Chopstick Holder

Product: Chopstick Holder & Housing

Medium: Reclaimed Pine

Finish: hand-waxed

Chopstick Holder (on the top): W 50 x L 235 x H 77 mm.

Housing (on the bottom): W 79 x L 262 x H 72 mm.

Course: DR2009 Products in Asian Cultural Context (AY 2019-20, Semester 1)

Project’s title: Wooden doll and its housing

Designed & made by: Tan Ying Hui (U1730916L)

Photographed by: Tan Ying Hui (2019)

Project’s description

The way of Dim Sum dining is a wholistic one. Served in small bamboo baskets, they are usually shared between families and friends. It is a gathering that speaks of camaraderie and togetherness. The imbalanced form of the product plays on the interactivity between its own kind; in that physical action of support and reliance.

To form a cohesive set with the previous rolling pin project, the cone shape outline and layering is repeated here, in the head and silhouette. There are echoes in the curves to visually tie the pieces together. The lid is matched with care to allow the grain of wood to flow naturally from left to right.

Using the alternative sections of light and dark colours, their size and placement creates additional features to the doll such as hair and clothing.

Although the doll is designed to be used in multiples, where the higher tip rests on another’s tail, it may also be used independently. Despite the slight instability, it will not tip to an extreme due to the shallow curved base. In fact, the weight of the utensils balances the doll evenly.

Full Documentation: YING HUI’s 2PE Journal DR2009_NOV19

Prev: Rolling Pin

Cafe Mascot Design

Prior to this, I had been reunited with an old friend who was currently running a cafe founded by his father. The cafe served a combination of western and local cuisine thus I have chosen chinese mythical creature- Taotie for their mascot. It is a hunger beast that ate even its own body, hence communicating that their food is so good, you will never get enough of it.

Taotie Features
Coaster Design
Napkin Design
Promo Poster Design

Reflection on Digital Theatre and Scenic Spectacle by Steve Dixon

Chapter 14 of Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation by Steve Dixon focused on how the incorporation of media screens affected and enhanced the spatial possibilities of a traditional three-dimensional theater space. Digital projections, despite being two dimensional, offer “pliable and poetic space”. Pliable refers to the flexibility of the medium, for example, to view from multiple perspectives through various camera angles simultaneously. Visuals ranging from 360 panorama to extreme close ups and slow motion shots. With the combination of video editing, space and time may be altered by the artist build scenes impossible to materialize physically.

Poetic, the latter, I believe, refers to the “semiotic dialogue between screen image and stage action.” As seen in Robert Lepage’s performance, the use of computer technology can be used as a prop to deliver dramatized and surreal imagery. Dixon made an interesting point about how projected media is often used to “appeal to the senses rather than to the rational intellect”; drawing on the visceral instincts of the audience instead of intent. This statement brought Inter-Mission’s performance to mind. Was the “Disappearance, Bar in the Gallery” with INTER—MISSION trying to engage the audience consciously?  Is that why its meaning was lost in the process?

Under one of Dixon’s examples – The Builders Association, it was mentioned that “their Brechtian use of media displays reminds the audience of the dialectical interplay between the actors and the screen.” Brecht argues that theater should not blur the boundary of reality and allow the audience to view the performance more as a past event. I think this is where Matapolis would be classified under because Dixon also wrote that Brechtian critiques more on the aspects of culture and society more than the political. The use of “the ubiquity of electronic images and their falsifying and banal natures” is exactly what we are doing with Matapolis. Minus the live-actors, we are doing the same, creating distance between the viewer and the content by fictionalizing it. This way the audience can enjoy recognizing references close to home.

References

“Bertolt Brecht | Biography, Plays, Poems, & Facts”. 2019. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bertolt-Brecht.

Dixon, Steve. 2015. Digital Performance: A History Of New Media In Theater. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.