Annoucement: the Revive series is LAUNCHED!

I want to make this particular entry, although there is only one work in the series right now. The launching of the Revive is like announcing my career, since I might spend the rest of my life researching, studying, experimenting, and discussing this theme. This moment is quite significant to me, because I have waited for so long!

Prologue of the Revive series is HERE

The Revive is, or at least will be, a body of works which explores the Hanfu Movement. The Hanfu Movement is a cultural revival movement which has begun in 2003. A men named Wang，Le-tian wore a  home-made hanfu onto the street of Zhengzhou in northern-central China.This event had gained media attentions at the time, and had encouraged many people who share the same dream to start the restoration of Chinese cultures.

One of the photos in the original newspapers. Retrieved from Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanfu_movement>

The main objective of the movement is to revive the Han Chinese clothing, commonly known as hanfu which was banned by the Manchurian leaders during the Qing Dynasty, and to find a way to integrate traditional cultural aesthetics and values into modern life style.

Life Segments: I Think I Know a Cat

One of the wonderful things for being an artist is that everything can be an inspiration.
Oct. 19, 2012 - I was impressed by this cat. Sometimes the things he does make me really want to know what is in his mind. It should be fun to actually collaborate with him.

S. and T.'s Burzum

It has been a While

As originally intended, this blog is supposed to live longer than my academic term, and then I get too lazy. Over the past few months, my life has undergone some dramatic yet imaginable changes; as a result, I have gained the courage to express from a deeper, more personal perspective, and the capability of being honest. I can certainly say this period is a milestone of a lifetime. As for now, I am looking forward into the unknown.

Yet I feared the future, I am intrigued by its uncertain beauty.

Light and Movement: Artist Statement

I am going to make this statement a short one, because I realize I do not need to explain this project in greater details after receiving the feedback and comments from critics. People seem to understand it better than I do.

This video is an experimental shorts about light and movement. Please see the following supporting post for the types of light I had studied.

Different Forms of "Light"

http://monkeywtsketch.blogspot.ca/2012/03/different-forms-of-light.html

In genral it is inspired by music and rhythm, and it explores the relation and distinction between the real and the artificial. Furthermore, there is actually only one thing I would love to explain: the lack of sound.

In an earlier post I made, Light and Movement v1.0 in particular, I stated that there would involve a sound. However, as I was working on the project, I realized several upbeat songs actually matches the video very well, and therefore I decided to leave this part open-ended. In the end, I believed our imagination should be good enough.

Lightbox: Artist Statement

This artist statement comes with an important supporting document which is still in progress.

Generally, the lightbox project is a combination of the light, the box, and the back-lit image. The light and box work together and affect the image. To emphasize their significance, I have experimented with colors, in order to alter the light and to reinforce the existence of the box as a concrete artistic object.

The image itself serves as both a summary of an end and an introductory to a new beginning. For instance, the image is thematically connected to the Interior Drawing.  It explores and comments on the possibility to adapt traditional culture into everyday life, particularly to revive the traditional Han Chinese Clothing. Furthermore, the aesthetic aspects of the image was based on the two video works I have completed during the term, including "Flow" and the Light and Movement experimental shorts. I have used similar visual elements and technique to construct the image, such as by using layers and the integration of hybrid media. In addition, this work marks the beginning of a future series which will centers on the Hanfu Movement, and thus the key words of this project is "landing" and "lightening up."

Lightbox v1.4: the Painting

Ma-mian qun (horse-face skirt; 馬面裙)

This was the digital painting I did for the lightbox, and part of the back-lit image. Initially I decided to add hand-drawn elements to the work to avoid potential copy right issues and plagiarism, because the original photo I had in mind came from a famous advertisement of a well-known merchant (in the hanfu sub-culture at least).
Guess what? I chose it because it was quite iconic in the development of modern hanfu.

Courtesy of Minghuatang

Besides, I thought adding personal touches to the work reinforced the aura of the piece, although some might argued that artistic aura was already lost in the new age of mechanical reproduction. Well! At least I had fun painting it, and I truly appreciated that there were maple-leaves pattern per-installed in Photoshop.

A historical relic (important: the skirt was displayed backward)

Lightbox v1.3: Thinking Inside and Outside the Box

As I have stated in the previous post, both light and box are the essential complements of a lightbox. They are as important as the back-lit image. Moreover, because the sensitive nature of light itself, and the reflective characteristic of the painted surface, all of the complements needed to be taken into account when constructing the object, in order to attain the desired result.

