Methodology
My approach to Project 2 was to breakdown the quotes into keywords, and then branch out from the keywords to get inspirations as to what my possible choice of subjects can be used to represent my quotes without being too literal! 🙂
The final words I have decided to use to represent the key words are usually what I belive in or what I prefer to. For instance, I love “babies”. HENCE, “babies” would mean “Happiness” to me.
You can see the thought process in the following attached image of my 2D Sketchbook! ^-^
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My objective in this assignment
In the following works, my unanimous goal is to make the quotes as non literal as I can by inserting dark humor, playing around with scale and involve the use of Dadaism to make the final pieces as surreal as I can. At the same time reinterpreting the quotes in my own perspective and exploring my choice of subjects.

Quote 1) “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

Keywords: 
Happiness -> babies , things that make babies happy
Darkest of times -> evil Hitler baby , poison
Turn on the light -> Sun
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Principles of elements and design: Lines, Repetition and Symmetrical Balance.
LINES from the sun rays in the background creates a radiating effect from the center of the image, to create a form of radial symmetry.
REPETITION of the items (bottles, spoons, cows etc.) in a spread out manner, using the rays of sun as guideline creates a sense of SYMMETRICAL BALANCE as the Baby Hitler acts as the central axis of this symmetry.
My Interpretation: Baby Hitler’s death could have been easily staged earlier to prevent a chaos, by poisoning (hence the poison sign on the spoons) the things baby Hitler would have loved. Such as adding alcohol to his milk, feeding poison to him in his baby food. Hence, Hitler’s death is a form of happiness to his victims.

Quote 2) “If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together keep me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever.”

Keywords 

Can’t be together-> distance and separation

Heart -> warmth in cold , maternal love, child

Stay there forever-> longing
 ay201617_fdn2d_g05_sengyiling_project2_3
Principles of elements and design: Scale, Repetition and Lines.
REPETITION of Jewish boy’s head in varying SCALE. There is slight use of implied lines created by the direction at which Hitler’s salute is directing our eyes to : Boy’s head.
My interpretation: This quote can be used in the situation where the Jewish mother is going to be executed while her son is being sent off to the concentration camps during the Holocaust. The use of the Jewish boy’s head in the background is to represent that, although he is held captive in the camp, his mind and spirit is elsewhere and not brainwashed by Hitler’s idealogy .

Quote 3) “Hold Ma Poodle!”
Keywords: 
Hold->grabbing
Poodle-> fluffy ->Sheeps
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Since this quote had lesser keywords, I got feelings emulated in this quote instead, which is Agression.
Principles of elements and design: Scale, Repetition and Balance.
REPETITION of sheep with Mein Kampf books on their faces. SCALE of hand and Hitler’s face is much larger than the sheep. ASSYMETRICAL BALANCE is attempted as I tried to balance the visual weight of Hitler’s head on the right with the hand and Jewish Sheep on the left.
My interpretation: Mein Kampf is an autobiography by the National Socialist leader Adolf Hitler, in which he outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germany. And I pasted the book all over the sheeps’ face as I wanted to imply that the innocent sheep in the meadow were being brainwashed by Hitler’s ideologies. The sheep in the foreground is the only one without the Mein Kampf book as a face, instead it has a Kippah (Jewish cap), a representation that the innocent sheep is a Jew.
The hand is about to grab the Jewish sheep to be fed into Hitler’s mouth, a metaphor for the sheep that is about to be killed by Hitler, or brainwashed to be like the rest of the sheep. The aggression of the quote is carried out into action in this image.

Quote 4) “Come with me where dreams are born, and time is never planned.”

Keywords: 
Dreams->Clouds, Hitler
Born -> Giving Birth -> Beginning of time -> Dinosaur
Time-> Clock
Never planned ->Unexpectedness -> Impromptu birth?
 ay201617_fdn2d_g05_sengyiling_project2_1
Principles of elements and design: Scale, Repetition and Balance.
SCALE of Doctors against the Dinosaur. ASSYMETRICAL BALANCE is attempted as I tried to balance the visual weight of Dinosaur on the right with the doctors and clock on the left.
My interpretation: The dinosaur ( beginning of time = to imply birth of Hitler was a long time ago)  gave birth to baby Hitler, not knowing that it also gave birth to “Time” unexpectedly. “Time” is the antagonist from the mini web series: Don’t hug me I’m scared, on YouTube. Hence, implying that the birth of Hitler long time ago was the unexpected birth of an antagonist.

