Author: Yuen Jia Jun

I whisper to the birds.
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Symposium Hyperessay

My eyes were literally opened for these 3-day online workshop that focuses on Art of the Networked Practice online symposium. I have attended day 1 and 2 of the workshop. And the 2 days alone blew my mind, it was an overwhelming experience. Social broadcasting enhances the various possibilities of collaborating within third space; it’s convenience for people to communicate in real time without having to be at the same location. Apart from having it’s advantages, it has it’s disadvantages as well, glitches and the responsiveness is inevitable.

This performance was performed whereby Annie Abraham and few other collaborators where they took part in a DIWO collaboration through the third space, creating a intimacy between the collaborators. For this particular performance, all the performers to have their eyes shut till Annie instructed that she would give a specific signal for all of them to disconnect one after another through sound. Unlike traditional On the other hand, Helen encountered a technical issue on her side, resulting of her failing to follow the instructions. It was then to a point where her eyes are still shut for quite sometime so everyone else assumed she had fallen asleep and some of the collaborators tried typing in the chat in chance of catching her attention but failed miserably. This created a form of glitch whereby this platform should ought to be convenient, making peoples’ lives much easier but due to unpredictable circumstances like lag, technical issues Instead, it brought much more inconvenience to the performers.

Another segment of the  performance whereby the collaborators are constantly placing/ changing random objects in front of their camera and also their very own interpretations of politics, different voices that shapes the environment. It is interesting how the performers can come together as one, doing the same exact movement like as if they have met one another or as if they have known each other beforehand. Different people values certain objects differently, like in this segment, we are able to see such varieties of objects placed in front of the camera can have a different meaning to it.

Blast Theory – Kidnap

Matt Adams discussed about Blast Theory and some of their projects. Blast Theory cleverly made use of the third space that connects people both online and offline. His projects mainly focuses communications and control whereby in one of his projects, Kidnap, a performance that having two participants being kidnapped into a safe house for 48 hours under the watch of online audiences. The audiences were given control of the cameras in the cell where they can move freely and also communicate with the kidnappers. It is how scary that what is happening on screen may not be real but how it might happen in anytime, anywhere which people watching but unable to do anything about it. The ones that got kidnapped would be able experience something out of their comfort zones. This project managed to raised the awareness of several social issues and also gotten overwhelming responses from the public.

Overall, through this I have been clarified a lot regarding DIWO, third space and glitch. It was truly and experience with all these artists out there. I’m glad that I’m able to embrace the glitch more.

 

 

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Micro-Project 7: Lucid

“…I’ve kind of realized that what I was trying to do was create dream imagery, create a lucid dream state while you’re watching the film,” – James Cameron

A gateway to inner self.

The thoughts we make before going to bed, the deep thoughts that we don’t normally make during the day. It’s only when we are in our very own intimate space, we blanked out from the real world. The setting is in my own bedroom, as messy as it is, it creates a form of intimacy.

People get attracted to lucid dreaming because they want to be able to do things they could never do in waking reality, for example, taste fire or fly to the sun.

So do we really sleep? The ghostly effect is to emphasize on the subconscious mind within us.

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In The Eyes of Kinetic Beasts – Research

A flea also has spines around its head and mouth — the number and shape vary according to the flea’s species. The mouth itself is adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood. Several mouthparts come together to form a needlelike drinking tube.

How a flea operates;

  • Two sawlike laciniae cut the skin. They also fit together to form a saliva channel.
  • The epipharynx is like a needle. The laciniae surround the epipharynx, and together they form the stylet, or puncturing organ.
  • The prementum and labial palps form the labium, which supports the stylet.

Fleas and dogs have a symbiotic relationship.  In fact fleas can have this symbiotic relationship with any warm-blooded animal.  The relationship is a parasitic relationship.

In a parasitic relationship one organism, the parasite, benefits to the detriment of another organism, the host.  The dog is a host, it provides a food source (blood) and shelter (the fur) to the parasite the flea.

How do fleas jump;

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Kokopelli’s Sound Shaper – Research

Body Part | Nose

Function; The two openings in the nose care called nostrils, or napes. They lead to two nasal cavities that are separated by the septum, a wall of cartilage.

