My concept and theme for Bridge 4/Project 4 in Seminar and Studio is Japanese ceramic art. More specifically the impact of the Mingei movement on the aesthetic and purpose of Japanese tea ceremonies. As for my studio project’s final, I intend to create an interactive and contemporary booklet, which was inspired by traditional flip books.
Before settling on the final design, I’ve created a mind map of inspirations and concepts for my final piece. The mind map was helpful in terms of creating a cohesive concept along with my seminar essay, and helps me visualize my idea
This is the mind map
PROCESS
In order to make the process clear and easier to understand, I will be breaking it into three major parts; making ceramic cups, designing the booklet, and producing the booklet.
Ceramic cups in making…
To start this project, I have to make and study the making of (hand-building) ceramic cups. I had to choose the most appropriate clay for hand-building cups, I’ve chosen 630 multi-use white clay (White Stoneware Clay: Ideal for all techniques such as wheel throwing and hand building. Cone 6 Shrinkage 13.0% Absorption 1.5%) as its the most appropriate clay for hand-building. the image below is a brief process of two methods I chose to hand-build my cups with.
Finally, I chose to use the slab building method because I prefer the finish and form better than the coil method.
Slab method on the left and coil method on the right Greenware (First fire)Alabaster white glaze over Celadon greyGlazed. To achieve the ‘washed out’ effect, I applied the white glaze and quickly wipe off the surface of the glaze, to reveal the clay underneath. Final Product
DESIGNING THE BOOKLET
For the medium of this project, I intended to redesign traditional flip book. I got my inspiration our guest speaker, Yucheng and Kat Bawden. Initially, I was fascinated by interactive books that requires care, time, and creativity. Therefore I chose the size of my main page, and use Adobe Illustrator to render the pattern of my book. We also went to the image archive in the NYC public Library to gather some information for the cups.
Images from the image archive. Inspiration from Kat BawdenThis is the pattern that I intend to print on a large sheet of paper using plotter printer.
I’ve made three different versions of the booklet, each of them are different in folding techniques and folding directions. After I’ve made my decision on which booklet style I wanted, I labeled the pages with two different colors. The black color represents the order of the pages when viewed from the front page (?), and blue indicates the page order based on the unfolding order.
After taking photos of the cups, I used Procreate to move and re-arrange the cups into the way I wanted it to.
this is how it looks after I arranged the cups.
PRODUCING THE BOOKLET
I used the plotter printer to print the booklet, I used a bone fold to create the crease for a cleaner fold.
using a ruler to guide the bone fold for a straight line.
FINAL PRODUCT
REFLECTION
As a reflection: if you had all the time, budget and support in the world, how could you see this project developing further? – I would either mass produce this using traditional washi paper for that organic texture and sell it, or I would print this HUGE and make it an interactive art work.
Ideally where would you like it be installed, viewed, or shown (in a gallery, museum, public, bookstore, online, etc)? -I would install this piece in public or museum. Ideally a zen garden with tatami to really submerge yourself into the tea ceremony environment.
What was the biggest “ah-ha” moment for you in your process? Perhaps this came to you through thinking or how your idea developed, or through your making process.
When I started working on ceramics. It pulled out the “eager to learn more” side of me and it made me more interested in this topic. Also, when I started folding and assembling the booklet, things started to fall in place and that was comforting.
What is the practice or object you have committed to enact or create for your final project?
I’ve committed to working with one type of material and technique in order to practice the methods to make my final product.
In what ways DOES this practice/skill or object provide joy, functionality and/or good health for you over 10 years?
Working with ceramics is indeed a calming, meditative, and satisfying activity. By practicing the skill provides me joy as I am interested in ceramic works. Ceramic work also gives me a break from starring on screens and kept me away from the overwhelming noise pollution and stress from classes. If I were to practice this skill for the next 10 years, I am assuming that my mental healthy and body will be more healthy.
