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Mini Bookshelf Visitors (2016)

Junyuan Loo

35 Paper-cut outs with colored paper stands.

Inspired by Michael Lee Hong Hwee’s mini figures, the installation is made up of 35 papercut mini figures, secured with paper-stands. Each mini figure is unique, symbolizing the 35 weeks of being an ADM student. Most mini figures are designed to be place on the head of various books with their paper stands stuck between the pages. Viewers are welcomed to place the figures in other books to have them interact with different books and other figures. (While placing these figures, some require the selected books to be pulled half way from the shelves for a better effect.) If viewers are interested to the books that the figures are placed, please place the figure to a new book or relevant location as its initial state instead of placing it aside. This will help to keep the installation in its intended installment.

The installation explores the feeling of intrigued and curiosity a library visitors can get through browsing the bookshelves. When one is browsing the book spine’s title without any library number codes in mind, one can always find book titles that is enticing the viewer, with hopes that the book’s content could surprise more.  The installation was designed to engage similar thoughts and anticipation, leading the viewers with its quirkiness from one figure to another, discovering fun and interest within the shelves.


The work is accompanied by instructions to have the viewers interacts with the figures but handle them with care while doing so. Many fellow classmates reviewed that they might be blocking people who are seeking books or neglected by people who look for books by the code numbers. Therefore, I consider this installation as a social experiment of the relationship between installations and library visitors. Since most installations were installed at the side of people’s daily routine, what interaction will produce if the installation was installed between the visitors and their targeted books?

At the end of the installation period, 12pm April 15th, I went to the location to collect my figures, and the following scenery was discovered.

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As you can see, many of them were misplaced, pulled out, attempted to be placed back the original locations, roughly handled and placed aside. (Fortunately, none of them went missing.) The phenomena are sort of within my expectation except the one with the book “From Pinewood to Hollywood”. I was delighted as I saw the book was placed by one of the visitors for the walk-and-browse figure. Although this is the only positive outcome from the attempted interaction, I was still cheered from previous frustration. My interest towards this form of art was thus heighten again.

The Library is one of the most interesting I had in 4D module because I have never approached with installation art before. I am grateful to Mr. Michael Tan for giving us this opportunity to try out this medium. I had a lot of fun (while exhausted in the making) as mentioned by Mr. Michael. This will be another experience of the module I won’t forget.

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PS: I thank NTU Library for sharing my work onto their Facebook Page, it’s a great honor and thank Mr. Michael Tan for informing the good news!!

Thanks for reading!

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The excitement is inevitable!!!! And that’s not a realistic printed pen.

It’s completed!! I screamed internally when I finished pasting every beautifully printed pages together. The end result of the printing are glossy but the brilliance of the colors still stands out completely. The vivid colors wasn’t dull but pleasing to my eyes.The papers I’ve chosen from Fancy Papers Ltd are gampi papers (covers) and thick papers with the texture of my visual journal. The papers works well and maintained its flatness throughout the pasting and logistics.

All these excitement aside, I’ll be guiding you through my zine page by page to give you a full view.

I chose the Jokerman font for my title as I want a memorable font to be the first thing shown into the readers’ eyes. The font shall also give the impression of light-hearted-ness for the entire zine in the beginning as well. Adding the red spiky eclipse to make the cover interesting was decided early before the paper was chosen. Surprisingly the design fits perfectly with gampi’s certificate-like texture.

Throughout the contents, I chose the Huxtable and Hurry Up font for both my narrations and instructions to give them a quirky tone. The two fonts are not linearly aligned which produce a non-serious component for the work.

Originally I wanted to use metal pins to attach the supposedly-leather-made pen holder. Unable to find the suitable pin to fit the colored-paper-made holder, I made a pair of “pins” with yellow color papers and paste the whole thing together. Thinking back the decisions, the pen holder, in my opinion, suited the overall style of the illustrations.

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Initially, I wanted to place a pen-outline subtly in the main pages in the left photo, which will be visible when fully expanded. However, the Pen-as-Arsenals composition made the lines blended too subtly into its background, which unfortunately hidden my initial intentions for the compositions. Inevitable, it’s considered a pity by me. For the compositions in the other side (right), I connected them together with various factors, such as mirroring compositing and connecting backgrounds. With these decision, the pages were held together visually, showing their identities in the same narration, even though their styles were different.

