The Asiamerican Coast

First Thursday Opening, June 5th, 2008

2008-06-08T21:25:00.001-07:00

Both the Wednesday pre-opening and the official opening on Thursday went very well.

Thank you to everyone involved with the exhibit and at the White Stag space, the U of O Digital Arts program and AAA. Including: Colin Ives, Craig Hickman, Kartz Ucci, Michael Salter, Ying Tan, Frances Bronet, Zara Logue, John Woelfle, Michael Smith, Don McIntyre, Rachel Witt, Jan Reaves. The U of O Bookstore and Oregon Art Supply, and also True Value Hardware and Home Depot for supplies and advice.

Thank you to my friends and family.

Most importantly, thank you to the BFA group: Sam Buchanan, Joel Mertz, Justin Phillipson, Mariko Sasaki, Colin Williams.

Thank you to the Academy. Oh, wait...

Joel Mertz

Colin Williams

Justin Phillipson

Colin Williams

Mariko Sasaki

Ben Davis

Sam Buchanan

Joel Mertz

"Ocian in View!" Part Two

2008-05-31T21:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 31st- I managed to fit the projections neatly over the drawings, with a few catches, the first being there is spillover on the top and bottom and sides. However, I was able to mess around with the projector placement on the platforms and also projector settings with horizontal/vertical position and image size etc to get a neat, clean look. There is spillover indeed, but it is uniform on the top, bottom, and sides, and I did my best to minimize the overlap in the center where the two projections meet. The thing about my two videos was the left is rendered in widescreen, while I was unable to produce the right in the same format, which I tried and tried to figure out, but for the life of me I must be missing an option in Final Cut or something. Nevertheless I got both movies to look about the same; the animations are not distorted, and are basically the same size, especially the aircraft and birds that cross over projectors.

The other matter is the second projection being a different color than the first, but I have been unable to solve this. The problem is not overbearing, but it is there and it is strange since both projectors are new and the same kind.

Anyhow, I was able to run the whole setup for several hours. The two issues were projector color and the projector throw (I also tried masking the lenses for this, but this resulted in fuzzy, discolored edges), as stated before, but otherwise everything went smoothly. I had to start the second movie about five seconds before the first for everything to sync right.

I have now finished installing!

Friday, May 30th- The wall has dried and looks good. I began taking some of the grommet hinges off the panels.

Colin Ives helped me work through Isadora and try syncing the videos on both computers, but in the end we both decided the best idea thus far would be to simply play the two quicktime videos at the same time. Then theoretically the videos could run on the mac minis, which would run nonstop from the first open gallery day until the weekend, at which point the computers would be shut down, then rebooted at the start of the next week (gallery is open four days per week). In between the startup and shutdown days, one would just have to turn on the projectors during the day, and with remote controls at that.

I worked some more with lining up the projections. The animations are fine; I gave them plenty of white space sections in the landscape so it doesn't matter if they shift a little, but the trick is to get the projections to fit on the panels without spillover, and minimize the overlap in the middle from both projectors.

Also worked with my dad to tidy up all the wires. We strung the extension cords along the edge of the ceiling and down behind my freestanding wall to the surge protector and outlet.

Twelve Days's Worth

2008-05-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, May 28th- Turns out the projector 1 movie rendered out okay on one computer, but the other computer ran out of memory when rendering projector 2. I took the first movie up to the space today and tested it out. It looks good, save for some top and bottom light spillover. The projector platform had to be angled a bit, and the tie rods bend slightly towards the front, but they seem quite strong. Speaking of which, I switched out the short rods for longer rods, so now I can actually hit the wall instead of over it. I had to cut some of the short rods off to remove them, and they take a lot of force, so these new longer ones should hold up.

The audio can get very loud, but obviously I can turn the speaker down. The helicopter sound that plays when the helicopter flies across onscreen is entertaining and annoying at the same time, but it kind of mirrors the real thing.

The earth magnets look good, so thanks to Kartz for the suggestion. They are small and strong and can be covered up with bits of paper later.

Tuesday, May 27th- Finalized, for now, projector 1 and projector 2 videos, exported them both out of Final Cut. I tried to make absolutely certain the animations will fit when I project them on the drawings, i.e. putting them in places where they are practically guaranteed a large enough white space. Again, working with the Eastern style landscape perspective lets one bend the rules a bit with the composition.

The audio is interesting. Of the several hours of audio I recorded from the beach, most of it is too windy and distorted to be useful, however I was able to edit down about forty seconds of it to be used in a looping section, fading the same section into copies of itself. My bird recordings are decent enough, and the helicopter noises are passable, but I decided to simulate one on my electric guitar, using some overdrive on the amplifier and the pickup switched over close to the neck with the tone dial turned all the way down. I also stood over my bathtub with two basins of water and alternately splashed one into the other to simulate large waves breaking. I slowed these recordings down and set them to occur about every three minutes or so. They sound like a combination of swelling wind and waves.

Monday, May 26th- Kartz smoothed some special putty(?) over the sides and middle seam of my free standing wall. Also, the day before she and Mariko glued nice-looking corner-covers on the sides of the wall. I am to sand and then paint these sections today or the following Wednesday.

A few other major tasks, those being screwing in the tie rods on the top platforms, and screwing in the bottom platforms too. Surprise--the tie rods are not long enough for the projectors to hit down and onto the wall. At this point they can only hit over the wall, out of my entire bay, and into the hallway about fifty meters straight across.

Working with extension cords and planning on how to staple them across the ceiling and towards the space behind the wall, where the cord should drop and plug into the wall.

Tie rods Colin W and Kartz generously bought for me; unfortunately they are too thick for the platform holes.

Panel 3 removed so the center wall seam may dry. I put it up too early and the paper warped--temporarily, fortunately.

