Art History // Final project_Research

Group members: Andrew, Fern, Chen Yue, Ziyu

Our group discussed and decided that we want to expand on the Chinese Ceramics for our final project!

We felt that the Chinese Ceramics in the past and now is really different in terms of functionality. They used to have ceramics as decorations at home on shelves, for offerings, and for storing items, and they are usually being owned by royalties in the past.

11057859_10152840338907761_8710685430858040730_n
Taken in South Korea

plate1 plate2

Now, anyone can purchase ceramics, and we use it mostly to place food and as a tool for us to eat.

We’d want to combine the two, tackling on the issue of using plates as decorative, and if it is only a utilitarian function, how can the print on the ceramics help push any idea we want to raise awareness about.

We are still in the midst of discussing how we should execute the prototype but here are some that we are considering:

  1. Purchase a plain ceramic plate, paint it
  2. Make a ceramic plate from scratch
  3. Use paper plates, and then acrylic paint or white lacquer to try and paint it to look like ceramics
  4. Use wood to shape it like a plate, then use white lacquer to paint and make it look like ceramics

2D Project 2 // Research 1

Point of View

Potential topics:
1. Dance
2. Camera
3. iPhone
4. Water
5. Fire

Brainstorm process:

  1. Water from the point of view of an athlete is motivation.
  2. Water from the point of view of an African child is hope.
  3. Water from the point of view of sea creatures is home.
  4. Water from the point of view of cleaner is a means to an end.
  5. Water from the point of view of a chef is an ingredient.
  6. Water from the point of view of a plant is sustenance.
  7. Water from the point of view of a swimmer is career.
  8. Water from the point of view of a flame is death.
  9. Water from the point of view of instant noodles is completion.
  10. Water from the point of view of a desert is miracle.
  11. Water from the point of view of feng shui is flow of money.
  12. Water from the point of view of firemen is weapon.
  13. Water from the point of view of hose is ammunition.
  14. Water from the point of view of an eye is heart break.
  15. Water from the point of view of a Thai citizen is new beginning. (Songkran)
  16. Water from the point of view of a pair of lungs  is pneumonia.
  17. Water from the point of view of Singapore is contract.
  18. Water from the point of view of a bottle is purpose.
  19. Water from the point of view of Bruce Lee is battle cry
  20. Water from the point of view of Science is ph7.

 

Inspiration:

I’ve always loved the idea of combining photography and graphic art. It could be executed in digital painting or physical drawing, which could be combined as one. It gives off a typically clean overall look and feel and an illusion of 2D animation instead of the actual 3D object. The artwork could also symbolically represent an alternate reality in which all these objects could be viewed from varying perspectives.

e8a49ee962f8a5eb357384fdfbaee4f4

4d4b8bc15f2f5e90a15ecb9d126f2258

Refer to the following link for more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2621536/2D-not-2D-That-question-The-amazing-bags-look-just-like-cartoons-actually-real-thing.html

Selected phrases:

  1. Water from the point of view of an athlete is motivation.AhXkCxoA2yQQLoCsbzDm38BItvrTVlE8tLMyTOYDSonB
  2. Water from the point of view of an African child is hope.
    Ajca7XtPT8t8UBEfVURHLmdoLBFzIJSSWZrxAWHUoxrR
  3. Water from the point of view of firemen is weapon.
    AuxvL_82s_nCWB_GXP6KNE1xuMkF-TtFZLfwJBiBDc4V
  4. Water from the point of view of Singapore is contract.
  5. Water from the point of view of Science is ph7.
  6. Water from the point of view of an eye is heart break.

 

 

 

2D PROJECT 1 // WIP updates

THEMATIC APPROACH
The understanding of body parts – making use of different parts of the body to portray the concept, idea, or keyword.

  1. DANCER
    Typography: Humans
    To relate my whole project as one, I decided to create a night setting and as I shoot “ZIYU”. Due to the lack of manpower, I had to work within my means and edited myself multiple times into the artwork.

    However, I’m not exactly satisfied with the outcome yet, thus I will be trying out variations but still stick to this idea to see if other methods may work out better!