How have you planned to repair or allow your project to be renewed and change over time — making it more resilient (able to last/be useful) for at least 10 years?
If my pallet broke/cracks, I can put it back with ceramic glue. Although it would not be food safe, but it can be used as many other non-food related purposes such as a jewellery trinket.
How will your project invite more sustainable systems by preventing unnecessary/excess materials from entering the waste stream and support Environmental Justice over the next 10 years — and potentially beyond?
Since my project is quite versatile and durable, its life span would be longer. Also since I’ve glazed my work in food-safe glaze, this could be used as a food utensil which would probably last longer as it does not require much traveling and chances of coming in contact with hard objects.
The Set up for filming the video. Greenware PlatePlate cleaned and glazed.
I rolled out a slab of white ceramic clay, and cut the shape of the piece out. I waited for the surface to dry up a little before carving the indentations. The leg on the side is made to hold utensils.
Brewing the black tea, sugarLeaving it to cool down to room temperature, adding apple cider vinegar Apple cider vinegar and pure kombucha Pouring the Kombucha liquid into cleaned glass trays. Covering up the liquid with sling wrap. Secured it with tape and poked holes for the kombucha to breathe.
Discussion Prompt
1) Why do you feel it is important to create and use natural materials (as an artist or designer, and also as a human)?
I feel it is important to create and use natural materials as an artist and designer because not only do we set a model to influence the community to be more aware of carbon emission and waste, but also to create a healthy ecosystem that would last and sustain. As humans, we should enforce the use of natural materials. Natural materials reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint and other burdens to the environment.
2) Which project will you explore for your mid-term project? Please note, mid-term projects are considered a “test” and exploration. You will be assessed more on your approaches and process than final outcomes (it might fail, but you will learn along the way). Have fun, try something new and enjoy the process!
I will be exploring kombucha leather for my mid-term project.
3) What materials do you need in order to conduct the test? Is there anything you need to learn before starting or specific questions about the midterm you’d like to share or ask?
According to the PDF, I will need black tea bags, white sugar, kombucha drink, and apple cider vinegar. Before starting my experiment, I need to learn how to use the PH level chart and learn how to analyze PH testing papers.
MIDTERM STUDIO OUTCOMES
1. Do you consider your exploration successful? Are you happy with the results?
No, I thought it would. No
2) Is your outcome more beautiful/interesting/healthy than a store bought design?
In my opinion, yes. If it worked out.
3) What did you learn through the process, did you encounter unexpected challenges or successes?
I learned that following instructions are important, we must be aware and plan things well so we can meet the time requirement. When I was looking for kombucha in the store, it was somewhat challenging to find unflavored kombucha, I had to look in several supermarket to get the unflavored ones. Since I dont have any ‘exact’ measuring cups, I had to try my best to measure for example using a 16 OZ mug and measuring the height of the mug in order to find out how ‘tall’ 2 OZ should be. and it seems like a 2OZ volume.
4) What would you do differently next time? Are there other/better ways you can approach the process that you realize now?
I might purchase more measuring equipment for the project. I think I would have to monitor it and keep record of the experiment just so that I can have more information for my LP.
5) After completing the project, do you consider working with natural processes/materials as a valuable skill? Why/why not?
I am still growing my kombucha, for some reason it is growing extremely slow. I will update this part when I’m ready.
You can choose anything from Project 1: Change, Project 2: Public Poetics, or Project 3: Communication, or a combination of, if some of the ideas overlap. Was there any idea or making process that stood out to you? Did a theme emerge in your work so far? Is there a topic that you would like to further research or spend more time with?
Please write, in your own words, to accompany your images, to tell the story of a project that stood out to you, along with inspiration, sketches, questions that came up, and final results. Submit a link to your post here on Canvas.
I chose the third project Communication. This was my very first collaborative project, and the making process stood out the most to me because of having to collaborate and communicate with another student who I’m not familiar with. In this project I was able to challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone and merging my culture with another student, I learned how to write Hindi, learned how a new foreign language works, learned about its system, and learned about the similarities and differences between my language/culture compared to my partner’s.
