Micro Project 7 ~ Video Selfie

The alter ego that I have chosen to be for this microproject is an artist who is also a traveller, one who travels to gain inspiration.

Through the depicted journey in this video, I develop a deeper relationship with the location I am in as time progress. This is shown through the intervals of me removing my shoes, socks and lastly walking barefooted. I also decided to add a black and white filter to anonymise the location, allowing it to be anywhere imagined.

How can the video selfie be used to alter identity?

When something is being filmed, chances are that people normally put up a front for the camera in order to be perceived in a different light. When given the freedom to decide what goes into the video, we have the opportunity to curate our identity in a way that is more difficult to do in person.

How might video be used to conceal identity?

When it comes to watching a video of a person, I’ve always thought that it was almost impossible to figure out / conclude one’s true identity. Physically, the editing and framing of the video could conceal a person’s voice, face or body part and hence not allow audiences to understand the full truth.

How do the objects that surround you contribute to your sense of identity?

Aside from the spontaneous route that I took throughout the video, one of the things that I thought of including was a location with a wider variety of textures on the ground. It contributes to the sense of identity that I am open to exploring a range of places not specifically cities or rural areas.

Research Critique 3 ~ Glitch & The Art of Destruction

the art of styrofoam destruction

For our micro-project, the art of destruction, Jia Ying, Frederick, Melo and I ‘destroyed’ the original state/shape of these styrofoam pieces that we found in the 3D room. We reused random pieces which previous users had considered as ‘trash’ and transformed it into a new form of creation.

It didn’t matter to us what the original shape was, nor how it would turn out to be. This was our way of embracing inconsistencies and accidents; just by going with the flow of how the heat gun wanted to corrode the styrofoam which turned out it disintegrated slowly into nothing. Through the destruction, the solid state of our styrofoam structure transformed into toxic within the air which we then inhaled 🙂

Through this project, I started to look at the term ‘destruction’ in a different light. With the negative connotation that it tends to hold, this project conveyed examples that demonstrated destruction as another form of construction; something we can choose to look at positively instead of negatively. With reference to the glitch studies manifesto article, Rosa Menkman said, ” I emphasize the positive consequences of these imperfections by showing the new opportunities they facilitate. ”

final outcome

Relating this project back to our glitch exercise, the intentional ‘bugging’ of something acts as a form of artistic expression by being a “poetic embrace of noise and error”, as quoted by Jon Cates. The glitched images that we created reminded me of abstract art. It pushes us to break the standard rules and boundaries of art that it normally conforms to. “Pushing different aspects o the machine world to see their thresholds, and experiment and play.” Not only were our glitched outcome a form of experimental artistic expression, the process of how it came about to be from person to person allows for every individual’s input.

Image making through type ~ Process + Final

Before proceeding with my concept and 4 compositions, I had to first list out my 4 future jobs. Upon further reflection of these jobs, I realized that I’ve always wanted to pursue them as a child perceiving these as pretty fun jobs.

Flight attendant
Interior designer
Baker
Supermarket cashier

Starting off with objects that I could possibly include visually into my compositions, I began brainstorming for things that were relevant to the jobs in my sketchbook.

brainstorming

sketches

Following the development of ideas, I began sketching possible compositions. The interior designer ~ dollhouse sparked the idea of using other childhood toys to portray the remaining jobs. This concept of including childhood toy sets was then included in my art direction.

Toy cashiers

Kitchen/food sets

Prior to coming up with all the compositional concepts, I proceeded to draw them in greater detail so that I could lightly sketch it on the tracing paper before sewing the thread on.

SEWING PROCESS

Trial test aka exploring the medium:

embroidery + pen detail

embroidery + colouring details

I choose to sew on tracing paper because its translucency allowed for layering of backgrounds.

Sewing process

During the sewing of circles in the first composition, I realised that it was more efficient to poke holes in the paper beforehand with the needle.

