What do you want to be when you grow up?

|| Image Making through Type ||

 

 

In this first project for Graphic Form, we have to translate the essence of a job (that can be imaginary) into visual, typographic forms of our names using any sort of media.

 

Since the jobs we chose were not specified to be pragmatic/realistic, I started off by brainstorming up some ideas for imaginary jobs that are grounded in the essence of real jobs that exist in reality. I came up with a list of existing jobs and modified them by merging them with each other. This would not only help me come up with much more interesting outcomes, but also give me a wider range of job fields and their nature to explore. Thereafter, I searched up the jobscopes and items that are iconic to these jobs to make them easily identifiable.

 

Initial Shortlisted jobs:

  1. Baby DJ
  2. Pool Colourist
  3. Professional Liar
  4. Alien Communicator

 

——–

  1. Baby DJ

Original job inspirations: DJ, Infant care nurses

 

Jobscopes

DJ: to play music at events entertain, mix beats to hype the crowd up. Has to be well-versed in different sorts of music. Usually playing loud music at social events to give enhance the lively mood/atmosphere.

 

Infant care nursesCaring, patient, organised, responsible, nurturing, taking care of delicate babies

 

Objects

DJ: 

Turn table, disco ball, headphones, vinyl records, MIDI keyboards, audio editing softwares, bright neon lights, Launchpad device

DJ turntable
https://media.giphy.com/media/lf5JWi7T3b9Wo/giphy.gif

Infant care nurses:

Babies, cribs, cots, toys, wooden blocks, soft toys, pacifiers, mobile toys, diapers, blankets, nurse uniforms, needles, diapers

Objects related to babies. http://clipart-library.com/clipart/di4565nLT.htm
Baby mobile toys that have the possibility of including multiple elements/toys into them.

Idea Generation: 

Marshmello – ALONE – [Launchpad Pro Light Show]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0M0p7d1MTM
This example of a Launchpad light show demonstrates that users are able to intentionally program the sequence of lights on their device to form different images.
I decided to map my initials of YL onto a digital illustration of a Launchpad and make the buttons neon. The background ]would be repeated patterns of pacifiers and a pastel shade. Pastel shades are generally seen as more gentle colours that serve to convey a sense of innocence, purity, cleanliness that are seen of babies.

Words like “lightness” and “ease” come up a lot in conversations about pastels. Sallie Harrison, the designer and photographer in L.A., says that pastels evoke a sense of “calmness and balance.” Stewart points to light blue and its connection with spirituality and heaven; (Leatrice) Eiseman at one point related soft colors to infancy, when there was a sense of ease and safety because all of our needs were taken care of. These feelings can be connected to the social and political factors at work, as Eiseman pointed out while listing her considerations for color of the year.

(Leatrice Eiseman is an American color specialist, who assists companies in their color choice in a range of areas, including packaging, logos, and interior design. She is the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, a division of Pantone, Inc.,[1] and the author of six books on color, one of which won an award from the Independent Publisher’s Association.)

https://www.fastcodesign.com/3063771/how-pastels-became-a-cultural-obsession

 

However, this draft did not really display the elements of the job in the letters, rather, they put the letters into a context. When the letters are taken out of context, they do not effectively portray the essence of the job of a Baby DJ anymore.

Therefore, I embarked on a mission to try to integrate the essence of both a DJ and a infant care nurse together into my type.

 

 

Brainstorming pt. 1 I tried to integrate the buttons of the DJ Launchpad into the letters, and find a way to include elements of babies into the font as well, such as the foam letter toys and letter cubes.
Brainstorming pt. 2 I tried considering the context of the type as well by including the element of the mobile toy.

 

Exploration of button placement and lighting effects of buttons on the font in FireAlpaca.
Attempt at recreating the neon effect in Illustrator on 3D font made by beveling and extruding the shapes and adding several layers of glow on the outer edges of the font.

 

It was really difficult trying to recreate the multiple button effect in Illustrator because the 3D extrusion function and art mapping was not exactly user friendly. It took a pretty long time trying to render every single 3D object as well. Thus, I tried only extruding the foam toy square, while leaving the neon letters on the square. In the draft below, I had mapped a wooden texture onto a star shape. I tried to map a foam texture onto the foam squares to recreate a more accurate foam effect as well but there were way too many surfaces, so I stuck with a gradient effect. The background has several layers of lighting effects as well to try to recreate that of a dance club.

 

Attempting to use highly contrasting neon pink and blue lights since these are colours are energetic and associated with clubs.
In this draft, I tried out using different complementary colour pairs to get the foam pads looking like toys instead so that it would be more indicative of babies.

After relooking and consultation, I felt that the bokeh, strobe light and cloud effects were too strongly suggestive of a DJ instead of babies and did not convey my intentions accurately since I wanted to be a DJ that could put babies to sleep. Not make babies get up and dance. And so, I embarked on quite a different mission to change the composition to a more child-friendly one.

Final

With this draft, I switched from using Illustrator back to FireAlpaca because I am very much in love with this analogue brush that I downloaded and it makes everything look more organic and doodle-y rather than cold. Instead of putting the letters into the foam pads, I decided the incorporate the peripheral pattern of the foam pad into the letters instead, and leave in the circular neon shapes to indicate buttons on a Launchpad.

 

 

After finishing a rough sketch of the composition, I lined the artwork with thinner, black lines.
Oyasumi (Goodnight) poster by Takashi Ueda.
I happened to chance upon this poster which I thought was very interesting because of the use of contrasting colours that added energy, and yet was mellowed down by the use of dimmer colours to show that the lights are off and it’s time to sleep.

I wanted to use the colour schemes of artworks used for lo-fi hiphop videos on Youtube since they’re really pretty and also make me feel calm and relaxed looking at them. Usually, there are pastel, mellow, analogous and warm colours.

Art by: saree @sarlisart on Twitter

 

Art by: himmoon (https://virink.com/himmoon)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xF3pxNp0Do&t=1550s

Art by: Pierre Broissand (https://www.artstation.com/artwork/KWxJW)

 

I tried my hand at recreating this colour scheme by using dull colours and mostly warm tones. Dull colours would also help to contrast the neon effects to come. I also added an atmospheric glow in the middle to indicate that the letters are glowing.
Using my experience of creating the neon lighting effect, I lit up the periphery and added neon circular shapes into the foam letters.

