This shared map translates intangible experiences, feelings, and encounters into physical space. It compiles some of my thoughts on class visits, lateral thinking, and general impressions of Berlin and then projects them on small pins on the map. You are welcome to add your own pin here.
Maps have played a crucial role in shaping my experiences. The convenience of a reliable mapping system allows me to navigate like a local, knowing exactly where to turn right, turn left, when to get off the train, and where to go after class.
Art & Fear is my favorite reading out of the three. It talks about the relationship between you, others (other artists, critics, audiences, public), and you works. At the end of the day, it’s actually just between you and your work. Your work is not you, but it still matters. Keep exploring, be authentic, whatever you have is whatever you need, and learn from the process. On the other hand, I think I’ll keep practicing the lateral thinking techniques: alternatives, reversal, why, analogies, random stimulation, and cliches, whenever I’m stuck.
Sound, Passion, and Confidence
Being able to ask questions as a student is such a privilege. Students often receive kindness and patience, even when you haven’t yet contributed much to the world. I always have a bunch of questions I want to ask, but I’m never able to finish them all due to time constraints.
I admire how these artists can turn sound, one of the most abstract art forms, into pieces with commercial value. Their passion is inspiring; they can talk about their work endlessly and understand it deeply, as if they are truly living it. Being authentic, smiling, and admitting weaknesses creates a warm and approachable demeanor for networking.
I feel a bit sad knowing that I would learn so much more if I were a tech-heavy sound artist. For areas outside my expertise, I can only grasp general insights about how they perceive their work.
Have limits may lead to more creativity. Aesthetics matter in his work Life experiences don’t really translate to his works embracing the healthy fear of losing inspiration
Experimental sound artist from Brazil. Did her master at UDK
Pain? No she didn’t consider that Being experimental is not just about exploring things people haven’t done, but to go deeper into the same concept When you get too close to sth, you get oversaturated by it.
Asian queer performance artist. Community building & Chinese culture.
When dying is not personal anymore, everything is taken care of by the authority, choosing death is a way to gain back the right Applied choreography Asian queer, yeah!
Unintentionally include their own culture in the process. Be NICE and show ppl that you are nice. Cheap to have their master in Berlin? Not being confident is just a stage in your life
Apply your style to the technology, do not let the technology master your style. Changing the speed in PR, then create another layer of the 2nd section, but with a lil layback
Funding: be introvert/extrovert based on the timing Your work is not you. Being rejected might just mean that the timing isn’t right
Map, Body, and Woman
My creations centered around these three aspects, which are something that I’m always interested in. The music and the female utensils are out of my comfort zone in the way that I have no idea how music works and I struggled with coming up with ideas for that utensil prompt. However, they are also the projects where the techniques we learned really came into play.
Three non-verbal communication to connect two strangers together
Don’t mind the gaze
Berlin is a dream city. I spend most of my time here alone, walking and thinking. I met few people I haven’t met in a while and met new people I have never met. I have new ideas about myself. Sometimes I feel like I’m just a hot key to whatever groups I represent, sometimes I feel like I’m more than that, or less than that. But maybe it doesn’t matter.
Justin from Field.IO has a very company-style vocabulary when it comes to describing their work & mission. I am still very curious in how the studio operate in many micro-level, like how do they divide the work, do they have a food budget, does each sites have their expertise.
Robert Seidel
I would think Robert’s works are cool if I see them in a club. Love the uncanny feeling and how everything actually have some kind of origin even when it appears to be random. I like how he is able to maintain a consistency in style and how he masters AI for his own advantage, but it’s just not my style.
Marco Barotti
I like the Fungi piece a lot because I think it’s the most genuine one even when I don’t necessarily understand the tech behind it. What I like the most about Marco is how he deconstructs the workflow of an artist’s life in such a detailed way while still be able to come up with new stuff every year. He does not see cruelty in getting funding and the long process of research as obstacles. You listen to him and you know that he can handle big projects.