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[Click into the thumbnails to get a full view of each pages.]

As most of the composition are explained, I shall move to the third composition where I wished to included the occupation perspectives I eliminated from the previous project. I was able to revive following the perspective:

A PEN from the point of view of MONK is MEDITATION

A PEN from the point of view of DRUMMER is DRUMSTICK

A PEN from the point of view of PENTURNERS is ART (The main contributor of the page’s interactivity.)

A PEN from the point of view of LAWYER is GUN

A PEN from the point of view of POLITICIAN is WMD (Donald Drumpf inspired?)

A PEN from the point of view of SCIENTIST is CAMERA

(For this I supposed many of you might recognize 2 of the most entertaining engineers/scientist in TV history. I chose them to replace white coats as one of them, Adam Savage once said: “Remember kids, the only difference between Science and screwing around is writing it down.”)

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I left this page to be enlarged as I wanted to point out specifically my mistake on it. Due to my neglect on proofreading, The paragraph in the page had terrible typos and mis-phrasing. While being anxious before submission, I decided to cover it with a plain printing paper as the school’s printing shops didn’t allow me to reprint the words on the extra paper I bought before print. During the class presentation, just as I recapping my pages, I thought of a better solution for this mistake as I mentioned on my presentation:

Adding an interactivity which requires the reader to correct the mis-phrased paragraph, because this page is a tribute to the line: A PEN from the point of view of TEACHER is STICK & CARROT and A WAY TO PASS DOWN OUR WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE.

Lesson learned, always think through when fixing mistakes, avoid naive and stupid solution as well.

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After the bad news, now for the good news. The back cover surprise turned up very well with the Pen-shaped compilation of PEN in various languages. When the zine is open as the right image with a pen the pen holder, a mirroring composition is formed and I was extremely satisfied with this outcome.

REFLECTION:

My fellow classmates like the illustration very much while Ms.Joy warned me about the consideration on font size. For instance, in the occupation composition, due to the fact that both instruction and narration are typed in the same font size, readers might confuse them over the similar font and take times to differentiate them via capitalization. Overall, the zine was regarded as nicely done. I am proud of it too!

This is the last project of the module Foundation 2D. Throughout the academic years, I’ve learned a lot from my classmates from different semesters and my tutor Ms.Joy. I got to challenged many methods of execution and styles for different themes. This is one of the modules I am glad I didn’t drop and I am looking forward to have the same excitement while being in my majors’ modules.

Thanks 2D, and thanks Ms.Joy for the guidance since 1st semester.

Thanks for reading!!

Since a zine is basically a magazine but smaller…… Is that what the MAGA means….????

(Definitely incorrect, if you did the research.)

Welcome to the end of our 2D journey, which I’ll repeat, the last project will be based on the recent projects we’ve done throughout our foundation year. My concept was officially announced as JOURNEY WITH PEN, a remake of my POV project but expanded and extended. I gotta to say that the whole process is crazy and fun as I’ve never rushed so many digital illustration within a short period of time before! The project reminded me the joy of my own hobby and while whacking the whole work out, I enjoyed every single pages of illustrating. Without further ado, let me lead you through the work, CHRONOLOGICALLY. Let’s start with the good old visual journal, shall we?

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My plan on my zine.

I thought of using 5 A4 papers to form the accordion booklet format I planned as it’s hard to find any paper that has the length to fit the width of 6 A5 papers. (Refer to the booklet figure in the image.) When I started planning the narration for the 8 pages given, I realized that I have the advantages of utilizing the Inside Cover Pages for both ends, because there’s no need to leave them blank for a zine. I’ve figured to give my zine a filling content, why not just include these inside cover pages as the space for my contents? Therefore I added a beginning or prequel to the main narration. This page included my line: A PEN from the point of view of CIVILIZATION is A TOOL OF COMMUNICATION.

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Following the first Inside Cover Page is the main contents of my zine. With the space to extend and expand my previous work, I’ve given myself the opportunity to include many of my eliminated ideas (due to the incoherent concepts. ) into the zine’s body content. During the planning, I found the contents are still lacking some excitement or attraction for the readers. Then an idea popped up as I pictured what if this is a mass publication? I then recalled the book “Wreck This Journal” by Keri Smith, a book series that is an extreme case of interactive books since “Where’s Waldo”. Yes, interactivity was what my zine needed. Thus, I added many instructions in the main content pages that won’t let the readers “wreck” my zine. (Yes, I am not that extreme for this.)