Communication between light and the image is crucial. The box serves as a medium for light to travel, and thus it has significant effects on the latter and then the image. When I was told that I could actually do something different to the box, my crazy mode was turned on, and thus I added a bit surprise to the work.  I really hope it will work!

 Eventually, I am actually excited for the lightbox now.

Lightbox v1.1: What to Do and What I Want to Do?

This post was supposed to be posted before Lightbox v1.2: Sketches. It is recommended to read this one first, although order does not really matter.

Note: the following came from my paper sketchbook. Even though I had already completed the image at this point, I wrote down the following based on my original brainstorming.

Key ideas:

1. First of all, this work will be a pain for someone like me who frequently moves, so it must be absolutely worthy to keep. 
2. Furthermore, because it is the final project, it is going to be a summary of what I had learned from the past projects. Particularly, there will be either direct or indirect reference on the Interior drawing, Flow, and Light and Movement.
3. It is going to form parts of the foundation and/or prologue for my future thesis.

In details: 

1. Generally speaking, it is going to be thematically connected to the Interior drawing, and aesthetically connected to Flow and Light and Movement.
2. It will directly comment on the Hanfu movement and reflect at least one of the central ideas.
3. It is going to be hybrid: contains both hand-drawn and photographic elements.
4. I am going to use either visual elements directly taken from the past projects, or those resemble the elements used in the past.
5. It is going to be a night scene which includes post modern architectures.

Lightbox V1.2: Sketches

This post was supposed to go after Lightbox v1.1: What to do and What I Want to Do? I had posted this one first because v1.1 was not finished at the time. 

Here were the quick sketches I did before I constructed the final image for the lightbox. At this point, I already had a vivid idea for what to do, so I only did two similar one.

Interestingly, the actual image turned out to be a combination of both.

Lightbox v1.0: Q & A

Why to construct a lightbox?

• Lightbox = light + box = both light and box are important elements to be taken into account. 
• Back-lighting creates a strong sense of luminosity and reinforces transparency.
• The box may represent the inversion of architecture

Some historical，ethnic，and contemporary precedents of lightbox:

• commercial billboard and advertisement such as the vending machine in the Sofa lounge
• cinema
• slides
• tracing on a light table
• lantern

Retrieved from Sina News Center <http://news.sina.com.cn/o/p/2012-02-07/072723892250.shtml>

•  Piying-xi play (皮影戲) or Shadow Puppetry

Retrived from <http://hb.sina.com.cn/news/g/2012-03-19/58241.html>

 I might use the last one as an aesthetic reference.

What does it mean to construct an image?

• creating an artificial representation of space
• if the image is fully based on photos, then it represents a man-made reality which is entirely based on fragments from the real world. How real can it be?
• if the form is hybrid, such image implies the integration of the real and the representational. As the creator, I can control the degree of integration, and use it for the symbolism and/or narration of the work.

Different Forms of "Light"

The following is a supporting document for the upcoming artist statement of Light and Movement. I list the variety of light I have been used in the video project.

• Light as a concrete man-made object
• Natural light illuminating object
• Florescent light illuminating water and pigments
• Man made light penetrating plastic and water
• Decomposition of natural light through camera lens
• Superimposition of sunlight and the reflection of florescent light
• Superimposition of direct streetlight and the reflection of florescent light at night
• Reflection created by light
• Shadows and light
• Digital alteration of light
• Light as a medium to display image and digital information

New Character: NPC

This is a minor non-playable character from the video game Chinese Paladin 5.

watercolour

The robe he is wearing is known as shenyi (lit. deep garment;深衣). This hanfu style is more than 3000 years old, and is a formal wear.
Generally there are two types of shenyi: zhi-ju (lit. vertical-wrapping front;直裾) and qu-ju (lit. diagonal-wrapping front；曲裾).  The one shown here is the former, because the front piece of the garment is straight and flat.

Zhiju-shenyhi might look similar to a Japanese kimono. However, they are very different in terms of making and wearing (this is a bit complicated, I might explain it in more details in the future).

