Monthly Archives: February 2018

Ant Farm, Media Burn Review

(Video of Media Burn, the Project)

On the third space once again, the audience from all parts of the world coincides with the Adobe Connect platform to watch the live conference hosted by Mr Randall Packer and Chip Lord. Founded in 1968 by Chip Lord and Doug Michels, Ant Farm explores the experiment of avant-garde architecture, the medium of television, the power of image, the fetish of automobile design and many other aspects of hyper futurism. Their attempts are often conceptual or realistic, which focuses on disseminating criticism of the American Culture and Mass Media. A strategy to redefine the meaning behind an item perceived by the country’s imaginary.

In one of their initiatives, Ant Farm organized Media Burn, in which 2 drivers dressed in astronaut outfits are put in a 1959 Cadillac which is then renamed as the Phantom Dream Car. They “drove” at full speed right into a wall of flaming television sets. In this act, Ant Farm focused on bringing Cultural Icons in view, to address the extensive presence of Television in daily life through humour. In the 24-minute video, it is styled as a coverage on space launch, which encompasses an exaggerated stagy interview with the group members as well as an interview with John F. Kennedy impersonator.

In the initial phase, things were not smooth sailing. While Michels and Lord were looking for an event sponsor for the planning of Media Burn Project, Walker Art Center was the first to reject the role of the idea of sponsorship. Eventually, the planning of Media Burn took a whopping six months worth of planning as Michels and Lord had the idea of wanting it to be “more than a spectacle”. Through the collision of symbols (Cadillac and Television), this project thoroughly encapsulates and reflect the essence of Guerrilla Television. The act of spreading countercultural propaganda to the public.

My Name Is – Gallery

FINAL POST FOR PROJECT 1

CMYK & RBG Color Test in Adobe Illustrator:

Here’s a side to side comparison between two of the saving options. The colour difference is actually very subtle but it is extremely noticeable, especially the reduction in vibrancy and saturation on the bottom image. (The top one has the most accurate colour)

My Finalfinalfinalone.pdf HAHAHA

 

Presentation day. I’m lowkey sorry it had to be this shot. This was the bestest one I’ve got.

FINAL SUBMISSION X PROJECT 01

Done and dusted.

DIWO – Research Critique Summary

 

“Expanded from the original term known as D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself). D.I.W.O ‘Do It With Others’. Is more representative of contemporary, collaborative – art practice which explores through the creative process of using networks, in a collective manner.” – Garrett

Do-It-With-Others, also known as DIWO in short, is a terminology created in 2006 by Furtherfield. The history of Furtherfield was inspired by punk movement in the late 70s and early 80s. The main objective is to represent and reflect its involvement in a series of grassroots explorations. The application of DIWO allows a sense of openness which facilitates a good mix of sources to achieve a hybrid experience. This action renegotiates the boundaries and roles of both the artist and the curator. This would allow collaboration to take place, either for individuals or businesses. One example we can draw is from the idea of crowdsourcing – an action that aggregates people with similar interests.

Likewise, DIWO is achieved through an online platform/portal where users showcase the project that they are working on concurrently. Ranging from research to software development or a new innovation. In this case, many people would come together and work on the said project to facilitate crowdsourcing.

(According to Marc Garrett) Essentially, its DIWO if…

Back to the practice of DIWO, some of the real-time activities that we, students of Prof. Randall, experienced include Telestroll, Social Broadcast, Exquisite Glitch and the concept of Hole and Space. The whole idea of these exercises is to stimulate peer to peer engagement, as well as to kindle communication and allow for more connections to take place.

Motivated by curiosity and activism, people can collaborate and create controversies in both the physical world and the third space.  Furthermore, the Social Broadcast done via Adobe Connect brings about the idea of a collaborative framework. In this scenario, we would come together and attempt to perform a task via the online webcam. Given that a third space was formed, everyone was able to connect virtually from the comfort of their home, or any part of the world.

