Category: Foundation 4D – G4

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UNTITLED FINAL

  1. A detailed description of your Artist Statement.

Choices, something that mankind have never been able to fully comprehend. An action to choose the best from a list of possibilities with opportunity costs, we have never been able to manipulate our choices. We were taught from young that we always have to make the right choices to succeed in life but were we ever told why should we not made the wrong choices? Growing up, we were all too keen to not make the wrong choices as we carefully anticipated only the right choices, this teaching instilled from young have caused many detriments to our life as our hands were held along in school by the educators to ensure we made the right choices but once we enters the society, there are no helping hands anymore and faced with many possibilities, we fumbled and became too scared to explore the different possibilities from our choices. Considered yourself being place in a situation where you made a wrong choice in the start and you are forced to make the best choices against the situation to achieve your goal, how will you do it if the choices present in front of you have are all right?

  1. The energy dynamics of your work and why do you think so?

High intensity. My work is a  narration to depict myself rushing under time tension and the pressure where I have to make choices. It depict mostly chaotic scenes with shaky camera views as it portrays how our visions are as we have to concentrate on the surroundings while we run.

  1. The Who, What, Where, Why, When, and How of your work.
  • Who is the intended audience for this interaction?

The intended audience are people from all ages who see my video

  • What do you want them to do/experience?

I want them to have a flashback to the moments where they are late and let them understand how does the scene actually felt like from their first person perspective and also more importantly, how the choices they made may actually determine the final outcome of the event

  • Where will the interaction take place?

The interaction will take place at any location with the video being shown and in this case, it will be in the classroom environment

  • Why should people participate in this interaction? (Safety and Trust)

This is an exact depiction of how the audience will react when they have to rush due to being late, it does jeopardize safety and trust of the audiences as it does not require any physical interaction. It will be interesting and exciting to let them be in my shoes as they will realised how everything looks and feels like when they have to rush

  • When will the interaction take place?

The interaction will take place when the scene starts on me jumping out of the bed as audiences can relate to the action when they were jolted by the rude awakening fact that they are late and they have to rush to the next location before it is too late

  • How will participants interact?

They will interact when I have to make my choices under time pressure, here when they see me slow down trying to make my decision but with the time ticking, they will feel tense and want to choose the best decision for me as they sits in their chair

  1. What is the category of interactivity used in your work? Why?

Cognitive and Contextual interactivity. Based on my video description, it is me deciding to make the choice to snooze after waking up early but I overslept and the whole situation turns chaotic as I have to rush towards the classroom before it is too late while I have to make the best choices against the situations to arrive in class on time only to find out it is a public holiday.

Here I am engaging the audiences’ minds with the sense of sight and sound. The first person view portrays a vivid and surreal experience as compared to third person as they can feel that they are actually in my spot rushing.

Lastly, sound, with the use of high intensity music, it builds up the tension and tempo of the video which the audiences’ mind will feel the intensity which will bring their attention to find out what is the final outcome only to be met with a plot twist that I have rushes for nothing as it is holiday.

 

 

 

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UNTITLED 3

  1. Explain your method of documenting time.

The method of me documenting time is through a video with sound that made use of cut scenes – There scenes are split into repeated action against a series of actions. The transition of each series of actions is to show it work hand in hand together with the repeated action scene under the flow of the background music.

In this video, I want to show the concept of time being a factor that creates tension. In this case, the Protagonist, who is me in the video, is counting down towards O levels in a hundred days time through labelled post it notes. In the first few weeks, life is still manageable as I can have the leisure time to exercise and revise. But as the weeks past, tension piles up as I become more stress due to the increased in the workload and the decreased in time to revise for the exam.

In the final few weeks before the exam, tensions continue to rise and it directly falls onto me as I became more frustrated as I want to rush everything in what I do under time pressure, quoted from the scenes of me frantically searching for a highlighter, scalding my mouth from drinking hot beverages and jerking up from my sleep to check my phone to ensure that I am not late as time is very precious.

During the day before the exam, I am seen to be holding a toy pen gun towards my head, this is to exaggerate the fact that under the tension build up over one hundred day, it has reached my threshold and I cannot take the stress and tension build up anymore, the action of toy pen gun is an exaggeration to show how the tension build up through time has push me to the point of no return anymore.