After looking at my concepts and final images, I decide to rearrange the sequence of my quotes. After looking through my final pieces, I felt that the images kind of convey a sequential story of the Hitler I portrayed.
Sequence is as followed.

Sequence is as followed.

Birth of Hitler > Rise of Nazism and mass murder/ conversion of Jews> Jews kept in concentration camps > How Hitler’s act of terror could have been prevented by an early death.

My Inspirations
  • I followed an Instagram account which posted a variety of creations by surrealistic artists, which gave me ideas on the choice of subjects and how I might want to compile the images together.
Instagram account where I drew my surrealism inspiration and ideas from.

Instagram account where I drew my surrealism inspiration and ideas from.

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  • I also used photo collage most of the time, inspired by Hannah Hoch’s photo collaging and John Hartfield’s form of photo montage. (link to my research on both artists :  https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/yseng001/2d-project-2-for…rch-17-sept-2016/ )
  • I was truly enamored by Eugenia Loli ‘s compositions as she is very creative and imaginative in how she placed her subject matters and objects. Her compositions spurred me to be more imaginative and look at everyday objects differently.

Raw Deal Stargate Installation


Inner struggles through Project 2:

  • I had a hard time finding images I sought for which are in high quality 300dpi. The use of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator was a huge headache for me when I first started as I had to learn from trial and error on how to configure the programs. The frequency of bitmap and tonal contrast was difficult to grasp as well as I was not sure how my design will look like upon silk screening. Sadly, in the end the design on my tote bag was not very well produced as I expected it to.:(
  • I really disliked how much water was wasted in the process of silk screen washing 🙁

Presentation Day Comments!

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Ms. Joy’s comment/feedback:

I cant remember 100% of what Ms. Joy said, but the gist of the good things she said about my Project 2 was that she liked how I used the elements and principles of design in my work to direct the viewer’s attention to areas I wanted to focus on, and the use of dark humor with the reoccurring motif of Hitler in my various warm and fuzzy quotes were well played.

Whereas things to improve on is that the 2nd composition was a rather confusing as the visual weight of the hand and Hitler’s head are very similar, hence it was rather confusing if the hand was grabbing Hitler or the Jewish sheep as, Hitler’s facial expression looked scared. Joy also suggested that maybe averting the gaze of Hitler could assist in my composition to make Hitler look less afraid of the hand. 🙂

Regarding my silkscreened tote bag, we both agreed that the silkscreen pay off was not that good and that perhaps in the future I can have more opportunity to silkscreen again, and perhaps exposing my screen for a longer time will result in a better print! 😀

Thank you Ms. Joy and my lovely classmates for your feedback and comments!!embarassed To be honest, my favorite part for presentation day is getting the post-it notes from my classmates, and obtaining feedback. For some unknown reason it makes me feel very excited! ^0^


Nonetheless, I had a really great experience with this project as I managed to use the principals of elements and design to create the design I wanted and then having to print them onto a tote bag! Having my design to be printed onto a product gave me a sense of achievement and a more tangible feeling of being a real designer. embarassed

Cheers!

Seng Yi Ling

SILK SCREENING

It was my very first time at silk-screening on the previous week and I had trouble conceptualizing the process because I simply couldn’t fathom how our printed designs on TRANSPARENT PLASTIC (Correct term: Transparency Paper) could be translated onto printed designs on tote bag while using this sieve looking tool (Correct term: Silk Screening frame).

I had to see and have hands-on experience to believe this amazing invention created by mankind!

Firstly we were told to wash our silk screen frames and use a hair dryer to blow dry them, to ensure they were clean!

Then we went into this enclosed red room ( Red light was present) where NO LIGHT was allowed to be present as there might be some chemical reaction with the medium we were going to use. We then coated the netting of our frames on the back and front using the blue paint-like medium and then placing our coated frames in this GIAGANTIC oven (It had really smooth rolling trays…) to dry the medium !