In retrospect, people who were initially bounded by time and space limitations (e.g. time zone differences, distance) can now interact and meet others through this space. This form of engagement brings about the communal interaction between people from all over the world.

“The process is as important as the outcome, forming relationally aware peer enactments. It is a living art, exploiting contemporary forms of digital and physical networks as a mode of open praxis, as in the Greek word for doing, and as in, doing it with others.” – Garrett

In the live conference with Marc, the issue of the internet and social media was brought to light. He discussed the importance to make the line between marketing and social utopia fades, the strategies big companies did to eliminate local characteristics, so as to bring their platform to even the remote places o the earth. Project Networking the Unseen served as an important opportunity to put a spotlight on resolving the issue of cultural differences, and that we can use technology to communicate no matter our locations.

My Name Is – Final Four

Hi everyone!

Welcome to my final post of this assignment. It will consist a set of 4 design, that carries an overarching theme. The name of the following series is called:

Circle of Life featuring, The Organic Symmetry

As mentioned in my previous post, some keywords I have in mind while designing my layout consist of:

LINES  |  CIRCLE  |  SYMMETRY  |  FOREGROUND, MIDDLE & BACK  |  NATURE  | PAINTERLY

I wanted my design to look like a set of 4, curated with the intention of delivering a consistent message. An idea that they are produced in the hands of the same designer. Ensuring consistency means careful attention throughout the conceptualization and design phase of your site. I have grouped all these occupations under the theme of “Nature“.

Design 01 of 04 

The Scuba Diver

The nature of this occupation is usually done out of leisure, especially over the holiday. Some of the key sightings any diver will notice are Fishes and Corals. Aside from these elements, every diver is equipped with an oxygen tank and a flipper good for paddling underwater. These are what stood out for me, particularly for this job.

When I was a lot younger, I have always dreamt of what lived beneath the ocean. Was there a whole new world out there for me to venture? Would it be more exciting to live under the surface of water instead of the land? All these were questions that bugged me the most, and I would imagine having mermaids as friends, and swimming with them in cute bikinis hahaha. That would be perfect, isn’t it? A world as surreal as this.

Hence, I thought, why not do the occupation of a diver? And that was how the other 3 nature related jobs came into my mind.

In this very first concept, I designed with a clear intention of having a foreground, middle ground and background. I thought this would provide more depth and perspective to the layout, hence I layered images by images so that it would avoid turning out flat-looking. Also, the colour blue seems like the perfect visual representation of ocean, yes. But I challenged myself to be less literal and went with the colour pink that hints no oceanic vibe. Okay apart from that, bubbles were added, so that the typography pops, making it looks more 3-dimensional.

Additionally, I adore the painterly style, as a result, I decided to incorporate this element into my final layout. I processed and re-done some of these images in Photoshop, to achieve the harmony among all the elements. With that, all components of this piece will tie in together.

 

Design 02 of 04

Bird Whisperer

Dimension. As mentioned in the rationale above, I was seeking for depth from the viewpoint of my audience. To ensure consistency, I maintained the painterly technique and employed this edit on my second layout – The Bird Whisperer.

Staying in the Nature theme, the bird whisperer is someone who is in love with birds, and have the sheer ability to tame any forms of difficult birds that existed. Well, in my case, I am always the victim of bird’s shit. They like pooping on me. Not sure if I am a poop whisperer or what, but I guess bird sounds a lot nicer huh? I created a complimentary watercolour technique background that contained within the circle. I feel like it helps to carry the typography, and makes it stands out more.

The colour scheme I had in mind for this is an analogous combination. I wanted the layout to give off a serene and light atmosphere, bringing my viewer one step closer to nature. Apart from that, the chosen blue is of a soft hue, which falls under the pastel family.

 

Design 03 of 04

Fruit Harvester

My uncle owns a fruit/vegetable farm located in Lim Chu Kang area. Since young, I would often hitch a ride over and learn some planting from him. This is mainly one of the primary reason why I chose Fruit Harvester. I tweaked it a little since I will also be doing a florist, and to avoid overlapping of elements, I narrowed it down to fruits category instead.

