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A C C E S S O R I E S 
Nicholas Oen | Wong Yi Ting

When Nicholas and I got paired for this project, we didn’t know what direction to take at first. However, after planning it out with a few mind maps, our fashion accessories started to take shape.

So, firstly, we had to think of what constitutes the good and bad memories. For mine, the good memory was the smell of copic markers, while the bad memories were the smell of surgical gloves. For Nicholas, it was the smell of alcohol that gave him bad memories, whereas the smell of cigarettes was good. Through mind mapping, we realized two of our smells had something in common. The smell of copic markers and the smell of alcohol. Because copic markers are alcohol-based.

We settled on making a pendant and a bracelet, thinking it  was most suitable for incorporating the characteristics and imagery of the scents and memories.

Firstly, the pendant. The pendant represents the smell of alcohol. The idea is that the smell of alcohol lingers around with the person drinking, therefore, we wanted it to be hanging around the neck, mirroring the scent. Also, we used curved and broken planes in order to construct this pendant. This inside spinning shell and the rigid outer layer cause an almost dizzying effect on anyone who looks at it; like the state of intoxication. Furthermore, the inner piece seems to be “floating” in the centre, thus adding on to the lingering smell that alcohol has when one goes to drink.

The pendant also looks heavy, and the outer layer seems to make it look very metallic and inorganic to many. This corresponds with the idea that alcohol smell is actually very strong and is weighty. Moreover, if you notice, the inside piece is painted with a glow-in-the-dark paint. This is supposed to signify the hidden element of the pendant. Because alcohol lasts to stink the drinker even after the drinking is done, the glow in the dark paint only appears when the light is turned off. In comparison, the paint is always there but people only can see it when the light is off. Thus, this pendant is a representation of both the smell of alcohol and the bad memories it gives.

Now, the bracelet. The bracelet represents the smell of copic markers, and is a good memory for me. Why we wanted to do a bracelet is because the smell of copic markers are very light, and usually bracelets are light as they are worn on the hand day in and out. Also, the material used in both pieces are the same. This is because we wanted to show the similarities of both with the alcohol component. However, because one is a good memory whereas the other one is bad, we added an extra component into the bracelet.

The curved plane that seems to be swiftly sticking out in a curved motion represents the fast and light effect that the copic marker’s smell has on the person. That, and the plastic broken planes which break away in a separate direction, only emphasises this sudden whiff of copic marker. And, the transparency of the plastic contrasts the dark opaque wire used to make the effect stand out even more.

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R E S E A R C H

MNEMOSYNE: Greek Goddess of Memory, name stemming from the word mnemonic.

SCENTS

Our sense of smell derives from the olfactory system, which consists of organs and parts that are also part of our chemosensory system. Important parts are the nose, nasal cavity, olfactory epithelium and the limbic system of the brain.  

https://www.mediamatic.net/image/2016/12/14/undefined-774294500.jpg%28%29%282BFAFF5326707BDC1E9D8C136BDEA028%29.jpg

Just to break it down simply:

  1. First you inhale through your nose, taking in the aromatic substances. The molecules will then pass through, the nasal cavity filtering the substances.
  2. At the back of the nasal cavity is the olfactory epithelium where it holds olfactory receptor cells that are special neurons that sense smell. The molecules get stuck in the mucus and bond with the receptor cells, sending signals via the olfactory duct and to the brain.
  3. The signals get sent directly to the amygdala, thalamus and then neocortex – this is the limbic system, the part that specialises in memory, learning, emotions.
  4. As smell affects the body in numerous ways, the body then reacts according to the emotion or memory triggered by the scent, for example: the need to fight-or-flight.

Important to note! Our sense of smell is intimately related to memories as we end up connecting new scents with older ones – either with familiarity or contrasts. Such memories come along with different sets of emotions, which in turns affects how the smell feels to someone.

P R O C E S S
P L A N A R   M O D E L S
 RED: Dominant
BLUE: Sub-dominant
GREEN: Subordinate



For the 1st sketch model, most of the mass stays close to the base. I did some tapering to the dominant, to make it look like its ‘fading’ away into the distance from an angle. The subordinate contrasts with the other two planes as it’s a simple short flat plane with no curvature or bends. The sub-dominant also brings forth a spike of motion, a point of visual interest as it looks as if it’s piercing upwards energetically.