 

I then found and added a foam texture onto the letters. This was so much easier to do on FireAlpaca than on Illustrator since I could adjust the opacity and edit the shape of the layer simply by erasing it.
In the background, I added some bokeh lighting effects to show that the lights of the neon letters projected far out. It also added to the overall calm atmosphere of the composition.
Anddd… here is the final composition! I think it was definitely a good move moving away from using Illustrator for this job.

 

 

2. Pool Colourist (abandoned  D:)

Original job inspirations: Pool maintainer, bath bomb makers

 

Jobscopes

Pool cleaner: Needs to be committed, works on a regular basis, cleans the pool by throwing chlorine in

Pool cleaning machine?

Bathbomb makers: Manufacture bathbombs by compacting colourful powdery compounds into spheres to be thrown into water and dissolved to colour the water in bathtubs

Objects

Pool cleaner: Water ripples, Pool tile patterns, pool cleaning machine, lifebuoy

Bath bomb makers: Bathbombs, rubberducks

 

 


Emphasis on the CHANGE of colour

 

Mediums for consideration:

Use marbling technique/ decalcomania] put something when pressing down to form letters

(non-stick paint?)

Marbling plus splatter using wet on wet technique

Letters will be ripples

Test wet on wet

Dripping technique

 

Attempt at marbling!

Medium: Nail Polish

 

3. Professional Liar

Inspired by: Detectives, police officers, interrogators, investigators, compulsive liars

 

Jobscopes:

Investigator: Find out the truth about a situation by sieving through documents, going onsite to find clues for cases.

Compulsive liars: Can make up a tall story about anything at anytime. Might be useful in some situations to get away with something for the time being. Hiring someone that knows exactly what to say could be really useful. It’s definitely a dirty job.

 

Objects:

Investigator: Magnifying glass, newspapers, files, Sherlock fedora, briefcase, mugshots, interrogation table

Compulsive liar: words, speech, Pinnochio nose, Suprematist/De Stijl works to represent the truth

Ideas:

For this draft, I used Malevich’s Black Square to represent the simplistic truth. Lies would be represented by colourful strings to show how pleasant looking things can cover up the truth that is difficult to understand. The contrast between the sturdy black square and the wavy, flowing rhythm of lines would make the composition more dynamic.
Some strings I bought from Daiso. I tried using them but they ended up being too thick.
I happened to chance upon this paper cut composition which I thought was interesting because it looked like the paper was concealing the faces.
And so, I also considered doing a newspaper collage which would partially conceal the black square, similar to how the media could sensationalise and cover up the truth of the matter. Here I am thinking of how to incorporate letters into the composition as well, most likely with a collage of letters.

 

I came across this image of a heart created by winding thread around nails hammered into a wooden board. I was thinking of another way to recreate it so that it would not be too risky since with this method, tension in the strings is key and the moment something goes loose, the entire thing will come apart.

 

I wanted to explore a new medium which I didn’t get to try out last semester so I looked into sewing. I have some prior experience of patching up my own clothes and buttons so it wasn’t a monstrous task to overcome, so I decided to try this method out. I found this font type that used thinner thread to create neat, vertical strands that filled up the width of the letters, and bound several layers of paper together.

 

 

 

 

Idea sketch for the making of the composition. I decided to use black felt because it was much easier to sew with than paper, which was in comparison very thick. Underneath the felt, I would do a newspaper collage. In this case, newspapers would represent legitimate black and white documents, thus the “truth”, and the black felt would conceal most of it. I would then sew a random pattern over the with of the letters to create an interesting texture and at the same time make the letters see-through so people can see the words on the newspaper underneath. I used black felt and red thread to express the secretive and dangerous consequences of lying.

Medium: String, Paper, Newspaper

 

While testing out the sewing technique, I realised that just by sewing in the width of the letters would still make them a little unidentifiable. I chanced upon this image and it gave me the idea to sew around the periphery of the letters as well to make the letters stand out more.

 

 

Here is the actualisation of my idea! I created a newspaper collage behind the widths of the letters, picking out the pieces with the most words. Then, I used a cardboard backing so that the felt could be supported. Also, if anyone wants to try this method out, PLEASE cut a bigger piece of felt because when you sew the letters together, it contracts the entire piece of felt.
Peekaboo! You can see the newspapers inside~ Now, I used super glue (like the actually really strong kind) to glue the felt to the cardboard, so it did kind of have a chemical reaction and burned the felt. The burned area was really obvious. ;;;

Final

I covered up the burned marks using smaller patches of felt. I decided to use a regular tessellation pattern instead of creating a massive effect because I wanted to portray a professional liar with a calm nature that can lie with a straight face.
Here’s a closeup of the texture! Overall, I think this piece has helped me to explore with more mediums that I’ve never really gotten to try and it produced a really tactile result!

4. Alien Communicator

Inspired by: Astronomers, Crop circle artists

 

Jobscope:

Astronomers: To study outerspace; investigate the presence of life-forms on other planets.

Crop circle artists: Create geoglyphs on large expanses of crop fields to trick the public into thinking that aliens are real. Also to practice an impressive new art style.

 

Objects:

Astronomers: Satellites, space suits, rockets, shiny metallic objects, outerspace themes, solar system

Crop circle artists: Crop fields, lawn mower, felled grass, alien motifs

 

 

Some brainstorming thoughts for style/mediums:

Photography?

Very circular designs

Design in firealpaca first

Paper cuts?
Light shining down

Digital 8 bit style?

Sleek font

Minimalist

Wacky colours-futuristic

Metallic colours?

 

After brainstorming, I settled for doing a crop circle artwork myself!

 

But first, I had to do some research on the patterns of crop circles. And so I did.

 

Crop Circle Fun Facts!

Crop circle art is a relatively new art form. In crop circle art, crop is bent and not harmed in any way. Most crop circles have either laterally symmetrical or radially symmetrical art. They could also be completely unsymmetrical and representative. The possibilities are endless.

The most telling feature of crop circles are their stunning geometric shapes and patterns that make it hard for people to believe that they were really created by human beings on such a large scale, and so a lot of people would rather believe that aliens did it.

I borrowed a book on crop circles by Michael Glickman to study the common features of crop circles:

[Glickman, Michael. 2005. Crop circles. n.p.: Butleigh : Wooden, 2005., 2005. NTU Library Catalogue, EBSCOhost (accessed February 10, 2018).]