Soon after this, I start designing my zine front and back covers. I decided to keep the front simple to surprise the readers with the rich illustrations. With the same consideration for the back cover, I felt it would be too empty for it because I didn’t included any images in it. So I placed a little surprise for the back cover as well with the help of the glorious Google Translate.

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With a little drafting of my verbal narration and I’m done.

During the group consultation, Ms. Joy and my fellow classmates suggested me to consider more on the printing materials to ensure the bonding of the accordion booklet won’t influence too much on my zine’s final appearance. Thanks to the reliable paper distributor Fancy Papers and the kind people in Poster Connection @ Sunshine Plaza, my zine is completed.

To be continued……

Like, how the heck its inventor came out with a word that sounds so rad and futuristic??

The final project of this semester is a 8-paged ZINE. For me, this sort of looks like a project that requires us to compact everything we’ve learned in 2D into a small book, with the space of trying new stuff as usual. The project enables us to insert any recent projects we did throughout the academic year into the zine. Obviously under the spirit of holy market spoiler, no one is going to just copy and paste their recent work into the zine. Till the time this is composed, I’ve already saw a few of my fellow classmates posting complete research on the ZINE itself. Imagine what they can do by just introducing their title sequence!

Therefore, I’d not like to waste your time and tell you what a zine is. I meant a book with such rad name should have got you google it a while ago. What I’m going to show is the idea I’ve developed for the project. As we are able to insert recent projects into the zine, I was thinking this might be a chance to make use of the composition I left out in my last project, Point of View. The zine is my chance to expand and extend my ideas about the PEN. I view this as an opportunity to make something that’s finally not assignment-based work. (Yasss, this project is damn free to work around.)

My current concept: Create the world’s thinnest narrative book with simple eye-catching illustration style with the tone of children books. What differs this work from the recent project is that the compositions’ orientation are partially altered and the medium of coloring will be shifting to digital coloring as well. Due to it’s narrative nature, I’ll be facing challenges of fluent narration and planning that makes the book worth re-reading. As many of the composition is enlarged, I would like add more interesting element. Not to mentioned I’m now required to add words to the work which made it a typography work, too.

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This time, I’d like to make it more relevant to the public therefore I will be removing the ME elements from the previous project. This decision will leave out many spaces for unused or new compositions, expanding its potential to become a fresh new work itself. With a children book tone in mind, I need to declare that the book was not made for children who haven’t grasp on the concept of an accordion booklet layout, which is the style I am going after. The layout will extend the total length of my zine and potentially resembles the shape of a pen. (The same consideration I did in the teetorum idea.)

Originally I was going after the art direction of Dr. Seuss or the illustrators style I found on previous project. Then I came across this artist which was shared by my high school classmate on social media.

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The artist’s name is Josef Lee and he writes and illustrates what he claimed “Bedtime Stories for Adults. Stories about Life, about Love, about Stuffs.” I have to apologize to Ms. Joy who tried to search “adult bedtime stories” after I described his work without remembering the artist’s name. The mentioned keywords are pretty risky to lead us to unwanted sites. Resume to Josef Lee. Not only the artist’s storytelling is so random yet compels emotionally, the artist changes his illustration style drastically after every work, giving his audience a fresh new look every update. What Josef Lee inspired me is his narrative, illustration styles, and also his willing to change in every new update. This prompts me to include such quality into my zine.

I’m currently pausing in compositing stage, there’s so many to considered before jumping to execution, so please wait patiently for further updates of this Zine project! See you soon and thanks for reading!

 

 

Since everyone was so far ahead of the updates, I am gonna do a quick summarized update for my project 3 – The Library in ONE post.

Thinking of an installation art about the library is no easy task. This location is very common to anyone who has been a student, yet many of the library visitor has different perspective of the place. The ADM library is rather the most special library among our universities library. This can be due to its special layout design, use of spaces, functionality of different region, and also the research materials it contains. It’s pretty obvious for ADM library’s specialty so I won’t talk too much about it.