Sunday, May 25th- In the space in Portland, Kartz suggested to nix the grommet hinges and use earth magnets, which can be set at the drawing panels' four corners and will magnetize to nails pounded flush into the wall surface on the other side of the paper. She also suggested to use four grommet hinges instead of the planned six for each panel--if I were to continue using them. Also, brass/gold nails may work well to hang them with. With both the grommets and magnets, I would still be using poster adhesive squares on the sides of the panels to hold down the edges; they still curl up.

For now I stuck up the drawings with masking tape to position them, accompanied by a level, and took a look at them on the wall for the first time. The wall is free standing, and it is important to keep equal space on either side of the landscape edges; something I did not do the first time out. I kept the panels twenty inches from the ground line, a measurement based on the height from the floor of a large window in my house. Also, it is a good height so everyone may comfortably view the work.

With Colin W's help, we screwed the top platforms into the ceiling after measuring where the projectors would hang over the floor. We also mounted the audio speaker platform in the middle of the projector platforms.

Notice how Ben's dad is doing all the work while Ben is taking pictures.

Projector platforms, upside down

Speaker platform

First hanging.

Saturday, May 24th- Back in Eugene I talked about my aircraft cable method with True Value hardware, and they suggested I use metal tie rods with nuts and washers instead; this method will work just as well and is less expensive. The top platform mounts to the ceiling with screws, followed by tie rods dropping down from its four corners, followed by the bottom platform connected at the other end. The nuts and washers can be screwed up and down below the bottom platform to raise and lower it as well as angle it when projecting images. Straps, buckles and screws can be attached around the lower platform to secure the equipment. Finally, I am using two of these platform setups; one for each projector/computer station.

Laid out all the animations for projector 1, plus most of the audio, and completed about half of the animation layouts for projector 2.

Friday, May 23rd- Walls built in the space. It took the better part of the afternoon. There were few glitches and they look nice. We will putty/sand/paint the crevasses in the days to follow.

Thursday, May 22nd- I worked more on processing the animations through Illustrator. About half of us are planning on installing our work this Memorial Day weekend.

Colin W, Mariko, Joel and myself loaded the rental truck Thursday night in preparation to drive up the next day. I only put my drawings in the truck; I planned to take the equipment up during the weekend.

Wednesday, May 21st- I met with Don again to discuss platforms for the projectors and mac mini computers, and he was willing to help me build them, while I should get some aircraft cable and accessories and hang them from the ceiling in Portland that way. This method may be pricey, but Don says it is worth the cost.

I showed Kartz another test projection, this time with looping ocean audio. She showed me how to go into Final Cut and use the Add-Subtract-Multiply function on the timeline to darken the images; everything is very light. Again, I am working with slightly, but not large, animations projected on larger white spaces elsewhere on the landscape, which has plenty of room to lay out.

The group is arranging to build the walls in the Portland space on Friday.

Tuesday, May 20th- Worked like a machine to get the animation still jpeg files traced in Illustrator, scaled and readied for more tests on Wednesday. Illustrator will not pull each of the files out and open them for you; that takes some programming which is beyond my capability, but it will do the tracing and scaling by itself after you choose the jpeg file to open and begin the action set you want done. Saving the file is also manual. My animations range from things like the kite and picnic, which run 40 or so frames, to the stick being dragged on the beach by me as a child, which is 130 frames. I can work fast enough to process a hundred or so frames in about an hour.

Monday, May 19th- Kartz and myself did more tests with the smaller animations projected on the drawings, and it turns out there is hope for my original plan after all. I was originally intent on fitting the animations into little spaces measuring several millimeters in diameter; but this is not possible/possible but the results are projections nobody can see. I adjusted where I wanted the animations, i.e. moved them around to other white spaces where they could be bigger. The great thing about this Eastern style of landscape is that it pushes the laws of perspective; small things and large things fit around one another in a composition that is nowhere near as rigid and physics-abiding as Western rules of the same genre. The other thing I noticed was that basically everyone else except me believed the large white expanse below what was drawn was actually beach instead of ocean. (I saw the bottom white stretch as a kind of misty, frothy ocean.) It's no wonder there was much confusion explaining my ideas on Monday, but now I understand where everyone is coming from. I will incorporate this idea into the work, but at the same time I like the idea of the sharp coastline dropping off into a white, formless sea instead of just jutting out of a white beach.

Michael Smith, one of the support technicians here who is helping us with our needs for the Portland space, suggested I talk to his colleague Don McIntyre a week before about building a platform for my audio speaker unit to hang from the ceiling. I did not get around to seeing Don until today, but he was very helpful in helping me create a platform. He said it would be ready by Thursday.

Sunday, May 18th- The larger and revised versions of the animations, with red square placeholders left for the Chinese characters, were completed. I then consulted my father for the correct translations for all phrases: "Flying a kite with mom," etc. (Ironic considering my father is a middle-aged white guy who studied Chinese at the U of O for several years, while my Chinese-American mother is very limited in the language, and myself next to nothing, but that is a different subject.)

Re-Hanging, Test Run, Modification

2008-05-17T20:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I moved the hinges around on the drawings so they actually stick out the top and bottom of each panel, but this is a better option in my belief because the papers can now lie completely flat, and later I can use poster adhesive to take care of any pop-up. I will be painting the grommets white with acrylic in the next days.

As everybody knows, my project has revolved around projecting scaled-down animations onto a large drawn landscape. However, I have done enough tests up until today, Saturday, and become convinced that this simply will not work out smoothly. I have scaled down my animations to extremely small sizes and realized that even if I do get them all small enough to fit on the landscape, they will be black specks and impossible to see what they are supposed to be. (Even in the photos above, while the animations are actually both out of place on the landscape and still too large, they are still quite hard to decipher.) This is a major problem with my family memories, as all involve little figures that have to fit on the drawn beaches, and the memories altogether are essential to this whole piece. I have wondered if maybe a higher resolution projector would solve the problem of giving more detail in smaller scales, but this is likely not an option.