 

 

Common features of crop circles:

-Circles and rings

-Triplets

-Quintuplets

-Pathways

-Alton Barnes (enigmatic keys/claws)

-Rings Between Circles

-Dolphins

-Insectograms

-Creatures

-Whirlpools

others like -orbits,snowflakes, triangles and squares

 

Radially symmetrical composition with tons of rings, almost resembling a whirlpool because of the swirl of the lines from the center outwards.
Alton Barnes crop circle. Here we can observe bridges across rings, which is cool and all but the most iconic thing about this crop circle is the gear/crank looking protrusions coming out, giving a mechanical nature, and evoking a sense of modernity/technology.
Laterally symmetrical representational composition of a jellyfish in a field in Oxfordshire.

 

In this draft, I tried incorporating the different patterns that I had learned, as well as letters of my name. However, this did not include the essence of the job into the letters once they were extracted out. So I decided to look into crop circle font.
Most of the search results that came up showed fonts like this that were ultimately… Alien webdings. Which is cool as a code and all, but no one will know how to read my name.
I found this font which did utilise rings, bridges and insectogram feelers, but the patterns could be more diverse.
And then I came across this one that used only rings, but at least it incorporated the pattern of the crop circle into the letters themselves. This inspired me to build on this concept, while including a larger variety of patterns.

 

Here, I sketched out some of the above mentioned features of crop circles and found ways to incorporate them into the individual letters. I decided to put the letters into a circular shape as well since it would contribute to the overarching circular/geometric motif of crop circles.
On FireAlpaca, I constructed a draft of the crop circle art. I was planning to use this as a stencil to cut out the letters on an actual fake grass patch from Daiso but… you’ll see later.
Yeap, here is the grass patch I was planning to use, it was about 22cm by 22cm.
I tried trimming down the grass on an extra bit of the grass patch to see how obvious it would look.
Unfortunately, after trimming, the letters could not show up. I even used brown acrylic paint to try to bring out the letters but the paint couldn’t show up and the space was too small too. Much to my dismay, I had to abandon this medium. But not all hope was lost!
I decided to turn to trusty digital imaging. Now I haven’t really done heavy editing before, so I was starting on a clean slate. Wrecking my brain over how to make the image as realistic as possible, I was blessed.

SOMEONE DID A TUTORIAL ON IT!!!

This tutorial was absolutely FANTASTIC. It was clear to follow and produced a really realistic effect. You can also use any stencil with a transparent background you have created, and following quite a long but comprehensible procedures of producing a screen, bevelling and embossing and tweaking lighting settings, you can create your own realistic digital crop circle artwork as well. By following this tutorial, I managed to play around with the blending effects a lot more, which I had always been quite unfamiliar and apprehensive about touching before this project.

Final

After many attempts and disappointment, I finally managed to achieve this super realistic crop circle effect that could convey the essence of my alien communicator job through the grass medium I had originally wanted to use, just digitally. I really have to thank the person who uploaded that tutorial!!

 

5) Local Pastry Chef

 

Inspired by: Chefs, Singaporean Hawkers

 

Jobscopes:

Chefs: Professional chefs that pay close attention to the process of cooking, as well as garnishing and presentation of food.

Singaporean hawkers: Specialise in catering to the Singaporean palate, making local cuisines like Chili Crab, Bak Kut Teh etc.

 

Objects:

Chefs: Chef hat, wok, spatula, frying pan, ingredients

Singaporean hawkers: Chili crab, bak kut teh, kueh, fried rice, hokkien mee, yong tau foo

 

Kueh Compendium by Naiise
It was decided that I was going to use kueh as a medium since there are so many different types and they are all really colourful (and tasty). Recalling that Naiise has a lot of products designed based on local pastries, I decided to search up references and low and behold, there was an entire catalogue of kuehs to choose from! I didn’t even know some of these kuehs existed. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0175/9848/products/KuehUltimaxwithnamessm.jpg?v=1495785705
Here, I drafted and started planning which type of kuehs to put into each letter. I tried to include as many types and colours as possible, and also considering the characteristics of each kueh and whether they could be molded into the shape of the letters. For e.g., for more complex forms, I tended towards kuehs that were layered so that the layers could be the characteristics incorporated into the letters. Also, for the long capital letter L, I used the correspondingly lengthy pink png kueh because it was suitable.
In this draft, I tried to imagine how the colours would turn out based on the use of different kuehs. I was going for a more home-y feeling as well so I wanted the background to be of a wooden texture, and the plate to be either clean or the blue-white/flowery traditional ceramic types.

 

Medium: Kueh, Photography

 

After spending QUITE the amount on about more than 10 kuehs (but it was worth it because it was really fun making and eating them afterwards), I crafted out the letters of my name in kueh. I placed the kuehs in a flowery ceramic plate and sprinkled some brown sugar over to complete the garnishing. I edited the original picture by adding some filters which gave the photo a warmer and home-ier colour tint.

Kuehs used:

Y- Kueh lapis sagu (Jiu Ceng Gao in chinese)

U – Kueh salat

E – Ang Ku Kueh

L- Png Kueh

I – Ondeh ondeh and kueh talam

N – Pulut Inti

G – Kueh Lapis

Reflections:

This project was pretty challenging in the sense that we had to create letters that could easily communicate the essence of our jobs. Since I also decided to go with jobs that are inspired by at lease 2 traditional/existing jobs, it was tough trying to incorporate elements of both jobs to balance out the elements equally. However, through a rigorous process of refining my designs, I would like to think that I have managed to do so. ;;; XD

With this project I also wanted to explore the use of other mediums, which I think I managed to do successfully! Although it was not a smooth process throughout, with many failures and disappointments, I always recall the saying that artists should “Fail faster” so that we learn from mistakes faster and can get on with improving our projects. After failing with the intended mediums, I tried to find alternate options that could express my intentions on the same level, if not, surprisingly better.

Through this project, I was also able to get more comfortable with Photoshop blending modes that I have never ventured to touch before. Fiddling around with the settings for making the neon glow and crop circle really taught me the massive capacity Photoshop has for creating realistic illusions.

All in all, I really enjoyed this project and had fun trying out different mediums instead of just ink/paint. Looking forward to the next Zine project!