The typography is supposed to give off the feeling of an eruption from a fruit. I stuck with the analogous colour scheme for this as well, so as to portray colour harmony and maintain visual consistency. The wooden tree bark texture behind the main typography acts as a filler to hold up the weight of the text, hence strengthening it’s visual weight, ensuring that it still stands out amongst all the colourful fruits.

It was a challenge for me as well, because it seems like the fruits are way too vibrant and that it might overshadow my main typography. I struggled with finding the right colour combination for the font and the background. Decisions… Decisions… Eventually, I chose to go with pale yellow, coral orange and some neutral browns to help even out everything.

 

Design 04 of 04

The Florist

Leaf, Flowers, Spray, and Scissors are what I associate with a Florist. The overall colour falls with green being the primary and most striking shade, and a few accent colours here and there to give the visual a lift.

For the leafy typography, I masked out the leaf layer by layer. To give it more depth, as though the leaf is really growing out from the font itself, I gave the letters an additional shading so it looked less flat. Flower textures are also added to give it a more artsy look (its opacity level is 20%) (can you see it?)

Maintaining the overall pastel and painterly technique, I altered and added Photoshop filters to these vector images so they look consistent when placed together. Lastly, one of the unchanging element that you may have noticed by now will be the directional geometric line art that occurs in every background. I like how it gives off energy and it’s subtleness. Even though the line is super fine, it helped in filling up the empty space, giving these layouts an illusion of a fuller look.

 

Overall, this concludes the first project of the semester! Yay! Thanks for reading!

Ciaos

My Name Is – Process Part 2

Hi there!

I have compiled a series of my progress shots below. Mainly on how I ideate and put my entire design together. (with reference to some of my artists’ inspiration from the first post)

The most time-consuming bit would have to be the conceptualisation of layouts. To have a definite direction that I want to work towards, and it has to be achievable. (with me at an amateurish level) It took me quite a while before I eventually set my heart on a layout. Some of the keywords I have in mind are:

LINES  |  CIRCLE  |  SYMMETRY  |  FOREGROUND, MIDDLE & BACK  |  NATURE  | PAINTERLY

And with these keywords in mind, I manage to come up with something! These are my progressions all summed up in a collage.

FRUIT HARVESTER

 

SCUBA DIVER

 

BIRD WHISPERER

 

FLORIST/BOTANIST

My Name Is – Process Part 1

These are some the occupations that I found to be interesting:

Amusement Park Facilitator, Chef, Shopaholic, Undertaker, Supermarket cashier, Fruit Seller, Donut Seller, Animal Farm Owner, AND A DISNEY PRINCESS. 

 After much rationalisation, I have shortlisted these 4 “professions”, all categorised under the theme of “Nature“. By that, I am referring to jobs that are often associated/accomplished in the wilderness or it has connotations of greens and earthy vibes to it. Will explain more about the rationale behind my concept in the subsequent post to come! Let’s get down to planning.

Color scheme: Pastel is the colour that I am going for. Soft, gentle, desaturated, milky is how you would describe this family of colours. This is also the first time I employ pastel hues into my design work. Have always thought that pastels are too mild, thus making them recede into the background. For this project, the 4 series of mixed media design works will be based on this following concept.

 

1- Scuba Diver/Marine Biologist

Under this panel of job, we can expect to see some marine creatures/bubbles/seawater/sporting gears. For this concept, I will be playing with a serif font. In a professional setting, serif fonts are most often used in formal designs. (newspaper, print, book etc) However, I would like to test out the limitations of the font, pushing the boundaries further.

 

2 – Bird Whisperer

Birds, lots of birds, all decked in painterly style (watercolour). For this series, blue will be the dominating colour, with some use of yellow to create the analogous colour scheme. Have tested out several fonts to go with my initial, but turns out, the serif font is best suited for this layout. Will be exploring other font families in the remaining two designs!