Lastly, the use of fast tempo music in the background concurrently serves as a great tool to builds up the tensions along the scenes as the speed of my actions became faster along the course of the video to let the audiences feel the tension I am facing with time as the factor for my despair and sufferings.

  1. How did you manipulate time? Why?

In this situation, I made use of two methods manipulate time – cut scenes transition and time remapping and fast tempo music to speed up scenes.

Why do I want to make use of these two methods is because firstly, the cut scenes will bring about the idea of time compression.  The use of cut scenes is much quicker than doing a full scale transition in traditional films that is too long winded and audiences will feel bored, the idea of time compression is to show that how I can actually skew time to highlight on the story and scene that I want to show the audiences directly rather than spending the whole transition letting them know from the head to the tail of the scene.

Secondly, time remapping. I speed up certain cut scenes of the video to fit in with the flow of the soundtrack, this can create a tension to be build up and audiences will feel that the scenes are smoother as it builds up along with the tempo and beat of the video. I am making use of sound track in conjunction with the cut scenes to show how I can manipulate time by speeding up the scene so psychologically, audiences will not feel that it is too rush for certain point as the beat of the music is working hand in hand with the speed of the scene to increase the intensity. Examples are how I increased the speed of me tearing the post it notes when it is a few days before the exam.

  1. What are the semiotics of your work? The signifier and the signified?

The semiotics of the work are the post it notes, the words on the post it notes, the workbooks, pencil toy gun  and the background showing different timing of the day and the background music.

The post it notes are also a signifier and it signifies the arrival of a new day when it is being tore down. Each time a piece is tear resembles the end of the day and the new sheet marks the start of the day.

The words – “100 days till O levels” , “D Day” and the numbers are the signifier that signifies the moment of the time to mark an important milestone for the audience to understand how long more the protagonist has left.

The workbooks are signifier to signify the tension build up overtime, the increased in the amount of books overtime indirectly reflect the tension being built up in physical form.

The pencil toy gun is a signifier to signify the breaking point of the threshold of the tension beyond pressure build up against time as I use it to point it against my head to show suicide.

The different timings of the day – Day, Evening and Night are the signifiers to signifies the transition of time over the course and period of the 100 days to show that the world of the protagonist is real and not still.

The background music is a fast tempo beat as a signifier to signifies the intensity on the tension build up over the period of time during the final countdown.

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UNTITLED 2

 

Your decision making (why did you choose that image/text? Why did you piece the various sounds together?)

The purpose of the intention of the picture is to show manipulation through Democracy and Dictatorship respectively. In the video, a voice over speech of “The Great Dictator” (Charlie Chaplin, 1940) was a War World Two vintage war propaganda to spread about Democracy in American to convince the Americans to fight for Democracy and against Dictatorship respectively.

The purpose of why I have decided to choose the picture of a German soldier pointing a gun against the head of Franklin Roosevelt was due to the fact that this will bring across a second meaning of Dictatorship vs Democracy. In war, the fighting is done between both side of the government through the sacrifices of his soldiers on the battlefield. This is to further show how Dictator can clearly brainwash their men to command them to follow his own belief. The soldier was merely controlled by his dictator to reject Democracy.

The red background is used as I felt that it can bring the emotion of the tone of the speaker out further, as he himself is actually speaking from his heart with the inner hatred towards Dictatorship, the colour channels out the fire within him and how he want to eradicate Dictatorship desperately.

In the opening of the voice over speech, it was made to stress on the effect of the realism of Dictatorship which enslaves and restrict the freedom of choice of mankind whereas under Democracy, mankind can freely stand up for themselves to achieve what they want. As seen in this situation, before the speech could be finished, it was ended abruptly with a gunshot and a shot pause before the sound “it’s not my business” ended the video.

This voice over sound piece is pieced together as an indirect conversation between the soldier who was controlled by his dictator against the movement of Democracy. This voice context set in 1940 which was during World War Two also talks about how in terms of propaganda, both sides of the government will brainwash and control their citizens to fight for the government and often enemies will drop propaganda leaflets to each other in other to create fear and spread hatred. In this art piece, it is to show how the German soldier is not affected and declined the propaganda of Democracy send by the Americans.