The intention of this piece was to act as a personal dairy. Everyday me and my partner wrote down our deepest doubts, insecurity, and random feelings throughout the day in our own language, which is the most intimate language to us. I then translated it into Hindi and English to see how similar our language look like side to side and hopefully to understand and being able to ‘read’ our partner better.
The inspiration of this project was to make a combined language of Thai and Hindi. During discussion, we realized how similar it is between Thai and Hindi, we realized the apparent similarities and the spelling similarities. We made the ‘alphabets’ based on English’s alphabets. We matched the most similar sounding alphabet from our language to English, and finally we look for similarities between Hindi and Thai to create Thandi.
The Challenges: One of the biggest challenge was to communicate with my partner, its complicated when it comes to finding a time where we can sit down and talk about this project in person due to our polar opposite class schedules. We communicate through texting and calls to make this work. The second challenge was keeping the booklet together. At first I tied knots through the holes on the edge of the booklet to secure the paper, however, the knots became loose and eventually fell apart. My solution to this problem was to use book binding tape to join the paper together.
This is a chart in Hindi that sounds similar to English alphabet made by my partner. This is a page in my notebook, this was the initial planning of combining the characters. We was inspired by any particular piece, it just came to my mind naturally.
This is a time laps of me writing Thai characters that sound similar to English alphabets. (Made this in Procreate)
1) Do you often feel rushed? Do you feel like you have time to observe changes in your self? Environment? Other people?
2) Do you feel like you have the time you want/need or do you wish you had more time? What would you do with it?
3) Do you feel like you move quickly through the world or slowly? Would you like the pace of life to be different?
4) What is your experience of time in daily life? What is your ideal pace of working and living?
5) Do long spans of time (geologic time) feel incomprehensible, irrelevant, interesting?
Post a reflective paragraph below (addressing the questions above) sharing your current relationship with time, illustrated through specific example(s) from your life this week.
2_ CONDUCT A SLOW OBSERVATION
Then, choose something to observe at the pace that you want. Make this long or short and say why. What did you notice?
1. Select your subject for slow looking
Choose a physical object or feature of your environment, home, a person or a group of people, or an interaction or event. This will be your observation “subject.”
2. Observe your subject
Look closely at the subject for at least five minutes and note down as many features as you can. Try to look at the place and/or people you’re observing as if for the first time. You might want to make notes about:
Everything you see and hear
Anything that is familiar about what you observe, and anything that seems unfamiliar orsurprising to you
A close, “zoomed-in” view of a specific aspect of your observation setting
3. Record your “wonders”
Write a list of questions or “wonders” that you now have about your subject. How would you describe the “time” of this material/object or event?
4. Consider your subject within a bigger system
Think of a bigger system connected to the subject (e.g. the surrounding conditions, weather/temperature, movement, what is shaping this event or object). Try to imagine the bigger system in action and how your subject fits into it.
5. Visualize the system
Sketch a diagram that shows the different parts of the object/person/event with a system and how they might interact.
6. Reflect
Were there any new insights you gained from doing this activity? Did it feel like it was a good use of time? Did you enjoy it?
Upload your responses and image/sketch below and bring them to class next week to discuss.
3_ THE TIME OF DAILY LIFE IN THE ANTHROPOCENE
After conducting independent research online, share a short description below about the materials and events that you feel define the Anthropocene. Include why it might be important for artists and designers to engage the topic of the Anthropocene. Given the IPCC report summary (see our ANTHROPOCENE lecture from class for a reminder), what do you expect that you can do/experience today, that might not be possible in 2050?
1_ CREATE A TIME INVENTORY / FIND YOUR PACE
During the first week of the second semester, I felt time progressed slower than usual. At the same time, the stress and the environment are continuously changing and shifting. I felt rushed when peers or people around me were rushing and going past me so fast that I couldn’t keep up and had to check in on myself constantly. Consequently, I needed more time to observe objects and people surrounding me, including myself.