When it comes to conceptualizing, I’ve always like to start from my point of view. For me, the library is a place for homework, individual concentration, research paper brainstorming, and research materials searching. I always spend my extra time in the library. (only if I waiting for certain event to start and I have no sustainable leisure alternatives such as my laptop around me. ) What I like to do in the library is surfing through the shelves, and see if there’s any book titles on their spines that catch my attention. It’s kinda like surfing the internet without intentions but you do it in the real life.

SO most of my ideas originate from the act of surfing the bookshelves.

1. see through the shelf 2. obstacle 3. obstacle 2 4. I rather 1 5. I rather 2 6. blind search

(From top left)

I thought about the views we’ve missed when we search for the books, the layers of space formed by the holes that’s formed by the books and the shelves. And then there’s the inevitable obstacle set by people who were too focus on their chosen books and unintentionally blocked the pathways. The space I’ve mentioned in the first one also caught my attention and I wonder if I can express how certain series of books have lost their timeliness due to constant technological upgrades. I’ve also wanted to play with searching action by deliberately covering the paths to increase the difficulty of my “bookshelves surfing”.

The responses from I got from Mr. Michael Tan, is that these works can be improved in terms of directed perspective, importance, and relational attributes. Several artist works are also introduced such as Michael Lee Hong Hwee and Robert Gober,

Finally I’ve chosen the idea of placing little figures around the shelves that stimulates my idea of bookshelves surfing. The decision is based on removing the installation ideas that isn’t manageable, completely curated, and relevant to the whole 4D modules. The little figures concept is inspired by Michael Lee Hong Hwee’s work as he printed out many scaled down versions of him and set them “free to play around”. I wanted to try the concept with my own interpretation and context.

The challenges of the work is the consideration I needed to take on about the work’s detailed presentation. This includes the amount of the little figures, their presentations, and their consistent actions to fit my theme. I will have the mock ups completed within the following week.

Thanks for reading and please look forward to my updates!

20151119_201922Finally we submitted the most tedious working, RAM/traditional skill consuming and brain consuming assignment of the module so far. It’s fun in the process, I am not gonna lie, and I’d like to thank again my fellow classmate JORDAN LEONG for helping me with the photo-shoot and being the cameo in parts of my project. Both of us are glad how they turned out in the end.

From the photo you can see how it was hanged on the wall. I didn’t want it to be tucked by 48 bobby pins as it would not differ from my previous projects. Therefore I improvised with the remaining yawns I have from the 3D module and some of my laundry clips. My classmates reminded me during the presentation that how they looked like developed films from the darkroom, which linked them with my concept perfectly. Overall, the presentation was a success for me because I was able to explain every point of their creation without leaving anything vital. (A flaw I am slowly correcting.)

Ms.Joy was very satisfied with my concept, artist references, color usage, strength of subtleties within the continuing items and how I tied everything together. It can’t be flawless, but the whole project has completed its function: explored my inner self and conveyed them to the viewers. I once again have to thank Ms.Joy for guiding me throughout the process, providing many artist references and context to look out in my work.

20151119_225240My fellow classmates have been a great audience from the start of my presentation. They left encouraging comments as usual in either verbal or written forms. Having such encouragement from them has always been a motivation for me to improve.

Even though today’s presentation has occupied 7 and a half hours, but I felt enriched from seeing how everybody put so much effort into their project. Everyone has developed a strong and distinct style of themselves, broken each every restriction they had and presented an extraordinary show today. I can see how they have worked and brainstormed restlessly to make their best final project. The spirit of “SPOIL MARKET” seems to be spread throughout the class and flourished. However, I have to improvise the quote from The Incredibles’ character Syndrome, “When everyone’s spoiled the market, no one is.” But the “market” has been raised.

The greatest thing about ADM classes so far is, we always look forward to what our classmates going to present in the next project.

To Ms.Joy and everyone from G1: Thanks for everything throughout the semester, hope to see you guys and your masterpieces next semester!