Colouring in areas with colour pencils

TOP LAYERS

BACKGROUND LAYERS

Air stewardess – Plain white background
Interior designer – floor plan
1. floor plan
Baker – recipe pages
1. recipe pages
Cashier – receipts
1. grocery receipts

FINAL PRESENTATION

Concept & message of work:

Telling of my future jobs with the progression of time through
Neatness of embroidery and background layer decreases with time
- Creasing of paper increases
- Increased length of thread that remains at the back

Art direction:

Embroidery with monochromatic threads on the first layer with pen and colour pencil detailing
Setting of job further emphasized in the second layer
Fitting the letters of my name into the ‘structure’ of each respective job so that it can’t really be replaced with any other letter
Using childhood toys as a guide for the compositions

The order of my four jobs is in the chronological order of age starting from a young adult, to adult, middle age and lastly as an elderly.

my name is Teri and I am an air stewardess

Inspired by the Chinese aeroplane chess board game that I use to play as a kid, I thought it was very suitable for this job as an air stewardess. The background for this piece was plain white to portray the neatness and certainty I have as a young adult. Blue monochromatic colour scheme.

my name is Teri and I am an Interior designer

The composition of this piece I think turned out the strongest amongst the rest. It was the first piece that I was very certain of and it bridged the linking of letters into the structure of the item itself, which in this case was a dollhouse. As for the second layer background, I draw a floor plan in shades of pink to match with the red monochromatic scheme in the front.

my name is Teri and I am a baker

The letter t in this third piece represents a cake on a baker’s table. The surrounding decorative materials around it make up the remaining letters in my name. In this composition is where I bring in collaging in the background; collaging of old recipe books but still arranged rather neatly. The use of green/yellowish pages complements the green monochromatic scheme in the front.

my name is Teri and I am a supermarket cashier

For my final job as an old woman, I’ve also wanted to sit by the cashier scanning groceries for others. Using a toy cashier set as a guide, I altered the structure of the set so as to fit the letters of my name. The age in this is reflected in the messy collage of receipts in the background. I used shades of grey for the thread in this while pops of colours from the receipts peak through the tracing paper.

Image making through type ~ Research

Kicking off graphic form this semester 2, project 1 reminds me of a combination of last semesters activities such as mark making and the topics of surrealism and dadaism. The brief of this project is to create typographic portraits describing our future jobs by using letters from our names.

ARTIST RESEARCH ` DADA

Starting in the early 20th century, dada was a literary and artistic movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland. It revolved around European avant-garde and stepped away from crafting for aesthetic purposes, rather for creating works that evoked questions about the artist, the purpose of art and society. Creations from the dada movement ranged from performance art to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting and collage.

A few artists from the dada movement includes Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Hoch and Hans Arp.

Marcel Duchamp:
– mechanisms of desire and human sexuality
– fondness for wordplay

Fountain (1917), Marcel Duchamp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)#/media/File:Duchamp_Fountaine.jpg

“By removing the urinal from its everyday environment and placing it in an art context, Duchamp was questioning basic definitions of art as well as the role of the artist in creating it.” – Philadelphia Museum of Art

This artwork is a prime example of how dada artists are known for their manipulation and use of existing, everyday objects. Relating this back to the project, I was thinking that I could incorporate objects found/related to the future jobs with the inclusion of typography.

Hannah Hoch

https://kunstvensters.com/2016/08/04/kunstgeschiedenis-dada/hannah-hoch-dada-dolls/

german photomontage artist active in the dada movement

Address in her pioneering artwork in the form of her photomontage the issue of gender and the figure of a woman in modern society
Hannah Hoch helped to expand the notion of what could be considered art by incorporating found elements of popular culture into ‘higher’ art
Dada puppet (1916), dark playful dolls, influenced by writer Hugo ball
Promoted the idea of women working creatively more generally in society

I was really inspired by Hoch’s collage style, especially the colours incorporated which flow together smoothly. The layers in her pieces add a lot of depth to the work.

Even though I did further research on artists during the dada movement such as Hans Arp, Hannah Hoch and the Russian Constructivists, I had other ideas in mind; one that included the use of embroidery, similar to what I did towards the end of last semester.

Recently, I had been following quite a few embroidery artists on Instagram hence influencing thoughts on wanting to explore this medium more. One of which is teeteeheehee aka Teresa, a Singaporean embroidery artist.

I really admired the level of detail that Teresa could achieve with embroidery as well as the texture that comes with it. It is also a form of art that feels very delicate which was something that I would like to work towards as an art direction.

Another aspect of the project that I was looking into while researching was colours. Considering that I had the intention of incorporating layers into my composition, I thought that I might be neater to go with a monochromatic colour scheme.

more instagram discoveries