Week 13: November 29

➤ GUŌ PÉI | 郭培 Spring Summer 2018 Couture Collection — ELYSIUM

Week 3: Sept. 20

This week, I went with Jack to Nick’s show titled Voluntary Attempts to Overcome Necessary Obstacles at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. Here is a short description below: 

https://www.projectspace-efanyc.org/voluntary-attempts-to-overcome-necessary-obstacles

While I don’t think my project will really be involved with the game design space, this was a good opportunity to get some ideas for interactivity with museum pieces, as well as how work is presented. 

The wall when you first walk into the exhibit:

Sheet we were given about the exhibit:

Second packet with all of the works in the show: 

Special highlights: 

Let’s Play Greek Punishment, 2011

By Pippin Barr

This was a series of games about mythology. In this one about sisyphus, you click in order to push the boulder up the hill. However, you are never able to actually complete the task, so continue to click until the player gives up. It’s supposed to be an “anti-game”, where the conventional goals in most mainstream game play are taken away, and this is what you are left with. 

The Soft Rumor of Spreading Weeds by Porpentine Charity 

This really got me thinking about how to present objects in a gallery space. The small rounded carpet felt super intimate, and made me thing of playing games on the computer on the floor as a kid. This also made me think a little bit about my talk with Kelly McGowan last year, and how she did her capstone project about her bedroom. It gives me similar “cozy” feelings. 

Folds of Separation by Studio Oleomingus 

I was a big fan of the artwork for this piece, it was very intricate maze game. Not necessarily the type of gameplay that I enjoy (it was very frustrating), but I did enjoy looking at it. 

The Cloister by Everest Pipkin

The artwork for this pice was stunning as well. 

If I recall, this was the box that held the cards for World Ending Game by Everest Pipkin. The instructions for the game were long, and it took an hour to play it, so I felt that it was a bit of a risky move for the exhibit only because not everyone (including me), would have the time or patience to read the instructions and play the game. But I did appreciate the attention to detail (for example, as pictured here, the slot created for the cards and dice for the game in their storage box). 

The Tearoom by Robert Yang

It was in a separate corner of the exhibit. You interacted with the game that was projected on a wall with a mouse that was on a pedestal in the middle of the room, giving it a super simple interface. It was a very weird game, where you played as a man in a very dingy bathroom. You were at a urinal, and were able to watch men who came in and out of the bathroom to pee, except all male genitalia was replaced with guns. Ultimately, after watching someone too many times at the urinal, the player was able to pleasure the man to completion in the gross bathroom. I was really confused after watching Jack play, but after talking to Nick about it, he explained that it was about how in videogames and on many social media platforms (although we were specifically talking about Twitch in this context) censor male genitalia, but guns are allowed. I guess it is a little weird when you think about it that objects that inflict violence are less censored than our own bodies on the internet. I will try to get the video from Jack and post it here, if Tumblr allows it 

Also, in a smaller amount of creative research, I found a new material? 

I went to an event for CSA (Chinese Student Association), and we made these foam clay moon cakes in celebration of mid autumn festival, using mooncake presses like the one I’ve attached here. I’ve somehow never used clay like this though, and when it dried (which it did much quicker than any clay I used growing up), it was super lightweight and more like foam clay than the hard, more pottery-like textures that other clay I used growing up. I also liked the idea of the presses. They remind me of the carving blocks we used in design I to create prints of letterforms, but they make a 3D object instead of 2D. Maybe I will explore this idea in a future experiment for my capstone, although I don’t know exactly how I am going to position this in terms of juxtaposition yet.

Overall this week, I feel like I am still working through exactly what form my project is going to take. I feel like the foam clay in an interesting medium for a future creative research or making, but not necessarily for a final medium. Same with the stamp/mold/block printing idea. They’re fun mediums that I may experiment with, but am not sold on yet for the final project. I really enjoyed going to see the exhibit that Nick curated. To be honest, my interest does not really lie in games, but I did get inspiration from seeing how works were presented in an exhibit space, and made notes on what did and what did not work, as I have elaborated above. I will definitely plan to see more exhibits in the coming weeks as well.

Notes from meeting with Nancy 9/9/22

I can explore a technique, material, or technology 

Sometimes choosing something smaller is better than something bigger

3D printing (after talking about the Taemin lightstick project) 

What are people 3D printing?

Look at the most popular files and history of 3d printing 

I want to explore collage: Giving myself a rule like a collage a day 

Damien Davis 

Acrylic collages

Am I more interested in the how of things rather than why?

Easier than choosing a social topic 

Go on a walk 

Stephanie Syjuco

Daan van den Berg

Week 7: October 18

For scholarly research this week, I wanted to learn more about soft power. I read an article by Joseph Nye, the one who coined the term.

Citation: Nye, Joseph. “Soft Power: The Origins and Political Progress of a Concept.” Palgrave Communications 3, no. 1 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2017.8.

Link to article: https://www.nature.com/articles/palcomms20178

I learned more about the exact definition of soft power, straight from the source. He defines power as the following: “Power is the ability to affect others to get the outcomes one prefers, and that can be accomplished by coercion, payment, or attraction and persuasion. Soft power is the ability to obtain preferred outcomes by attraction rather than coercion or payment." I think it's interesting that he coined it because of an apparent decline in US imperialism, as I feel the same discussions are still being held today.  He discussed how the meaning of the word has changed in relation to more recent events, and the varying responses to his invention of the word. I actually think still that soft power is underrated, because of its subtlety and its lack of discussion in politics. The same goes with juxtaposition, where I think that the power it has is subtle and underestimated. 

