Project 4 – Research

According to Guggenheim Museums, time-based Art refers to works which have duration as a dimension and unfold to the viewer over time.

  1. David Medalla’s Cloud Canyon

I managed to catch this piece (specifically No. 24)  in Singapore last year in the National Gallery.

This series of work represents cloud-like clusters (subject). The form is constantly changing the moment the work is being displayed because it relies on the process of bubbles being made, then shot up the tubes before sliding back down, if it doesn’t burst. The mediums used for this art piece are soapy liquid (detergent and water), which is turned into foam by compressors located at the bottom made of wood, perspex and time represented with a timer.

His works are placed in galleries with probably great lighting and calm ambience. However, I think with reference to his work, I think that the fact that his work is placed on earth, where his works would be exposed to natural earthly processes such as gravity, and humidity as the context, is more important.

His use of bubbles were connected to specific childhood memories. According to an article by Tate, it included the clouds in tropical sunsets in Manila; watching his mother cooking; a visit to a brewery in Edinburgh; and the frothing mouth of a wounded Japanese soldier he discovered in the family garden. Although his work was inspired by personal experience, he also  intended for his works to evoke imagination within an individual. He said in 1968:

The most important thing is to give life to materials, so that instead of finding ourselves separate from them, we find a complete dialogue with the material.
(Quoted in Brett 1995, p.62.)

2. Rachel Knoll’s Listen and Repeat 

https://vimeo.com/64517752 

This piece required a modified megaphone, twitter, and equipment for filming. The modified megaphone was used to recite tweets from Twitter with the tag “nobody listens”.

This was set on a mountain in Washington where at that point no one (except the crew) would have heard what was being broadcasted through the megaphone.

My interpretation of this film is to serve to show how we are increasing disconnected to reality, the real world and slowly we are relying more on social media to satisfy our emotional needs. There is an apparent paradox- a form of connection online, as emphasised by the used of the tag, yet in reality, it doesn’t exist, as emphasis by the content of the tweet. We could be together in this virtual reality space but the feeling of together-ness is not guaranteed.

CONTRAST
The difference between the 2 of these works is the way time is expressed. In the first piece, time is simultaneous with the experience of the participant. It has the element of ‘experienced time’– where the process of imagination dictated time. Hence the work was measured by the psychological disposition and attention of the participant. As for the second piece, there was a need for time to pass in order for an inference to be made and then  measured with (the inference) the effects of how social media has changed our relation with reality.  With this inference being presented in a film, which had time as a medium as well. Hence, comparing both, time was more prominent in the first piece and more subtle in the second. 

SIMILARITY
The similarity between the 2 of these works is how time evoked change. In the first piece, as time pass, the overall form changed with the interaction of its surroundings. Whereas for the second piece, as time pass, our view of social media has changed and even in the film itself, the tweets being read out has changed as well. Hence, comparing both, time led to ability to change.

 

 

In-Class Exercise: Soundwalking

Fenella and I worked together to record the following 20 sounds:
https://youtu.be/XFuWuEAOHBU 

Personally, my favourite were 7. tearing of the toilet paper and 14. flipping of pages in a book. That is because they seem  to give off the feeling on tension which is often not associated with sounds. Hence the physical attribute of these 2 sounds gave off an intangible feeling.

Overall, there were both organic sounds such as sounds made by humans, and also inorganic, mechanic sounds such as the narrator in the elevator or the beeping sound. All of which evoke different emotions and feelings.

Mnemosyne’s Scent: Scent Model and Fashion Piece

 

Some Behind-The-Scenes pictures:

 In attempt to texturise and give my bottle a gritty feeling

Had to carefully pick and carry a huge branch from Canteen 2 to ADM
Then have to modify the branch by cutting it down and also heat gunning it to twist and intertwine with our pole


Spray painted our SD and SO foil metal for a more clean, exquisite, androgynous vibe

Spray painted our pole with a stone texturising spray in make the pole in line with my bad scent of air freshener because this would replicate the road

Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed our piece.

Project 3: Impossibilities of Being

STAGE 1

20 Places

  1. Dream country: Cuba
  2. Where I want to live: California
  3. Most vivid dream: In the drain
  4. Favourite movie place: The VR space of Ready Player One
  5. Favourite hotel: Juvet Landscape Hotel
  6. Place out of access:
    1. North Korea
    2. Galaxy
    3. Heaven
    4. The Whale that swallowed Jonah
    5. Noah’s ark
  7. Who needs help:
    1. Female Kids
    2. Rohingya Muslims
    3. Chinese sold woman in North Korea
  8. Small spaces:
    1. Water pipes
    2. Watch/Clock
    3. Typewriter
    4. Bottle
    5. Starbucks cup
    6. Earpiece
    7. Ear piercing

STAGE 2- Hi-fi Storyboard

1st idea storyboard
https://youtu.be/10lj2kySmzA 

Feedback at Stage 2

  1. Too monotonous
  2. Needs more extreme happenings, such as someone giving birth and throwing the baby into sea, to show that a long duration was passing even though it was just 1 minute

However, before continuing to Stage 3,

So, yes, I went back to my list and decided to re-do with Idea 4.

New Storyboard:
2nd idea storyboard
https://youtu.be/KUKc_0la-bU 

Really glad given the limited time, the second idea didn’t turn out too shabby

Final video:
https://vimeo.com/296915528 

This video is titled ‘The OASIS’ to pay tribute to its inspiration. This short video is inspired by the film Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One. What you see is my character, which looks like me, in a virtual reality space. So in Ready Player One, avatars were able to gain coins the VR space by playing games in different sectors, to buy stuff in the real world such as gears, running tracks ; so similarly, in my video, my avatar was initially worried because she had no more cash left.