Like, Favourite and Subscribe!

|| Hello World! (2008) by Christopher Baker is a audio-visual wall installation that comprises of over 5000 videos taken from social media websites like Youtube, Facebook and MySpace. Each of them are a personal video recording from an individual to an imaginary audience (vlogging = video + blogging). The collective motley of voices that results can either seem meditative or overwhelming to viewers who choose to dwell and immerse themselves in the experience.

 

Hello World! (2008) by Christopher Baker.
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9mhAEMu7io

Since cameras have been incorporated into mobile devices, increased ownership of the latter would also mean an increase in possession of a camera. Coupled with the increased accessibility to the Internet, more individuals now have the power to participate in social sharing online.

 

“Some forms of computer-mediated communication can lower barriers to interaction and encourage more self-disclosure (Bargh, McKenna, & Fitzsimons, 2002; Tidwell & Walther, 2002); hence, these tools may enable connections and interactions that would not otherwise occur.”

– NB Ellison, The Benefits of Facebook “Friends”.

Hello World! fundamentally displays the innate need for social sharing in humans. This behavioural pattern can also be observed in Murmur Study, another work by Christopher Baker, which materialises the abundance of status updates which exist online which may not be directed to anyone in particular.

 

Christopher Baker laments that the experience of social sharing may not be totally reciprocal since people are not taught to be good listeners as well. If we manage to achieve a considerable balance, perhaps more beneficial collective actions can be born from online conversations.

 

Resources:

  1. http://christopherbaker.net/projects/helloworld/
  2. The Benefits of Facebook ‘‘Friends’’: Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites
  3. http://christopherbaker.net/projects/murmur-study/
  4. Murmur Study video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMtDoS2Ab0s

Everytime We Touch, I Get This Feeling.

|| This week during class, we all got on Adobe Connect (it was my first time using this software ever), and immersed ourselves into the Third Space together.

 

We discussed about how the emotional bandwidth (the quality of emotional exchange between two individuals) of texting is significantly different from that of video calling or social broadcasting since we are able to view the voice and expression of the other party to fully gauge their responses, compared to simply communicating via words.

 

This experience was very new to me since previously we only broadcasted live together as a class but did not really attempt to make any interactions across screens (although this was attempted in the Telestroll microproject). As a class, we were present in both our local space (the first space), and the digitalised platform of Adobe Connect (the third space). Since we were all in the classroom, our remote spaces (second spaces) were all the same relative to each other. It was not possible to see everyone in the room at once in the physical world, but Adobe Connect sure made it much easier. It was also super cool to see how although we were in the same room at different positions, our minds were all in the same place.

 

We attempted to accomplish various collective tasks together, such as putting our fingers together with a partner beside us (not physically but onscreen), putting our faces really close to the camera and making a cross across the screen.

E.T. touch with our fellow classmates beside us on Adobe Connect. Photo credits: Randall Packer
Pen Alignment. Photo credits: Randall Packer
Onscreen Cross. Photo credits: Randall Packer

For these tasks to be completed successfully, it was vital that we negotiated and compromised to achieve our goal. From the simplest initial task of getting a pen out, to aligning the positions/scale of our objects/hands, every part of the job required some form of give-and-take. Even with the Onscreen Cross, if we were not involved in making the actual cross with our arm, we needed to know our job and do it, even if it meant doing absolutely nothing with our arm, lest there be an extra stroke coming out of the cross.

 

While we see negotiation on a smaller scale here in a onscreen microproject, these skills are definitely applicable to real life whenever we need to communicate with others and get our ideas through in order to get a job done successfully.

So Near Yet So Far

||        The Big Kiss (2008) is a 3 hour live webcam networked art piece by Dutch Performance artist Annie Abrahams, where Annie and her co-performer are physically separated from each other and have themselves perform the act of kissing recorded separately.

 

Annie Abrahams and her co-performer sitting separately, orientated in different directions while performing. The only space where they meet in on the split screen that hosts the live webcam feed simultaneously.

 

In a interview with Randall Packer on Third Space Network’s Networked Conversations, Annie Abrahams observes that there are two main reactions to the performance: either fascination by the eroticism that can be evoked without physical interaction, or awkwardness as a bystander who is witnessing this bizarre dissected makeout session of 2 strangers. She explains that the product of this artwork is not the live performance itself, but rather the meeting with her co-host (who was a completely stranger), and the process of discussing what to do in the performance. While performing The Big Kiss, both performers had to visualise pictures in their head and ‘draw’ it out with their tongues, mimicking the action of French kissing.

 

Randall Packer interviews Annie Abrahams and dicusses about her various artworks focused on human interaction and intimacy on a digitalised platform to experiment. https://thirdspacenetwork.com/annie-abrahams/ Big Kiss discussion around 42:30 mark

Annie Abraham’s attempt to expose the ‘sloppy side’ of people (or as we call ‘unglamorous side’) in spontaneous performances like this online juxtaposes the glossed image of online personas that we present to strangers who chance upon our profiles online. In the context of love and intimacy, there are dating applications that people turn to to find love, such as Tinder, Lively and Hinge.

Tinder is a dating platform whereby people attempt to find a partner by sieving through their online profiles and pictures. Tinder is said to entertain the idea of a Snapchat-style video function.

 

The limitations of these applications are that people can only form “parasocial relationships” (Internet and Emotions by Tova Benski, 2013) with others, since the only information they have is someone’s profile page, and the only people they interact with is the other party’s online persona. They are never in touch with each other’s true personality; rather they are attracted to the illusion that someone has created of themselves in this “egalitarian cyberspace” (Love Online by Aaron Ben-Ze’ev, 2004), with all the ‘unglamourous’ sides filtered out.

 

The Big Kiss effectively draws a parallel to this social situation and presents it in a compressed, physical performance that emphasises society’s simultaneous desire and fear when it comes to physical intimacy. Perhaps more could be done to thrust the the online world into reality so that people can begin to rediscover the experience of sharing physical space and touch again, rather than being enclosed in our own “magic circles” (Benski,2013).

 

Resources:

  1. The Big Kiss (2008) by Annie Abrahams [5 minute version] https://vimeo.com/2070207
  2. Annie Abrahams – Networked Conversations https://thirdspacenetwork.com/annie-abrahams/
  3. Tinder https://tinder.com/app/login
  4. Bensky, Tova, and Eran Fisher. Internet and emotions. New York: Routledge, 2014.
  5. Ben-ZeT̤ev, Aharon, and Madiha. Love online. Lahore: Sabih Publishers.

