We discussed about how to interact with people without offending or hurting people and how to respect different people and culture. I’ve always liked a statement by my favorite Chinese writer, Han Han: There’s no extremity in the world. It’s just everyone’s lifestyle is different. So I’m always open and I respect others’ different lifestyle or choices. There’s one thing in the lecture that kind of surprised me that sometimes it could also be impolite or offensive to ask people some questions about them. I thought it’s the best we could do to try to understand others. However, Nathan said when he was asked about his hair for countless time for years, he got tired and annoyed. I got it. But still, it feels so difficult to differentiate what kind of questions appropriate to ask and not. Then Matt brought up an example about educating ourselves about others, which made sense. It’s true that it takes effort to get along well with different kinds of people.

In the afternoon, we were given these questions:

I think if you’re going to do some artwork related to nationalities or certain groups of people, you should really get to know their culture and history by research in ways of internet, books, talking to those people or trying to experience the culture if possible.

We didn’t discuss about the last question but I got the examples:

• 

• 

Yesterday I planned how to build the space. I decided on use PVC pipes to build stands and connect them with ropes for white cloth to hang on. I also wanted to try to use cocoon balls as the material for directions/signs because cocoon balls are built for protection at the beginning while the insects break through it after transformation, which is similar to the directions/signs made for building the order to “protect” the city and I want to show that we are actually not restrained by them mentally.

I measured the room 012 and it’s 9m x 6m with two doors which I could use as entrance and exit. I’ll probably change the layout of the space. And I found several of this in the room:

However, Scott thought the directions/signs were too immediate/easy to read. He suggested me search on why people rely on signage, what makes people not follow/follow signage, how people feel while being directed/moving away from a direction and different personalities in response to directions. He advised it to be more emotional and deep. Rather than just daily life, think in a long-term or bigger scale. Do we have freedom in the city? Are we actually controlled? He also mentioned some examples of space such as spiral and maze, something familiar with but difficult to find the way out/certain locations. He shared Bruce Nauman. And he asked me what emotions do I wanted viewers to feel and what’s the one-sentence sum for the project.

There’s so much to research, think about and work on…

I was also listening to Olivia’s tutorial with Clare and she shared Charlie Sofo. Olivia thought his work kind of related to my idea.

Scott actually suggested Olivia and I work together but Olivia still wanted us to practice individually first. So we planned to discuss how we could integrate our work together on 9th. I’m actually really worried if it’s gonna work out as our ideas are actually different in many ways. Anyway, I’d better rethink my idea first.

Constantly panicking…

Everything was new to me today. It’s interesting to realize how we visualized sound naturally and how we related sound to space according to our previous experiences and knowledge.

We went to white city estate and recorded the following sound at different spots:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

And I made a map of the sound:

Then we went to the sound lab. “I am sitting in a room” was crazy. It’s hard to believe how it ended up after repeating recording recorded speaking words in a room. Then we were taught to use REAPER and edit our records. We tried fade in, fade out and several effects.

After the workshop, Olivia and I discussed about the project. It was really frustrating because I always thought we would practice together so I was actually waiting for her thought about my idea. But she said we should practice individually and then think about how we integrate our work together. I really don’t know if it’s gonna work this way but I’ll try to realize my idea first I think. It looks really hard though especially because it requires a lot of space. But anyways, I’ll try to prepare materials I need first.

I went through my idea as below:

Physical paths/life paths

Directions/guides/signs ->

the most efficient/perfect route to destinations->

directing/guiding citizens to follow without thinking like robots ->

creating the stress/pressure of rushing on track ->

trimming possibilities of wandering/exploring/mistakes ->

decreasing interaction and unique/impressive experiences/surprises

Aim: to show “wonkiness” adds unique beauty to life.

I have a thought of creating an “exhibition” full of directions to exit/endless directions/white wall while “exhibited” artwork is not directed.