I have now decided to draw in each of the five family memories into the landscape, but still use the projectors to pick each one out in a looping sequence by first displaying the title of that memory in a Chinese character (maybe red-colored to stand out) next to the little charcoal drawing, and secondly displaying a large animation of the memory tastefully placed in the sky, accompanied by Chinese characters in a brief description. The viewer will have an idea of the meaning because of the accompanying animation.

I know this is a slight departure from my original idea, but I do not feel this original idea can be effectively carried out. I was inspired by the way many Chinese artists used to write poetry and other statements in the sky above their landscapes, and I believe my own take on this method can be very fitting and elegant.

New images to be posted within 48 hours.

Taking Part in a Hanging

2008-05-15T20:36:00.000-07:00

Today I went ahead and attached the linen hinges and grommets and hung all five of the panels up on the wall in the garage. The template I made the other day was not very helpful and I had to hold up the drawings on the wall and make pencil marks on the fly. Having the hanging hinges behind the panels (ghost hinges) makes putting them up on the wall tricky. I assume it takes a bit of practice, what with getting the nails/screws pounded in at just the right length and also having enough slack with the hinges themselves. In my situation the nails basically pushed the corners of the paper forwards after being hung in the grommet holes. Now, I can work with this problem and perhaps find a solution, but I also have the ongoing problem of the sides of the drawings curling forwards; leftover curling from when these sheets were still together on the roll. Basically the panels would not lie flat everywhere but only in select places, for example if I managed to use poster adhesive to stick down the sides, but the corners push forwards because the nails are underneath.

The whole idea of ghost hinges is a good one, but I am still comfortable with just going back to hanging the panels with tabs sticking off the edges. (Everything can easily be flattened out, including the sides with poster adhesive. There is no excuse for irregularities in paper surface elevation and everything is much easier.) Yes, everything is out in the open, but the linen tape's white is unobtrusive next to the paper white, and I can always paint the grommets white to match. The grommet-tabs are also small enough in my opinion next to the large drawings that they would not interfere with the presentation. In fact, most everyone I have talked to had initially suggested either method-- the ghost hinge or the visible hinge. Finally, with visible hinges the choice of nails/screws is much more significant, but those can be meshed into the presentation's "background" as well.

The main accomplishment is I was able to take photographs of the landscape in two large sections. I will use these images as background to arrange the animations on, and therefore everything can line up when it is projected.

Hanging Template

2008-05-14T20:40:00.000-07:00

I made a hanging template out of foamcore. I will cut holes where the dots are and lay the template on both the backs of the drawings and against the wall and make pencil marks through the holes. Take the template away and I will have marks to arrange my grommet-hinges on the drawings as well as places to put the nails in on the wall. With this latest tool I just may save myself a headache come hanging time.

Each panel is a different width (slightly), so the right side of the template has 'universal' holes for the nails, while the left side is color coded for each of the five panels.

Over the weekend I finished drawing all the animations and photographing them. Taking the jpeg files into Illustrator and live-tracing them to turn them into vectors before resizing them and sending them into Final Cut has proved to be a good method. Now my idea is to photograph the drawings hanging on the wall and use those images as background while arranging the locations of the animations over the landscape.

I was planning to go down by the river before this weekend to record the rest of my audio tracks. Mostly I just need wind and water sounds. When you think about it, looking at my landscape puts you at a point of view about six miles out over the water, looking onto the shore, and therefore most sounds like cars, sea lions, birds and people cannot be heard, and I want to lean towards replicating that with this project.

Oh, and I signed each panel with the characters of my Chinese name. But they're hidden like in the classic Chinese landscapes, so you can't see where they are, ha.

Week 6

2008-05-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

There will be eleven (11) animations total, split into five family memories and six non-memory animations (such as flying birds).

Kite w/ mother
Family Picnic w/ paternal grandparents
Standing on beach w/ maternal grandparents
Collecting Rocks w/ cousins
Dragging Stick at 4 yrs w/ father

Seagulls
Airplane
Coast Guard Helicopter
Circling Hawk
Flock of Birds
Sea Lions

Audio consists of a thirty minute ocean loop soundtrack with the following added over:

Waves Breaking
Wind
Seagulls
Helicopter
Splashing
Sea Lions (?)

I am down to finishing the stick, flock of birds, and sea lion animations, and the others are done. The audio is coming along. I spent all day yesterday pounding grommets into linen tape with a hammer. As a whole, the work is wrapping up at a good pace. I have lit a metaphorical fire under myself, in a sense.

Back From the Dead

2008-05-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

Ben's been having so much fun on his project, he hasn't updated his blog in over a week.

A thank-you goes out to Craig Hickman, who was generous enough to lend me his special audio speaker unit that I may use with my project. I haven't tested it out yet, but I have heard good things about its abilities. My audio loop will be part of the interaction between the piece and the viewers; occasional and unexpected sounds--loud/new compared to the overall soundtrack will occur during the playback. In other words, you observe the piece, the audio plays ocean ambience, and two minutes later the roar of a coast guard helicopter cuts through, accompanied by a helicopter flying over the charcoal hills. It takes you a moment to realize the helicopter, but a second later the aircraft fades into the sky and disappears.

This speaker unit only weighs several pounds and supposedly can mount on the ceiling. Speaking of which, I will have to let Zara Logue know I want to do this. Related thought--I am leaning heavily towards hanging my projectors and mac minis from the ceiling as well. Ideally I would get some metal mesh platforms and suspend them with heavy-duty wires. Kartz's argument against this was that there are too many fixtures on the gallery ceiling already, but to arrange the equipment on podiums standing on the floor also has problems; mostly because people bump into them etc. I also don't desire putting things out in front of the mural, plus if the projectors are higher up then viewers will have to walk closer to the drawings for their shadows to show up, as opposed to when the projectors are lower down.