Exp Int Readings #01: Open-Source Thinking

|| O N   O P E N S O U R C E T H I N K I N G ||

 

//              Before the advent of the Internet, creators had their works protected by laws such as the Seldon and Ford copyright patents that helped to uphold the ownership of their works by legal means and prevent idea theft. An absolutist propriety code could be exploited by larger and more powerful companies or individuals (as with the Microsoft and Gates mentioned in Sida Vaidhyanathan’s essay Open Source as Culture-Culture as Open Source,) limiting the concentration of expertise to themselves.  The limitations placed on idea sharing resulted in inefficient economic decisions. True ownership over material is also difficult to determine since “No one fully owns a book”, as Michael Walman says in his ‘Handbook on the Economics of Copyright’.

 

The introduction of open-source culture (OSC) by groups like Linux, liberated the restriction on human intellect capital by encouraging creators to give up ownership of their works completely or partially; in order for open collaboration and peer production to thrive. While licenses still exist to partially protect the intellectual property of creators, they promote the sharing of material in order to inspire and give birth to more innovative derivative information goods. With OSC, the notion that creators are solitary workers is no longer valid since it provided an opportunity for artists to utilise avant-garde platforms that transcended the physical boundaries of an artist. Such works, such as The Shredder, Glyphiti utilised the ‘metamedium’ that the platforms provide and incorporated interactivity, such that the participants or audience could determine the outcome of the artwork, instead of the artist, as showcased in Randall Packer’s article on Open Source Studio.

 

The code for the Linux operating system kernel was given away for free and has given rise to many distributions like the Steam OS (gaming) and Ubuntu (mobile devices) that support a myriad of software.

 

The Shredder by Mark Napler (mentioned in Randall Packer’s article) disrupts the format of a website and gives the audience ownership over this work since the participants are able to choose the website that they would like to enter to ‘shred’. Also, the webpage being ‘shredded’ is displayed in real-time, as such, the results of the ‘shredded’ websites will always differ, making each outcome a unique creation by the participant.

http://www.potatoland.org/shredder/shredder.html

 

This online interactive artwork ‘Glyphiti’ by Anthony Deck features a wall of glyphs. Each glyph can be freely altered by any visiting person to their liking. The aggregation of all the personalised glyphs then form the entirety of the glyphiti (much like how graffiti is done on actual walls in real life). I personally left my own pac-man drawing there.

http://artcontext.org/glyphiti/docs/index.php

 

Resources:

(1) Vaidhyanathan, Sida (2005) “Open Source as Culture-Culture as Open Source,” The Social Media Reader. New York: New York University Press, 2012

(2) Packer, Randall, Open Source Studio, IEEE Spectrum, 2015

(3) http://www.potatoland.org/shredder/shredder.html

(4) http://artcontext.org/glyphiti/docs/index.php

(5) Watt, Richard, eds. Handbook on the Economics of Copyright: A Guide for Students and Teachers. , (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014)doi:

(6) What is Linux? by The Linux Gamer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFFNiMV27VY

#02: \\TELE-STROLL// (micro-project)

 

(Had to post this as a video because I was having trouble embedding the live video into my post!)

Posted by Yue Ling Tan on Tuesday, 23 January 2018

 

So Francesca and I were paired up for our first micro-project and we decided to do a “Journey to the East/West” video!
Our live performance is a juxtaposition between where we live in Singapore (and we ACTUALLY do stay at opposite sides of the country), and it serves the purpose to show that even if we are physically located at different parts of the country, our living habits and environment around us are extremely similar. Our brainchild showcases the both of us having a stroll around our neighbourhood on a boring Sunday and learning about each other’s living spaces.

The process of making this live performance was memorable, and I believe the both of us were quite taken aback by the level of difficulty this task poses. When planning for the performance, we decided to focus on the types of actions we could include that could utilise and include interactivity within the realm of the ‘Third Space’. After collating our ideas, we came up with the mini storyline that is our brainchild. Initially, we assumed that it would be fairly simple to carry out the live but it was only after various takes and practice that we were finally able to complete the performance successfully, which, rather than just a simple live broadcast, was more alike to a performance on stage and made this micro-project a very peculiar experience. Coordination between both parties had to be practised to be more refined and it took a lot of communication to include the appropriate elements and to execute them at the right timings, bringing social art to the next level.

#01: \\Experiment in Social Broadcasting// (class activity)

Today in class we did social broadcasting! With our phones, we went LIVE on Facebook while we were all in different parts of ADM; during which, all of our broadcasts were collated on Facebook Live Video Wall platform. By condensing the local space of ADM and the remote space of the internet, we could gain access to the Third Space (ooh sounds trippy!) Hearing about this term made me remember what my 4D teacher mentioned in the previous semester about ‘metaphysical space’, which is a space that exists but is not visible. With the Third Space, we can easily access the visual portrayal of this metaphysical space, coupled with audience participation that would give rise to unpredictable live videos, the video wall was just a stunning piece of art! 😀

 

Posted by Yue Ling Tan on Thursday, 18 January 2018

Entry #03: EGO GRAFFITO

– E G O –

ˈiːɡəʊ,ˈɛːɡəʊ/
The metaphysical part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious. An amalgamation of egos developed under different circumstances defines an individual’s personality and gives them a characteristic identity.
In psychology, the human psyche is divided into 3 parts, the id, ego, and superego. The id is what defines the choice of action a person takes based on natural, fundamental human needs and instincts. The superego defines the choice of action a person takes based on morals. And the ego is the in-the-middle of the two above that takes reality and its circumstances into play.
A social situation is a scenario in which individuals congregate and interact with each other in the way that they each have to tap in to their values and social roles in order to foster social cohesion and action. Disagreements may occur.
—————————————————–

For my final 2D project, I am supposed to dig deep into the abyss of my soul and materialize certain aspects of my personality into visual, metaphorical characters/objects that reflect how I am like in different situations. It could be how I portray myself to others (outward portrayal), or how I think I am like towards others (inward portrayal). By combining the character/object chosen and different social situations, I can combine the two to imagine an outcome.

AH HAAA but there’s a catch, because in this project, COLOUR is IMPORTANT. In this project, we are only allowed to use the following colour palette (Just for easier illustration purposes, I shall use red to demonstrate the differences!)

