Creative Industry Report: Foxville Art (Anoosha Syed)

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Anoosha Syed

The creator of Foxville Art is none other than one of the astounding children’s book illustrator; Anoosha Syed. Born in Pakistan 26 years ago, she migrated from country to country with her family and ended up in Toronto (Canada) as a freelance illustrator and character designer. As she travels often, she felt that she was too disconnected from her roots as someone of Pakistani blood.

POC Skin Studies, Anoosha Syed

POC Skin Studies, Anoosha Syed

Anoosha aims to illustrate for children’s book with the goal to include people of various race and cultures, and to also allow kids to feel represented as a part of society with no discrimination. I am a strong believer that learning starts from young and we are never born with the personality traits that we have. Which is why I state that racism is something that you are taught, but not something that you are born with. From Anoosha’s illustration, she has a fair share of multi-diverse characters in her books who have an amazing friendship and are always on a great adventure. Anoosha’s illustration aids the storyline of the book well with her in depth studies in painting people of colour, without the need to stick to just a single colour to represent a certain race. She has various studies of shapes, sizes, outfits (of different race), poses and facial expressions to aid her illustrations.

Daring Dreamers Club, Anoosha Syed Illustration

Other Words for Home, Anoosha Syed Illustration

The reason why Anoosha’s artwork inspires me is because the way that she portrays her art feels welcoming with the soft pastel colour palettes that she uses and adorable character design. Despite the soft look of her illustration, she still manages to convey her message (regarding representation across) to her audience. Also, to have a minority in a renowned industry is a huge steppingstone for us people of colour. As content creators, we have our respective voices and whatever we post online or at art exhibits, are of our own voices wanting to be heard.

Sound Arts: Reading Assignment

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What is sound?

Sound is the wavelength and vibrations we hear transmitted from everyday things we see, hear and touch. According to the article, almost all activities in the world has an aural component. There’s 4 different kind of sounds found in the article. Namely sound art, sound scape, sound sculpture and sound design.

How has it been used in society?

Sounds are everywhere around us and we can never avoid sounds. From the alarm we hear in the morning, to the youtube videos we watch right before we head to bed. Sounds are used as a form of entertainment, such as television shows, music and movies. At the same time, sounds are used as a form of an emergency. From sirens to the SOS signal. Lastly, sounds are also used as a form of communication. We talk to people everyday face to face and also through phone call or video call. It’s mostly used as a form of communication to understand each other.

What makes it an art?

The composition of the sound determines whether it’s art. Adding melody and tunes can make the sound an art. For example music, producers and composers compressed, normalized and fill every moment and crevice of the groove with sound. Something that is pleasing to the ear can be an art. Audience must feel an emotion to let that particular sound be an art. If that sound does not spark much feeling in the audience, then it’s not really an art.

How does advancement in audio technology affect our sense?

Aural displays are mostly associated with visual screening to aid us in our journey of looking/listening to Art. They are there to guide us and to not make the audience confused about the art piece. It sparks a tint of excitement when we hear sound art with a visual screening on the wall. We’ve became highly dependent on technology to determine our emotions of a particular piece.

 

 

Sound Arts: Interesting Finds

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Christine Sun Kim – Game of Skill 2.0

https://vimeo.com/142659892

Christine Sun Kim was born deaf. She created the Game of Skill 2.0 to show the audience how much effort is needed to do a simple everyday job such as listening.  Audience are to interact with the showcase by moving in the line provided by Christine. As they move along the lines, the handheld device will start to emit sounds (narrative written by Christine, read by an intern at the museum). The sounds will be emitted based on the way they hold the device and also the speed and direction that they are moving.  This is known as “scrubbing”.

I feel that this piece was made to create awareness to the audience. We sometimes take advantage of our 5 daily senses and are never thankful only until it’s gone. This interactive display is good for educational purpose too as it teaches children and even adults to always be grateful for being able to do everyday tasks with ease.

Great Animal Orchestra – Bernie Krause

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXQBnFK-zYc

Bernie Krause has recorded the sound of thousands of animals in nature and place them in a recording. It was a music from nature as Bernie aims to raise awareness of animal extinction on our planet. Most of the sounds he recorded were of animals that is on the verge of extinction. He indicated how most audience would find it boring to just listen to the sounds of nature which is why he added in visuals to make it more interesting. He included different sound wavelength to indicate different animals. Animals who has a higher pitch will be placed on top and more waves would appear where as animals with a lower pitch will be placed at the bottom and lesser wavelengths will appear.

I find this piece very interesting as it shows the importance of listening and how it is better if both our visuals and hearing can be combined together to create a better display and interaction.