I have drawn three of the four family memory-animations, and four of the 'other' animations. This leaves one more family memory animation and about four more 'other;' these 'other' animations being birds, aircraft, cars and the like. The projection tests are going well and Kartz agrees with my method of changing the animation stills into vectors, resizing, and taking the frames into Final Cut. Everything looks very clear at small sizes.

Today I bought some Lascaux permanent fix and some more grommets for the drawings. All that is left for them is to be signed (the characters of my Chinese name, very small and hidden, like the classic Chinese works), fixed, and outfitted with the linen tape hinges with grommets punched through.

It is Week 6 and we are all scared of the end...but it's a good scared, so no worries...

It's a Plane! It's a Bird!

2008-04-28T11:45:00.000-07:00

I took each frame of the bird and plane animation into Illustrator, did an auto trace, scaled the resulting vector images down to around the final planned size, and then took those edited frames into Final Cut and produced an animation. This looks more clear at the small size than anything else I have made.

I also have a much higher quality version of this animation, but I believe the size is too large to post for one reason or another.

Family Picnic Animation

2008-04-27T15:39:00.001-07:00

This is an abbreviated version of the family picnic animation. The actual version will run about ten minutes total before fading away--all animations of my personal memories will fade in, play and fade out at the end; hopefully this method conveys the idea of memory to my viewers. I am thinking of projecting an empty picnic table over a spot on the landscape for the duration of the whole loop; then at one point the family will materialize, stay for ten minutes, and fade out, leaving the empty picnic table again. For another personal story animation that is about collecting beach rocks, I want to project some rocks that remain visible the duration of the main loop, like the picnic table, and then have a kid come onscreen, take some rocks, and leave the rest behind.

I still want to make the animations vectors before scaling them down. To do this I want to bring the frames into Illustrator, do something like an autotrace, scale each frame down, and then import the files to Final Cut and arrange them on the landscape. I hope this works well.

I Can See Clearly Now

2008-04-24T21:22:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try changing my animation stills to vector graphics. The results today were very promising. The projections were very clear (even at a small scale) and a far cry from the blurry muck that was every one of my previous attempts. However right now the animations only look sharp until you look very closely. I will try to improve on this.

Right now I have around four different animations hand-drawn out. The drawing part is straightforward, but making them work as projections is the more demanding task.

Craig Hickman has generously offered a special speaker system unit that I may use for my audio elements. It is compact and supposedly mounts on the ceiling, out of the way.

Model Effort Part II

2008-04-21T12:11:00.000-07:00

Scale models of a single bay and the screening room of the fourth floor White Stag space; 0.5" = 1'. I do not know which area I will be able to show in yet, so I made models of them both. Right now I am working on a family picnic animation, hence the sample frame above with bad lighting (yes, the quality and lighting will be better in the final movie).

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a Bird! Wait! It's a--Shut Up!

2008-04-16T20:30:00.000-07:00

Kartz showed me how to export my finished animations using Apple's ProRes 422 codec out of Final Cut Pro, then how to go through Compressor and produce a movie. For now, the animations I have have been virtually invisible on the small scale. Craig suggested I might use Flash or Director to have the movies run through themselves frame by sequential frame. I also wonder if exporting the movies once, bringing them into a second Final Cut sequence, and scaling them down before exporting again has anything to do with the problem. Perhaps I could just take the respective frame sequences and scale them down to begin with, then place each different sequence in the desired place within the large frame?

I may be using two mac minis instead of just one; one mac mini will be used for each projector. I was planning on running audio through one mac mini and not the other. The speaker system will run through the one with audio.

I was going to take the panels home in the next day or two and set them up in the garage; hang them on the wall and do an accurate projection for once. For the formal review next week I am planning on running one projector with animations for half the landscape, and perhaps run the other projector anyway too, even though I haven't enough to project, but it will be interesting to see how it looks. I already have some audio to supplement.

Colin Ives found my sample of the plane and bird animation both intriguing and amusing. I hadn't planned them to go together, but merely drew them on the same paper to save space. The relationship is indeed interesting, however, what with the oversized bird, and flying at the same speed as the plane to boot.

The First Time Around

2008-04-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the group visited Portland and was able to view the gallery spaces at the White Stag building, in their current state, for the first time. The first three images were taken from the first floor and main gallery area, which is still very much under construction. The plan is to use the space on the fourth floor for the June show. The fourth floor includes several large bays (pictured), several small offices (right of staircase, edge of frame), and a screening room (not pictured).
Unfortunately the battery in my camera died before I was aware the screening room even existed, which I may want to show my exhibit in if the room is done in time, but I was able to take measurements and am making models of both the screening room and one of the bays, my two options in which to show my work in.
I did manage to take a picture of the architecture school's space just upstairs, which is also very nice.

Signing the Drawings

2008-04-09T12:39:00.001-07:00

My idea for signing the panels is more low-key than one may think: I am planning on signing the characters of my Chinese name on each panel, very small and hidden in the landscape. If that art history class taught me anything, I think it was Fan Kuan who did this in his Traveling Amid Mountains and Gorges picture.

Today I worked out a timetable for the animations. I will have them all drawn by Week 5 or 6, while working with the soundtrack. Obviously the other main task is deciding all equipment and set-up.