I also wanted to highlight my own version of the recipe cards from that I saw at Poster House the previous week.

This is just a sample, but I was thinking maybe the cards could contain information about any objects I make, or maybe any significant quotes that I found in my research. 

I was running out of blue ink, but I made the cards in photoshop and glued them to cardboard to make the cards. 

It’s a little sloppy, but I enjoyed making them. I feel like they are less the main focus of my project, and maybe something that I would make to go along with it and hand out if I had time. I would need to figure out a way to mass make them though. The cards could probably be printed somewhere like CVS or staples, but I’m not sure if there’s a way to reproduce the carrying case cheaply (I’m sure getting a custom folder like that would be expensive) or easily (making that many by hand would take too much time. I will think further about this. 

Overall this week, I was glad I got to learn more about the origins of soft power. The only reason I had heard that term before was in relation to Kpop, and how the tourism and hype that it brought has brought South Korea much more money and influence. I thought of the US as more of a hard power because of this country’s emphasis on the military, but I suppose our cultural influence would give use soft power as well. I would like to try to find another source that discusses this more in an art or media context though. I will also look more into the process of making the cards, or deciding exactly what information I would put on them. I may put it off for now though and decide to focus more on the main project, and make this more of an extra or side project. 

Week 6: October 11

This week for creative research and inspiration I went with Jack to Poster House on 23rd street.

We saw an exhibit called “Masked Vigilantes On Silent Motorbikes”

Title wall 

AVW202 (Money Makers) on the left and MSSBUTTONS (Mighty Man of Valor) on the left by Nicholas Fraser 

I really liked how this piece played with light and shadow, and how the cutouts from the banners were left attached. It made the banner itself a bit harder to read (especially with the imagery already on it), and you had to read the shadow for clarity. 

These pieces (Dissonance #14 and Allusion) were collaged to make human faces (or parts of it), but with two different methods. The piece on the left was a more traditional collage, with different papers pieced together to make the human face. What is particularly interesting about the one on the right though, is that the shape of the eye actually is one piece of white paper that is overlaid over an image of a woman drawn comic style. What creates the image of the eye is small holes in the white paper that let more or less of the image underneath to show through and create shading. Our brain is able to connect the small dots together to piece them into the image of the eye. Just like how our brains create connections between things in juxtaposition, it can fill in the image of the eye from an arrangement of small holes in a piece of paper. 

There was also an exhibit on the caricature or Air-India’s Maharaja, a cartoon caricature created for advertisements for Air-India. 

I saw these posters which don’t exactly relate to my project, but I love the intricacy and the delicate patterns that are present. 

And also the color palettes for these posters

I was also super inspired by this recipe card booklet full of recipes each from a different park of instead. I think the color palette and attention to detail (ex. the shape of the pocket) are really beautiful. The cards kind of remind me of Kpop photo cards I collect. They’re about the same size and I also keep them in a little binder. But I’ve been thinking go making some sort of pamphlet or booklet to hand out with mu art piece, and I think that this is a more unique option. 

I really enjoyed my experience going to Poster House, and got some really good inspiration for color and type. All of the work was very beautiful. Dissonance #14 and Allusion were surprisingly complex, and made me think more about how we can piece together a bunch of little holes to create an image, which is gestalt. The recipe cards are also something I plan to maybe make in the future. 

Finally, for scholarly research, I found this article about juxtaposition as a soft power. 

Citation: Richard, Erica. “The Power of Juxtaposition.” Art21, April 21, 2020. https://art21.org/read/the-power-of-juxtaposition/. 

Link: https://art21.org/read/the-power-of-juxtaposition/

The article is aimed at educators to show how contemporary artists combine their art-making with their roles as engaged citizens. It brings up the term soft power, and explains that "Soft power is a fitting term to describe the subtle and nuanced ways in which artists influence the social and political sphere.” Juxtaposition can be a way that artists can empower themselves to have influence in the social and political sphere by persuading viewers to see a juxtaposition and come to a particular conclusion. It also explains that "Juxtaposition is one tool used by contemporary artists to persuade viewers or elaborate on an idea; it demands that artists become conscious organizers of content.” I know that soft power is already a political term, so it’s interesting to see an overlap between politics and juxtaposition. I also feel like this is a good way of explaining its importance, which I was having trouble putting into words previously. 

I was definitely inspired by the posters that I saw this week, even if I’m not sure if it’s really the final form that my project is going to take. I really like the way that the Nicholas Fraser banners played with light, and you sort of had to look at it at a certain angle to be read. I was also inspired by the colors and type in the Maharaja exhibit, particularly the recipe book. I just find it so delightful, and could be a good way to incorporate the making of a physical object to hand out for my project. I am also super intrigued by the concept of a soft power now, and plan to look maybe more into the history of the term, as I only know what it means on a surface level. It’s definitely an important aspect of juxtaposition though that I plan to incorporate into my final paper. 

Capstone Research

Books Capstone Research: Books Statement: Author,Title,Short summary,Important quotes,Citation (Chicago Style),Link (if applicable),Other notes

Complete documents of every scholarly research article I’ve found (WIP)