Also, in the movie, there were many retro references made such as RoboCop, Startrek, so I tried to do something similar by using a Windows pop up, Super Mario’s coins, sound effect and the avatar was also playing a game based of a old cartoon show Blue’s Clue.

Why I chose this concept, because I wanted to show how cartoon, game made sound effects can merged with real life sounds can come together simultaneous to form cohesive. It might be a virtual reality space but you can still use real life sounds to aid the message you are trying to send across.

The Process

Filming and organic sounds were done by me.

I mainly used the technique of Foley, such as, to recreate the sound of
1. the first contact of the hands with the cloth hangers: i placed a metal straw into a cup and swirl it around
2. arms swinging: i grabbed the curtains and dragged it down really fast
3. footsteps: i used my leather wallet to hit against the table because leather would provide a soft tension upon lifting up
4. body stretching: tore tissue paper and recorded the sound just before the breaking point.

These are a few examples. I mainly looked at tutorials and researched  online. Such as: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSARKDwU0og&t=776s
Then I varied the real-life sounds to give depth to the actions such as how hard i’m hitting the shelves

I have also given sounds effects to the actions my avatar made, such as, her head spinning, her body stretching and her eyes opening to exaggerate her actions and these sound effects were from Creative Comms.

I also had voice-overs to let you hear what my character is thinking, and to provide engagement. 

You would have also heard a constant background sound to signify the time passing which has been manipulated to become louder as time is running out

Then the computerised sound effects such as the ‘Round 1’ ‘Game Over’ Narration or the Mario coin sound effect to tie the whole retro, VR theme together.

Hope you enjoyed my documentation!

In-Class Exercise: Sound is

Munch, Fenella and I worked on:
The Story

Thoughts and reflection:
My group chose to believe that sounds could also be tied to emotions and even have a metaphorical element to it. With that we decided to make it a story based on family interactions. We told the story in 3 perspective, silence which comes from a personal point of view, noise creating the setting using environmental sounds and listening as a form of respond and actions taken in the story.

If we had more time, I would definitely have liked to clean up the poem by having more interactions with people of the family through the various sounds because characters such as the grandma was only mentioned once.

Mnemosyne’s Scent: Research and Process Documentation

RESEARCH

According to https://study.com/academy/lesson/mnemosyne-mythology-symbol-facts.html, Mnemosyne was the goddess of memory and the mother of artistic inspiration. For the ancient Greeks, memory was a fundamental gift. It was what differentiated man from animals. That’s why Mnemosyne was a very important goddess. She was so important to the Greeks that there were rivers and fountains with her name. However, despite her great importance, Mnemosyne does not have her own symbol, that is, she is not represented in a specific way like other goddesses are. This may be because she represents a very abstract concept that is very difficult to represent with concrete objects.


Examples of symbols of Greek Gods and Goddess

MNEMONIC DEVICES

Mnemonic Devices are techniques or “tricks” for aiding memory by associating less meaningful material with more meaningful or memorable images, words or saying.

2 example methods:

  • First Letter Method also known as Acronym
    An acronym is a word formed from the first letters or groups of letters in a name or phrase.

Example:
Order of Planets:
My Very Excited Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies
(Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto)
Or without Pluto: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles

  • Peg Method
    Useful way to remember numbered items in a listExample:
    So maybe let’s say you have a shopping list, and the second ingredient is lemon juice, you could  imagine a yellow dress shoe full of lemons, and you squishing your foot into the lemons to get the shoe on, turning the lemons into lemon juice.

TWO SCENTS

Pleasant Scent
Abercrombie & Fitch Luxe Retreat Santiago Shores Mist Body Spray

  • Gift from my parents
  • The first scent I ever owned
  • Made me feel like an adult
  • Always went back to repurchase this particular scent
  • But recently found out A&F stopped producing this scent anymore

So, this last bottle just became even more precious

How I would describe this scent:
Musky, Slightly Floral- tinge of lavender


Nick Young

Unpleasant Scent
Febreze Car Freshener 

  • When I was younger, I had motion sickness
  • So, every time my parents drove, I would vomit
  • Hence, I have soon associated the smell of car freshener with the smell of vomit


Gabriella Montez


Regina George

RESEARCH ON RECYCLED PLASTIC ART

Recycled plastic art -the use of recycled plastic to form crafted art works

Example of Artists:

1. Aurora Robson

Robson collects her own PET bottles or creates job opportunities for street people who collect bottles in shopping carts. She uses vibrant colours to give these materials new life.


Goldrush


Kamilo

2. Veronika Richterova

Czech artist Veronika Richterová created a series of sculptures made out of used water bottles. They often resemble real living plants/ animals. In my opinion, fantastic play on irony.


Crocodile

Morpho Butterflies

PROCESS DOCUMENTATION

Model 1


Front View


Top View


Side View

2D Sketch Analysis

What to rectify:
-Redo the tapering of paper strips
-To move SO away to avoid the half-half Void being disturbed
– Preferably at the end of the D

REVISED Model 1


Front View


Side View


Top View

2D Sketch Analysis

Model 2


Front View


Top View


Side View


2D Sketch Analysis

What to rectify:
-Redo the tapering of paper strips
-Make the model bigger to make the base more efficient

REVISED Model 2


Top View


Front View


Side View


2D Sketch Analysis

Model 3


Side View


Front View


Top View


2D Sketch Analysis

What could be rectified:
-Redo the tapering of paper strips
-Ensure SO is either wedged/pierced/cuddled instead of overlapping

A2 Planar Model

Legend:

Blue: D void
Pink: SD void
Green: SO void