As for the 2nd sketch model, it has more verticality compared to the 1st one. There is also more twisted places, creating more spirals. The dominant here twists in a big spiral, resulting in a spacious void right in the middle of the profile view. The sub-dominant contrasts by being drastically thinner and longer as it stretches high and pierces itself into the dominant. The subordinate is added two-thirds on the sub-dominant for bonus visual interest.

B O T T L E   S C U L P T U R E

We had to base our sculpture off 2 personally significant scents – 1 attached to a pleasant memory, 1 attached to an unpleasant memory. After some consideration, I decided on these scents: Copic Markers as a pleasant memory and Surgical Gloves as an unpleasant memory.

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IDEATION

First off, just to introduce, my group cponsists of Chiharu, Pei Wen and Rebecca!

So we started sharing childhood acquaintances and friendship stories with each other, and we decided to work on someone from Pei Wen’s past. To put it simply:

She knew a guy by name but they never got the chance to interact until they were assigned to the same class. From there, they managed to click and became friends through common interests. Things got a little weird as this guy appeared wherever she went, tagging along whenever there’s something she’s attending to. Then one day he confessed, but she had no mutual feelings so she rejected him. He seemingly stopped but returned to tell her that he had dreams of her and nightmares of her being trapped and helpless. Not only so, he texted saying they need to ‘move on’ and ‘forget each other’, when there was literally nothing between them at all. It was really strange, though she realised he had depression and his clingy delusions probably stemmed from that.

Deciding on a more mysterious and psychological theme (yet again), this person fit the role well.

The character was delusional, so we did some research on mental illnesses of the like. Schizophrenia became the main focus of our research, as we wanted the character to be unable to discern between reality and her work of mind. She would go through unstable moods, aggression and hallucinations.

With the character’s base set, we needed a premise. What would stir a little drama but also balance out with the mystery we wanted to have? Thinking back to how the original guy would be unintentionally clingy, we gave the character someone important that they end up losing. The main character would probably cling on to whatever memory she has of that loved one, who was her sister, and in turn the obsessive behaviour blurs her boundaries of reality and imagination.

The intended climax – the main character eventually realising her sister is gone and won’t ever come back, and she has to learn to live on without her.

https://imgur.com/HtEWH3k

Goodnight Mommy (2014) is an Austrian film that features a pair of twins but one of them is actually dead, a figment of the living twin’s imagination. This was a good example of what we wish to achieve for shots with both sisters.

Once the storybeats were finalised, Rebecca and I worked on some draft storyboards:

SHOOTING

The storyboards were followed loosely as we went with the flow and got better ideas for shots along the way. We actually had to reshoot on different days due to conflicting schedules and the availability of some of the locations. Also, props to Chiharu for shooting for us! It was a tiring ordeal!

While shooting we faced the difficulty of portraying the non existent sister: do we want to use blur? Put her outside of frame? Lower her opacity?

We tried using motion to create the blur, hoping it shows surreality but it just ended up looking like she was moving very fast all the time.

Remembering how Goodnight Mommy places the dead twin in shots, we positioned the sister either uncomfortably out of frame, partially covered or simply oddly placed without following rule of thirds.

So the filtering began and we finalised on a decent amount of usable shots.


Then it was the photo editing! I edited most of them, tweaking them into black and white, adjusting different settings and levels to ensure the photos fit the intended moods perfectly. Following the film noir aesthetic of being mysterious and serious, the black and white visuals really enhances the mood while also minimalising noise and distractions.

There were a few shots that required further manipulating as we did not have time to completely reshoot – mostly removing certain elements of the photo. When the drawings are on screen, it becomes the only thing that’s coloured to bring focus and also giving off importance and sentimentality, like how Sin City (2005) does it to guide the viewers’ eyes to crucial elements.

Audio will be covered in the Final posting!

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F I N A L
Chiharu|Pei Wen|Rebecca|Yi Ting 

STORY
The concept we’ve finalised was vaguely based off an old distant acquaintance that cut off all contact after showing signs of being delusional. It narrates how this character goes through just another daily routine with her sister in the present and how a repressed event haunts her.

SUMMARY
As the film goes, it simply starts off with a shot of two toothbrushes, a basic daily routine with just the main character alone, nothing strange, a normal practice. The sister greets her and they share a moment of kinship before leaving to meet a friend. They stare out the window for a short while and shut the curtains, ready to set out. They chat, laugh, the main character realises – why did their friend not greet or reply her sister? She confronts the friend, there is confusion, puzzled tension.