Animations Specific to the Landscape:

Birds
Gulls
Hawks
Plane
Helicopter
Sky (unsure if I really will do a sky at all; the trick is to make it truly compelling and not just tacked on. Ditto for Sea)
Sea
Cars, on road

Personal Memories:

Kite
Family Picnic
Walking in water with cousins
Collecting beach rocks
Sightseeing in the car (more interesting than it sounds, I have some recollections relating to this. This one will require some work to make it interesting to watch as well)

Projecting

2008-04-09T12:23:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday I tried out some more sample projections. I put a different charcoal drawing on the wall along with a larger sheet of stonehenge paper. The projected animations, especially the kite animation, look quite undefined, partially due to equipment and partially due to the quality of the quicktime video. I was informed by the group that I may want to use a Mac Mini with the projectors.

The bird and plane animations, which are only together right now because I hand-drew them together on the same paper for convenience, and also the in-progress kite animation.

A Model Effort

2008-04-08T14:45:00.001-07:00

Here is a scale model I created of my exhibit. 0.5" here is equivalent to 1.0', at least for the most part. Not pictured are the little model hanging fixtures I created on the backs of the panels, using tape tabs made of linen tape, and eyelets in place of grommets. I used insect pins for nails and also to hold the foamcore walls together. Each panel here is around 1.5 by 2". I will make amends and additions to the model after our group visits the White Stag in Portland this Friday and gets a sense of the space in the gallery.

You're Full of Crit!

2008-04-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had group critiques on the projects of three of us, including myself. During an individual's critique, he or she was not allowed to speak. Therefore for my critique, I got some valuable insight and advice regarding my project, but also a considerable amount of feedback on issues I could have resolved had I been able to answer out loud at the time.

Useful feedback focused on several main issues:

How does the piece reflect my Chinese-American culture on its own? Can this be accomplished , for example, in the title of the piece?
How does projecting animations fit with the drawings? i.e. a projected black is different from a physical charcoal black, different resolutions can result depending on equipment (animations from a DVD versus a Mac Mini computer), elements like a gradually moving sky and sea can come off as meaningless, ineffective touches depending on how they are executed. The animations may come across stronger if the blending with the drawings is seamless. Think about using additional lights/control the exhibit room lighting.
How does the idea of family memories translate in this piece? A landscape where little people are acting out scenes from my memories may not read as memories to the viewer. Use color, or have each scene fade in and then fade out afterwards.

The group really wanted to see a projection, something I did not have to show. The critique centered around this fact.

Ocian in View!

2008-03-31T14:06:00.001-07:00

Again, for a low price of $50, I will integrate a sketch of your likeness into my landscape, immortalizing your face into charcoal for years to come.

The five drawing sections are virtually done now. There is a possibility of reworking some area at a professor's request, but I really want enough time to work with the projectors, animations, and soundtrack.

The Loneliest Number

2008-03-29T21:16:00.001-07:00

Panel 1 progress, Panel 2 complete, and a sky photograph. I have been considering what materials to use to create the animations. Watercolor could work nicely for the sky; I may create three or four different sky pictures and set them to morph into one another at very slow speeds. The entire image would move from left to right. On the whole, doing charcoal animations would be more difficult than working with, say, pencil and pen animations. The main goal is to keep a handmade, organic feel to everything on display.

Today at the bookstore Rachel Witt showed me two variations of the linen tape hinges; one that sticks out from the paper edge and one that hides behind entirely. She suggested I also work a medium like tacky glue into the linen hinges for added strength.

I have been clueless about what kinds of nails to use. I will have to ask Colin Ives about what material the walls at the White Stag are made of, and select nails according to that. Regardless of nail type, things to remember are getting nails with good-sized heads and set them into the wall tilting upwards at angles so the grommets won't slip off.

I picked up my acid-free foamcore sheets today. They look dynamite. They have a nice, slightly rough texture that reminds me of my stonehenge paper. The shipment came in a flat cardboard box, which I may consider modifying and using as a carrying case for the panels soon.

This Post Has No Title

2008-03-28T20:28:00.000-07:00

Today the acid-free foamcore boards I ordered at Oregon Art Supply last week arrived. Tomorrow I will pick them up.

Panel 2 wrapped up yesterday and I am now working through Panel 1. After this, I want to lay out all the panels, touch up details, make sure the edges line up right, and give them a light spray fix. After any feedback this coming week, I will do a permanent fix on them after making any possible changes that may benefit the drawings.

I am also working out some projections.

The linen tape is not without its faults, apparently. If you put a lot on and seal it tight, the tape does tend to gnaw at the paper when removed, albeit not enough to be noticed outright, thus far at least.

Three, Grommet! Three!

2008-03-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

Panel 3 is in the can; pictured are detail from Panel 3, Panels 3, 4, 5 together, and a grommet with a linen strip I tested out. I have been informed I should use something called a hinge on the linen strips. I will have to ask Jan Reaves or Rachel Witt to show me.

Three details for Panel 2, which is being reworked and added to. This week I am planning to try out a sample sky projection, and last Saturday I went to the coast and recorded some ocean audio. It's not smooth all the way through, but there are definitely chunks I can edit together and loop. I will record the rest--more bird sounds, some water sounds, and the like--here in Eugene.

I don't know if all the drawing will be in a finished state by the end of the break. If it is not, it will very likely be finished towards the end of Week 1 next term.

Good Heavens, Grommet!

2008-03-21T20:54:00.001-07:00

Today I bought a grommet kit at EconoSales, clear poster adhesive and 15 sheets of glassine paper at the bookstore, and ordered 6 60" by 40" foamcore boards from Oregon Art Supply. The boards are only about half as thick as the ones I have now, but they're the thickest in the acid-free category.

Also pictured are three details from Panel 3 and another whole image.

What Have You Done to the Eyelets?

2008-03-20T20:57:00.001-07:00

I tested out some of the little black eyelets Jan Reaves lent me. Above are some small linen tape tabs on an old letter-sized charcoal drawing of mine. Eyelets are pretty neat--first you use a special hole punch with a hammer and cutting mat, then you put the eyelet in and hit the small end until it spreads out like a doomed bug.