If I had more time, I would work and concentrate on my mental and physical needs, such as going to the gym, eating healthy, and maintaining a six-ten hours sleep schedule. I would also spend more time calling my parents. The irregular sleep and class schedules have taken away communication/interaction with people I care about and love.
The pace depends on the environment and society. I adapt to the atmosphere based on my location. In this big city, everyone is rushing towards different things. For instance, when I walked into the subway station, I felt pressured because of the crowd and because everyone seemed rushing, as if they were almost late to work/class. At that moment, I thought I was unwillingly moving quickly through the world. I would change the pace of life to become slower. I want to move slowly through the world and appreciate things more than I do now.
My parents and I are so far away from each other. They live on the other side of the world, which to me feels incomprehensible. They are one day ahead of me. They are experiencing my future if I were there. Living in a parallel universe but experiencing different time zones is really interesting.
2_ CONDUCT A SLOW OBSERVATION
Select your subject for slow looking
Tulip
Observe your subject
Everything you see and hear
One tulip is bent towards me
Some yellowish leafs
A small bulb on the side is growing but looks unhealthy
All the leaves are relatively soft, it doesn’t look healthy.
There is one tulip that is taller than the others
Two tulips are hidden behind the leaf and it look almost identical
On the left the tulip is growing outwards
Almost all the leaves are growing and pointing upwards
All tulips are white
The leaves are velvety looking
The leafs are lush green
The tallest tulip is starting to bloom
There is a label on the bottom, it says “white, tulip”
The plant is wrapped in a piece of brown paper, it looks like muffin wrapper
From the side the bottom looks pretty empty, I can only see the stems
From the side the middle is mainly covered and intertwining leaves
I can hear the cars honking and passing through in the background, it sounds distanced and muffled because I closed the windows.
I can hear my own heartbeat as I was concentrating
Anything that is familiar about what you observe, and anything that seems unfamiliar or surprising to you.
I used to work in a floral shop, tulip is one of my favorite flowers, which I work with them alot in the floral shop. I can see that I wasn’t taking good care of my tulips
A close, “zoomed-in” view of a specific aspect of your observation setting
Record your “wonders”
How long will it take for it to completely dry out?
Write a list of questions or “wonders” that you now have about your subject. How would you describe the “time” of this material/object or event?
Consider your subject within a bigger system
I don’t have enough time and energy to care for my tulips, I haven’t watered it in such a long time. Because of the weather, the tulip isn’t getting constant sunlight and enough nutrients from the environment.
Visualize the system
(see below)
6. Reflect
Were there any new insights you gained from doing this activity? Did it feel like it was a good use of time? Did you enjoy it?
I realized how much I’ve neglected the care of this tulip. I bought this tulip when I just got back from winter vacation and away from my family, I wanted to shift my concentration onto a living object and care for it. Ever since school started, I totally neglected the importance of care and attention I have to give to this object. I saw so many details, flaws, and beauty on this object, things that I’ve never seen before. I felt like it was a good use of time and I really enjoyed it.
Diagram:
3_ THE TIME OF DAILY LIFE IN THE ANTHROPOCENE
I think cotton is the material that defines the Anthropocene. Cotton is one of the most critical crops related to human, labor, economy, technology, and paradigm shift themes. Cotton is so versatile. However, humans are exploiting natural resources, so the pure cotton product might not be possible in 2050.
Upload 3 process steps. This can include reference materials, thumbnail sketches, scans from your sketchbook, and actual screenshots of works you created. Remember – if you worked in Photoshop/Illustrator, you can Hide and Show specific layers to screenshot your steps. Brief descriptions of what we are seeing are vital to communicating the project.
STEP 1-TRACING THE ARTIFACTS:
I imported these three images into Illustration, made it black and white and lowered the opacity of the layer so I can trace the outline easily. I traced the outline of these images using the pen tool and created the curves by holding on the line and dragging the handle.