After which we were taught by Xiuming (Work-study senior) to place our transparency and frame into this GIGANTIC MACHINE which looked like a photocopy machine on the outside, but had like reflective metal on the inside which made it look like a tanning machine. After which we locked our designs in the machine, it made a whirring sound and the cloth above our designs was like sucked in!!! I was super amused at this point because I had never seen anything like this before!

The Photocopy looking machine which printed our designs onto the silk screen frame surface :)

The Photocopy looking machine which printed our designs onto the silk screen frame surface 🙂

After which the machine did it’s job, we took our designs to the back of the room to wash the residue off using this jet spray (It was fun… pretending that the jet spray was a rifle cool)! But in all honesty, I was rather upset at the amount of water wasted in this process of washing… considering that all of the students in ADM Year 1 had to do this, it is bad for the environment by wasting so much water. :'(

This jet spray allows the residue to be forced out of the net!

This jet spray allows the residue to be forced out of the net!

After cleaning up our designs on the frames, we used the hairdryer to dry the frame and apply a layer of thick ink over the top of our frame and pushed the ink across the designs using a wiper tool to ‘print’ our designs onto our tote bag!

Drying the design

Drying the design

I wasn’t very please with the eventual outcome on the tote bag as some areas were too dark and splotchy instead of greyish, and details were missed out… As you can see it is pretty in-identical to my digital design.

After test runs on paper, the final design has been printed on my totebag!

After test runs on paper, the final design has been printed on my tote bag!

Original digital design after bitmap<<<Original digital design after bitmap

What I regretted the most after the final printing onto my tote bag was not being able to have a good gauge of what my final print will look like based on the tonal contrast, quality of the digital image and frequency of the dots in bitmap, BEFORE printing on the transparency paper … I hope that in the future I can have more opportunity to try out silk screening again. It was really fun! But at the same time, the process of silk screening was not easy at all; and I really do commend those who could do it so well! laughing

If my personal experience with silk screening is not detailed enough, do check out this video on how silk screening is conducted!!

Cheers!

Seng Yi Ling cool

NEW PROJECT IS HERE!!

Our second project for 2D foundation class is called ‘Forrest Gump’! So let me start my research before we dive right into the course work!

Project Brief:

Create a visual narrative that expresses each movie quote of your choice using only symbols, pictograms, dingbats(ornaments), icons and engravings as your visual vocabulary.

The old engraving imagery puts the composition into historical context. You are to manipulate, alter and deconstruct the found graphic imagery to transcend its original meaning through the creation of the indicated narratives. Pay particular attention to the application of design principles to create visually engaging compositions.

 

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Symbols:

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A mark that is universally recognized to represent an object, action or situation.

Pictograms:

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Pictograms are pictorial symbols for a word or phrase. Pictographs were used as the earliest known form of writing, examples having been discovered in Egypt and Mesopotamia from before 3000 BC.

image

Pictograms are also used as pictorial representation of statistics on a chart, graph, or computer screen.

Dingbats:

A dingbat is an ornament (used for decoration/embellishment), character, or spacer used in typesetting (composition of texts), often employed for the creation of box frames.

BlueGobletOrnaments

The term continues to be used in the computer industry to describe typeface that have symbols and shapes in the positions designated for alphabetical or numeric characters.

Dingbats2StrongForms dingbats-hero_image

In summary, I understand Dingbats as a form of ornamental embellishment OR symbols or shape that acts as a semiotic. (Correct me if I am wrong surprised)

Icons:

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Icon has a physical resemblance to the signified, the symbol being represented and is usually a pictorial representation.

Engravings:

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Engraving is putting a design onto a hard, flat surface (stone, wood, metal etc.), by carving into it resulting in a decorative piece.

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Or may provide a printing plate of copper or another metal, for printing images on paper which are also called engravings.

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More research will be done on my visual journal starting from this project onwards (I hope), and I will be uploading images of my journal in the furure!

Cheers,

Seng Yi Ling~smile

Before I dive into the project, some research and reference artists required to get my creative factory to start its engine~ But as of now, I am pretty uncertain about this project because it is rather abstract and lots of limitless imagination is required which I am rather worried about. ( Sounds familiar to my Project 1 woes…) And because I am a technology caveman, I predict that I going to have a hard time using the Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. :'( Wish me luck~!