30min Workshop pop-up on non-verbal communication.
We designed a workshop that intends to connect two strangers together. Human connection is not that difficult, we believe that every stranger can learn a bunch about each other in 30 minutes, even if they don’t say anything.
Stage 1: Perceiving.
Sound Maze.
This experience asks two individuals to be blindfolded in the darkness and try to find each other, navigating by the sounds they make.
You need to design a specific sound for yourself. Use of language is not allowed.
You will be blindfolded, meaning that you can’t see anything.
Soft, non-harmful barriers will be present in the room to stop you from reaching to the other person easily.
There will be speakers all around the room, broadcasting sounds that distract you from reaching your partner.
This experience brings participants back to a natural state of life. When language, the primary tool for communication, is removed, and individuals are placed in an unfamiliar, dark environment, our innate social instincts are activated, and we involuntarily seek companionship. By creating this basic level of misattribution of arousal, we intend to help participants understand the fundamental nature of human connection.
Stage 2: Collaborating
Stick bridge.
Two people, each holding one end of a pen/stick with a single finger. Both individuals cover their eyes, adding an element of challenge and trust to the exercise. The task is to keep the pen from falling by maintaining a delicate balance.
You can move around, as long as the pen stays.
You will be blindfolded, meaning that you can’t see anything.
You have three chances
This requires communication, trust, and a shared goal, much like the dynamics in real-life relationships and communities. Just as the pen will fall without a coordinated effort, our personal and professional lives can become unstable without the support and connection of others.
Stage 3: Understanding
Two people from different cultural backgrounds will start by using their native languages to try to communicate with each other. If they do not share a common language, they will use body gestures to convey their messages.
This chapter talks about understanding, acceptance and approval. Basically it’s about the relationship between your artworks and you, the artists.
For understanding, what’s important is to accept the fact that you might not be understood. For approval and acceptance, they are usually linked in the sense that there is no bad art, but art. The form itself becomes the criteria since there is no criteria for the form.
I feel like this chapter has a lot of health methods that teach you how to build a nice relationship with your work, such as keep exploring, accepting yoru own art and not just waiting to be accepted, etc. I also think this is the most difficult to do. Even the previous chapters talk about not equating your art to you, when it comes to artworks coming from personal stuff, it is difficult.
Please don’t read the following part before going through the music score.
I made a music score based on archival images of “depressed mom”, which are the keywords I searched. The score requires participants to actively perform it. I think pain is abstract, personal, and unquantifiable, especially when it comes to mental pain. That’s why I need the participants to express it in an abstract way using their sound.
My words Compound & Firm leads me from the British Royal Family to postpartum depression. Find more below:
Thought process
British Royal Family, because they are always referred to as firms. Compound is a collection of at least two elements.
Why think of royal family? Because of the whole Megan drama of the officials using AI to generate her photo while people think she is missing. Compound? My high school chemistry.
My parents graduated with Chemistry majors. But I hate it. My worst subject.
My mom stops working in chemical firm after having my sister. Megan is now an influencer mom.
Wow. commonality.
Baby raising? Family responsibilities? Baby fingers?
The principles of art-making discussed in the book seem to exceed the confines of creating art and extend into broader life lessons.
I watch a lot of IFSC. Commentators frequently use the term “confident” to describe climbers’ movements. This confidence stems from trusting their bodies and their skills, a concept that parallels the confidence needed in art-making. As an artist, trusting your work and your creative process is crucial. Doubts and fears are natural, but overcoming them and moving forward with confidence is what leads to growth and improvement.
I also believe that authenticity is a driving force in the creative process. The artist visit we had reinforced the importance of being genuine. While talent, hard work, and luck are all important, authenticity seems to attract and amplify these elements. Genuine expression, I believe, is what connects artists to their audience and to their own work on a deeper level. It’s the authenticity that drives artists to continuously learn, to produce numerous works, and to engage in self-reflection.
