, 217656

Chye Seng Huat Hardware

14 mins walk from Boon Keng Station
Tuesday – Friday, 9am – 7pm
Saturday – Sunday, 9am – 10pm
Closed on Monday
150 Tyrwhitt Road, 207563

Theme 2: Supper Lover

Swee Choon Dim Sum

24 mins bus ride from Boon Keng Station (bus 139)
Monday – Saturday, 11am – 2.30pm, 6pm – 6am
Sunday, 10am – 3pm, 6pm – 6am
Closed on Tuesday
191 Jalan Besar, 208882

126 Dim Sum

27 mins bus ride from Boon Keng Station (bus 21)
Monday – Sunday, open 24hrs
Closed on Tuesday
126 Sims Ave, 387449

Theme 3: Economical Lover

Scissor Cut Curry Rice

20 mins bus ride from Boon Keng Station (bus 139)
Monday – Sunday, 11am – 3.30am
229 Jalan Besar, 208905

Ming Chung Restaurant

12 mins bus ride from Boon Keng Station (bus 139)
Tuesday – Sunday, 3pm – 11.30pm
Closed on Monday
67 Maude Rd, 208348

Version 1

I decided to go for a more minimalist style in order to bring out the vibrant colors of the images. However, this doesn’t bring out the individual theme. Some suggestion was to add caption around the images and add some mini illustration around. I need to identify my art direction and credit the images.

Illustration on images

Version 2

I added in the illustration and caption around the images and changed the color of the box. The reason why I change the color because after adding in the illustration, I feel that it turns into a more “fun looking” layout thus adding in colors will bring out the theme more. However, it only complicates the layout.

Final

After receiving all the feedback from Joy and friends, I have improved my design multiple times. I have removed the background boxes and added in dotted lines as my art direction. After consultation, the feedback that I received was to make me zine more uniform. After looking at the dotted line that branch out to the caption, they gave me this idea of adding more dotted lines around my zine. Adding a header for each theme definitely helps to identify the different theme as it was not obvious previously. One thing I need to learn is to better integrate the element together.

Reflection

This project allows me to explore more into Zine and understand the concept of Zine. Since it is the continuation of part I, it makes things easier as I can work on what I have and bring it over to part II. For me, the difficult part about this project is coming out with the overall theme and laying out the pages. It is challenging to integrate all elements together in a spread, and having to do 3 spreads required a lot of testing. I have to take into consideration the position of images, the information to add in and the font type for the information. Upon completing the 3 spreads, the front cover is also a problem. I do not have any idea how I want my cover page to look like. Since the zine is about food, I received comment on adding food images. As for the back cover, I decided to keep it simple as I do not want it to overpower the cover page. Even though it was challenging but I definitely enjoy exploring into different zine layout.

2D II – Project 2 Part II – Zine Neighborhood Explorer Research

What’s a zine?

A zine (/ˈziːn/ zeen; short for magazine or fanzine) is most commonly a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via photocopier. Usually zines are the product of a single person, or a very small group.

Typography

The design should be clean and easy to read. If there is a lot of text, it’s best to stick with a straightforward font such as Times New Roman or Garamond. Serif fonts are generally easier to read than Sans Serif.

Titles, headlines, lists, sidebars, pull quotes, and captions are places where we can use the fancier and quirkier typefaces.

Proof-read the copy once it’s typeset and again after it’s done. Don’t let those spelling and grammar errors get past. It have a way of deflating the impact of the work.

Layout

There are many different type of way in layering out the pages depending on the topic and the style you are going for. The size of the fonts and photo play a part too. It cannot be all chunk together and make sure there is enough spacing for every elements.

References

4D II – Gillman Barracks Exhibitions Review

4D II – Project 2 Process & Final

Process

For project 2 I decided to do something a bit different instead of continuing from project 1. This project is more of my insecurities. I used to think why it is so unfair that I have a backbone like this. I was primary 5 when I found out about this through school health checkup. Went to see a doctor at NUH and this backbone caused me to wear a costly and heavy brace everywhere I go. It was so uncomfortable and warm inside, I just hate wearing it. Even so, this could not fix my backbone problem which is called Scoliosis and it got worst. My parents decided to bring me to a private doctor instead.

Scoliosis, a person with scoliosis has a sideways curve to their spine. The curve is often S-shaped or C-shaped.

I don’t have to wear the brace anymore after changing doctor and up till now I am still seeing doctor for this. He says it will be a slow process and I just have to bear with it.

I always avoid wearing skin tight clothes because people could see that the right upper back pops out more because of the curved. In secondary school, I used to hide the fact that I have a curved backbone because not everyone is like me. I am afraid of how people might look at me just because I am “different” from them. Slowly, I start to open up more about this and feel that it’s okay to be “different”.

The project will shows the records of my health checkup in school and the records of my doctor appointment. Not all the records are around because I threw some away. The purpose of putting this is because it shows how my backbone test is always positive and since primary 5, I am having this problem up till now.

The recording playing at the background are the sounds that I always hear when I was at the Chiropractic Clinic. There are mini conversations and sounds of the machine that they use. I recorded it when I visit the doctor recently.

This coming year is the 6th year visiting the clinic. It’s something very familiar to me because I used to visit there once every two weeks, then once a month and slowly once every 3 months. It is really time and money consuming but thankful for my parents supporting me throughout.

Final

Artist statement

Insecurities

Hiew Jin Yee

She is always afraid of how people look at her from the outside. Insecure about her own body, she decided to hide it. She avoids skin tight clothing and never wants to mention it to anyone. However, as she grows older she realized that there is nothing to be ashamed about. She embrace her own insecurities and able to openly share her own experience about it. In this video, she photograph her medical records and with the soundtrack of the clinic surrounding noise to portray something personal yet familiar to herself.

2D – Project 3 “Ego” | Process v5

As I go on and explore on different composition, there are some fail composition.

Morning in Bed

The bed there just makes the overall design very flat.

For this, I feel that the background gets a bit too boring, thus I added some colors at the background for the final composition.

Don’t want to get out of bed

I cannot decide where to position the cloud where it symbolize dream, I tried these two different composition and received feedback that it look weird in a way or another.

Where this composition look too complicated at the background.

Getting coffee in canteen

I tried putting myself into the coffee, however it doesn’t seems to work at all.

For these, I feel that the view of the coffee can be further improve. Thus for the final, I changed to another type of view for the coffee cup.

After all the fail composition, I finally come out with the final one that will be shown in the next post. All these process really do help me out in finding out which one work best for each composition.