The gunshot is actually a message to show that the soldier reject Democracy as he has already been subjected and gave in his life to his dictator as he was controlled like a puppet with a puppeteer controlling him and the ideal to accept Democracy is impossible, it is actually an exaggeration to show that Democracy is dead within the soldier as he has fell to Dictatorship.

 

Recognize and explain the various categories of sound in your work.

The Attack – Opening speech on the fall of dictatorship, freedom will be given to the people of the nation of the dictator before the change of a higher tone to stress on the effect of how freedom can be achieved which is by Democracy.

The Sustain – The exaggerated high pitch sound on how freedom will be achieve through Democracy, how everyone have to unite together and not be afraid to be oppressed by Dictatorship. In order to be able to topple the Dictator and then they can achieve the dreams and realities that they have yearned for.

The Decay – The high pitch voice over was actually cut off in a sudden with a gun shot and a soft monotone voice stating “it’s not my business” which was actually the soldier that fell to Dictatorship rejecting the request of Democracy.

What are the semiotics of your work? The signifier and the signified?

The semiotics are the puppeteer, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Red background and the gunshot.

The puppeteer signifies the symbol of manipulation of the soldier’s life under Dictatorship by the Dictator.

The face of Franklin D. Roosevelt signifies the Democratic symbol as he is a pro democratic in world war two against Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler.

The red background signifies the symbol of anger, as compose with the tone of the speech, it shows the hatred and fiery spirit inside the speaker in his view towards fighting against Dictatorship.

The gunshot signifies the symbol of death of Democracy within the soldier who has already been subjected to Dictatorship

 

References

Victor Castillo Escoto. (Jan 12, 2012).  “The Great Dictator” speech by Charlie Chaplin (English Subtitles). Retrieved 12th September 2018 from.

“The Great Dictator” speech by Charlie Chaplin (English Subtitles)

Escoto, Victor. (Jan 12, 2012). “The Great Dictator” speech by Charlie Chaplin (English Subtitles). [MP3]. Retrieved 13th September 2018 from.

http://convert2mp3.net/en/index.php?p=tags&id=youtube_GU_rn1xzItk&key=JN5losa1aWCl

TheLifeOfMe. (Sep 11, 2013). M9 GunShot sound effects, FREE for your videos. Retrieved 12th September 2018 from.

m9 GunShot sound effects, FREE for your videos

TheLifeOfMe. (Sep 11, 2013). M9 GunShot sound effects, FREE for your videos. [MP3]. Retrieved 13th September 2018 from.

http://convert2mp3.net/index.php?p=tags&id=youtube_OhJXewJV0Vc&key=7aghtJg1kW5T

Speed-speed-speed-fdr-a. [Picture]. Retrieved 13th September 2018 from.

http://wavethemes.net/gallery/index.php/PatrioticPhotos/Patriotic-Posters/speed-speed-speed-fdr-a

MANIPULATION: Hand of a puppeteer. [Picture]. Retrieved 13th September 2018 from.

https://www.videoblocks.com/video/manipulation-hand-of-a-puppeteer-hedqgfwy-j22onjip

Come and See. [Picture]. Retrieved 13th September 2018 from.

https://posteritati.com/poster/6440/come-and-see-1985-russian-silver-gelatin-singleweight-photo

Adolf Hitler Nazi salute Nazism Ditator United States – others. {Picture}. Retrieved 13th September 2018 from.

https://www.kisspng.com/png-adolf-hitler-nazi-salute-nazism-dictator-united-st-2746133/

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UNTITLED 1

 

What compelled you to make this image? Why did you choose the particular inanimate object?

What compelled me to make this image was based on a news article that I read a year ago on Singaporean overworking beyond the maximum work hour imposed by our government. This triggered me as I could relate as a student who was overwhelmed with school load. To make matter worst, we need to juggle our social life with work at high opportunity costs too. If every single one of us are overloaded with tasks, wouldn’t we end up spending more time to think of completing them? Secondly, If we die, wouldn’t we have many unfulfilled thoughts and tasks? Hence, the message that I want to bring across is that many people in this world has too much thoughts and tasks in their mind and when they die, many of the thoughts are still incomplete hence they are represented by the incompleted Jigsaw puzzles.