  • Bone – The bone cane be carefully and minimally shaved down to lower the height of the nasal bridge.
  • Cartilage – The cartilage is the most altered part of the nose in rhinoplasties. To decrease the size of the nose in any specific area, cartilage can be strategically sutured without sacrificing the support structure. To increase the size of the nose or provide more structural support, grafts can be made from existing cartilage in the patient’s nasal septum, the ear, or rib cage.
  • Nostrils – The nostrils can be made smaller by making an incision right along the alar base and bringing the width inwards.
  • Skin – Thick nasal skin is reduced by thinning the fatty tissue underneath the skin.

Movements of a nose

Moving the nostrils up and down

 

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Research Critique 3: The Art of Destruction

Group Members; Tanya, Hazel, Yuolmae and me.

For this project, blue foam was the medium we used. Our glitch interpretation is divided into 5 stages, each of us performed one glitch;

First stage; we used a chisel and scratched the surface of the foam back and forth. This created multiple ridges and indents which led to the Third stage. Second stage; continuing with the chisel, we randomly stabbed into the foam. The difference between scratch marks and the stabbed holes can be seen clearly. Third stage; with the indentations, it was fairly easy to break the foam onto half using bare hands Fourth stage; we dripped superglue onto the ridges in order to stick this piece back to the original foam but the glue corroded the foam instead. Fifth stage; we clamped the foam onto a clamp

We filmed the whole process using a phone camera without any stabiliser, and naturally our hands would tend to be shaky. We also filmed the last stage of our glitch on time-lapse. The shakiness added intensity of the destruction and also creates a form of glitch during the destruction of the blue foam process. With the added video editing effects on the last part of the glitch, it distorts the whole video as well as the subject making it unnoticeable.

Those systems might be broken, they might be glitched, and they might be imperfect and noisy, and that might be what attracts us or me to those systems. But still they are functional or functioning in one way or another systematically. So they are connected to one another as assemblages. – Randall Packer; Glitch Expectations: A Conversation with Jon Cates.

The end product

Our idea was to destroy a piece of blue foam and then try to piece the broken pieces together using superglue. We didn’t had a plan for the sequence on how we’re going destroy the blue foam, this allows us to embrace the imperfections we made during the process instead of doing it systematically. Typically perfectionist artists would want to cover up the imperfections and only express the perfections.  Things are prone to deterioration in time to come. At the end, we have learn to accept the flaws and imperfections in the world be it in the context of an art work or human being.

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Image Making Through Type – Research & Process

For this assignment, we are to create our own individual type with our initials based on the 4 different occupations. We are to extrude the main elements from the different occupations and adapt it on our initials. This assignment also aimed to train our eyes to pay more attention to details, even if it’s the slightest.

Here are some of the sketches in the earlier stage. Initially I didn’t really understand the brief well.  Almost all my ideas are leaning away from the expectations. Occupations that didn’t make to cut; barber, taxi driver, key maker, casino player, sushi chef. I was told that it wasn’t that exciting or it has already been done before.

After much consultations, I have decided on the 4 occupations. The 4 occupations I chose to work with :

Pizzaiolo  | Willy Wonka | Tailor | Origami Artist

Pizzaiolo; a pizza chef

Attributes; pizza dough, crust, sausage, olives, peppers, cheese, tomato sauce

colour palette
image from brandser.es
image from designinspiration.com

First draft

The pizza on the letter ‘J’ looks really raw and unfinished. I tried adding gradient and patterns brush onto my ‘J’ to create more depth and personal touch to it. But the results wasn’t that satisfactory.

After much alterations, I’ve decided to mainly have the cheese flows down my letter ‘J’. The pizza looks more authentic and fun instead of being too serious. I’ve also added green peppers, olives and pepperoni sausages to make the whole pizza to look more appealing.

Final composition

I’ve placed them on a traditional pizza box with the oil paper to make the whole initials come together one one instead of individuals.

Tailor

Attributes; Needle, sewing thread, sewing scissors, measuring tape, buttons, cloth.

Initially I wanted to create the flowing down of the yellow measuring tape to form my initials. Using one single thread piercing through a needle, forming ‘Y’ and over flowing sewing thread forming the ‘J’.

Elements; buttons, thread, scissors

I’ve a bowl to contain the initials created using the sewing thread. I placed them in a position as such that it creates more depth. The composition is more interesting than placing them symmetrical to one another.