Different parts of zhiju-shenyi. Retrieved from Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese_clothing>

Headwear

Light and Movement v1.0

As suggested by the title, my next project is going to be about light and movement. Although I haven't really fully developed the idea yet, I want to talk about it briefly and write down some important points.

• It's going to be a loose continuation of the hybrid media project. When I was worked on "Flow," I had discovered many things which I didn't actually use, and thus I would like to continue exploring them in this up-coming one.
• The visual style will be very different from "Flow." I am currently thinking of a much more decorative, expressive and culturally relevant approach for this one. In other words, it will be less realistic.
• The overall theme will be about the light, space, artificiality, and authenticity.
• Some of the footage and ideas were left out from "Flow."
• I am going to play with and use a lot of filters in Final Cut.
• There will be sound effect: either a musical piece or a contrasting sound from nature or both.
• Mirrors and glass are going to be extremely important.

New Character: NPC with a Fan

This is a minor non-playable character from the video game Gujianqitan. This painting is closely based on the original design of the  character.

watercolor, white gouache

In this painting, she is also wearing the qixiong-ruqun (chest-level skirt with a short garment). The outer skirt is slightly shorter than the under skirt, and it allows the latter layer to show through. This design is commonly used in the making of some modern hanfu.

A similar qixiong-ruqun from an ancient painting by Zhoufang

The hairstyle is called luo-ji （literal meaning：shell-like bun; 螺髻), because its shape resembles a seashell.

From an unknown book about ancient Chinese hairstyle

Hybrid Media Exercise: Two Important Terms

Note: this blog entry was supposed to be posted during the researching phase of the project. Because I had absolutely no clue what to do at the time, and I needed to connect these terms to the actual work (which was very open-ended), I decided to post them when the video was done.


Immersion (immersive virtual reality):

Immersion is a mental state in which the participants are unaware of their body or physical self, as if they are lost within another environment which is often artificial. Immersion is an important aspect of many artistic installations and video games. For example, when they are playing video games, the players are often lost in the virtual reality, and become unaware of their physical surroundings and time. In fact, some of the game developers are aiming for this effect, such as by using the first-person viewing angle in the games (one good example will be a recently released game called "Dear Esther").

Retrieved from IGN <http://www.ign.com/images/games/dear-esther-pc-100307/3589955>

In addition, immersion was one of the essential objective of my work "Flow." In my personal case, I tired to create an immersive atmosphere by juxtaposing highly contrasting visual and audio elements.


Haptic Visuality

In short, haptic visuality is the touch of eyes. For example, in a tactile blind contour drawing exercise, the artist is drawing down the objects without looking at the actual drawing, as he/she is trying to touch and feel the contour of the objects with his/her eyes, and then he/she translate this sensory information onto the paper. Moreover, during such exercises, any optical illusory information such as tonal shadow is omitted, because it is not attained by the sense of touching.

The reason I put this term  here is because haptic visuality is originally part of my work. I was going to incorporate parts of the blind contour drawings in the video, and thus it will adds to the hybridity of the work. However, due to the fact that the video was already quiet long, I decided to leave certain things out.

Artist Statement for "Flow"

The central theme of "Flow" is juxtaposition and paradox. By juxtaposing different visual and audio elements that I collected from different sources, I allow these contrasting elements to react together, in order to generate an emotional, mysterious atmosphere and immersion.

Furthermore, the title itself is referring to the way in which this work is constructed. In particular, I had started this work by brainstorming on a blank piece of paper, because I got nothing in mind when I received the topic. During the making of the video, I placed those elements on top of a feature footage according to the natural flow of ideas. As a result, narration is generally not important for the piece.

(a bibliography will be posted later)

Hybrid Media Update v1.0: Mac and PC don't get along.

I had finished filming the hybrid footage yesterday, and I was planning to work on my actual video today. Unfortunately, I realized that my flash drive couldn't to be read on Mac, because it was formatted for PC.

Guess I will need an extension because I really want this video to be great. Furthermore, the footage I had taken looks surprisingly interesting, I honestly don't want to waste them.

Anyways, the video shooting was actually a lot of fun, although the editing process was frustrating from time to time. The reactions between the pigments, ink, and water were very magical and breath taking. I am actually very excited for this project now.

I had tried out different  methods to shoot it.

Below is one of the methods of shooting.(Thank you for the custodians who had rearranged the studio)

Method 2: with the three most important equipments

What a mess!

