Category: Homework

Where does this come from?

The single-faced cardboard came from an Amazon Package, the Kraft cardboard is from a packaged product, the paper is from the recycling bin and the napkin paper is from my roommate.

safety/toxicity – what is it made of? Are there safety precautions for working with it?

There is not much safety/toxicity. A hazard from this material could be a finger cut or catching up a fire. Therefore we should be cautious if working around devouring elements, or dry areas. Cardboard is usually made of recycled paper. And paper is made out of wood.

responsible reuse/disposal options – what can you do with at the end of use?

You can use it as a spring. I use the object for pop-up cards or as flower decorations. The material is easy to be recycled or deconstructed for different use.

tools/context – what tools do you need?

Any type of paper, scissors or a cutter (depending on the material) and your hands!

tips – what are some best practices you learned about working with this?

• I learned that the thicker the material, the more elasticity.
• I also learned that the consistency and tidiness of the folding contributes to a better result.
• I also learned different types of Cardboard names and how they are made.
• 9 different techniques explored for turning linear cardboard into 3D shapes.
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Gina Beavers

The Life I Deserve (Ice-cream) 2014

Acrylic on canvas on board

Gina Beavers is an artist from New York City, She is famous for creating paintings and installations from photos of the Internet and social media and rendered in high Acrylic relief. In the exhibition – The Life I Deserve, she included paintings of “Instagram foods”, trending nail/ makeup tutorials and common Social media photos such as “beach/ fitness selfies”. Irony towards the current social media age is prevalent in this exhibition. The feeling of nauseate and discomfort was overwhelming after I attended the exhibition. After seeing a bacon version of starry night and #Foodporn images, I came to a realization that the images and photographs I’ve considered as satisfying are quite disturbing after all.

In her exhibition, I felt most resonated with her work – The Life I deserve (Ice-cream) 2014. The painting is one of the most common photos to be seen on social media. An ice-cream held up to the center of the photograph with the ice-cream in-focused and the subtle backdrop of the city. Illustrating the idea of what the current generation calls “Phone eats first”. While I was staring at the drawing, it made me rethink, why do I constantly have a natural inclination to take a photo every time I eat an Ice-cream? Instead of just sharing the joy of sweetness, is there an underlying factor for this action? Do I want my viewers to feel a certain way? Am I trying to implicate something about myself? And the answer is yes. All these little choices and actions I make on social media has a motive to make my viewers portray me a certain way. Posting a photo of me and my friends is trying to implicate that I’m sociable. Sharing current news or trends on social media is trying to implicate that I’m up to date. Uploading a photo of an ice-cream on my story is to implicate that I’m having fun and enjoying life.

Overall, I really enjoyed Gina Beavers exhibition. By transforming a photo on a 2D screen onto a large 3D painting allowed me to jump out and observe my actions on social media a little clearer.

Julie Becker

Transformation and Seduction1993/2000

video 4:36 minutes

Julie Becker is an artist from Hochschule der Künste, Berlin and she studied at the California Institute for the Arts in Valencia. Her works are mostly made of photography, video and installation. In her exhibition – I must create a masterpiece to pay the rent, she exhibited series of installations, sculptures, drawings, photographs, and videos with themes of fantasies, nightmares, dispossessions and the social imaginary of late capitalism. The theme dream is prevalent in her artworks. Especially in Transformation and Seduction. A 4:36 minute video of repeating clips of a girl wandering the woods (originally from Disney’s The Gnome-Mobile and the Mary Poppins kids,” a sad showbiz tale) with a narration of a poem or text in the background. The video is confusing. The narration seemed to be a description of her own dreams. In the video she said“…as if I were looking for, and finding (and still doubting a little) proof that I was I, and that I was really in the forest, searching for one particular common girl” In my perspective, the girl in the video is her.

The way Julie Becker constructed the piece really inspired me. I like to way she brought together different clips from various movies and created her own story. Also, I found It fascinating how linear the clip seemed even though it was just repeating footage of the same girl wondering the same area in the forest. The faded, desaturated and shadowed filter suits the overall aesthetic of the film. Demonstrating qualities of dream and fantasy. Although it was quite confusing, I really enjoyed the piece and her whole exhibition as well.