{END}

Our lecturer Ms.Joy commented on my previous and quoted, “What about, then, the role of ‘tinting’ due to their own upbringing or indigenous use of colours prior to commencing on these portrait photography works? How then does this insider, or even, inside-the-insider (since this is such an introspective project) internal ‘lens’ guide you in your compositions and/or colour usage? “. In Japanese photography painting, there was Felice Beato who expressed his view as a foreigner in Japan, and there were Kimbei and Enami who defined their works as a local. Their difference in nationality shaped a contrast of presentation in their works. Now, the country is myself, and I’m the ghost slash resident of my body. Therefore, you are able to see how the following work can be differentiate as how others see me, and how I see myself. Disclaimer: For those who didn’t read through the visual journal scans in the previous post, here’s a recap and elaboration of my concept. Sit tight, it’s going to be a long ride.

There’s always something on my face as it signifies my current commonness in the world. I’m nobody yet, I’ve not construct a final form, a true self to face the world. But I’m the lead character of the following frames, therefore the objects can be eye-catching to the viewers and leave an impression. Plus, it covers my face, so my actions speak the loudest.

ME

adaptable ADAPTABLE: I am adaptable, which I am proud of in terms of changing living location. Growing up in a hostel since secondary school, like everyone else, I developed a self disciplinary adjustment to suit myself in strange environment. Well, of course Singaporean post-army are trained better. (Explanation of each frame’s composition.)

  1. However, I never like to be put into strange environments, so is anyone. When I first arrived Singapore, I haven’t met any friends from either local or my home country. I don’t like to be alone, especially being at somewhere I don’t know yet. The RED ORANGE bench signifies a new community breed in the complementary BLUE, an insecure faith that can be either exciting or disappointing place. I am sitting awkwardly on the bench, in YELLOW ORANGE, unable to fit in yet as I am slightly different from the new community.
  2. Sometimes, I can be desperate to resolve my loneliness. I need someone to deal with the new life with me. But, usually, it doesn’t always go the way I want. The BLUE VIOLET dominated the whole environment and appeared to be darker than the previous frame. The ORANGE bench changed lighter in hue but the darker environment signifies a worsen situation I am in. A YELLOW me is trying to optimize my attitude towards the surrounding. Usually, my optimistic view takes time to construct. A really long time.
  3. My own color changed along the color wheel, indicating my change to be a better adapter as well. The environment turned VIOLET as it can be worsen or improved depending on my own perspective. The bench turned YELLOW ORANGE, offering a YELLOW GREEN me, an newly independent being a chance to settle in it.

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stubbornSTUBBORN: I am stubborn sometimes, and always uses my own ways to complete certain task. Usually trapped by my own opinions and thoughts, my overthinking is so imaginative, it can be write down onto a script. I’m currently not flexible enough to go further as I am still letting my emotions to control many aspects in my life instead of my logic. After adapting the environment, which turned GREEN as it became ideal and comfortable, the ORANGE me is in a vibrant satisfaction, (As you can see through the tinting.) does not let go of the VIOLET bench, the past and old things I found favorable.

=

meME: One lucky sonofagun that managed to survive with a conformist attitude because he met great human beings throughout his life who help him through his worst moments. I’ve met so many great people that most of my life owe a great debt to them. My family, friends, ex-crushes, teachers, you name it. I caused most of my downs in my life but it was them who pushed and advanced me to a better place. The color changes in the frames are following the TETRAD order in the color wheel. The VIOLET background signifies my immense in my own favorites and my RED friend is the driving element for me to shift from the safe GREEN bench another environment. As the for the last frame, the BLUE background foreshadows my arrival to another strange environment.

BETTER ME

thoughtful

THOUGHTFUL: The painting used was my sister’s (www.sijieloo.com) painting Listening to the Orishas, acrylic on canvas. 36×36″. I regarded myself being not as thoughtful as a member of a society should be. I’m only thoughtful towards the categories I’m interested in. So thoughtful is the trait that makes me a better person, for the ones I love, and the ones who love me. Staring at an empty canvas with rich expression and thoughts projecting in the back of my head is how I wanted to express this personality. The mundane GREEN was lightened up by my thoughts and the VIOLET hue hinted inspiration possessed by me in a trustworthy BLUE shirt.

minus

minus procrastination

PROCRASTINATE:  I tend to do this a lot. By removing it, I can achieve more, be what I want and do what’s necessary for my better future, before giving myself too many excuses. In the frames, my enjoyments in the serene BLUE was taken away within the change of TRIAD colors. The pen is my necessities to advance forward in a climatic energized RED.

