Author: Oscar Wang

1. Photography, Theater, Real Time New Media
2. Exploration of body and gender binary, connection to environment
3. Screen as a source of light -> projection
4. Light transcends screen and infiltrate the way see world around you
5. When once the sky was blue – screen based – covid, active ritual, escape the room, connect to nature, uses world building – mindfulness of the world / surroundings (e.g. world of wildfire, water / sea, 3d rendered mountains)
6. Theater Capstone: Projections – origin from magic lantern, contrast between light and dark, 16th century projection show 21 century pre-rendering, project on fogs, phantasmagoric)
7. Ophelia – asian reinterpretation of Shakespeare, portray after life, mermaid -> siren, incorporate self body to siren model, innate fear of water from childhood -> afterlife
8. Poetry – just enough words to invoke feeling, invitation.

I resonated with all the fear described in the chapter and believed that we should all learn to learn from our works. I also think that all the fears stems from our lack of confidence for the self. The masters are also humans, and hence they had feel the same struggles as well. Moreover, it is very easy to believe that somebody’s work involves talent and “magic” that you do not understand because their thought process are different or they have had different experiences in life. It is always helpful to embrace your uniqueness. I also noticed that this book is different from Lateral Thinking in that the latter sort of instruct us how to be creative while Art & Fear encourages us to produce instinctively and discover the best work. 

Sarah Sze – Timekeeper from Fly’s Eye Films on Vimeo.

Timekeeper (2016) is a multimedia sculpture currently on exhibition at Guggenheim Museum NYC by New York-based artist Sarah Sze. This artwork is unconventional considered both from its name and its nature. As a “Timekeeper”, it does not track or suggest the linear flow of time. As a sculpture, it does not have a clear boundary between the artwork and its surroundings and looks like some kind of post-apocalyptic, mechanical punk machine that evolves unnaturally at first sight. However, the unconventionality: both the nonlinear time flow and the chaotic look, echos with and moves me as they represent how we our perception of time and information distorts in the overwhelming modern world. It also sparked within me some philosophical discussion on the nature of time.

First and foremost, I feel that the whole set, when observed from a distance, is a representation of our memory. The projectors and screens playing back videos are set upon everyday objects, symbolizing the emerging memories from the vast sea of consciousness we perceive every day. Our consciousness is also something quite mystical, which we harness but do not fully understand it. This piece suggests so as well: its chaotic, amorphous, and sprawling rendering of everyday objects combined with the beeping sounds in the background of different periods adds a layer of eeriness and mystery upon that, sparking the audience’s urge to investigate deeper.

Time hence also flows differently in this subjective perception setting. For instance, the scene showing the demolition of a building includes intermittent flashbacks to the pre-demolition state, reminding me of the flashbacks and nostalgia frequently triggered in the course of my life. Another scene showing the still images of different animals moving at their relative speeds also reminds me of we perceive the speed of time flow differently based on current circumstances. This feeling is emphasized further by the actual nonlinearly counting “clocks” in the installation. They are either traditional timekeeping devices or other objects that follow time. For example, there is a metronome swinging at random speeds. Observing this, I felt a strong sense of uneasiness and eeriness by such a direct and materialistic representation of the distortion of time, one of the quantities we treat as the eternal constant, under most conditions.

Inevitably coming with the flow of time is the modern deluge of time-sensitive, fractured information. The video and images shown from screens and projectors include different scenes worldwide, fractured by mirrors or torn papers, surrounding the sculpture. Random images overwhelm the main installation, which, observed in detail, turned out to be a studio setup with office chairs, desks, and computers.

I can also feel a sense of detachment of modern life from nature. As an artist, the centerpiece, the studio, obviously symbolizes the main life of the creator Sarah Sze. However, it can also mean the wider concept of one’s career. Hence, generalizing to the audience like myself, I felt that the fast-paced, overwhelming modern life drags us into a dark room like this, detached from nature. Being in a dark room, one can no longer feel the rise and fall of the sun and the change in seasons, which can also be another interpretation of the distorted time.

As somebody who is interested in science, this piece also let me think about the philosophy behind the nature of “time” beyond the probably intended interpretation of this piece with respect to memory and modern life. Just like how we interact with other physical quantities in the world, we perceive time using our senses. But different from quantities such as mass and fundamental forces whose objectivity can be deduced from the model fundamental particles, time is still highly sensory. Although Einstein’s general relativity can quantify time distortion under extreme circumstances, exploiting the interpretation of time’s effects to the degree of reverting space and time in black holes, we still have not reached its nature or its cause. What causes time? What is time’s link to the law of cause and effect? If everything is still, does time still flows? From my very own inventory of limited knowledge, some of these questions may have been solved or taken forward by physicists and can thus become unnecessary. But reflecting upon the fact that these questions and thoughts spawned from my viewing of this piece, I can say that it may have also inspired other audiences to ponder these philosophical questions and set on a quest to solve them. Maybe one day, the inventor of the long-anticipated time machine will speak in front of the press, “I was inspired by this piece I saw in Guggenheim decades ago and I thought ‘my time has come'”.