CREATING MOOD BOARD:
Creating the mood board: I used pathfinder to manipulate the shapes into different interesting shapes. I then find a picture that I want to apply the elements in the piece and find a color scheme that fits the theme of my piece. I also created different gradients to see how well the colors work together. Lastly, to create the pattern, I chose one shape that looked the most interesting, and I used a pattern tool to make it.
STEP 2 – CREATING COMPOSITIONS:
I created these three possible compositions for my piece. I quickly sketched the composition as I wanted it to look more organic and less ‘intentional.’ I sketched these compositions in my sketchbook.
STEP 3 – CREATING THE FINAL PIECE:
For my piece, I wanted to depict a child-like arts and crafts project with paper cuttings and different geometric forms. I also wanted to use this piece to symbolize my journey to college and leaving my home country by using a more geographical element and different symbolic animals. For my first step, I scribbled some lines using the pen tool on my canvas (See Fig. 1). Then I used the pen tool again to trace the outline (just like how I traced the objects) and the boarder of the canvas, then fill in the shape (See Fig. 2). I chose a variety of desaturated analogous colors for my piece. I continued to pile up my colored shapes. To create the layered and shadow effect, I went to effect –> stylize –> drop shadow (See Fig. 3), which made my piece looks like layered paper (See Fig. 4). To add my pattern to the piece, I drew a rectangle and pasted my pattern in (See Fig. 5). To complete my piece, I added my shapes and played with the layers to make it feel like its above or below (See Fig. 6).
(Fig. 1)(Fig. 2)(Fig. 3)(Fig. 4)(Fig. 5)(Fig. 6)
REFLECTION
I enjoyed creating this piece as it awakened my inner child. I had fun playing around with this piece. I feel like this piece does represent me as a person. The object that I chose seems random, but it’s not. For instance, the perfume belongs to my boyfriend (my childhood crush), the pumpkin represents the season I entered college, and the elephant family I bought from somewhere that represents my parents and me. In my piece, I used the shape I made from the perfume bottle that looks like a butterfly to represent how scent can remind you of memories and a person. The butterfly is somewhat like me, missing that particular person. It could be my family or my boyfriend. The pumpkin and the elephant silhouette are hidden between the layers, meaning that my parents always have my back, even when they’re not vocal about it.
Write a 150-word reflection in your “Seminar Bridge 2” LP post addressing the following questions:
*How did the ineffable recipe for grief that we read for this project connect to the other readings we did in this class, including I Remember, “Body Map of My Life,” and “Girl” in terms of form/ structure?
From my perspective, I feel like the tone of all the texts is written in the same tone. All texts are written in a very casual and conversational tone in my point of view; thus the structure of the pieces wouldn’t as formal. Most of the pieces adapted the listing structure which makes it more mundane and easy to read. Despite all texts being written in first person pronouns, each author wrote their piece in specific details and very descriptive/imagery language.
*What did our readings of I Remember by Joe Brainard, “Body Map of My Life” by Bridget Booher and “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid teach you about the way that form and structure of a piece of writing can enhance and complement the content of the text?
The more casual and conversational the piece is, the more relatable and interesting it is for readers to read. The language used in these texts makes the piece very touching. Using short and periodic sentences enhances the dramatic effect and realism, forming an emotional connection with the audience.
*How did the lessons from all of the readings above impact your writing of the Ineffable Recipe?
It taught me how to write informally in an assignment. I wasn’t used to writing informal and fictional writing like my recipe. But because I know casual and conversational tone makes the audience feel, I felt more capable of writing something less formal and in a tone that is almost like me talking to myself. The lessons from the readings allowed me to reveal my personality in my writing and not conceal it with formal language and formal structures.
Every player rolls the dice, which determines their color blocks.
When each player reaches an intersection point (either blue or magenta) will have to turn left or right.