Half and Half

2008-03-20T20:52:00.001-07:00

Panel 3, half-refined, Panel 3 detail.
In other news, all the masking tape came off today and I switched it out with the linen tape. My paper sheet edges had about a 98 percent survival rate, with only barely discernible fraying.

New Artist Statement (Now With More Fiber)

2008-03-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

The Oregon coast landscape is imprinted in my childhood memories. For over a decade our family has traveled from Eugene down the Oregon coastal highway to visit both my American grandparents in Coos Bay, Oregon, and my Chinese-American grandparents and relatives in the San Francisco, California Bay Area. My first serious encounter with Chinese landscape scrolls came during my Chinese art history class in my first year of college when I noticed how the Asian landscapes distinctly echo the Oregon coastal regions. My project is a stylized Oregon coast landscape scroll influenced by classic Chinese landscape art. The drawn landscape is combined with a looping soundtrack and animated projections, creating a symbol of my own cultural duality and also a living, subtly changing environment to be observed. The project is a metaphor to me; in order to make the journey to either side of my dual heritage, I must travel through a mix of scenery that echoes both cultures at once.
The classic Chinese landscape scrolls possess majestic, meandering mountain and tree lines with expansive bays. The mediums used are primarily ink and charcoal. The visual connection that the Oregon coast and Chinese landscape scrolls have is a representation of the full-circle quality my background possesses. Either the Asian characteristics have manifested in the Oregon coast, or vice versa. This matter takes a very interesting turn when considering the fact that I, a Chinese-American born in America, have never been to China. My concept then takes on a strange and fascinating set of both connections and disconnections. I am creating manifestations of my Chinese heritage, which I have only experienced certain qualities of, while mostly experiencing an American upbringing. The final product turns out to be a combination of these cultures and also a unique entity all its own.
The use of scrolls as a medium represents information made into a visual landscape. The scrolls provide references to linearity and timelines. By presenting my journey of cultural duality in this way, I achieve a continuity with a beginning and an end. Information is laid out in a sequence one part at a time, or viewed as an entire journey if the viewer steps back.
I employ the form of the scroll as a tool to tell the narrative of my cultural duality. This is a physical representation of my Chinese-American cultural environment, something that is not exclusively of one or the other world, but a byproduct of those two places put together and existing by itself as something very unique. The fact that a drawn highway runs through parts of my landscape symbolizes a story of my travel from one culture to another and its experience. I am also exploring the possibilities of a subtly changing landscape by using projected animations such as a slow-moving sky and sea, and fast-moving elements such as birds, to go with the static drawn elements. Both the animations and soundtrack will play continuously in twenty to thirty minute loops. While most of the animated and audible components will be subtle, like a real landscape, occasional events like animated gulls flying across the animated sky or animated waves breaking on the drawn rocks will attempt to draw viewers in and keep them waiting for more, much like sightseers before a landscape, waiting for something interesting to happen.
My project incorporates landscape scrolls that blend both Chinese and Oregon coast landscape characteristics, which in turn reflect the cultural duality of my Chinese-American heritage. The project literally and metaphorically illustrates a cultural journey by featuring bits of highway running through the drawn landscape. Furthermore, my project exists on a different level by using looping, projected animated components on the drawn landscape and a looping soundtrack, with occasional events like waves crashing ashore. This gives viewers the sense they are watching a living, changing environment, and commands their attention as they wait for other things to happen.

The Unmasking

2008-03-13T20:02:00.001-07:00

Pins and Needles

2008-03-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was able to talk to Rachel Witt at the bookstore. She said the grommets (and I am interested in the 1/4 to 1/2 inches) were not a big deal with detracting from the display, since the drawing sheets are very large. She also mentioned the possibility of painting with acrylic both the grommets and the tape the same color as the paper. Rachel said that standard-size nails would work best, and she specified ones with domed heads. As far as the poster wall adhesive for the panel sides, she said white would blend better than other color adhesives.

She suggested to cover the drawings with the sheets of glassine paper so the glassine would extend over the panels and tape around the other side of the board. Speaking of boards, acid-free foamcore will work best in the long run.

Today Jan lent me some hole punch and eyelet setter tools, along with 1 3/4" T-Pins, insect pins, and little black eyelets, which are like little grommets that haven't hit their growth spurt yet.
The stuff probably won't work for my big drawings, but she suggested to try them out on a small picture.

Econo Sales either Friday or Saturday to look for large grommets and tools to use with them.

I took the masking tape off Panel 4 today and replaced it with linen tape. The stonehenge did fine, but the masking tape tore the sides of my foamcore something awful. I should be able to use linen tape to hold the papers to the boards until June. Also, the paper sheets are flattening out admirably.

Gimme Five

2008-03-11T21:28:00.001-07:00

If you look long enough, you might be lucky enough to spot Elijah Wood or Viggo Mortensen.

In other news, there is no news on the animations. I have not started them yet.

Tomorrow I will probably go talk to Rachel Witt at the UO bookstore about hanging and storing the sheets. Once I get a verdict on all this I want to go shopping Thursday or Friday and hit up EconoSales. Over the break I'm still on track to virtually finish the whole fifteen foot mural, plus head to the coast and track sound, finally come up with some working animations, start projecting, and...have a rough working exhibit for the review Week 1, Spring Term.

A Fog-Up

2008-03-08T16:40:00.001-08:00

Panel 5 is designed to end the landscape with dark textures. Along with Panel 1, it will provide strong tones to bring up the sides of the piece and bookend the mural together.