The friend says, ‘No one’s there.’

That’s when the main character snaps and we are pulled right back into her dimly lit room, her desk messy with a stack of kiddy drawings of her sister and her. She looks through them and is suddenly assaulted with memories with her sister. And how she is now, alone. She takes a moment, stares at the closed curtains and finally opens the curtains and windows, light and natural sounds flooding through the opening. The last shot, an cup with a single toothbrush.

INTERPRETATIONS

The film is in black and white as it sets the melancholy, ‘boring’ but yet mysterious mood.

The story starts and ends with the toothbrush shot – right at the beginning there was an empty mug, then there were two; at the end it was an empty mug again, but then there was one. It shows how the main character has been living an imaginary life with her supposed lost sister and after the dispute, she has a revelation and now she’s back in reality, where it is just her left.

Another shot that sets the start and end is the curtains shot. As the siblings ponder at the window, it was oddly silent before they shut it and all light disappears and they continue on with their day. The lack of noises causes it to feel just slightly out of place, depicting how it wasn’t real, it being a part of the character’s mind. When the main character opens the curtains alone, light shines through and a stream of different sounds enter, showing how she is taking a step forward, moving on from the loss of her sister.

Using reflections and mirrors allowed us to portray the feeling of duality and the fine line between delusions and reality. There are a number of shots that has either reflections, half-half lines or contrast of lighting just to show that.

AUDIO

Taking some inspiration from a Swedish drama film, Through a Glass Darkly (1961) by Ingmar Bergman, which tells the story of a schizophrenic woman. It has effective uses of silence and minimal audios when the woman is faltering between reality and madness, with the audience only hearing what’s in reality but the visuals might say otherwise. I heed that in mind and slightly twisted it a little to fit the purpose of this film more.

http://siochembio.tumblr.com/post/146851512747/through-a-glass-darkly-1961

For instance when the water drips from the tap, there is never a ‘plop’ sound, no implication that the water even dripped at all, getting at the idea that this moment is unreal. Similarly mentioned earlier, the part with the sisters at the windows, there is no sound, another surreal moment.

As for the melody added as they leave their home, it’s suppose to show that the main character is contently living this ‘fake’ life as in reality there is never background music ever. It’s quickly cut off when the scene switches to the drawings, a blatant punch in the face back to reality.

The heartbeat was to create tension as it slowly sped up until she punches the friend, resulting in a cut to black.

The humming was to create a mood of somber self-reflection as the main character thought about the past and how she should deal with it now. The bouts of laughter sparking the need to move on.

Quick to note, I avoided adding any form of speech or subtitles, hoping to instead let the audience interpret the narrative by themselves without the blunt aid of words.

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I’m excited for this project woo! I’ve always wanted to try silkscreening and I’m pumped to finally get the chance to.

RESEARCH

AH yes research of course.

To get things rolling, I dove into trusty google and pinterest for some inspiration!

Since we’re focusing on depicting movie quotes, whereas to get ideas than from movie posters and illustrations!

Here are some that I personally like and felt that their portrayal of the movie was effective and interesting!

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/85/62/69/85626978d50fb7ba43a4631c2393ced8–cinema-posters-film-posters.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/f1/5d/51/f15d51e648080a6117af33f0d06690e0–alternative-movie-posters-graphics.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/79/c7/da/79c7da7dbc036dbc2ffe802abe23e1ee–disney-movie-posters-disney-films.jpg

Instead of purely searching for specific screentone/silkscreen artists, I wanted to find inspiration for how I’m going to plan out my compositions.

http://www.bigactive.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/VZ_Personal_boy-copy-e1433329257859-270×406.jpg

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/445082375643299526/

VANIA ZOURAVLIOV
A russian-born artist, he specialises in black and white (or sepia) illustrations, usually portraying female figures with eerie, dark surroundings with intricate details. His usage of blacks is mesmerising, being able
to create the unmistaken feeling of depth and tangibility with just black.

Sometimes he utilises circles for his art and it’s interesting to me as it’s such a simple shape but by incorporating it into a piece, it’s possible to guide attention and also make things more ‘clean’ and appealing.