Simone Fattal

They Found Weapons of Mass Destruction 2016

Collage

Simone Fattal is a Lebanese- American visual artist. In her exhibition – Works and Days, her work consisted mediums such as sculptures, paintings, watercolor, and colleges. Exploring themes of displacement, politics of archeology and excavation, she created 200 pieces of work over the last 50 years. And hasn’t stopped ever since. “They Found Weapons of Mass Destruction” stood out to me in her exhibition. When I first looked at the work I thought it was a college of just all the places she has been to. But as I look deeper I saw a lot of different historical artifacts such as a sculpture of Alexander the great and written Farsi representing regions from both Europe and the Middle East. It seemed as if it was illustrating a story about a period of time, a war between two places. And this college serves as a memoir. Simone’s way of recording an event that happened during her times.

I believe college is a great medium to create a memoir since it is very straight forward to understand. Although I might not have gotten the full understanding of what Simone’s art piece meant, but by finding matching images and themes, I have learned to figure the general concept of the collage. Moreover, since it was written during her time, Fattal presents a specific insight into the event with a personal perspective. She presents photos directly linked to France showcasing her deep connection to the French Culture. Furthermore, being present at that time period, Fattal can direct the audience’s attention away from the media presented to every average individual and instead to personal documents such as manuscripts and maps. Simultaneously, by presenting varied media such as ceramics, she gives us an overall presentation to the context making it relatable for a larger audience. Additionally, she includes snapshots which transports the viewer back to the Middle East.

1. What was my first impression to you
2. When did you start valuing me as your best friend and seeking to build a future with me?
3. What do you think had made us become so tightly together.
4. What are you most afraid or worried about me/ us?
5. How have I changed throughout the years and how do you feel about that.
6. What do you think my future would look like?
7. Have I become a friend or a person that you are proud of?
8. What kind of person do you think I would be without you.
9. Any expectations for me or ways you would like to see me improve in our friendship?
10. How much do you love me?

Describe your current relationship to the world through your sense of touch? Observing how you use your hands, how are they connected to your processes of thinking and imagining?

Often times we neglect our sense of touch, since we often identify objects with our eyes. Therefore, before we touch, we already have identified the feeling of an object. We perhaps have already given the object an adjective, an opinion and most importantly categorized them; just by looking at them. However, if we reversed the order in witch we identify, for example using touch before sight. We would be able to think of things through a different perspective, and allowing us time before we jump into conclusions. My relationship with the world through touch is not limited but instead underrated. I often don’t prioritize touch before sight. But after the exercise of drawing and touching an unidentified object inside a bag without seeing it, I realized how my direction of thoughts differ compared to observing an object. For example,  I was drawing a toy giraffe bluntly with my eyes closed. Instead of noticing the odds of my roommate deciding to bring a toy giraffe from her country, I learned to appreciate the texture, the detailed lines and shapes the toy has through my senses of touch. Little did I know that my perspective of the world is biased by prioritizing a sense in-front of another. And that there are so much more ways to learn about the world.

15 adjectives on touch

1. Warm
2. Soft
3. Flexible
4. Original
5. Homy
6. Unique
7. Strong
8. Surreal
9. Transformable
10. Sensitive
11. Dimensional
12. Gentle
13. Safe
14. Lovely
15. Structural

Grace Paley’s “Travelling” talks about different encounters her family has towards segregation. Grace Paley, who is amongst the privilege and is considered as a stranger towards issues such as segregation, decides not to be one. Instead, she utilizes her privileged status to break social norms. By holding a baby of color on the bus, she bridged the two communities together.

I believe her community starts with her family. From her mom’s resilience on breaking racial standards on the bus to herself partaking on the same action; her community comes from the people around her who believes in equality, connectivity, and justice.

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As a photographer, I like to manipulate my camera’s technology in order to convey various emotions and sensations; my photographs become my emotive tool. In this series, my aim was to give the viewer a visceral sense of paranoia and confusion and rhythm.