When the player reaches the magenta intersection, other players can decide the player’s fate, to pause, skip, or reverse.
Likewise, when the player reaches the blue intersection, the player can decide whether they want to turn to the next intersection or block their opponents.
To win the game, the player must arrive at the top of the game board. Who arrives first will win. The rest continued until no players left.
The meaning behind this game:
Each of the wires (route) represents our journeys to Parsons. We manipulated the wire to symbolize the challenges and rewards during the application process. The magenta intersection blocks ultimately symbolize the unpredictable challenges and the blue intersection blocks represent the reward we receive during the process. The meaning behind changing directions when reaching an intersection represents the multiple methods of achieving success. This idea was inspired by how we started expecting our major and hobbies, however, during the process, we changed our ideas and approach to many aspects. Thus, this game represents ‘perfect imperfection’ in which everyone eventually wins and reaches their goals.
Learning Portfolio
GAME LP Post – should include
(1) Introduction,
This game is intended to illustrate different players’ paths to attend Parsons. Each of the wires (route) represents our journeys to Parsons. We manipulated the wire to symbolize the challenges and rewards during the application process. The magenta intersection blocks ultimately symbolize the unpredictable challenges and the blue intersection blocks represent the reward we receive during the process. The meaning behind changing directions when reaching an intersection represents the multiple methods of achieving success. This idea was inspired by how we started expecting our major and hobbies. However, during the process, we changed our ideas and approach in many aspects. Thus, this game represents ‘perfect imperfection’ in which everyone eventually wins and reaches their goals.
(2) Process (in addition to generally outlining what you did and how you did it, this section should mention each person in your group by name and describe their contribution),
Process: we brainstormed our similarities and differences. We also made a list of our journeys to proceed with our game plan. Xinrong, Elena, James, and Fiona each manipulated our wire that represented our journey; each curve and turn represented a challenge, and every straight edge represented smoothness and success. Elena and Xinrong wrapped cardboard with a piece of newspaper by taping and gluing it. James and Fiona attached the wire to the foam boards. While attaching the wire, we discussed how to place it so that we could create intersections and routes for cubes. Everyone colored foam cubes with markers to make the color blocks (that represented challenges, rewards, and characters.) James and Fiona cut one side of the cube to attach to the intersections and cut the character cubes so they can be removed and slide on the wire. Lastly, we colored the characters and goals on the foam board.
(3) Photos of the Game being created and played
(4) Reflection (important – 5% of your grade will be given to addressing comments from the assessment, so decide how your group will do this and make sure to mention this in your reflection)
After experiencing and observing the other groups’ games. We believe, in order to improve, our work could contain specific events for blue and magenta intersections. For example, a blue block could be named “decent academic score”, explaining why and how can the player gains benefit and, therefore, could move forward. The magenta block on the other hand, could be named “covid quarantine”, as it is one of the popular obstacle that students face during application.
We could’ve included more real life challenges and rewards, rather than vague and simple challenges/rewards.
One of our strength is that all of our materials are recycled.
Our instructions could’ve included some examples and visual diagrams.
2. Write a 150-word reflection in your “Seminar Bridge 1” LP post addressing the following questions:
*Which of the skills below was the most interesting to develop in Bridge 1? Why?
In my opinion, using your own memory as inspiration and research for a creative project is the most interesting skills to develop in bridge 1, because I’ve never tried this hard to recall something from the past and using language to express it in a creative and profound way.
*Which of these was most challenging? Why?
The most challenging one would be self-editing because when I write things on my own, subtracting and placing text is the hardest, since I thinking everything written down is needed in some ways. The second skill that was challenging was using specific language to portray the exact message that I wanted to say (the use of vocabulary, onomatopoeia (perception of sounds differ in different culture), and syntax).
*Which would you specifically like to keep working on in future academic and personal writing, including in Bridge 2 and why?
I want to improve on self editing and using specific information instead of vague statements because these two skills will be very beneficial for me in terms of writing and recognizing what my reader will understand and interpret.