The composition still looked as unfinished, so I’ve added more buttons and sewing thread to fill the bowl.

Final composition

Origami artist

Attributes; origami paper, foldings.

My initial thoughts were to use my english initials. But I feel it rather loses the traditional essence. Also I didn’t go with vector for this occupation. The folds and such won’t be able to shine in vector form. So I’ve gotten the origami paper and tried folding my chinese name instead.

The only difficulty I faced is the consistency of the thickness for each folds. Initially I was to use brown paper against on origami patterns as a background. But the brown didn’t really stand out from the pattern.

It was rather dull and not obvious. So instead of using the brown paper for my name, I changed into using the origami paper instead.

After deciding to use the origami paper to fold out my chinese name, I’ve created a seigaiha wave pattern as a background.

A slight darker green is used for the seigaiha wave background in order to bring out the emphasis on the chinese characters. Analogous colour  is introduced in this occupation.

 

Willy wonka

Attributes; chocolate, chocolate bars, more chocolate

I’ve formed up my initials using some of the famous chocolate bars; snickers, mars and kit kat. I did not want the branding to be so obvious, so I merely used their iconic colours instead. I had the wrapper peeled off to have the personal touch to it.

Two bars were integrated into one single packaging that creates the wholesomeness for the initials ‘Y’. Snickers were used for this design.

Kit kat bar is being used for this. The packaging followed through the arc of stem of the letter J.

Initially I only had them placed side by side, with the same height and width. The composition wasn’t as exciting. The next thing came into my mind was to have a box to hold them all together. It is  also seen commonly on supermarket shelves. So in the end I’ve added the box to my composition. I’ve also played with scale, from a large ‘Y’ gradually to a smaller ‘J’. That created the depth of field.

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Exquisite Glitch

For this micro-project, we didn’t have any rules or boundaries set from the start therefore we went crazy on the edits. Similarly to our previous D.I.W.O micro-projects, we didn’t have much control of the outcome. I was quite surprised for the 2nd edit, whereby there are black and white swans. I was somehow expecting something normal. Different people would have different way/style of editing. The essence of the original image can still be seen in the final glitch. This is the beauty of a collaborative artwork.

 

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Research Critique 2

Posted by Yuen Jia Jun on Monday, 29 January 2018

 

The Third Space is a space that is commonly shared among, nowadays and it is  also able to connect people together no matter how far they are apart.

“But most startling is the fact that the third space is simply an integral fact of everyday life in the 21st century.” — Randall Packer, The Third Space

The boundaries in the the third space is being break down in terms of time and space whereby is it surpassed in the virtual space.  It manipulated our senses into that we both are very close to one another. The closeness could be seen through our conversation between the both of us.  It seems like we are literally at the same location seamlessly.  The intimacy were created whereby we both refilled the “same bottle” for one another and shared the “same bottle”.

“… based in distant physical locations could meet and perform together, in the same “living image.” – Maria Chatzichristodoulou, about Satellite Arts Project

The collaboration between us where we passed the bottle across the two screens and shared the bottle. The conversations we exchanged in the third space created the illusion that the both of us seems like we are interacting with each other side by side in real time but actually we are not.

Therefore, the third space does not only increases the intimacy between the two parties but also bringing back the connection relationship we have all lost in time due to technology advancements.

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Pandora Revisited

For this assignment, we were to create different modules based on the given 3 keywords. The keywords that I have gotten — Lift, Shift and Reflect.

Module 1

Module 2

Process

In the end I went with Module 2, it is easily stackable compared to Module 1. For the mould, I tried both of the methods, Latex and Silicon. The silicon method did not work very well, the mould only managed to capture one side of my module. Hence resorted to the latex method…… 10 hours of horror.

The results were better than I expected compared to the silicon mould. The replicas that came out from the latex mould were as good as the original!

Silicon Casting

Initially I wanted to stack 3 of my modules together creating this spinal cord-like structure. Due to the multiple openings/holes of the modules, the silicon may slipped into the multiple openings and taking the modules out of the cast may be a big problem.

So I went with this structure instead. The modules interlocked with each other which creates an infinity sign.

So I placed 4 of the replicas together for the cast.

Final ice tray