Claire taught us how to set up the pressure today. And I tried printing again. I wanted to print letters “STRUGGLE” rather than the background on foil paper, as I wanted the viewers to see their distorted face on the foil paper.

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I didn’t think through the first time, so I still got to print the background rather than the letters and the foil paper curled easily. So for the second time, I managed to print the letters and attach the foil paper to regular paper so that it wouldn’t curl.

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It still didn’t look very well though. I think I need to put more thoughts into it.

For the tutorial, I’m actually still not quite sure about individual’s work as it sounded we should explore wider than deeper, which wasn’t what I used to do. The tutor suggested we do image research so that we would come with visual stuff and materials to work with for next week. We’re expected to work more on material exploration and experimenting new ways.

I mentioned that I wanted to express personal struggle with their inner authentic voice and what is expected by manipulating advertisements. And I wanted to create distortion through multiple or long exposure of photography or projecting images on distorted surfaces.

Other members and the tutor mentioned some artists such as Ellen Gallagher, Wolfgang Tillmans, Georgia O-keefe, Stephen Shore, Do-ho Suh, Fiona banner, Michael Dean and Miroslaw Balka, which I would check out.

Members also talked about their ideas like transparent layers with words on them, texts with multiple meanings with different images and languages, interesting things we see daily but we ignore, etc.

I really need to think through and come up with concrete ideas. So worried…

What a day!

We were given a task of discussing the following questions:

• Social context?
• Who is affected?
• Where does it take place?

Everything sort of came more clear when Sam said that we should focus more on the false ideas or value advertisements bring us. Everything I thought about came to be related. Because I was focusing on individuals’ struggle with their natural belief or value from that of the majorities. And those questions surprisingly helped us sort out our thoughts.

We discussed further at lunchtime:

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Then at the workshop, we were shown some examples of manifesto:

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I was a bit relieved while seeing these two manifestos because they actually looked simple and friendly to read. I’ve read a few manifestos and they were all very official with vocabularies at academic levels. Especially the first manifesto inspired me of writing a situation where I as a consumer struggled with choosing food I naturally preferred or I was expected to have by the value advertisements gave me.

Then we decided each of us writing a small manifesto and that’s what I wrote:

Pasta or Salad?

I am standing in front of a fridge shelf at a supermarket. It is time to decide what to eat for dinner. I am hungry and I want to reach for the delicious and filling pasta. There is a salad containing chicken breast and lettuce without any starch. I see “Superfood”, “Organic”, “Nature”, “Handmade”. It reminds me of a skinny fit girl happily having a salad on the ad at a bus stand just now, on social media this morning, on TV last night. I hear lots of voice going on. “You want to have that salad.” “You want to be that skinny fit girl.” “You will be happy.” I am very hungry. I choose the salad.

Then we had a hard time trying to figure out how we would organize all of our texts because everyone wrote from a different aspect in a different style. We spent about 2 hours trying to write a summary or put everything together in a cohesive way. It was very frustrating.

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In the end, we got a rough draft. And we would put everything to a google doc for everyone to edit and discuss this weekend so that we can confirm a final piece by Monday! Group project is killing me but I think it’s better than this morning when we had almost nothing!

We were showed some artwork achieved by print. Below are what interest me:

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These disordered letters create an effect of mess or confusion, which is something related to our manifesto subject “authenticity – false advertising”. There is lots of information trying to get into people’s head all the time and it can be confusing for people to differentiate the authentic or the false information.

It was my first time to try ink print! I paired with my group member Teresa Zeng. We just tried to leave mark with different materials, such as hard paper, sponge, wire, swab and cloth. Claire helped us set up the paper and the machine.

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The right one was our work. The left one was what Claire did and I liked it as it created a sense of mess.

I chose the word “false” to print. I wanted this word to be questioning and confused. So I balled the paper up and folded it a bit to make it not flat to create big or little white space everywhere. And I didn’t want a strong contrast between black background white mark. So a second print would be a better version as the color faded. We were thinking we could print a paper full of repeated “false” using different fonts. I was worried that it could be too messy and out of focus. And I suggested that we write each letter in a different direction:

The top one was the first print. I think I folded it too much and the gaps were too big so too much part of the letters were missing. We went for the second print. I folded it less but the wrinkles were too much and the letters could not stand out.

Teresa chose the word “non”:

I think it would look better if I use regular block letters, each with a different direction (upside down or reverse left and right). And make wrinkles with the letters while keeping the background flat? And only leave the letters with ink printed? I have to think further for the next workshop next Monday.

Very worried about the manifesto writing tomorrow…!

First we visited the exhibition “Kiss My Genders” at Hayward Gallery. There were two pieces of artwork that inspired me a bit related to “authenticity”:

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The triple exposure captures multiple moments of the model and creates movements, blur and shadow, which shows the struggle, mess and hesitation inside the model. I was thinking that sometimes people tried to change themselves a bit in different ways to fit in different groups and the multiple exposure is a great way to express that situation.

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The installation of VICTORIA SIN creates a similar effect as well. The curves of the cloth indicate the struggle inside the performer.

Then we had a group discussion at Tate Modern about our manifesto topic. The other members put forward authenticity of artists, media, news while I put forward my idea about authenticity of individuals. Some members thought most of the ideas were too broad and decided on “false advertising”. It is actually something I never pay attention to so I have to read more about it and think about it. It is quite stressful as we are going to finish a manifesto the day after tomorrow while we do not have statements yet… Very worried… It is really hard to work in a group as everyone has different opinions and schedules. I feel frustrated.

Today we had an introduction to photoshop. Besides what I knew before, I learnt something new or further:

• The general resolution rule for screen is 72dpi and for print is 300dpi
• Discuss with printers about the color mode for print
• Ruler tool
• Adjustment layers
• Select And Mask
• Non destructive adjustments
• Create Warped Text
• Layer styles
• Create Clipping Mask
• Fill and custom patterns
• Blending modes
• tiff

Then we were introduced to backdrop, infinity table, tent, copy stand, 3 types of lights (not flash lights).

Then I also learnt something new or further about DSLR, such as ISO and white balance.

My first time to make samples of zines! We were taught five ways to make zines:

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And we launched Project 1: MANIFESTO! First we cut out the titles of newspapers or magazines to show the most important ideas and issues of our time:

We were also given examples of manifestos, such as First Things First, Julian Rosefeldt’s video, etc. We were also showed many zines:

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Lastly, each of us brought up with a word we thought was the most important issue:

I bought up with “health” because I feel the society is obsessed with healthy lifestyles. All kinds of related ads are everywhere and people are talking about it all the time. It is great if people are really enjoying it while they keep a healthy diet or go to gym everyday. However, many people are actually forcing themselves to catch up with the society value, “healthy”. Sometimes I feel quite annoyed hearing about losing weight. Why can’t we just be natural and live with the lifestyle we are comfortable with?

The discussion was led to social pressure by the group. It makes sense because there are many kinds of social value invisibly forcing the whole society to be a “standard”. However, some members suggest we discuss about something more special. So the group decided on “authenticity”. Each of us need to come up with a specific problem or issue about this topic these two days.