=

better meBETTER ME: An anti-conformist. I was pulled away by responsibilities (The pen.) in an analogous colored path. I painted myself in BLUE as it doesn’t fit in the color set, meaning I won’t be settling down until I achieved what I want.

IDEAL ME

creativeCREATIVE: As a wannabe creator or rather an artist, creativity is one of the things I craved the most. The ideal me will constantly be able to see the world in many perspectives and always think out of the box. Creativity is so abstract that it can’t be obtained instantly, but to gain through training and gaining knowledge. The BROWN box is a discordance to the purple analogous series starting from BLUE VIOLET to RED VIOLET.  Yet a BLUE GREEN umbrella appears to harmonized the frame by forming a TRIAD, symbolizing my ideal flexibility within being creative. Without it, there will be stubbornness.

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experienced

EXPERIENCED: An ideal me should always be prepared for any circumstances, be resourceful and thoughtful while meeting certain problems. This might take a long time to achieve as experience varies with time, but comparatively we are wiser everyday. It’s not necessary to boost my experiences instantly, but the more of it the more I can advanced. The color of wisdom BLUE VIOLET is painted on the umbrella, protecting the ideal me through the rest of the TETRAD color as they advanced from a safer minor GREEN obstacle to greater influential YELLOW ORANGE and finally to an intense obstacle colorized as RED.

=

ideal meUNIQUE: Perhaps an ideal me is a unique being. Recognized by all and ignored by none, or maybe on the contrary? Perhaps an ideal me can stand out from the crowd being unique for being extraordinary, for what I am? What I do? Or, What I left? The idea of that expressed with me in a creative RED VIOLET, still be able to stand within the COMPLEMENTARY YELLOW GREEN, with the previous items remaining the same for continuity.

ME IN 5 YEARS

Here’s the part where I was inspired by Edward Hopper’s walls that restrict his paintings’ characters.

minue stubbornminus STUBBORN: Me in 5 years is an ambiguous stage. Who knows? Maybe I removed my stubbornness, letting go what I’ve been desired for too much, embracing what I was given. DARK YELLOW GREEN wall as my spiritual obstacle, BLUE GREEN pants signifies my freedom, an ORANGE me embracing the sky without restrictions.

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skilledSKILLED: Perhaps after 5 years of learning from the great people around me, I potentially surpass the teachings and be skilled enough to challenge the vast world. My color painting ends when the ME IN 5 YEARS left the window, as nothing can define myself who’s in the outside world.

=

me in 5 yearsME IN FIVE YEARS: There will be infinite possibilities occurring on me, maybe going up, maybe tumbling down. These possibilities are determined by, as I fly through the sky (outside world) with different colored wings. (Many version of myself. Sounds poetic?)

[To be continued…..]

Last time, I spoke about Japanese photography painters. These terms are surprisingly new to me considering I’ve read many photography magazine but none of them mentioned these innovating styles. Like George Melies, these pioneering “color photographers” are the ones who proved photographs can be colorful as well.

War photographer Felice Beato was one of the first photographers who introduced journalist photography. He shot and reserved hundreds of rare war photographs from the east where and when the Qings still reluctantly ruling China, including the Opium war between British and Munching China. Later before he settled in Burma, he opened a photography studio in Japan, teaching Japanese citizen to learn photography. And among these disciples, there are Kusakabe Kimbei and T. Enami.

2966216_orig beato beato artist-with-a-brush-photographed-by-an-artist-with-a-camera-ca-1915-28-by-t-enami-1340429480_org japanesedream4-560x403_440 beatofelice-beato-19th-century-photos-japan

Felice Beato captured a variety of Japan during the Meiji period. He was permitted to shoot many of the unforeseen Samurai Culture, reserving the image of the real Samurais and Japanese soldier, and introducing this little country beside China to the Westerners. Therefore, the viewers felt like tourists, observing Japan as a foreigner, just like Beato.

kimbei Kusakabe_Kimbei_-_Writing_Letter_(large) Kusakabe_Kimbei_-_22._Girls_Dancing

Kusakabe Kimbei’s worked in a different style compared to Beato. As a local photographer, he mainly explored the world of Japan’s female, including the geishas. Kimbei used plenty of color to create a lively atmosphere of geishas’ dancing yet with the same techniques, he depicted various woman in their unique characteristics, such as a mother was painted green as a soothing character, a young woman with pink pigments to embrace her youth.