PROCESS

First we had to find 4 movie quotes we liked so here are the ones I’ve decided on:
+ + + + + +

‘Get your head in the game.’ – High School Musical, 2006

GAME: Television, a screen, visual effects, ‘otherworldly’
YOUR HEAD: A head, specifically the iconic Michaelangelo David’s head

High School Musical was my jam and still remains my jam, the songs are all ingrained deeply into my soul, I’m not even exaggerating. Obviously I had to choose something from it and I decided on this quote as not only is it iconic, it’s pretty funny if you think of it literally instead of how it’s supposed to be perceived a.k.a. in a figurative way.

So I took it literally. 

I wanted to somehow show game so I used a retro TV, partly for the aesthetic (I’ll be honest) and also well High School Musical is a nostalgic movie for us millennial kids, choosing an older, more vintage TV fits that sentimental charm. 

Naturally, next I put David’s worrying head peering out of the TV, creating this bizarre but amusing look.

The circle behind the TV relates to the ‘world’ in the ‘game’, and I added clouds to make it seem like an alternate universe from the negative white space which portrays the plain blank space of a world. Though after looking at it for a while, the clouds didn’t really look united with the entire idea, probably because the other elements are realistic images. Hence I swapped the clouds to real clouds and yay it fit better! By removing the gradient halftone from the circle and using a solid black tone, it enhances the clouds more.

Lastly I added some finishing touches around the circle, creating this glitchy effect, the sudden distorted circle silhouette building more visual interest in the piece. Just to add more humorous fun, clipart-ish pointing hands were tossed in at the bottom corner at the head, suggesting ‘Get inside! the TV!’

And there we have it!

‘We survived, but we’re dead!’ – The Incredibles, 2004

SURVIVED: Life, nature, rising, hands outstretched, lifeline
DEAD: Skulls, bones, spider lily, black negative space

Another memorable quote from childhood movie that I endearingly love. The sequel’s coming next year, can’t wait!! Okay back to topic, I personally like this quote by Dash a lot, it’s a paradox in just 5 words and with proper context it makes sense. Taking the darker and edgier route (being a fan of those, I’ll admit), I turned this children animated film’s quote into something more serious and pragmatic. Here are 2 designs that I liked.

A human heart to symbolise a ‘life’ but it was too simple and just having a singular limp heart makes it look lifeless, so by adding plants sprouting from it, it simulates growth and in turn being alive.

The flowers that lay on the end of the dead leafless branches may look like they show ‘Life’ as well however those aren’t just any kind of flora. They’re spider lilies, well known as being the ‘Flower of Death’, a subtle hidden contradiction! There are goat skulls faded into the background for added grim effect.

Overall the negative space is mostly dark with a hint of gradient, and there’re are varying degrees of density, creating depth. The focus being the heart, followed by the flowers which are indicated naturally through the whiteness.

So the next design:

I attempted a humorous approach for this alternate design, while retaining some form of ‘dark’ aesthetics so it doesn’t become too light hearted.

First of all, I wanted to contrast ‘survival’ and ‘dead’ with the use of hands, but one’s skeletal and the other’s a pair of hands that are very much alive. The ‘alive’ hands are stretched upwards to show the will to survive, which goes against the skeletal ‘dead’ hands that are just spread around in the background as a subtler undertone.


This was an earlier draft that I worked away from as I felt like there should be a more impactful way to portray ‘alive’ but ‘dead’.

The added wolf skull personifies death, but the added human eyes gives it the opposite feeling, as they say ‘eyes are the windows to your soul’. It also adds a slightly comical effect. The additional heartbeat was placed behind the skull to show ‘survival’, as the line isn’t flat and the heart is still keeping it alive.

Here’s the finished composition! I played around with other alignments and positions but figured the central focus works the best as the circle really brings visual interest immediately as the viewer’s eyes land on it. The upwards flow enhances that through the guidance of the dense skeletal hands stretching to the human hands holding the skull. I’m pretty satisfied with how it turned out, as it looks abstract but not too overly abstract so you can vaguely guess its context. It didn’t end up too serious or ’emo’ either, it has its own subtle sense of humour.

This ended up being my chosen final composition to be silkscreen printed!

‘I’ve got red in my ledger.’ – The Avengers, 2012

RED: Rose, Blood, Human, Hand
LEDGER: List, Book
WIPE IT OUT: Fire, Death, Cut/Separation

This quote was interesting to me as Black Widow did not mean the literal red colour staining her supposed ledger. Being an assassin, she’s committed countless heartless and brutal acts in her life, and that’s what the red actually refers to – the blood on her hands. She wishes to have a clean slate in life, discarding that part of her, to cut it off.