Skills Used in Bridge 1:
-Using specific information instead of vague statements,
-Using sensory information to communicate an experience,
-Using your own memory as inspiration and research for a creative project,
-Editing through adding, subtracting, moving, and replacing text,
-Providing context necessary for the reader to understand an idea,
-Reading another’s work through the lens of constructive feedback,
-Communicating constructive feedback after reading another’s work,
-Using peer review feedback to implement changes to draft.
3. Copy and paste a working link to your LP Post as your Canvas submission. Test the link to make sure I can access your post!
In this assignment, we will create two sound portraits of familiar and unfamiliar sounds in New York.
For our familiar sound, we will be recording sounds and noises that remind us of our past (could be something that reminds you of home, any eventful memories, or something that happens throughout your daily life).
As for the unfamiliar sound, we will be recording sounds that are new to us, represent Newyork, or something that we find interesting.
We are recommended to use Premiere Pro to construct our piece (other sound manipulative platforms are accepted too). We learned how to manipulate the sound’s volume, speed, and duration.
The length of each sound portrait should be longer than 1.5 minutes and less than 3 minutes.
Every sound was recorded on an Iphone.
PROCESS
Initially, I was recording my sounds with my friends, we share sounds and making weird noises together. However, I thought that it was repetitive since everyone shares similar sounds, I just recorded mine in the following day.
Familiar Sound:
I recorded sounds of me brushing my teeth and washing my face, but then I realized the echo sound in the bathroom was loud and distracting, yet, the ambient sound the echoes created was somewhat soothing, so I kept the sound and made it background noise. With this effect, I intend to convey a ‘normalizing’ message; we are used to everyday routine and noise so much that we ‘ live in the sound, hence, ‘ignoring’ the sound. (Lowered the volume/created the fade using time stamps)
As I was doing my homework, I recorded the sound of me typing my homework, and the background music I was listening to was also involved in this piece. This depicts the familiar action of completing homework and typing sounds on a Saturday morning.
I created the ‘Ding Ding Ding’ bell-like sound with my water bottle, as it created the sound of my clock back in Bangkok. Every night when I do homework, I would hear the Ding Ding Ding sound from the clock every hour, which to me represents time passing. The sound in my piece is also very rhythmic, making the sound quiet meditating, and satisfying.
I also recorded the sound while working in the Parsons studio and the traffic sound outside. The honking noise somewhat reminds me of Bangkok during rushing hours (when I go to school and on my way home).
In this sound, I incorporated so many new things and interactions with new friends in college; and here is my process:
The sound piece started with a clinking sound, made with a chain sound that my friend was wearing on his neck and clanking together. We recorded this at my other friend’s house when we were there for dinner.
The second part is my Brazillian friend talking in Portuguese, representing the diversity here in Newyork, and it was somewhat heartfelt and intriguing.
The background sound that has been slowed down is the sound of my friend group discussing and chit-chatting. I slowed the speed down to represent my thinking during the time. My thoughts slowed down, and all the chit chats noises blended into the background noise. The weird thing is that this sound started at the beginning of the piece, yet, we hear it towards the end. I was trying to convey the ability to make noise your focus and background noise.
Reflection:
My strong aspects are the length/timing and the composition of the elements. I felt like the length of my familiar sound was not too long or short. It allows the audience to feel surrounded and relates to it and not be able to predict what is next. I felt like I was able to combine all sorts of elements that make my audience feel familiar and comfortable. Contrarily, my unfamiliar sound somewhat makes the piece sounds less comfortable with the slowed-down recordings and other ‘noisy’ elements.
The weaker ones might be the editing. I think I can do better now that I am familiar with the program. I could’ve added in more artificial elements, such as manipulating the sound. I felt like my piece is composed with too many ‘organic’ and raw recordings that made it sound a bit random. Thus, if I were to do this again, I would’ve made the sound more coherent.