 

3 – Fruit Harvester

Fruits, tools, are what make up of the final composition. In this colour palette, we will be using a daffodil yellow to balance out the pastel theme that surrounds this whole concept. I imagine myself using a variety of earthy toned fruits to compliment the idea of a down to earth harvester. In contrast to the font choice used in the above two layouts, I will be employing a cursive (decorative font) typeface this time around. This is to ensure that explorations of typography are evident, especially in this project!

 

4 – Botanist/Florist

Greens, leafs, florals, tools are what is present in the layout. Pastel green will be the main colour choice. Watercolor style remains consistent, and the typography used will be a Sans Serif font. This font carries a minimal outlook since it does not comes with the stroke at the end of every alphabet.

Part 2 of my Process/Gallery will be up in a bit!

Stay tuned. Ciaos!

Issa Glitch!

FELICIA’S EYES – Initial VS Outcome

Hello, World.

Unrecognisable, is how I would describe the final outcome of the edit. I have to say, I am thoroughly surprised by the transformation. Just by looking at the final outcome, can anyone tell if its an eye? Nope. Is it a duck? Or a man? Or a tree? Nobody knows.

I am so intrigued by the chaos and manipulation of this image. Really happy to be able to do this with the class!

Ciaos!

My Name Is – Research

My name is Felicia, and I’m a…

You’ll find out soon!

This project aims at creating typographic portraits using the letters in our name. Typography, according to online definition goes about the technique of

“Arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed.”

There are some designs I found to be really inspiring, and here are some of my findings:

Loving the designer’s chic and minimalist attempt on this set of work. I am also adoring its clean colour palette. I was so inspired to create a piece of work that speaks volume despite the lack of crazy, flamboyant illustrations. We’ll see how it goes! But as of now, I’m loving this work so much.

The next design inspiration I want to share has a somewhat similar concept.

By the Makers & Co, I love how the concept stands out so much, and the colour works so well together! The designer threw in neutrals with a few pop of bright, attention-grabbing colours to captivate the consumers’ eyes. As opposed to the previous use of the monochromatic colour scheme, this palette has much more to offer in terms of the diversity of colours and layering behind each and every element. This is very close to how I imaged by design to look and feel.

Typography Manipulation:

A style I have been wanting to try out for the longest time!!

Can’t wait to see how it will turn out eventually. More to come!

The Telegarden Review

The Telegarden – Directed by both Ken and Joseph, is a telerobotic garden displayed through an online platform that acquiesces users to interact and connect with the garden. Inspired mainly by the internet, through a small screen, one will see what looks like an industrial robotic arm who takes your biddings.

The interaction is a mash of old technology versus the new – in other words, it means saying goodbye to the traditional agricultural style of plantation where farmers are required to keep an eye on their plant 24/7. Imagine, observing your biennials through the eye of a camera. Its main aim was to foster a strong sense of social interaction and community through intercommunication in the virtual space.

Now, it might not seem like much judging from the advancement of our technology in the current era, but back in the 1990s where internet practices were considered scarce and remote, this is the project is a quantum leap.

The art installation took it preceding commencement over at the University of Southern California. The directors of this project anticipated a challenge to the notion of the internet and post-nomadic community, where the continuance of life is highly dependable on teamwork/synergism.

Over the years of its launch, over 9000 participants were involved in this cultivation project. It was then the location of the installation took a switch and moved from online to live – lobby of Ars Electronica Centre in Austria.

In retrospect, K.Goldberg’s conception on allowing multiple people on control to contribute to online streaming will always remain relevant and tantalizing.

Pareidolia Exercise

 

Hello again, Mimi!

This is to document our very first warm-up exercise on the “Pareidolia” effect.

Here is alphabet A-Y, and this cannot be achieved without the help of my partner, Miss Yeoh Zhenqi! Okay, I guess that is about it. This post serves as a remembrance of how chill and carefree year 1 life is.

Cheers! Will go catch up on some sleep while I can.