Comments, Suggestions

2008-03-07T19:59:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday I talked to Jan Reaves about the project and showed her the fourth panel. She suggested I store and protect finished sheets by sandwiching each between two large foamcore boards, with a sheet of rice paper secured over the charcoal side to prevent smearing and double image effects. The boards can then be taped together and slid into a large plastic sleeve, as in plastic sheets that come in rolls at hardware stores.

Jan said it is important to think about the statement made by sticking fabric/linen tape tabs on the paper corners and punching grommets through the tape to hang with. Reinforcing the paper corners is something else to consider. Jan also pointed me to a Rachel Witt at the UO bookstore art section, who I intend to contact about these issues. First, the paper sheets must be stored somehow without the masking tape on them until the June showing, and second I must figure out the best way to hang them in the gallery. Obviously it is taking some work to figure out how to store and display my project, although I hope finding a solution doesn't eat up too much time for working on the project itself.

Jan also mentioned Lascaux spray fix for the drawings.

Yesterday I showed Kartz some more of the work and she pointed out the method of using dark and light spaces contrasting with details in my composition. On my panel 4, for example, she highlighted sections of the mountainside that could be darkened and/or worked over in other ways so as to bring out the detail sections around them more. She said the fog bank running through the forest was very successful, more in line with that concept. Also she stressed keeping the roads defined by having a small white line running underneath them.

Kartz mentioned I can use Photoshop to run some tests on images of the panels, so I will see what I can do. However, today I carefully worked some previously executed mountain sections on Panel 5, the continuation of Panel 4, and darkening them towards the top looks really good and brings out the bottom sections. Speaking of which, Panel 5 is progressing and I will try to have it in a conclusive state on Wednesday of Week 10, and if the stars smile upon me, some reworking-progress on Panels 1-3 too.

Tape 'N' Gesso

2008-03-01T20:48:00.000-08:00

Today I bought two feet of flexible linen tape and a small jar of gesso at the UO bookstore. I asked around about metal grommets and got pointed to Econo Sales over in Springfield, where I will pay a visit before next weekend. Grommets come in several sizes, from the width of pencil erasers to a half-inch. They are sold in kits and may come with tools to punch holes to fit them into.

More progress on Panel 5 is scheduled for tomorrow. Meanwhile, I worked out a way to vertically store the other panels on top of the desks, out of the reach of foot traffic, coffee spills, the odd ruffian.

Yesterday I took some of the masking tape off of Panel 4 to put final detailing on. The paper seems to be holding up fine, but every day I am more excited to rig the sheets for their final hanging.

Ying suggested the classic Chinese landscapes tended to balance out sections of intense detail with sections of contrasting simplicity. I will consider this. Right now I am making an intense-looking simplistic fog mass on the fifth panel.

Tuesday 3/4: Jan Reaves
Thursday 3/6: Kartz Ucci
Sometime next week: Lex Schmidt, my high school art teacher.

When 4 Met 5

2008-02-26T16:29:00.001-08:00

I believe I will start removing the masking tape as I finalize the panels, make the one-inch fabric tape tabs on four corners of each panel, and tack them back on the boards. Some of the boards are too short, so perhaps the tabs could wrap around and tack on the backs of the boards. I will experiment. The main goal is to start taking the masking tape off.

Interesting point the group brought up last week was one regarding what viewers can take away from my piece without the background knowledge of it (i.e. the cultural background, my duality of heritage, the duality of this created environment). The way I have it planned now, a fifteen-foot drawn mural with projected animated components, which cohesively form a subtly animated landscape that features major and minor events that occur throughout it, which engage the viewer and their patience over the time they take to stand and observe it, I believe can very well function by itself, without background. There is a base connection in that I assume most people have looked at Chinese landscape in galleries, grouped with the interest in a piece that is large, dominating, and also subtle.

Before the term gets out I want to clarify and add the new ideas about my piece, including the elements above, to an updated version of my artist statement.

Today is Tuesday of Week 8. One week from now I want to finish Panel 5, and by the middle of Week 9 I want to heavily engage in modifying what I have for Panels 1, 2, and 3.

Onwards...

A Waiting Game

2008-02-23T21:17:00.000-08:00

An alternative to motion sensors affecting animation speed and sound volume may be to lose the motion sensors altogether. I could project whatever is animated onto the paper with two projectors as planned, and concentrate on subtlety, playing off of the audience's patience levels, which also fits in nicely with the landscape theme. Clouds and waves would slowly move along, and every five minutes a bird flies over the hills and vanishes, every ten minutes a car drives past on the highway and disappears around the bend, every fifteen minutes waves rush in and break audibly on the rocks below. Such time limits do not have to be consistent either; again the idea is not measuring viewers' motion and presence, but presenting a slowly changing landscape that challenges you to look closely for an event to take place, but when?

I have to say this was inspired by Colin W, who last week talked about his characters blinking their eyes while being shown on the TV screens, but doing so only every now and then, and doing it very fast so viewers cannot be sure if they saw anything happen, and perhaps be compelled to watch the character longer to see if he really does anything.

2008-02-22T21:30:00.001-08:00

Panel 4 forest detail.

Restraint with the smudge sticks is essential. Getting carried away can lead to situations like the bottom half of panel 1 (which will be moderately reworked).

Seeing the Forest for the--

2008-02-21T16:49:00.000-08:00

Foliage growing alongside the 101.

In general, everything on this panel is looking very good at any viewing distance. I've been knocking some of the heavy charcoal areas out with an eraser, which is what I want to do with the previous panels too. Heavy lines suck the life out of the drawing. It's murder.

Panel 4 Progression, Detail

2008-02-19T17:47:00.000-08:00

Meeting With Kartz

2008-02-17T16:30:00.000-08:00

Kartz mentioned using gesso and conte with the charcoal on the panels. Since she's a painter, she also gave me some direction for enhancing depth of field and definition. Our meeting was cut short. I will try to see her again in a couple weeks before the term ends.