As photographers, portrait photography is not foreign to us. Some of us even take it on a daily bases, trying to capture the best form of the subject, creating an eye-catching image. When I take portraits, my goal is to bring out the characteristic of the subject. But in industries such as Hollywood, portrait photography is used for promotional purposes. They tend to package the subject, having us portray these figures in a certain way. The power of portraitures is inevitable. I have learned to always question what I see

Identity, video games, participatory etc are all video genres in the internet age. And comparing to the traditional genre’s like western, musicals and sitcoms, the video’s we have access to now are often more direct, diverse and contemporary. And I believe as filmmakers, we accommodate around these elements and change our purpose of filming as well. In our fast paste “swipe & go” age we tend to focus more on capturing peoples attention. Creating whats more entertaining than what’s more valuable. And I feel disappointed about that, especially when I tend to easily lose patience to what’s more valuable to what’s more entertaining.

Photography to me has always been seen as around the art genre. And knowing that the first motion-camera is invented due to scientific research interests me. Back in 1877, motion-picture cameras were invented to study human and animal movement. Edward Muybridge toke this series of photographs learning that when humans run, two feet come off the ground. Same with the horse galloping, four feet are off the ground. Learning that made me realize how much science is playing around in photography. Leading lines, color contrast, composition etc. All playing around with our mind, trying to capture the most attracting and effective image.

Video proposal :

Our idea for the video project is to film the livelihood in NYC’s Chinatown. By filming from the perspective of a Chinese child growing up in NYC, shows the comprehension of two identities. In this film project, we brought in our memories of growing up in a Chinese community. Expressing our longing for home in a foreign Country. The technique we chose for this project are stop-motion and time-lapse. Through stop-motion, the intermittent texture represents our memories from our childhood. For example, making wonton with our parents. And through time-lapse, we decided to film the whole view of China town merging with the NYC skylines. Representing the merging of the two identities in one city.

Who: People around China Town

What: the cities livelihood, exploration of a Chinese child running around China town, exploring his culture and identity.

Where: China town

When: from Friday to Sunday

How: taping a camera to the hips, recording alternative sounds

Materials: Have reserved a shotgun pro kit with windshield and a zoom H6 Kit, cameras ( Nikon, Canon, Sony), lenses ( 15-75mm, 100mm, 35mm) Tripod, Tape.

Sound: instrumental Chinese music, alternative sounds, example: Bao

Role: using a hand-held camera shooting live views, acting as the child’s parent, Annie’s taping the camera to her hips, mimicking the perspective of a child.

Last days of the Kuomintang by Cartier Bresson takes a photo of the “Gold Rush” in Shanghai. Were a group of Chinese men and women are packed together in front of the bank panicking to recover their gold before the beginning of the communist era. This photograph struck me. Having my grandparents be one of the citizens that escaped from the beginning of the communist era to Hong Kong, seeing an image from that time prompted me to imagine the situation that my grandparents went through. Besides that, I really enjoy the expression of peoples faces. Some of them looked shocked towards the camera and some just looked as if it’s their day to day lives.

Outside Presbyterian Church by Cartier Bresson takes a photo of three elderly women coming out from a church looking furiously away. Cartier Bresson toke the photo from below, giving the subject a sense of power. One thing I really enjoyed is the composition of the photo. With the top of the church being placed on the center top of the photo, our eyes are led from the three women to the top point of the church. Up to age women from a church, is often portrayed as kind and resentful. But through Cartier’s lens, he created irony, defeating the stereotypical imagery on women. A very strong a powerful image.

This photo by Cartier Bresson is a photograph of a woman, standing against a wall with a newspaper seller pushing its stall. With my first glance at the photo, it told me a different story- A women of color hiding behind the wall from a detective looking through the stalls. Cartier toke this photo in the decisive moment, if the newspaper man had not lunged lower or if the women had not looked over to the side, it wouldn’t tell as an effective story. I really enjoyed the narration of the photo. It looks so realistic that had me be fearful for the women.