One of the results (.gif animation, click to play)

Interior Drawing Statement

My work explores the relationship between everyday life and traditions. In particular, the space depicted in the drawing is a place used to store personal, everyday items, and thus it serves as the collector and the storage of memories, personal interests, and the fragments of daily life. Moreover, in the second section of the work, the rearrangement of objects reinforces the personal connection I have with the space. The replacement of particular objects denotes the notion of adapting traditions into everyday life. I believed that attitude is the key to achieve the authentic fusion between traditions and life. Specifically, we need to accept traditions as part of our life in our heart, and to find them appropriate positions in our life. On the other hand, the means of changing the appearance of tradition is temporary and superficial.

Part I

Part II

Works Cited:

(see the avatar of the author)

Chen, Eric Chengyang. Got to Remember. 2011.

Luo-meisheng. “a Standing Figurine”. Photograph. Baidu Tieba. N.p., 15 Nov. 2007. Web. 29 Jan, 2012.

(Note: this figurine is at least 2000 years old, and thus its author is unknown. The name shown above is the username of the contributor who posted the photograph.)

Interior Update v1.2: GRID!!!

I can't believe I just finished a grid shirt by hand in Illustrator.
Now it is time to work on the metallic buttons.
Almost done for part I.

The pattern was done  by using the technique of drawing negative shapes. Paradoxically, it was actually much easier than the grid shirt.

Finally Done!!!

NOTE: the following work was made for a discussion forum. I thought it would be fun to share it here since the blog was a sketchbook. Moreover, it was completed recently.

I started this watercolor painting last August, but then I procrastinated for nearly half a year, probably because I got scared and had a lot of homework during last Fall. Finally, I finished it last weekend.

This painting is part of the Traditional Clothing and Fan Art series. The clothing she wears here is a hanfu style known as qixiong-ruqun. She also wears a jacket-like garment on the outside, with a long sash which serves as decoration.

• Qixiong means being at the chest-level, because the long skirt is tied above the chest-line. 
• Ru-qun means, respectively, the upper garment and the skirt. It is a general term used to describe such combination.

This particular style had been popular in the Late Tang Dynasty, also known as Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom Period.
Today, similar outfits have been used in some traditional Han Chinese weddings (as parts of the revival movement, of course).

Reference 1: mural painting from  Mogao Cave in Dunhuang

Reference 2: hairstyle

Note: I have replaced the original picture with one that has a better quality. It appears to be a bit greenish on Mac.
______________________________
Character based on video game Gujianqitan
Watercolor, acrylic, gouache

Interior Project Plan v1.1: clothing design

I have just completed the clothing design for the project. This is a quick and extremely rough sketch to figure out the colors.

This clothing is based on the self-portrait which was used as the profile photo. There will be more information in the future, including a formal bibliography citing all the possible resources.

The clothing you see here is a hanfu (a.k.a. Han Chinese Clothing) style called shenyi (literal meaning: deep robe). In this particular case, because it consists of three layers of robes, it is also known as sanchong-yi, or triple-layered clothing.

Unfortunate Discovery: Another Reason to Do this Project

I just came across an extremely STUPID post on my microblogging.  The authors simply suggested that the practices of wearing traditional clothing, reviving traditional ritual and arts, and having a traditional Han wedding were all "embarrassing."

Interestingly, the authors seemed to lack basic knowledges to distinguish traditional clothes, since they actually mixed up the Han Chinese Clothing (hanfu) and the Manchurian clothing, even though the latter two looked completely different.

I believed the group which posted this was just trying to get attentions and replies, so I would not be posting the link. Besides, it was in Chinese.

Mac -__- # How?

I have just realized that the background did not seem to work properly on Mac. I will eventually figure it out (hopefully).

Interior Project Plan v1.0

This is a quick brainstorming/plan I did for the Interior Drawing project.

Spoiler Warning:
It explains many of the connotations I will use in this project, and thus it will heavily impact the reading of the work.
Furthermore, I did this very quick in order to keep my ideas flowing, and thus I might made a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes in the content. (I was not concerned, of course).

Empty Spaces are Annoying

So much empty spaces on the right ---------------------------->
Just like my other account.
How do I move everything over there?

(I think I am trying to use this as a "microblogging" or twitter)

First Page is Blank

In all of my sketchbooks, I like to leave the first page blank




...I think I am done for today.