Considering the way Black Widow works as an assassin, which is charming and seductive, I felt that using roses to represent the red (a.k.a. blood) suits it. At first it was placed just along a side but it ended up being too stiff. By splitting the rose into two halves: flower and stalk + leaf, and positioning them on opposite ends also shows the ‘separation’ the quote suggests. I tried the positions out with both the rose and skeletal hands reaching at the ledger.


I decided to combine both together for the final, while adding details to touch up.

The background gradient consists of even more hands fading through to look like fire burning the ledger, but also the dead souls that haunt Black Widow.

In the end I felt that it was too cluttered and there’s a lack of focus, which defeats the point.

‘Your only limit is your – Ratatouille, 2007

LIMIT: Thorns, Cage, Rope, Locks
SOUL: Flowers, Wings, Galaxy, Stars

An inspirational quote by another of my favourite childhood movies! Thinking about the quote, I broke it into keywords again. Limits makes me think of being caged, unable to get freedom but able to see what lies outside of the cage. Whereas for soul, it is something intangible but supposedly beautiful and spirited – something that is meant to be free to wander.

The bird cage conveys the meaning of being stuck and trapped, limiting one from doing as it pleases. The additional rope wrapped around just strengthens the feeling of being bound to one spot.

Soaring, flying, being free is all depicted by the idea of wings so by positioning the wings ‘escaping’ the cage it shows that by reaching out you are able to attain so much, like the galaxy that’s in the shape of the wing. The flowers are meant to be stars but these are amaryllis flowers, which are also the flower of free-spirit, adding to the expression. The eyes in the cage are piled up, personifying oneself looking outside your own limits.

By combining both of these ideas, I have my final composition for this quote! I left negative white space on the left to balance out the activity on the right. What strikes first would be the galaxy-wing since it’s well contrasted by the white space, which is good as that shows the ‘soul’ part of the quote.

SILKSCREENING PROCESS
That’s all for development, now onto actually making the silkscreen and prints! I’ve never done it before so it was pretty exciting but also low key nerve-wracking.

Firstly, we had to print out our selected design onto 2 pieces of transparency, in case 1 piece isn’t enough for the design to print clearly. This was the easiest part…:’)

The transparencies

We were given screens to use but before we could do anything, it had to be thoroughly cleaned to prevent any leftover old residue affecting our process. After washing and ensuring the screen was completely dry, emulsion had to be applied onto both sides. Okay. Things are getting a little tougher and messier. This is why I prefer digital mediums…

Applying emulsion (gif)

It was really tricky to apply even pressure to fully and neatly coat the surfaces, any excess emulsion in the tray tends to drip all over and then you will have to scoop it away quickly and if you mess that up, you just end up being stuck in that cycle. Firsthand experience, wasn’t fun, nope. When the emulsion coating is done, it’s placed in the drying rack machine to dry. More waiting! I realised silkscreening has a lot of waiting.

You then have to stick your transparency onto the screen and put in inside the UV machine that transfers the design onto the emulsion.

UV exposure (gif)

Sadly, for some unknown reason my batch of people had to redo as our designs did not manage to transfer. So redo we did.

Anyway! When that’s done, we had to clean off the emulsion with either washing with barehands or the jet gun – the jet gun was the more efficient option, though using it too much causes details to wear off.

Washing with jet gun (gif)

Washed off emulsion

Voila!
Now’s ink printing time! It looks easy but man, it’s a lie. After numerous test prints on newsprint paper, I had a rough idea of how much pressure and control to do for my design to be printed decently. The tests on newsprint turned out good.

Ink printing (gif)

Test prints on newsprint: 1st few were too dark, and the last few were just nice, showing details

Failed prints on totes: too dark and too light

At least that’s what I thought. I knew printing on the tote material required more pressure as it was a thicker material, but I kept applying either too much or too little pressure. The prints were mostly too dark and details were lost, which was disappointing. But out of all the printed totes, this turned out the best, being clean and it’s not as dark as the rest.

Final drawstring!

Doneeeee

And that’s the end of Forrest Gump project! This was a long one and I learnt quite a lot! I’m glad I had the chance to give silkscreening a go, even thought it was a slightly rocky process for me. I’ve definitely learnt that having a slightly more complex or intricate design, it’s way tougher to print it practically as you will usually end up losing details. It might look nice digitally, but without experienced hands it isn’t easy to replicate the exact look onto paper or a tote.

Would give silkscreen another try for sure!