Project 1 – Emo (Final Post)

-4 Meals a Day-

STORY

Wake up

1.Brush teeth (Grumpiness – well, who doesn’t?)

Breakfast (home-made)

2. Make coffee (Relief – finally the smell of coffee)

3. Hard boiled eggs (Surprise – ooops a bit too runny today)

4. Bread (Tenderness – i imagine the TLC the bakers put in baking the bread hmmm)

5. Orange juice (Delight – nice, refreshing!)

Lunch (coffee shop)

6. Tissue paper to “chop” seats (Worry – oh no, will my seats be taken away?)

7. Buy Ramen/Instant noodles (Love – who doesn’t love ramen?)

8. Use chopsticks (Uneasiness – sigh I can’t use chopsticks well)

9. Soup drip all over the table (Embarrassment – so paiseh leh)

10. Drinking Coke using straw (Happiness – woohoo open happiness)

Dinner (BBQ)

11. Start fire using charcoal (Rage – argh why isn’t the fire starting)

12. Fire started (Passion – is the fire within you still burning? Mine’s dying :O)

13. BBQ-ing Satay/food (Fear – aiyo too near the fire, so scary)

14. Using toothpick after meal (Contentment – shiok)

15. Wash up using Sponge (Regret – sigh why so many dishes to wash?)

Supper (Fast food)

16. Open chili sauce packaging (Frustration – who design this packaging, so difficult to open?)

17. Nuggets/fries (Guilty – hmm yummy. oh shit, fats.)

Sleep

18. Brush teeth (Daze – time to go to bed…)

——————-

Feedback from Prof & Classmates:

I created a story to link all the 18 emotions + mark making tools. And it is a everyday story that most people can relate to, which I noticed is something that my classmates appreciate. This made me learn that sometimes design/ art is not always about being abstract. It is about conveying your views, feelings and experiences no matter how simple, small or “everyday” it is.

But I do note and appreciate the feedback Prof provided me. The intended meaning of one of my emotions, Happiness, was not expressed in a clear enough manner. I admit that the links between the concepts eyes vs family vs happiness are indeed too weak (and personal). This further shows the complexity of communication in art. Although art is often about self-expression, we do not want to go to the extent of being not understandable.

Reflections:

After listening to all the presentations by my classmates, I know I have a great deal to learn from them. I am especially impressed by the way they tried to play with different paper materials, different types of medium and even making use of various senses (like smell, hearing) to create their artwork. I find their concepts really interesting and intriguing.

For example, one of my classmates uses tracing paper which is translucent, and overlaps them to show how human beings are never just feeling 1 emotion. We are complicated, and that is very real. This is indeed something that I need to work on. I tend to be very direct and straightforward in my thinking. I never really dig deeper to explore the complexity of issues or meanings, which often lead to my concept being too simple and shallow.

It doesn’t seem like it will be easy having a strong yet understandable and relatable concept. But I shall continue to try 🙂

Experimentation and Concept (Work-In-Progress)

Here are some photos from my mark making experimentation process..

Stain from coffee cup.

Toothbrush mark

Hard boiled eggs with cracks

Orange peels

Orange in half

Using a square chopstick and a circle chopstick to create foot prints.

Instant noodles

Bread

Toast Bread

Road Blocks

Before consultation I was randomly making marks using food / kitchen ware. After consultation, I realised that I should create a concept/story to link why I use these materials or tools for this project.

CONCEPT

-4 MEALS A DAY-

Whether it is when I am preparing the meal, eating the food, cleaning up, or even from the user experience (both good and bad) of using certain kitchenware and tools, there are emotions and feelings involved. E.g. you feel happy when you have delicious food, you feel annoyed when you use a blunt knife to cut something. So I decide to tell a story of my food journey in a day, which I titled “4 meals a day”.

Mono-Printing (Work-In-Progress)

Mono-Printing

It’s a lot more fun doing mono-print with friends.

1. Apply ink.

2. Use mediums like leaves and feather.

3. Put a piece of paper over it and use the Mono-type press machine.

4. First Print. Only the outline of the medium is printed out.

5. Remove the medium and print it for the 2nd time.

6.The 2nd time gives a more detailed print.

Personal Thoughts

It had been a great experience and I have learnt a lot about Mono-Print, however I am not using Mono-print for Project 1 because i’m using mediums like food, examples oranges, fries, etc which can’t be pressed under the machine. I’m sure there will be plenty of chance to use it in the future.

Research (Work-In-Progress)

Ula Einstein

Ula Einstein is a New York City-based multidisciplinary artist. She uses methods and techniques like cut, crumple, burn, tear, tape, pierce, stitch, bind, erase, drawing out, and layering in her artwork and installations.

Kosmos I – drawing with fire on rice paper, thread.

The above artwork of hers is one that I am particularly interested in. She uses fire to burn holes of various shapes and sizes on rice paper. There are no sketches; everything is spontaneous and results are immediate. The effect created reminds me of Trypophobia, the fear of closely-packed holes, which coincidentally was what I was thinking of when I was trying to create a mark to express the emotion fear.

Trypophobia : fear of closely-packed holes

I am also very inspired by how she uses different types of materials and mediums in her creations. This sparked me to explore materials that are out of the box to create my mark making tools.

Interestingly as I was going grocery shopping one day, seeing all the countless food items on the shelves, I ask myself why not make use of food or kitchen-related items to create mark making tools (ok this is an excuse, I’m just a glutton haha).

Some initial thoughts that I have:

Pinterest Research

Click here to view some mark marking styles that I like.

References:

http://ulaeinstein.com/

http://www.ranker.com/list/find-out-if-you-have-trypophobia-/brian-gilmore

http://www.citylab.com/crime/2012/05/plastic-straw-bans-are-new-plastic-bag-bans/2013/

http://www.womansday.com/home/organizing-cleaning/tips/a2641/8-common-cleaning-mistakes-to-avoid-124011/

https://www.reference.com/food/much-dry-macaroni-equals-cooked-macaroni-ad1a0777df7ad3b1

Mark Making

Making Your Mark With Artist Silvia Pelissero