We have three projects for Integrative Studio in total: prosthetic headpiece, memory palace and  dystopian film. Looking back to what I’ve done, I see my work more like self expression. The instruction of the three projects was very broad, so it gave me more opportunities to experiment and explore. I didn’t aim to express some emotion and identities,  but I usually ended up giving these out unconsciously.

My headpiece is something connects the wearer’s ears and mouth. It aims to provide a private space especially for introverts. Looking back I can see myself in this piece. I myself is an introvert and is always longing for some time I can spend with myself and gain “energy” from it. At that time I was also living in a triple in the school dorm which made me feel that all my privacy was robbed. That became a stimulation that made me to do it.

My second piece is a memory palace. It’s a group project and I really like how my studio and seminar content match together well . My partner was Shykira. She’s  talented and easy-going. I interviewed her in my Integrative Seminar Class and I create the art work according to her memory and her personality I interpreted in my Studio Class. I chose to make a booklet with mainly colored pencils. I cut some holes on it to make sliding effects, and I also cut some figures of her posing in different direction. I used these figures to show her moving in the booklet for my final stop motion video. Though time consuming, I really enjoy making the stop motion because it allowed me to make shoots that can’t be acted in reality. For example, in one shoot, Shykira was having a nap with a booklet, and suddenly her fingers touched the paper and she transformed into a small cute figure and started traveling through the booklet. In the end, she was out of the booklet, woke up and discovered that it’s just a dream. In addition, I also enjoy adding sounds to this video. I used Shykira’s favorite song “skinny love” by Birdy and the intro of Peninsula Iron Box by Jay Chou. Because that song also have someone “drop into” a memory box, the intro felt similar to what I was trying to convey.

The third project is the dystopia film. It is still in progress and I am going to work with Madeline and Alexa to make a short film showing a society captured with bugs. I think what is good about group project is we can learn a lot from group members. For example, Madeline’s makeup for special effect really amazed me. At first this project confused me and my group a little bit, because it  was so hard to make a story out of nothing and fit it into  the dystopia. We usually just thought about how the dystopia was like. But after working for a while, our anxiety faded and  our direction gradually became clearer. What I learnt from this project is if you were stuck with ideas, just start working on sketchbook or anything else and the direction will finally emerge with the work.

Reference: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh ( Van Gogh’s letters to Theo)

He was my favorite painter and I learnt how to describe my own work  through his letters.