Among the Fall 2021 semester I have explored some forms and materials that I have never experimented a lot in the past, such as public installation and unique materials. This provides me new directions in the future to explore the form of my thesis.
The semester started with Project #1, Impact and Empathy, which mainly obsorbed ideas from existed programs from the third party, and developed our own visuals and concepts based on the original program. Me and my groupmates Sissi and Miranda chose the topic of “#AloneTogether”, which conveys a message on the mental health issues under the background of the COVID. We chose to set up an installation inside the buildings we are locating, therefore the interaction is one of the most important thing we consider.
The project is called “6 FEET”. We have experimented with some materials in this project, such as vinyls, paper prints with attached objects, laser cutters, and so on. The mix & match materials result in some interesting chemistry in the project. I mainly take care of the vinyl part, which allows me learn new methods to interact with the environment and provides me potentials in the future on other works (such as my printmaking process). We developed a system with 6 spots in this installation and each of them are 6 feet away from each other, to manipulate the social distancing during the pandemic, which let the audience to look at the installation from different perspective, and attempt to call up for the thoughts on the physical and mental distancing of people under such a unique pandemic environment.
The project #2, Design in Questions, asks us to build up an installation in groups with limited materials -RISO prints and vinyls, after reading several articles discussing some profound issues in the art design areas. I personlly came up with some questions on the area of “the value of art & design,” “the contradictory forms of art & design,” “the function of art & design,” “who has the right to judge art & design,” and so. Therefore, our group finally comes up with the ideas on developing a evaluating standard with different axis in a special co-ordinate system.
We suggest that the form and style of art & design are consistant and should be like a fluid. We use the vinyl on the wall to build an abstract co-ordinate system with 4 pairs of contradictory but remarkable froms and styles of art and design. Based on that idea, we seperately make our own printing designs based on that criteria, and unite their visuals by having the same colors in the RISO printing process.
We roll the prints into rolls in various sizes and either link them by the fishing line or arrange them on the floor to manipulate a feeling of water fluid, which indicates our believes on the fluid identity of design.
From the 2 projects I introduced above, I started to consider more deeply in applying various materials and forms to create various effects. That helps me to jump out from prints and push me to consider them in my future thesis.
The thesis theme I am planning now is the interaction of cultures, which is inspired by my personal background as a Canadian-born Chinese, growing up in China and later back to North America. I name my thesis book as “Cross-cultural Entity”, which presents the outer, objective worldwide interaction of cross cultures on one sides, and presents the inner, emotional feelings and self-identities on the other side.
The book could be read from either side, telling different stories about cross-cultural interaction.
I have done my research on a pair of contradictory directions: about society, and about me. Reading from the front side, the lexicon on this side are all about objective phenomenon, actual people or certain styles which are related to cross-cultural activities. Reading from the back side, it is more relevant to my personal identities, and how these identities are caused by such activities, and how I am reacting back. There could be quite different feelings from reading both sides of the book.
I would glad to explore more specific topics in the practices next year, and make attempts on bringing all the things I have learned or I am interested in together.
