Month: October 2017

4D Project 3 Process

Concept

For this project, I begun with this set of sketches as my concept:

I was very interested in the idea of “what happens when we sleep”. In medical science, a lot of repair functions occur while we sleep, thus I wanted to take a fun twist on that.

Image result for rosy apple cheeks cartoon

I decided to talk about how “rosy apple cheeks” come about.

Research/ Experimentation

As seen in part (2)–The “fall”

I was looking at this animation to get references for a falling action. However this was too challenging as I had to convey motion, texture and weight. Thus I decided to think of something else.

This transition is however crucial and I still had to cover what I can’t fake. Thus I considered composing for a huge seed to fall, then for seed dispersal to happen before the trees grew again. However, this did not help to obscure the awkward transition I was struggling with.

Eventually, I decided to go further with the theme of a dreamscape/ fantasy and just to suggest the workings of magic.

I used a radial gradient to create a glow around my hand. I then added “magic sparkles” by editing a photo of the galaxy. Rather than attempt to obscure it, I chose instead to draw emphasis to this transition.

To further play around with the idea of magic, I let the soft toy extend the length of the hand, making it clear that this was no realistic. This also helped with adding more elements in the mis-en-scene to make it more visually appealing.

As seen in part (2)–The “crumble”

This was overly ambitious and I had absolutely no idea how to execute it. Thus instead, I made the soft toy levitate the hand back to it’s original space.

Since the soft toy was “floating up” I tried to play with the idea of going underwater.

However the rendition below was quite boring, so I tried to slant the water levels so as to play around a bit more with the composition.

I was flirting with the idea of adding in the movement of fishes also to add variety into the pictures. I looked at these videos to gain inspiration.

(02:21 onwards)

However, upon harder consideration, I realised that the sea/fish sequence did not value add to the full story. Thus I scrapped the sequence.

Editing and Technicality
To move my soft toy around, I had to use clothes pins to pin it into shape.  This picture below shows the real photo, before any form of editing. I used to pin to hold the soft toy so as to minimise my contact with the toy and thus help with editing. This picture shows the cleaned up version of the photo.This picture shows the final look of the photo, complete will illustrations added in.

4D Project 2– Walking Together

As mentioned before, I wanted to do a story on slippers and play around with a photo angle that we seldom encounter– the worm’s eye view.

My work is titled, “Walking Together”.

 

Brainstorming for 4D Project 2

I was really excited to start on this assignment. At first I was interested to tell a non-linear narrative like the one from Memento by Christopher Nolan or Mr Nobody by Jaco Van Dormael. However, I realised that it might be too complicated to do that with merely 10 photos and sound tracks.

Hence I changed my idea and decided to instead give attention to neglected sights in our daily lives. So what is an angle that we usually forget to consider going about daily life? I realised that we seldom look at this from the ground level, literally from the angle one would see from at a worm’s eye view.

Thus I have decided to tell the story of a pair of slippers in this project.

  1. Slippers as a new object.
  2. Slippers running through a traffic light (2)
  3. Slippers on a rainy day (2)
  4. Slippers getting damaged and dirtied (2)
  5. Slippers at the market (2)
  6. Slippers becoming broken

Human +; Tidbits after our FIRST Outing

Disclaimer: I am usually not a big fan of works that are speculative of technological advancements. Thus, the works I will touch on are more “traditional” in terms of subject matters.

Firstly, I actually really enjoyed the use of space of the entire show.

Installation view of “Transfigurations” by Agatha Haines (Photo credits: Agatha Haines)

The whole show was divided into four sections and thought-provoking quotes like those in the picture above are littered around the space. The different takes on how technological and life sciences are seeing their distinction being blurred are juxtaposed with quotes on the issues of bioethics. Hence, I feel that the show was one that questions and examines our definition of humanity more than one that merely surveys scientific advancements.

My favourite work was a video piece by Chinese artist Cao Fei– Whose Utopia?.

Cao Fei (Photo credits: Zhang Zhi)

This three-part video is a product of the artist’s half-a-year residency at the Osram light-bulb factory in Foshan. Cao conducted workshops for the factory workers, many who are young emigrants from the inland provinces of China.

I was really taken in by the ingenuity of juxtaposing different forms of human expressions with the setting of the factory. Cao marries the mundane and ritualistic process of factory work with the fragility and preciousness of an individual’s dreams and aspirations. The use of dance and music becomes almost a form of serenade for the everyday, faceless factories workers. The tension of an individual and mass systems (conforming) has always been a subject matter within creative works.

Charlie Chaplin’s Factory Work in Modern Times

The different worker’s mode of expressions and the use of moving shots give irony towards the factory setting that is fixed and generic. She presents the people as fluid and living, almost as a feminine element. Whereas the factory space is rendered in a slightly greener lighting, denying viewers the comfort of a familiar and naturalistic imagery despite the artfully executed cinematography. The never-ending factory lines, the mammoth scale of capitalistic production becomes almost monolithic and a masculine element. Cao highlights this tension within our society, at once honouring human creativity and resilience of the human spirit while also challenging the systems of productions and economics.

Still from Cao Fei’s “Whose Utopia?” (translates to “my future is not a dream”)

Whose utopia is it when everyone is forced to put aside their own dreams and aspirations? Whose utopia is it when machines are replacing humans and leaving us with less options?

I also really enjoyed Liam Young’s work New City: Machines of Post Human Production.  I really enjoyed the projection of different city skylines being stitched together. I also found it very clever for Young to use a projector rather than a screen or lightbox. This denies viewers a chance to closely inspect the landscape he has composed– which pokes fun at how the cosmopolitan landscape is one that is not foreign but also not close to heart.

This display is placed directly across and in conversation with a video loop of a factory production line. The austerity of a factory setting, how clean, angular and bright it is juxtaposes the sepia-looking and cluttered appearance of the city skyline.

Overall I really enjoyed the whole work. The only regret was the series of machinery mock-ups that were placed in between the two projections.

Image may contain: indoor

I felt that this disrupted the dynamics between the two screens. It would have been preferable if the space between was left empty such that viewers can be engulfed entirely by the two large projections. And the mock-ups would have been nicer if they were placed against the wall outside the room where the projections were so they can act as a prelude to the experience.

All in all, the outing was really fun and I hope to have more of these outings! 🙂