japan-vintage-farsari-tenami FUZZY_SLIGHTLY_WARPED_AND_LAZY_DAYS_in_TENAMIS_YOKOHAMA_STUDIO.123201755_std enami6559fb9682_ot enami fuji

T. Enami or Nobukuni Enami, also captured the life of Japanese, but as a local. Through the lens of Enami, viewers are able to see the daily life of Meiji’s Japan as Enami shows not only the famous samurais and geishas but common citizens as well, giving us a glance of the working society.

enami6559fb9682_o 2966216_orig beato felice-beato-19th-century-photos-japan t enami fuji Kusakabe_Kimbei_-_Writing_Letter_(large)beato

As you can see, the three photograph painters used almost the same blue in their photographs, yet they depicted different environment and meaning in their photographs’ characters. Such as the serenity around Mt. Fuji, the symbol of honor in a samurai towards his master, the commonness in working labors, and even the intelligence of a writing woman.

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beato

Even depicting almost the same theme, you can see the different expressions through the use of color. Their motto was not recreate realistic colorization but sending subtle messages to people who view the photographs. Thus they didn’t colorize the skins and unnecessary items. A little color altering can go a long way.

Inspired by their work, I combine the motives I had from the previous and attempted to colorized my photos in different possible ways. In the meantime, after some research I finally found a color wheel that simply summarized how we have been using color to express different emotions and environments.

emotional-and-psychological-meaning-of-colourWith the help of Photoshop, I am able to create a few colorization style by selecting different layering of my pure colors. These methods included layering a portion of B&W photos with semi-transparent color. (Sneak peak!)

test work

This is just a test photo.

better me 4

Or tinting them entirely with the hue to create a film style from the 60s. Movies in the 60s tends to tint their whole scene into certain color to express atmospheric tension, before color correcter was invented.

better me 1

By color correcting the photo’s, we can still see the original colors, but the tint can be seen as well. This is what movies nowadays usually do, but in a more subtle way.

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The color scheme used in film has to be created using real props with similar colors and software editing. Since I can’t do that much during the production, I figured why not express my concept in an eye-catching way by covering the details in the same color. This way, viewers can see the colors far ways and able to capture the details when they’re near to it.

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Also, I tried to recreate the effects of the mentioned photograph painters. This effects only show color of the key element in the photo, providing each of their own meaning in the image.

Lastly, the pictures below are my journal’s snapshot showing my thought process. Don’t worry if you can’t recognized my handwriting. I’ll type them in my next post when the final results are uploaded as well.

20151115_195943 20151115_195953 20151115_195957Adaptable + Stubborn = ME, a lucky sonofagun that miraculously met great friends and survived.

20151115_200006 20151115_200010 20151115_200016Thoughtful (In any aspect) – Procrastination = BETTER ME, an anti-comfort person, at least willing to be defy comfort.

20151115_200153 20151115_200035 20151115_200039Creative x Experienced = IDEAL ME, standing out in an extraordinary way, with what I am, what I do, and what I left.

20151115_200054Skilled – Stubborn = ME IN 5 YEARS. Freed from my limitation, with infinite possibilities awaits.

[To be continued…….]

Time sure flies fast, a week has passed and you definitely realized the previous post was filling last week’s spot.

So, ignore my imperfect blog maintenance.

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Excuse my handwriting. Side note: DIPLOMATIC was later changed to ADAPTABLE, I’ll explain later.

As you can see from above, these are my finalized equations for EGO. (Spoilers~)  I got to admit all these properties might seems hard to be hard expressed by my concept: Using aspect ratio 16:9 and frame photos like it was from a film shot, and present it accordingly like it has a story accompanied by linear perspectives. The photos are not shot in color but monochromatic, which will later colorized monotonously with Photoshop to present hand-painted photo effects.

IT is a long concept name and I’ll explain how they were thought out. Firstly I wanted to show my interest in terms of future major in the project (as suggested by Ms. Joy.) and film’s usual ratio 16:9 is the obvious way to present what I planned to do in my future career. Soon, I came across a video that analyze Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.

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I’ll focus on its visual rather than its message. That’s in another level.