The incomplete jigsaw puzzle is a very effective tool to depict the message of incomplete thoughts and tasks of human being as they both can form an exclusive mutual relationship to let audiences understand the content instead of the initial sign that audience may think the deceased died from objects dropping from the head.

The puzzles used are world map puzzle as I felt that completing all the tasks at once is like conquering the world, which signifies to me that it is impossible to conquer the world at once. I felt that completing all the tasks at once is like conquering the world with each task representing a country piece to be complete, it boils down to signifying that it is impossible to conquer the world at once.

The used of coffin symbolises the effect of death directly without any words or symbols like blood. I personally felt that it is the best sign to capture the attention of the audiences and set the atmosphere of death as there are no living soul in the picture instead of the initial sign that audience might think it is set in a funeral parlour with the deceased’s families, love ones and friends.

The used of Doraemon doll lies in the size of it’s head, the large head to small body ration symbolise the effect of overthinking in many people, the doll was purposely selected to exaggerate the idea of how overthinking will caused our head to grow too big and burst with too many thoughts beyond our capacity. Secondly, as it was once a living robot cat with human intelligence and emotions with the capability to store interactive memories, but when it dies, all memories are stored within it’s head forever, audiences can relate to the incomplete tasks and thoughts that the deceased will bring with them to death that no one will find out. Instead of the initial sign that audience may think it represents a random deceased subject as it body composition resembles a human.

Recognize and explain the various elements in your work (Subject, Form, Context, Content)

Subject – The subject is the jigsaw puzzle. The incomplete jigsaw puzzles are best used to represent and portray the idea of incomplete thoughts and unfulfilled tasks, with them being arranged untidily, it relates to the thoughts of human mind, with too many thoughts at once, it is very difficult to keep them organize in sequence as we have to be constantly occupied with different tasks as once.

Form – The mediums used in the picture are pine wood for the coffin, compressed paper for jigsaw puzzles and cotton for the Doraemon doll. The art piece is represented as a single photography picture under media.

For the execution of craft, the picture is taken at a closed-up angle of part of the coffin to allow the focus to be set on the spilled contents out of the doll’s head as I do not want to take the whole portrait of the coffin as the jigsaw puzzles will not be obvious. Secondly, the photo is taken at the direction of the light source to divert the audience’s attention directly to the puzzles first before they look at the doll’s head and coffin.

The composition of the signifier jigsaw puzzles pieces is arranged untidily to symbolise the content of a brain bursting out of a head. The lid of the coffin is purposely covered till the face of the doll as I want to ensure that the main focus is on the slit on the head to dramatize the effect of bursting. Secondly, the light source is focus directly onto the puzzles and doll’s head to make it prominent amidst of other objects and in the dark background.

Context – The picture is set in dark room which resembles a mortuary, the idea of setting the picture in a dark environment is to further enhance the atmospheric setting of death, it also works in a secondary factor that with a dark background and the light shining directly at the coffin, audience’s focus will be drawn onto the subject which are the incomplete jigsaw puzzle pieces. The intend of this work is to be produced as a Fine Art and I would like it to be represented in Newspaper as it can holds and triggers many discussions from readers of all age.

Content – People in this world has too many thoughts and tasks in their mind that were left incomplete when they die which they would bring with to death.

What are the semiotics of your image? The signifier and the signified?

The semiotics of my image are the Jigsaw puzzle, Coffin and Doraemon doll. The main semiotic are the Jigsaw puzzles and the secondary being Coffin and Doraemon.

The Jigsaw puzzles’s messy scattering signifies symbol of incompletion of tasks and thoughts that the deceases have in their mind when they die.

The Coffin’s confine square corners signifies the symbol of trapped tasks and thoughts that will be kept and lost with the deceases as they die without anyone being able to know are what.

The Doraemon’s big round head signifies the symbol of overthinking with too many thoughts and tasks being build up in the mind of the deceases over the years.

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Hello Bryan !

It’s week 2 of school and let’s make is awesome !

https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/boom_1175538.htm