  1. Monochrome

    (same colour but different saturation level)

2) Analogous (including colours on the side of the original colour in the colour wheel)

Analogous color schemes often mimic the color schemes found in our natural environment and can create a calm and relaxed feel when applied in design.

3) Complementary (colours on the opposite end of the colour wheel)

Opposing colors on the color wheel are dramatically different and because of this they will create a high impact jolt when paired together. Complementary colors are frequently used to draw attention and emphasis to a particular space within a design and can be quite effective when used in small doses.

4) Split complementary (colours on the opposite, but includes adjacent colours) 

Using a split complementary color scheme as opposed to a complementary color scheme is less risky as the result of the three colors together is less harsh and not as loud as a complementary color scheme.

5) Triadic (draw a triangle on the colour wheel get the colours)

The three colors used in this scheme tend to sit well together and can be quite lively and harmonious.

 

The reason for using colour palettes is that we are able to create colour harmony, which looks more aesthetically pleasing. Including different colours in the colour wheel can evoke different emotions that enhance the message of our chosen imagery.

 

Colour psychology as utilised by official major brands to cater to the appropriate target audience.
Even different saturations of the same colour can evoke different emotions!
Each colour can have evoke both a positive and negative vibe in different contexts.

 

Based on my findings, I came up with some visuals to depict my EGO in the format of

_(insert symbol of self)_ + _(situation)_ = _(outcome)_

 

Situation #1 (Draft 1):

-My struggle with the standard style of academics (especially in Junior College).

Trait:  Free-spirited (trapped)

Thing: Cuckoo clock

-When asking around for what animal would represent me, my friends said a bird/butterfly. Some of my friends also said that I was free-spirited (You learn new things about yourself when you actually bother to ask other people what they think of you HAHA), so I thought something with wings would work since it represented flying away from your responsibilities to obtain freedom. I thought that a cuckoo bird was really apt since cuckoo birds are always trapped inside the clock and released at a fixed time every day. Sounds like SCHOOL?? 8’D So I’m a cuckoo bird that wants to be released but still restrained.

-I used a monochromatic brown palette for this picture since it represents dullness and the mundanity of school life. The bird, however is a light yellow-ish shade since I wanted to represent myself in my ideal element as a jovial, optimistic person.

Social situation: School

Setting: Car on the road

-To me, school is a pretty mechanical system that keeps pushing students higher up the educational ladder. I used a car to represent school since cars are automobiles that are supposed to help us, drivers are usually very focused on moving forward.

-I used a monochromatic red colour palette since red is a very energetic colour and implies action. it could also imply danger.

 

Outcome:

Free spirit + School = Tortured soul

Cuckoo bird + Car = Cuckoo bird getting dragged along the ground

-For me, the higher up the educational ladder I climbed (with the exception of university), the more I struggled to keep up and the more unhappy I felt. With every bad grade I got for my exams, it really made me feel like I was getting increasingly abraded. It was tough being myself again; looking back at my social media posts and reflecting on my attitude towards my family, it made me realise that I really wasn’t myself at all, as if I’d gone dysfunctional and completely lost myself under the unrelenting stress of school, and I felt like everyone around me was oblivious to how much help I needed. I’m representing this with a cuckoo bird tied to the car and getting dragged along the road to destruction. (not depressing at all)

For the colour palette, I simply combined the two monochromatic colour palettes together to form an analagous red-yellow colour palette.

Medium of execution: Digital painting

 

 

1st row (Draft 1)

   +        

 

Situation #1 (Draft 2):

I decided to make the outcome less negative so I decided to portray me being empowered in school instead of being crippled by it!

Here are some inspirations!

The car that represented something mechanical reminded me of Optimus Prime from Transformers. I really love the energetic red and blue contrast!
The bird really reminded me of those plague doctor masks that we see in stereotypical radiation setting documentaries/movies. I thought it was super fitting because it represented resistance against something that seemingly would overwhelm you.
Mercy from Overwatch has the perfect wings. If I merged it together with the colours on Optimus Prime, we have a triad colour harmony plus wings to add to the bird characteristic of my mecha bird. 😀 (Also, school please have /mercy/ on me)

So here I have a new outcome! Instead of being dragged along by school until I’m broken (which, by the way, was quite true to a large extent in JC), I am now empowered by what I have learned and now I have the conviction to aim for higher results!! I guess this now represents the present. The past me was really depressed– ok I shall stop ranting here.

  +     =   

 

Situation #1 (Final Draft):

 

Yay! So now I have my final results done traditionally with watercolour markers (Shinhan Twin Touch, not Copics because I’m poor like that), and black marker pen for outlines (OUTLINES SAVE WATERCOLOUR WORKS!!!).

 

[Traditional; Shinhan Twintouch watercolour markers]

  +     =  

 

The cuckoo bird is still desperate to break free (made it have a complementary colour harmony which was fitting since blue also represents freedom), I added papers with really bad grades flying around the school car (not bus), and now I am a MECHA BIRD THAT WANTS TO BE MORE POSITIVE 😀

 

Situation #2 (Draft 1):

-Me dealing with anyone visiting my house.

Trait: Introversion

Thing: Tortoise

– Normally, I don’t like to put myself out there and be the centre of attraction. Speaking with confidence to strangers for a short while is okay, but if it drags on for too long, my mental energy gets drained thinking about what topics to bring up because I’m awkward and overly-conscious like that. And when it does, I like to stay in solitude to gather my thoughts and brace myself for meeting the next fellow human. I thought a tortoise was perfect for this trait since tortoises can retreat into the safety of their hard, protective shells. It would be pretty boring just having a tortoise so I made myself into a windup tortoise instead after drawing some inspiration from Toy Story’s Woody which as a pull string, which represents having a limited time of extroversion before feeling really down and keeping to myself again.

-I coloured the tortoise green with a pink background to depict my amiable personality (or at least I hope I am).

 

 

Social situation: Home visits from strangers

Setting: Ominous figure walking into a dark room

-I utilised the complementary colours of blue/purple with yellow to show a contrast in lighting. Anyone who invades my humble abode appear like towering dark figures to me. They threaten my bubble of privacy and I will use all means to defend it. 😀

 

 

Outcome:

Introversion + Home visits from strangers = Isolating myself from everyone else

Tortoise + Ominous figure = Tortoise retreating into shell and cowering away

-Here I used sort of an analogous and complementary colour scheme. The pink from the turtle is completely gone because I’ve run out of fuel to socialise and seeking refuge in my shell while the anonymous tall figure towers over me and daunts me.