• 

I think the beauty in imperfection is the common part of our ideas when I focus more on “path” and Olivia more on “passage of time”. I’m waiting for Olivia’s reply. Not sure if she would like this idea as it’s not really lated to “time”… But anyways, it would be nice if she has ideas as well.

I found some of Kyung Hwa’s work inspiring me related to our idea.

Looking at the animation, I suddenly got a thought of creating a “gallery” space full of directions leading to actually nothing/exit/endless directions (photograph/moving image/animation), while if viewers wander around, they would find “exhibited” artwork (Olivia’s paintings maybe).

The always-changing clouds remind me of the always-changing directions on the streets.

These’re very rough thoughts. I have to settle our idea first and then think about the practice.

At the creative writing workshop, I actually found some texts quite related to our idea. However, as Lee pointed out some inappropriate words used in the texts, I realized how big a difference one work could make in a sentence. I probably have never questioned a book myself. I was surprised how critically and actively tutors and some classmates were thinking while reading. Using words and references carefully and clearly also applies to our own writing.

Before the tutorial, Olivia and I shared with our biggest interest for this project. I chose directions/guides/signs. She chose the marks of time mainly on architecture and introduced the concept of wabi-sabi. As we discussed, I started to think that all those directions/guides/signs were creating the most efficient way, avoiding all kinds of “mistakes” while in many situations, “mistakes” were what made an experience impressive or special. I found it’s kind of related to wabi-sabi as well. I have to think further how we could integrate each other’s ideas well and how we could make a collaborative piece for the idea.

In the tutorial, Kyung Hwa Shon shared her ways and experiences of derive. It could be refreshing to explore the city with a child’s mind set, all the senses, different angles unconsciously.

Before we went to Museum of London, I checked out James Corner Field Operations’ projects. When I saw this picture below, I thought of directions and interactions among people. I wonder on the streets, when people walk past each other, how many of them would ever interact.

However, I was thinking why we needed to interact with strangers? Some people just enjoyed being alone. I talked to Olivia about this concern. She thought socializing benefited people in some way and everyone wanted be connected in some degrees. I agreed. I’m never a really outgoing person, but when I was in Australia, strangers would just greet or help me on the streets sometimes and I did feel nice. It’s hard for some people to find someone they feel like talking to but if they don’t give it a try, they may never find any. Olivia also shared an artist called Olafur Eliasson with me.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

At Museum of London, the word “traces” caught my attention. It’s impressive how many traces humans have been leaving in cities. The development of human communities from wildlife reminded me of the movie “into the wild”, a story of a young man tired of false city life exploring wildlife alone and finding out the true happiness was sharing at the end of his life.

Looking down on the road outside of Museum of London, I saw cars follow the directions on the road. I realized there’re all kinds of directions/guides/signs in the city everywhere. They help build the order of the city and help citizens find ways. We’re used to be directed/guided for physical paths and we have also become used to directed/guided social values. We have become more and more like robots following same rules with unified ways of living. The directions/guides/signs also prevent us from wandering or exploring the city on our own pace or routes.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I also took photos of homeless:

• 

• 

Secret places:

• 

• 

And some I found interesting:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I also recorded the sound at Putney Bridge. We’re mostly attracted in a visual way and we may ignore the sound of the city. Olivia suggested me to watch the movie “Victoria”.

I have to think further what I want to focus on and generate at least a point. Then I can share it with Olivia and we could decide on what we want to work on together.

Besides what I knew about portfolio, here’s what I learnt:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• Put name, program and eye-catching photo(s) on the first page
• Put name on every page

We shot a short video of a path to a place we wanted to show to our pair:

I paired with Olivia. I’m actually a bit worried because she paints while I focus on photography. But hopefully it’s ok as long as our individual work expresses a same idea. Still have no idea what I want to do for this project… Hope I can come up with an idea by Wednesday and get inspiration from the museums tomorrow.

Learnt setting up filming on 750D. I could apply most settings to my 650D but shutter, iso or aperture. Anyway, I’ll use my 650D for the trip on Wednesday. Hope we can find something interesting and inspiring!