Oscar

1. Installs some fans, blow the dust to some collector in the edge of the street 
2. Fairy that turns the dust into honey

Sara

1. Big red button, street cleans itself 
2. Protective layer that expels dust
3. Take a shower in the cleaned street
4. Street that absorbs all our negativity, it is a spiritual cleaning device that 

Majid

1. Street that cleans your shoes

Ahsen

1. Tires that have soap and scrubbers and cleans, road accident rate 200x up
2. self-renewable streets everyday

Enock

1. Suction palms that pulls the dust and turns into compost

General Themes

1. History of the place and Berlin
2. Showing ourselves as a class and as NYUAD

Oscar

1. Motion-graphical Mourning Memorial 
   • Uses the whole space, link to its history, link to my major somehow (using cryptographic / communication elements that reminds of WWII?)
   • Melancholic whistles, long and sharp around the area? Should not be disturbing, should be subtle, like flowing into their ears and minds
   • Fast moving effects like souls
   • Sounds of water 
   • Simple loop music at the background with string instruments

Sara

1. Movie – self reflection – Name: “lateral thinking” – Document whole thinking process of the course
2. Dance performance
3. Tree whose leaves are pieces of a puzzle on how the world comes together – globalization opens a new chapter while we learns from the history
4. NYUAD fashion show – cultural representation
5. Interactive map showing the real-time sounds of Berlin?
6. Make Merch – gift shop, sticker, magnets,….. about the exhibition

Enock 

1. Motiongraphics with sound to express different moods
2. Historical Film based on VR reviving old memories, immersive.

Shahram

1. Silent movie shows different people’s perspective on this place / some topic, link to the topography as it has multiple layers
2. Virtual keyboard, you press a key and for each key something appears

Majid

1. A circle that encloses a crowd and shrinks – “concentration camp”
2. Emphasis on mortality, black and white stuff, ripple, impending death
3. Shop of audio visual effects

Ahsen

1. Mongol throat singing with live TouchDesigner visuals.

1. Main Idea
   • Science as an exploration of universal phenomenon. Scientific Background as starting point / inspiration, discovery, research and stories => story telling and poetic reinterpretation
   • Sensing the invisible
   • Sensitive translation of Global and Local Real-time Data through sound and light. Change the scale of data and its interpretation to make it more personal, to make audience relate
2. Space-related Works
   • Gravitational Waves – everything (visual, audio) generative using prerecorded sensor data, nothing is pre-rendered, can be easily transformed for real time data, feels “real”
   • Solaris – video projection layer solar wind, laser projection layer earth magnetosphere, combination of video and laser projections add depth. Interaction using bone transducer, more personal experience.
   • Satellarium III – ideas based on humans use stars for everything for thousands of years, but now satellites. Outdoor laser projection, can easily make the user connect with actual sky conditions.
3. Nature-related Works
   • Epiphytes – cyborg extension to trees / woods to poetically show human about the trees’ conditions and communications scheme, making the forest alive. Also inspired by research on communication networks of trees. Polycarbonate panels as central projection structure because of their nice reaction to laser and similarities to leaves of the trees. 

NYU is an interesting place. It is not only a university that is set across 15 borders, but is also a university with non-conventional campuses. NYU Abu Dhabi has such an integrated campus complex that every corner is used. NYU Shanghai was just an office tower located right in the central financial hub back then but now has a similar campus design like NYU Abu Dhabi. NYU New York and many other international sites have their academic and residential locations completely blended into the city, sort of using the whole town as its campus. Students take public transportation just to get to their classes. As a study away student living in the Palladium residence in Manhattan but have to get to Tandon in Brooklyn everyday, being on time was not an easy task, but something that requires extra effort, timing and planning. Hence, I made this small brochure about potential solutions to get to school on time using Canva.

This concept was based on the cushion idea. We believe that a special pillow can be made to “remember” the user’s preferences for pillow shape and generate sound for the user to sleep better.

Shahram first came up with the big picture of the idea with an introduction video.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16DRYnXzOTW1XrIobZLR-ElH7bMF5XDBG/view?usp=drivesdk

I believe that the pillow should be adjustable based on user preferences/ head shape and position. Moreover, the speakers should only activate around the ear region to minimize noise for others around. So, I then compiled our idea into a new design.

This post can be updated when Sara combines hers with the existing work.

The main argument that the author makes is that art is not expression of self, but artmaking (the process) is a way that tells the maker more about his or her nature. Art are often left unfinished due to a wide range of fear, one of them being fatalism. I personally resonated with this concept as I usually question if I am talented or educated (in terms of craft and art) enough to make art. The author’s argument about art skills can be learned and art are made by ordinary people is really informative and help me see the process and skills of making art in new ways. Another point I resonated with is the “arrogance” that the artists are sometimes gripped by their faith in their deep understanding of a topic and disregards others who understands it in a different way. 

However, I did not agree with the author’s point in saying that the art is not an expression of self. Since we are discussing artistic thinking as “art” here, the word “art” is defined more specifically separated from fine craftsmanship or simply aesthetically pleasing objects. Hence the argument that art arouse before consciousness was invalid. I believe that the core of artistic thinking is a positive feedback loop of discovering and expressing oneself, while building confidence and self-understanding during the process. The result is highly tied to the process and can also be expressive of the artist’s ego.

In the preceding chapters, the author discussed deliberate generation and challenging of assumptions. These are basically the “coming up with 5 alternatives” and “asking why” that we have practiced before in class. However, they are not far removed from original vertical thinking as they are more backwards thinking, which are based on explaining some effect instead of bringing about some effect. Innovation is more forward thinking. To apply it, one should know suspend judgement, which means not judging if the step is right until the end.

One of the dangers associated to being right all the time that I didn’t recognize before reading this book is that being right usually let people think that right is enough, while blocking the possibility of a better arrangement. Another thing that is informative to me is that I always take care of the absolute correctness before I speak. For example, when commenting others online, whenever I came up with an idea, I have to do research and logical thinking to ensure its correctness as to avoid any criticism. I would say this is acceptable in some circumstances, but if the environment is more acknowledged with the use of suspended judgement, we should learn to consider wrong ideas and see its use, both in stimulating new ideas and to push people forward (sometimes you have to lie a little bit to convince others).