I love arts that are grounded in human emotion. I don’t like art that is too futuristic or too abstract. I don’t like creative works that are not inclusive or are too self-centered.
Below is a recent work that moves me, not only because of the work itself but also my state of mind when viewing it.
The Fury (2023) is a two-channel video installation created by Iranian artist Shirin Neshat (1957) whose work focuses on Arab women’s liberation.
I came across this piece at Fotografiska in Berlin. It’s located at the end of the exhibition, accompanied by large-scale portraits of women’s nudes. I didn’t plan to stay long, but the film just hooked me and I finished the 16 minutes of it. It starts with an Arab woman slowly walks out from the shadow to a random street in Brooklyn. She puts on a wig and then enters a warehouse full of man in military uniforms. She starts dancing, seductively, but then bruises grow out of her body. She runs to the street again out of fear and enters a state of Euphoria.
Womanhood
I feel moved by it because the fear of being watched is real to every female, regardless of ethnicity or how brutal the gazes are. Usually I feel uncomfortable watching harassment scenes, but I think the nudes placed in the same exhibition room show a strong sense of female agency which leads me to believe that the woman in the film will fight back in her own way. I have made a game concept similar to the structure she employs. Inspired by the Little Red Mansion incident in Shanghai, I designed an escape room game in which the female protagnist eventually walk down the street naked, with her body being free. I think that moment of resonance I felt when seeing the ending really touched me and made me believe in my work a bit more. It’s like a moment of “Shirin Neshat has the same idea as me!!”
Ending was powerful. I’m really scared of becoming the so-called hysterical/crazy/emotional woman and the ending is exactly like that, but in a powerful way. The female character, almost naked, starting smashing car and dancing on the street. Everyone, regardless of race or gender, around her start following her, as if they are all breaking from the restraints in that moment. Patriarchy is not just an issue for the woman or specific ethnicities.
Story
It’s a film without any dialogue or concrete storyline, but Shirin makes the most use out of the simple structure she has. I really like how she was able to do that: keeping the cultural element (she uses Iranian actress) and the experimental, abstract elements (using two screens) while still narrating a story that can connect people universally. Creative works I like are usually something I wish I could make or works that convey my feelings but with perfect execution.
Define “being moved”. Define “moves me.” Define “creative works that move me.” I think it’s hard. Not only because the moment that I felt like I was moved were usually very subjective and depends on the context, but also because we are exposed to so many creative pieces everyday and everything slipps my mind easily.
My final product is a conceptualization of female body utensil sets. It’s a utensil set made for everyone. For female-identified consumers, I want them to embrace their body more. For male-identified consumers, I want them to reflect on their daily life behavior. Violence resembles consumption of food, vice versa. When the body is the tool, and the tool is the things being consumed, what do you, the one consuming, become?
My thought process starts from:
Women getting killed in wartime
Reverse:
Wartime kills peacestime with man and woman
Women killed the war
Non-binary people getting killed in peacetime and then killed the war
Women killing women in wartime
Analogy method
Processes
Catch a woman.
Steal their possesions.
Put them into a camp and then kill them.
Or kill them on site
abstract
Eyes locked on a moving subject.
Human using tools. Mind telling body instructions.
The touching between a metal object and a fresh, warm organism.
If sexual desire arouses before the action
Objectify a human being to an object that is waiting to be hunted.
Relationship
A human to a woman
A man to a woman
Object to organism
A group of human to another group of human
Resources to another resources
A hunter to a prey
A person with more power to a person with less power
Analogy
Lion hunting a sheep
Woman getting killed in wartime is as usual as having a breafast everyday
It was great to see a member of the Asian queer community who truly embedded his theories in every moment of his life. I echo most of the things he said about embracing fear but keeping a boundary, queerness combatting colonization, and how he gets away with censorship using different methods. I am so curious in his daily life that I almost want to make a documentary on him.