Edward Hopper’s usage of colors was simple yet striking and memorable. It shows a simple perspective planned picture that we might see in real life. I then wondered if I could achieve this effect as there’s always too much complicated background colors I can’t alternate, and I am not such skillful painter either. Either way, I have to come out with something. So, I sketched out my compositions first.

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Somewhere in the pages you can see Wes Anderson’s name, a director who utilized perspectives, symmetry and colors to produce stunning shots.

Soon after, I remembered there’s once a time when filmmakers painted the films frame by frame to produce color films. The part of colorizing black and whites sprung from my mind while I was composing the final frames.

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I must admit, it’s Scorsese’s Hugo that taught me about one of the pioneer of filmmaking, George Méliès

Ms. Joy suggested more artists who did the same to not film but photography during the consultation. She told me to study the following artist: Felice Beato, Enami Nobukumi, and Kasuka Kimbei. They are pioneers in color photography as well and try to understand how and why they choose their colors when they were given the ability to do so. I’ll present my research of them in my next post and now I have to move on to my equations first.

As I said, most of my properties given by my classmates are formed through experiences and mistakes, some only appeared to certain people. I’m not saying they’re not my sincere personalities, but there are some traits that portray me from the start to develop these latter traits. For instance DIPLOMATIC is a word I agreed initially, as I always performs as the middle man among friends and dislike unnecessary conflicts, basically try not to speak the wrong words. ADAPTABLE on the other hand isn’t born with me as well, but it does summarize my ability to cope various environments, which happens throughout my life. I’ve always considered my daily routine flexible wherever I go. The same statement goes with me among my friends as I am usually the one who compromise. It’s a good thing for trying new stuff, but too passive in a way that I usually follow along where life took me to.

As for the rest of the properties, they’re subconscious flaws that sometimes stop me from advancing. Sometimes I was slowed down due to traits I lack, therefore these traits ended up in the BETTER/IDEAL zone.

I am eager to show you my finalized frames but I rather show them in my next post. It is because they’ll reveal too much and were incomplete as well. I obvious won’t hide merely 10% of it. So keep on anticipating!

(To be continued….)

Not the literal meaning though! So after two weeks of intense brainstorming. (Which basically for me is staring at my visual journal MOST OF THE TIME, am I being too honest?) Okay back to the point! Here’s my progress of conceptualizing my EGO.

So, what is me? what am I? Looks like we are never too early to experience existential dilemma. To sum up all my thoughts, I preferred to refer the conclusions of me from the previous activity.

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Yep, this one.

Here’s me summarizing all the properties of me that was shown to my classmates throughout the semester.20151108_151048

There’s a saying that bystanders see the game better, so I assume this is the almost accurate depiction of me. However, living with myself since birth, I (supposed to) know myself best. After a few hours of revisiting my memories of two decades, I concluded that some of these personalities shown cannot fully depict what I am YET. This is because they’re built up through my experiences and mistakes, and some are just specifically shown to certain persons, what really catalyze them may not be on the list. Then it hit me. These catalysts maybe are the one that formed what I am, and some of them is just not that good to admit.

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These little jottings really helps me to understand what I need. Sorta like talking to myself.

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It may looked you-don’t-say, but at least it clarifies me better than my cluttered brain.

To explore the catalyst that might hidden in my subconscious, I forced myself to write down at least 7 of the equations I can formed with the properties written in the previous page as nominees for the finalist. This seemingly effective self exploration exercise took hours to finish, but it certainly aid my understanding to myself.

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Hope it helps YOU to understand more about me as well.

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I used color markers to indicate repeated properties I used. Some of them are what I have, some are what I wish to have, some are what I wish to not have.

Gradually all the catalysts, properties I wish to have, and properties I hope to remove surfaced. Just as I was writing all these equations, a concept was formed in my head thanks to the video I shared in the previous post. It was at first sounded a bit troublesome, but in some way I knew it can represents myself. Right after I finished the tedious equation forming, I quickly jotted down the concept that was freshly unfolded.

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Hope you don’t mind its blurriness.

This concept is a freaking challenge for me. After conceptualizing it, I asked myself, can I really find a way to express it. Some part of me screamed, “YOU FREAKING MORON, HOW ARE YOU GONNA STAGE THESE SHOT INTO WHAT YOU WANT AND DO YOU THINK IT’LL BE CLARIFYING?”

One week later, I proved myself wrong.

(To be continued…..)