 

 

 

  +    = 

 

Situation #2 (Draft 2):

After receiving feedback from the first round of consultations, I got the idea of using rabbits to represent strangers (because according to the hare and tortoise folklore, they’re supposed to be enemies, also, rabbits are often representative of hyperactivity and face-paced action because of how much they can jump about).

Some inspirations!

The famous Mine Turtle from asdfmovie that blows up when you step on it even though it looks so cute and inviting.
The tortoise shell looks like a grenade!
Mention of having a projection out of the tortoise’s shell really reminded me of the Bat Signal from Batman.

  +     =   

 

Situation #2 (Final Draft):

 

I never thought I would actually do it, but I PICKED UP ILLUSTRATOR WHOOPDEEDOO!!! It seemed like such a daunting task. I remember how shocked I was at the amount of potential it had after watching a Youtube tutorial video. Everything you put in Illustrator looks so legitimate!!  But I’m so glad I did because now I have one more tool to carry around 😀 (but it does take quite a long time since every single shape has to be manually inserted and the number of layers drives me nuts.)

 

So I made my tortoise (without the pullstring thing because it kind of seemed redundant), have rabbits peer through the door instead of an anonymous stranger, and have me (as a tortoise) project a carrot, instead of a bat, to draw the rabbits’ attention elsewhere so that I am free to relax in solitary.

[Illustrator]

   +      =  

 

Situation #3 (Draft 1):

-Me dealing with anyone visiting my house.

Trait: Nurturing

Thing: Moon

  • The moon is often seen as a feminine, nurturing, all-seeing symbol. All of which I am usually not (because I am one big giant kid), unless I am surrounded by kids around me. (Monochrome harmony)

 

Social situation: Taking care of kids 

Setting: Crayons 

-Crayons remind me of children because that one time I worked at a kindergarten, they literally did colouring with crayons for so much of their time there. Crayons are one of the first drawing tools that we are exposed to as children as well, so it usually suggests childhood. (Crayons are made of wax, so I thought maybe they would burn. What an odd idea 8’D)

Outcome:

Nurturing + Taking care of kids = Educating and enlightening them

Moon + Lit crayons = Crayons being lit up like candles 

For some reason, there are lots of children in my life. My younger baby brother, and the kids that I met when I taught in the kindergarten. I only feel grown-up when I’m around them and feel like a responsible adult. The crayons being lit represents me enlightening them and showing the way.

 

 

Situation #3 (Draft 1):

 

  +    =  

 

Situation #3 (Draft 2):

 

Some inspiration!

The DreamWorks logo was being mentioned during consultation and it made me think of the phrase ‘teaching someone to fish for themselves’. Which is exactly what I’m doing when i teach kids. (I hope).
I was trying to decide what kind of moon to put in and after being inspired by the DreamWorks logo, I decided to go with a waxing crescent moon 😀
Whenever fishing is concerned in anime, I knew it was hard for the authors to resist a good dramatic fishing moment. I really love the compositions of these scenes.

   +     =  

 

Situation #3 (Final Draft):

During consultation, I got the idea of how the tide changes as the moon waxes and wanes. I thought that was really fitting for the fishing theme, so I included it in my first square. In my second square I did a illustration of a crayon in illustrator, made a pattern out of it, and placed the pattern upon the background of green grass, The crayon is red to represent how energetic children are, and the green pasture represents how lively, pure and down to earth they are as well. In my final square, I adopted the dramatic fishing composition and also tried out a new brush to paint the sea and the fish in FireAlpaca. (analagous)

[digital painting]

 + =  

 

 

Situation #4 (Draft 1):

 

Trait: Calm demeanor but insecure

Thing: Bubble

-Many of my friends tell me that I am ‘chill’, but on the inside, I really am constantly on the verge of having a meltdown because I overthink about everything way too much. (it’s all internal)

 

 

Social situation: Being accompanied by my group of close friends

Setting: Dandelion field

Dandelions represent childhood, and the way they disperse their seeds are like how childhood friends eventually grow up along different life paths and grow apart from each other. But in my case, I have a close group of primary school friends who, even though have grown up to take on immensely different challenges, still stick close together like glue.

Outcome:

Calm and insecure + Accompanied by close friends = Being empowered by my friends

Bubble + Dandelion field = Bubble burst by dandelion

 

-Around this group of friends, I can really let out my insecurities and be comfortable around myself.

 

4th row (Draft 1):

 

  +    =  

 

Situation #4 (Draft 2):

 

So I scraped the previous idea entirely because it was way too cliche and predictable. (it was nice but way too subpar HAHA)

I kind of took the liberty to work backwards but I thought it actually works because I can have a rough concept of the outcome much earlier.

Instead, I thought up a new outcome first!!

This is an actual photo of me during my secondary school prom. I borrowed the horse mask from my classmate. It was irresistable.

 

I thought of how the idiom ‘dark horse’ is used to represent someone who unexpectedly changes from underdog to the master of a game/competition. So to contrast this, I planned to put 2 white horses on the side of a table and have the 3 horses play a game of Uno. Because that’s probably the only competitive game I’m good at.

 

Situation #4 (Final Draft):

 

The first photo is me spouting out some trippy looking spirals out with an analogous colour scheme around the green/purple sideo of the colour wheel to represent nervousness and abhorrence towards competition. In the background you can see the typical game controller symbols to suggest gaming as a form of competitive activity.

In the second square, I digitally painted a game of Uno going on (it was so hard to find reference images that had the exact angle that I wanted). Uno represents something that I’m relatively better at and am willing to lay out my skills for all to see 😀

In the last square, I made a photo collage of the planned composition above. (Never thought I would get to use my prom photo like this but totally worth it). In the background, I used a luminous neon purple triangular hypnotic pattern to represent how ecstatic I am. Purple is also a royal colour and I have a crown on my head, so it suggests how big of a deal I assume myself to be when I get ever so slightly good at something. 😀

 

[Photo collage]

  +     =    

 

 

Reflections:

I’m actually really thankful that we got to do this project because

  1. We literally have not touched colour at all in drawing class and we are finally free to use colour in this activity.
  2. This project introduced different colour harmonies to me; I am now much more aware of different colour harmonies intentionally at play when I look at posters and advertisements in public.
  3. I managed to pick up Illustrator!!! A little time consuming, but the vector style makes everything look so professional.

