Got Distinction in FMP!

I am glad that my Foundation in Arts & Design ends with a distinction, surprisingly.

**********************************Artist Statement**********************************

The final piece is called "The Journey of Up, Down and Still...".

It includes three short films: Go Up Up Up, Down Down Down and Still. While different people have different journeys, they will have their own unique view on this piece. Some might feel the emotions, some might see their journey taken or some might see the journey yet to come. The title suggests that it might be a start but definitely not the end, it is to be continued…

I decided to make a video installation and take the materials from my life, my journey. I often refer myself as a digital arts student. Though having little experience in the field of arts as I was studying science in a society that the majority thinks being a professional is the best route of life, I am now soaking knowledge in this field and creating art works in digital forms. 

Seeing eye to eye with filmmaker Jonas Mekas, I, too, spontaneously filmed the ‘here and now’ instead of following the script. The materials were tested, combined and made into experimental videos. Having interest in sound and a habit to post my videos on the Internet, I am very much concerned about the originality of my works. Playing with sounds, for example, reversing the audio of a foreign speaking environment, using the sound of a working sewing machine to represent a 16mm film projection or composing music, is my interest. 

My work invites the audience to put on headphones to experience my projected work. The headphones instantly become a barrier between the viewer or listener and the others while the viewer or listener is having a personal experience, the others will only hear the noise generated by the projector, having little understanding about the viewer’s journey. 

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The three short films: Go Up Up Up, Down Down Down and Still, represent my past, my current position and the view of future respectively. As said in the statement, everyone is unique so as their journeys. Therefore, my journey imposed into the final film but it doesn't matter to the others. What I show is my feelings and they have their own feeling from viewing my work. 

It is worth mentioning that I had so much fun composing background music for Still. At that time I felt like I have so much to show, too much. Then I think of the universal language(?)-- music. Now I am so satisfied with this solution! 

Watch my final piece here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voVeJMMUFyA&index=38&list=PLXjKLBdDe3lA6u5NDkV3FVu521jlc3FKn

Watch my vlog/experiments of this piece here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXjKLBdDe3lA6u5NDkV3FVu521jlc3FKn

View.Review.Journey.FMP

To be honest I am not so sure what am I doing.

At first I wanted a private area with a light bulb, a chair, a table and a mirror paper sticked onto the wall so that the audience will be sitting on the chair, looking at the mirror like being interrogated by themselves. It was inspired by Tony Oursler the Talking Light that I saw in Old Church in Amsterdam. And then I started thinking of adding contents, which is about my background: a former Science student in Hong Kong becomes an Arts student in the United Kingdom. Instantly, there were two screens in my mind, one about Hong Kong, one about UK. I thought "culture" would be the subject and I was terribly wrong.

I had a tutorial today with a temporary tutor. After I introduced myself and my works, he seemed to grasp the word "journey" and started mumbling about everything that he can think of that related to it. Before I realise it would impact my view towards my work, I totally understand and felt connected to what he was saying. Now I am in my room, rethinking the day. I turn back to the very first pages of my FMP sketchbook, I saw a passage written when I was on my way to Paris. It started with "I know how long this journey will be, but I don't know how long my journey in the UK would be." and ends with "I feel like really growing up, mentally.".

And boom!

What I had been thinking of? Culture? Science? Art?

No, it should be the whole picture of that-- journey.

FMP

Documenting daily in the period of my Final Major Project here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCheDrhEN1Pzj9Ro9oKmnQlg/feed

Metamorphosis Project: HERE I AM

Here I am.

Am I here?

I am here. 

So, metamorphosis is the process of change. My project is about the change of the international students' mental activities, from they first arrived England until now. I started with interviewing people in the International Pathways in my University, asking what they felt when they first came here, what they feel now and what are the changes. Then, I asked them to express their feelings in their own languages with the phrase I provided, which is "Here I am". They can also express it in alternative ways, such as "Am I here" and "I am here". I was very enjoying the interview because it allowed me to know more about the people that are just like me. Later, in the tutorial section with my personal tutor T, he said that this is a very interesting subject and I should consider making it big for my final project. Well, that's exactly what I was thinking about but didn't dare to tell people about it. Therefore, I was glad that someone agreed with it. After all that interviews, I managed to gather 18 different languages and combinations of feelings. 

