Category: 2024

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 by Shirin Neshat [Video installation]

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. 

Please take a look at my Midterm Paper:

Thank you!

My art piece of choice is the UI design of the video game Persona 5. Below are some pictures of the in-game UI:

Of course, there are a lot more UI elements within the games, but these images capture the ones that I feel are the most impactful. I always feel very drawn into the world of the game whenever I play, and I think this UI is a big part of it. Because of how unique each section is in terms of aesthetic, it feels like I switch to a different ‘stance’ (which is also a mechanic within the game) every time I am in a different part. The characters’ emotion also tends to be quite visceral, since the UI really emphasizes extreme facial expression.

Part of this is due to the color use. The game in general is quite colorful, but they use a lot of contrast to highlight different elements (such as character names), which make them ‘pop’. This in turn draws attention to important elements within the game. The letter font and sizes tend to be a bit all over the place too, which hurts visibility a bit but gives the game so much personality. Because of that, it feels like the various menus are integral parts of the game rather than something I have to slog through to get to the real gameplay.

In addition, there is almost always a character posing in different parts of the menu, so it never feels like my play time is interrupted whenever I open up one of the menus (which is great since large portions of the game requires some menu-ing). The game does a great job of making sure that I am playing Persona 5 100% of the time.

P/s: the main theme is a banger. I will just leave a link to that down here: Life Will Change (youtube.com)

Very very very cool. I absolutely looved Harshini’s works. She seemed very confident about her work and at the same time passionate and full of knowledge. The exhibitions and festivals she is planning seem so so cool and at the same well-thought-through. I also loved the tips she gave us about college life and life after NYU. It was nice to see the development from a first-year undergraduate student to a full blown Digital Artist. Very Valuable Visit!

The fact that she’s very firm in her stance about funding is quite interesting, especially since it kinda defeats the purpose of going to Berlin for art (tho apparently it is cheaper compared to London). It’s a little funny that most artists that we have met so far cite the funding as the main reason for moving to Berlin, and Harshini was just like ‘yeah no’. Her perspective of a newcomer is refreshing as well, since she basically came as a not very well established artist, and thus had to scramble a bit to get going.

Hallo! Heute will Ich in Deutsch schreiben. I’m just kidding, of course I will write my post in English, but do you see how I used to make provocative arrangement of information (in this case writing in German – to get some of your attention? Well, the first reading from the book about Lateral Thinking is about suspension of Judgment, or at the same time we can say, a delay of judgement. This opens up new horizons for creativity but one of the positives of this method is that the idea will survive longer and breed more ideas.

On the other side, in the Art & Fear book we meet with some important explanations about the Nature of The Problem and we are introduced with various topics which teach us what it takes to be an artist and what artists are all about as well as some things about artmaking. Overall these topics can be applied more in the present as compared to the past, as the chapter says it was much easier to draw animals on cave walls than it probably is to write this sentence but my favorite point from all of these is that artmaking involves skills that can be learned. This aligns with all my views about art and life too, I believe that you can learn any skill, make anything your brain thinks of, no limits, you just got to have the dedication to pursue it.

So far, he’s my favorite guest speaker. Ming is very thoughtful. He clearly knows what he wants to do and he’s implementing his idea creatively. Ming’s focus on Asian queer community is insightful: as an Asian myself, I’ve never paid attention to how Asian queer communities might have been differentiated from the traditional white queer community. Also, I like his idea of relating art to political events. Indeed, safe arts (in his term, arts that are distant from politics) may not leave me with much impression but “wow”, whereas arts related to politics are memorable. His ability to give all explanations for every element in his project further demonstrates that he’s given full thoughts for everything he’s doing. Finally, I agree with his idea that if we’re against colonialism, then colonialism of all kinds (not only white’s) are to be against. Growing up, I have seen so many people that have double standards on this issue: as if a miserable past makes muscle-showing now justifiable. I’m really glad that he pointed this out.

What I have the deepest impression about his works is how he makes the audience part of the performance. It breaks the fourth wall completely and the performers not only know about the existence of the audience but made it such a way that the audience are performers as well. I find this method very innovative and interesting. I am a bit sad I didn’t ask for some specifics about how he guides the audience to participate.

Worker scooping ice cream for kid

1. Kid scooping ice cream for worker
2. Worker eating ice cream in front of kid
3. Kid scooping ice cream for other kid
4. Worker dumping ice cream on kid
5. Worker and kid share ice cream together 

Kid scooping ice cream for other kid

6 flavors

1. Pickle juice batter
2. Sprinkles n’ cream  
3. Cotton candy cake 
4. Bubblegum mint swirl 
5. Sour gummy cheesecake 
6. French sugar
7. mozzarella chip
8. Red dust ripple 

This is a kid ice cream shop. The flavors are inspired foods by little sisters love.

The idea is that a kid is talking a photo from his iPad of the flavors.