Surrealism

Surrealism is a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind by using irrational juxtaposition of images.

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To my understanding, surrealism is to create meaningful images that are illogically possible in reality.

DADAISM

Dada was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century. The beginnings of Dada correspond to the outbreak of WWI. And the movement was a protest against the bourgeois nationalist and colonist interests, which many Dadaists believed were the root cause of the war.

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Many Dadaists believed that the ‘reason’ and ‘logic’ of bourgeois capitalist society had led people into war. Hence they expressed their rejection of that ideology in artistic expression by embracing chaos and irrationality. Dada was not art: it was “anti-art”. Dada represented the opposite of everything which traditional art stood for.

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Based on my own understanding, Dadaism is ‘Anti-art’. It’s purpose is to reject any logical and reasonable thinking, going against whatever traditional art stood for. It seemed like a mass rebellion against traditional art. Fighting Art with Anti-art.

Russian Constructivism

Russian Constructivists had the intention to reinvent art and reconstruct art from level 0. Constructivism was primarily an art and architectural movement. It rejected the idea of art for arts’ sake and the traditional bourgeois class of society to which previous art had been catered. Practicality with beauty was the main thrust behind the constructivists.

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Instead it favored art as a practice directed towards social change or that would serve a social purpose and be practical in its nature. Developing after World War I, the movement sought to push people to rebuild society in a Utopian model rather than the one that had led to the war. Art, music, architecture etc. were influenced by constructivism. 

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Based on my observation, I realize that Russian Constructivism has minimal colors in its artworks. Variety is added by using basic element of design such as contrast of color and lines.

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Chinese Political Pop art by Wang Guang Yi’s Great Criticism Series instantly came to my mind when I searched for ‘Russian Constructivism’.

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Artwork by Wang Guang Yi

As you can see, there are some forms of similarity such as red is the dominant color, and use of lines draws the viewer’s attention to an area of focus.

Hannah Hoch

At first glance into her works, . I assumed she was a modern artist initially as Hoch’s work seemed timeless and is applicable to the present times.

hannah-hoch

Hannah Hoch was an important member of the Berlin Dada movement and a pioneer in collage and was one of the originators of Photomontage. She also consciously promoted the idea of women working creatively more generally in society. She explicitly addressed in her pioneering artwork in the form of photomontage the issue of gender and the figure of woman in modern society

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Surrealism and Dadaism seems to be heavily involved in her works. The effect of her work is initially one of visual confusion, and yet a kind of nonsense-narrative begins to develop. To me, she is like Picasso who used magazine cutouts to create collages instead of paint!

John Heartfield

John Heartfield was a pioneer of modern photomontage. Working in Germany and Czechoslovakia between the two world wars, he developed a unique method of appropriating and reusing photographs to powerful political effect. The process of cutting and pasting together elements to form a brilliant cohesive image became the foundation of Heartfield art.

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To compose his works, he chose recognizable press photographs of politicians or events from the mainstream illustrated press. He then disassembled and rearranged these images to radically alter their meaning.

15johnheartfieldkriegundleichenHeartfield’s strongest work used variations of scale and stark juxtapositions to activate his already gruesome photo-fragments. The result could have a frightening visual impact.

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I felt that Heartfield’s work are rather heartfelt as his ‘Anti-Nazi’ and ‘Anti-politics’ works held significant meaning behind the photomontage of satirical humor.

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From this round of research, I am inspired by a few concepts and methodology of artists, which I may use for this project:

  1. Basic Principles and Elements of Design can help direct the viewer’s attention to an area I want to focus on, AND to emphasize on a certain intention.
  2. Stray away from conventional traditional art mindsets, focus on the idea you want to bring out instead of the aesthetics. UNLEASH YOUR IRRATIONAL UNCONSCIOUS MIND~ RELEASE THE KRAKEN!!
  3. Create nonsense-narrative
  4. Use recognizable images
  5.  Vary scale of object and create stark juxtapositions

Cheers~

Seng Yi Ling.