The project outcome will be a short video with original sound track and footages. The sound track is almost done, the footages has been playing around and I am woking on After Effects and hopefully create some interesting animations. 

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

We were told by our personal tutor about this exhibition.

Went to the website immediately. 

Found the only ticket left this month is two days after.

Okay, that's it.

Ticket booked. 

There was already a long queue when we arrived, and the sign "No Photo or Sketch is Allowed" had driven us crazy. 

So I recorded my experience by recording, haha. 

The atmosphere was awesome with the music and the installations. With my phone sat in my coat pocket, I had given my full attention to the environment. Guess forbidding photo taking is not really a bad thing.  

The exhibition was so worth it. Hope I can revisit it in the near future. 

Interdisciplinarity OR Information Addicts

Today we have been going through the topic of interdisciplinarity that lecturer ML thinks it will help us developing the metamorphosis project. Some words like "disciplines", "autonomy", "modernist" and "postmodernist" keep appearing and mess around my head. At the end of the lecture I think it is only tip of an iceberg and there are much more to explore, but I already had my mind blown!

Wanting to study a digital version of fine art, I am more leaning towards the cheering side of interdisciplinarity. And the free flow of information enabled us to acquire knowledge from other disciplines, why not taking advantage of it? An example that I imagined is like Vincent Van Gogh. What if he do what artists do nowadays: having personal websites, managing social networking sites like Facebook Fan page and in his case, reading self-help books and go to support groups. Maybe he won't die young and create more masterpieces?

Or maybe Vincent won't become THE Van Gogh anymore, he might be busy socialising that he didn't go to middle of nowhere and paint The Sower or The Potato Eaters or many more, without the sufferings he might just become one of the many good painters. Here come to the down side of interdisciplinarity: one may master nothing.

We are not all Leonardo Da Vinci who slept less to gain more time and mastering fifteen disciplines. To be honest, the idea of "everything connects to everything else" is very intriguing and I can almost imagine how satisfying it would be to know everything. But that is just before reading the down side of interdisciplinarity. These three words, "master of none", just gave me a big punch in the head. It's red, it's big and noisy. I now see it as "wakeup you idiot". I remember every time doing my research, I was clicking link by link, going through website by website and there is no end of that process. Often I forgot what I was researching at first and all those information read was a mess.

There must be a right way being interdisciplinarity and it differs with everyone. In my case, I think I've gone a wrong way and become a information addict. LOL.

Day in Oxford

Going Oxford is quite exciting to me as it is a place that filmed many movies, such as Harry Potter.

First we went to the PittRivers Museum, by passing through the Museum of Natural History that we got a glance of those "dinosaurs" and glowing stones.
The environment inside the PittRivers Museum is very interesting: dark with dim light(I think this is the reason why taking photos with flash light is allowed.); one way up and one way down; looking down from the first and the second floor, you can see the collections inside each glass and metal box, at the same time the metal part of the box itself give great visual impact. The colour black did a great job here.

We have to draw something in our sketchbook. 

In the afternoon we headed off to the Ashmolean. No offence, but personally, most of the collections are not my cup of tea. The Ashmolean is just like a smaller scale of V&A(London) or Rijksmuseum(Amsterdam) to me. A surprise is that there are some paper cutting art work by a Hong Kong born artist Bovey Lee. It is rare to see displays of art works done by Hong Kong artist in museums(or it is just me haven't explore much museums, haha. Anyway, yeah, HK.) I will definitely check out her work. 

Last, we went to the lovely Covered Market and paid one pound(student price, normal adult price is two pound) for visiting the Balliol College, University if Oxford. The college is smaller than I thought, but it looks very Oxford(of course). Most of the time I was imagining myself in Harry Potter, One Day, The Theory of Everything or whatever movie that take place in "Oxford". Busy me.

The Hall in my eyes: table lamps. 

I wish I can visit Oxford again someday and explore more. Only one day is NOT enough for Oxford.