  2. NARCISSIST
    Typography: Dada/collage
    I’ve always believed that everyone is a narcissist to a certain extent. As for me, I think I may be a little bit more narcissist than an average person…… ^.^” but I embrace this fact! So I browsed my photo album and compiled a folder of images to form “ZIYU”. With dada art, I would be collaging 2 different set of images, playing with greyscale and coloured image to show the letters Z-I-Y-U clearly. Some classmates suggested that I should stage some images to contrast the letters even more; for instance, greyscale images on the background to be straight face or blank expression while the colour images that will be forming the letters would be with big smiles and contrasting expressions.

    Another concept of mine would be to put my current self as coloured images forming Z-I-Y-U and as for background, it will be greyscale of my younger self. This concept would portray another meaning behind the selection of images – to show that when we were younger, we weren’t sure of being vain or to dress up more and stuffs, so that would be quite dull, thus B/W at the background. As for now, I love myself and how I look more, so the poses, expressions and the whole look and feel for the letters would be outstanding and vibrant; hence, explaining the growth of myself as well.

    – images are compiled but not collaged

  3. NOCTURNAL LIFESTYLE
    Typography: Neon lights/digital
    Beng a commercial dancer cum student is quite tough on the body as dancing usually happens in the evening or night while studies in the day. During holidays or competition period, it is clear that I turned into nocturnal mammal as I usually start my day at about 4pm, and end dance around 4am, then shower, rest up a little and sleep till late afternoon again. So with studies in the schedule as well, I usually only get 2-3hours of sleep a day, which is really really damaging on my health, but I do enjoy all that trainings and performances, so I named this nocturnal lifestyle instead of lack of sleep!

    So my concept is to snap a picture of my tired eyes after practices end at 4am or 5am, and that would be the background of the picture. Z-I-Y-U would then be included in neon fonts as it gives a more saturday-night-out feel (like bars or theatre or places people usually visit at night).

    I refer this idea to Dan Flavin, an artist whom does a lot of projects on neon lights, I learnt how he places different coloured lights together and made use of colour theory. He also had varying methods like reflections, the abstract placement of lights and so on, white I would experiment on the my eyes – Z-I-Y-U multiplying on the pupil of the eye to portray a look of the contact lenses.
    dan flavin 1 dan flavin 2 dan flavin 3Useful link : https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-10-artists-who-work-with-neon

  4. TRAVELLER
    Typography: digital/positive and negative space
    When I think “traveller”, I’d picture a pair of legs in the motion of walking; a camera; a luggage, a many many smiles! My initial idea was to use dingbats and play with positive and negative space, like Shigeo Fukuda.shigeo
    However, if I make use of this method, it would be off the thematic approach I have in mind for this project. Thus, I will adopt this idea, and make use of my friend’s leg as I direct this photoshoot and still play with positive and negative space, except that it would not be dingbats, but it will be real physical humans and items.

Typography research // hello card

Hi all! I’m Ziyu and below are my research on some ideas to execute typography. I focused mainly on key words and approach  instead of specific artist, hence, designs and pictures are mostly from google images or pinterest:

research2

research3

research4

research5

research6

research7

Hello card:

Typography –

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

I love places with vintage décor and objects, thus, I picked a vintage font to represent myself. I wanted to play with the positive and negative space, however, after trying out with a full solid black background, I felt like it didn’t quite show who I am because I’m usually quite an outgoing and loud person, so I used bright colours with dancing silhouettes to depict my positive personality!

Abstract Solution –

As a dancer, my footwear is really important to me and I wanted find out from the perspective of my shoes and its effect from my foot-work during my routine. The above short-video documents on my usual rehearsal – I attached the card under my heels and danced for awhile with it. The after-effect looks scratched and marred with dust, which also depicts the life of a commercial dancer; it may seem like its a glamorous job and we’d have a lot of fun and enjoyment through dancing but we may also get hurt from falling, trying stunts, having long duration of rehearsals etc, which may not be the healthiest lifestyle you could live.

Conceptual – 

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

Many people identify me with my smile, thus I compiled and cut smiles from magazines and did a collage of it on the card. I placed “On Air” within the artwork because I secretly want to be in the media industry, hosting, acting or anything alike (don’t think it’s a secret anymore ^.^”). Not only that, I feel like whatever people say is really impactful whether it’s some thing good or bad, positive or negative, and it’s all up to oneself. Therefore, the mouth is a pretty important representation of me!