4.  I would say one of the biggest difficulties I faced aside from the technical part of using Illustrator was figuring out me. I get existential and identity crisis from time to time and through this project (all the feedback from friends, online quizzes and tarot cards), I managed to figure out at least 4 different characteristics of myself. This project was really therapeutic and I would highly recommend it to the next batch of students. 😀

5. Through this project, I was also better able to exercise the use of visual language to get my point across. The regular consultations also really helped me to bring my ideas to further heights (and weird places as well) that I would never have thought of on my own. Sometimes, you need others to know who you are. 😀 Through identifying symbols/representations of my different facades and egos, I learned how to put them into a context and build a narrative within that new context that somehow parallels with the message I am trying to convey about my personality. All in all, it was a very enlightening experience. *shines*

Entry #02: Story about a Thing

For our second project for Foundation 4D I: Story about a Thing, we are supposed to choose… well, a THING as a theme and create a visual narrative surrounding it using sequential images. In class, we also learned about narrative structure and story-telling techniques using images such as scene-to-scene and action-to-action closure to fill in the blood in the gutter.

 

My first task was to select a thing (as if it wasn’t the hardest task ever; sometimes the simplest briefs are the hardest). I decided to use something wacky and bizarre because solemn stories aren’t really my thing.

So, I chose a wig.

 

Yes, a wig.

 

My initial story plan was inspired by this game that I found on Kongregate.com a long time ago, The Visitor by James Ziebarth. It follows the storyline of this alien worm-looking creature that starts off really small, but goes around people’s houses devouring larger and larger prey until it grows to maximum size. The plan was a horror genre and I wanted to make my wig consume people, but I felt that the horror genre is a tad bit grotesque to do and doesn’t really have an interesting storyline to it, so I decided to change it to a comedic story instead.

Instead of having a completely evil wig that murders people, I decided to change it into a yandere wig. ‘Yandere’ is a character archetype in a lot of Japanese animated films that are often girls that are so obsessed with a boy that they would kill for them, or just carry out violent acts in general that also endangers the lives of everyone around them.

Popular examples of ‘yandere’ girls:

Gasai Yuno from Mirai Nikki (Future Diary).
Lucy from Elfen Lied.
Kotonoha from School Days!

Yes, I wanted to make my wig an obsessive protagonist.

So here is my rough storyline using the monomyth structure:

A CEO of a company who starts off with a head full of luscious thick hair starts to bald for unknown reasons (presumably stress or old age), and since maintaining his image and his dignity is really important to him, he thinks of the immediate solution of getting a toupee (as inspired by the Principal in Captain Underpants). He hesitates for a bit when he thinks that it might fall off and his colleagues would laugh at him, but he decides that his image is much more important so he goes to get the toupee anyway.

Little does he know, the toupee has a mind of its own and develops a liking for its owner. They spend time together as the protagonist goes about his days concealing his bald spot with his newly bought toupee.

One fine day, he sees an advertisement on the television for a hair growth cream and has an epiphany. He purchases the cream and successfully manages to grow back a full head of hair, much to the obsessed toupee’s dismay.

The now desperate toupee decides to take superglue and put it on …itself (?? shall not assume gender here) and awaits its master’s arrival.

When the protagonist puts the sticky toupee onto his head, he is appalled to find out that he can’t take it out again. Left with no other choice, he decides to shave off all his hair. The ending twist is that he buys another toupee which has a life of its own. And so the cycle continues.

————————————————————————————————-

Now I know what you’re thinking after you’ve just read this.

Wtf???

Good, that’s the intended effect.

Now it was obviously a terribly hard task to find a bald man to act for me so I decided to substitute the human protagonist to a squash instead. I was inspired by PotterPuppetPal’s Neville Longbottom (below):

Neville the squash (vegetable) compared to a more human-like Harry Potter.

I supposed this would create a much more comical effect since the story itself is pretty silly.

 

Below was my rough plan for the sequence of my images:

1- Potato going to work, show status at work

has full head of hair (gelled backwards) (end of a day at work)

2-Potato puts down bag at home and goes to toilet

3- Toilet: Potato discovers that its hair is falling out (more and more hair on the floor/clogged in sink)

4- Potato’s distress over hair (bald spot)

5- Potato thinks of solution (toupee)

6- Consider: Colleagues laughing at toupee dropping off (Captain Underpants)

7- Potato says no

8- Potato goes to the toupee store to get a toupee

9- Potato goes to work with new head of toupee (show life of its own with oogly eyes with heart)

Show laptop time

10- toupee time with owner (afternoon)

11- toupee time with owner (night)

12- toupee time with owner (morning)

13- potato watching TV

14- TV shows hair cream

15- potato is amazed (bright light at the front)

16- show hair cream beside potato as he does stuff to his bald head

17- next day at work with full head of hair

18- sad and angry toupee at home

19- toupee goes to get super glue and puts it on himself

20- potato goes to work with toupee the next day

21- in bathroom he can’t get it out

22-another attempt to get it out

23- gives up

24- shaves off

25- returns to work with new toupee

26- toupee thumbs up

 

 

Story plan:

Storyline plan

 

Storyboard plan (arrangement not confirmed yet)

 

|| The Obsessive Love of a Wig || I made some tweaks to the storyline; instead of the wig superglue-ing itself to Philip (yes he has a name now, I’m overly attached) and forcing him into eternal baldness, the wig now switches the hair growth cream Philip bought for superglue (muahaha!) and forces him to wear a the evil wig forever. Initially, I wanted to try a circular arrangement to imply the structure of the hero’s monomyth, but then I saw an opportunity to arrange my photos in a heart-shape to echo the theme of the story (definitely romance, or at least one-sided)! They are also read in an anti-clockwise direction because it’s easier, reading clockwise sort of feels like you’re reading the story backwards. The file size uploaded here is pretty small so the images are probably pretty hard to see so I’ve added a link below to a .pdf file with much better quality!

 

PDF FILE:

https://app.box.com/s/zl05lrp6nbhh067kbu7l8p4l6i0dmppd