I want to keep panels one and five at a like level of moderate darkness and bookend two through four in between, keeping them lighter. It's hard not to engulf a four by three foot piece of white paper with a wall of charcoal and suck the life out of it, exactly what I am trying not to do. Two thousand years ago landscape scrolls boasted an amazing amount of detail, and I would like to reflect this in my own way with my own project. It will be fun to watch people at the gallery in June walk up close to my panels and try to pick out little details wherever they may be. If they get too close, they might even get charcoal smudges on their noses. But I'll be using spray fix beforehand, so actually that won't happen. It would have been funny however.

The Fab Fourth; Spacing (the project) Out

2008-02-12T21:28:00.001-08:00

First: Bare-bones stage of Panel 4. Wanted to make this one lighter with tonal values
Second: Diagrams and estimated measurements for the panels in the gallery with incorporated projectors, motion sensors and speakers. The dvd and possible cd players would both be hidden from the public.

2008-02-12T14:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I talked with Michael Salter about hanging my landscape panels, and Michael recommended several cheap but presentable, efficient, and reliable methods of doing so. In a nutshell, to professionally frame five 51 by 36" pieces of stonehenge paper would cost around a thousand dollars a pop. There are several less expensive, good methods of securing the panels directly to the gallery wall:

Grommets, little circular metal fasteners to place on the back four corners of each panel, and hang the panels on the wall

Fabric tape, fitted to hang off the paper corners like tabs, about an inch across. I would also be using wooden thumbtacks, clear thumbtacks, square tacks, special nails, or little metal t-pins to hold the tabs against the wall.

Double-sided adhesive squares, several behind each panel's side, the kind of 3M or Scotch adhesive with wall posters and photographs.

It's great to know the solutions for this turned out to be inexpensive and really pretty simple. As for bamboo dowels used as a scroll effect, the main option would be to partially hollow them out and fit them with one of the tack or nail types, so the bamboo sticks would directly help secure the paper to the wall.

I am working on Panel 4 today. Thursday I plan on seeing Kartz Ucci to give her a progress report.

Framings and the Such

2008-02-08T16:47:00.000-08:00

This coming Monday 2/11 I plan on seeing Michael Salter during office hours to try and get some advice for professionally backing and framing my panels.

In other news, I got two more foam boards to begin work on panels 4 and 5 this weekend.

2008-02-06T20:08:00.001-08:00

Musing over BFA group names:

Spacing Out
was one of several I came up with last term, and it gels with my sense of humor. I have to say I'm torn between this one and

Six Spaces
which just now occurred to me.

ALT SPACE
sounds trendy and a generic kind of title for a run of the mill digital arts exhibition, which ours is not, and frankly I hate this name.

Alas, it is the group's job to decide as a whole. Cast those ballots...

All Together Now

2008-02-06T19:43:00.001-08:00

I have been informed that gator board, the type Joel used on his own print, is not the best option. The corners are prone to damage and the overall effect in a major gallery is decidedly not professional-looking. I have heard Michael Salter uses a more expensive, laminated method for his own work that apparently is virtually weatherproof. I am still going to Cappers tomorrow, nevertheless, and will try to find the best option to suit my needs.

Cappers Frames and Prints

2008-02-06T10:41:00.000-08:00

Thanks goes out to Joel for supplying this address he had luck with framing his print at:

Cappers Frames and Prints Inc
1280 Oak St
541-343-4119

Tomorrow/Thursday I am planning to take the first two panels downtown to this place and get them professionally backed. Looking at Joel's piece the backing looks relatively light and very strong. Theoretically I then want to take the foam boards from panels one and two and use them as temporary backing with panels four and five. I am still on track to wrap up 80-90 percent of the drawing work by week 7, then get started on the handdrawn animations.
The trick is not getting carried away drawing everything directly on the scroll and remembering to leave strategic white spaces where projections would fall. And again, it is important not to get too dark with the charcoal application. Classic Chinese landscape works are typically very light with a respectable level of detail.

And Then There Were Three

2008-02-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

Third panel, being worked on. More white space lightens the atmosphere, also lends possibility to incorporating projected animations like sections of blowing treetops, other moving bodies of water. Joel Mertz recommended a good place he had success with backing his printed city mural, which I have promptly forgotten the name of. When I recollect it I will look into professionally backing the first panels, touch up detail, texture, and the picture edges, and salvage the foam boards for work on panels 4 and 5.

There is a large bamboo bush in my folk's backyard. Considering stealing some bamboo poles to use as dowels for my landscape's scroll effect in the near future.

Scoping Out the Landscape

2008-02-02T20:03:00.000-08:00

As far as technical issues go, I need to think about using two projectors instead of one, in order to comfortably cover the 15' finished piece. I may very well specifically create left and right animations, i.e. the sky sections should blend into each other in the center but do not necessarily have to sync. Cars on the highway only appear when there is highway drawn on the canvas, and the ocean waves only will appear in certain places on the panels. In other words, I am not absolutely bent on planning any animation that goes entirely across the landscape in one fifteen foot unbroken piece, which would mean I would have to sync the projectors. I can go either way.
Projector location height, angle (very small), and distance from the piece are all things to think about. I am looking forward to seeing the Portland space sooner or later to see how things will figure out for this.
The jury is out on motion sensors to trigger the animation speeds and possibly sound volume. It will be more challenging to monitor the floor in front of the landscape and have animations slow down as the crowds get closer to the work. That was the original plan, but one has to remember that people will be in different places all the time in front of the piece, triggering the different sensors all at once. Perhaps I could simply target a measured space in the immediate vicinity of the piece: Based on how much motion is going on in this area, the animations will move slower with more activity and up to normal speeds with less activity. Sound will be softer with more foot traffic up close, and vice versa.

Motion sensor resources:
http://parallax.com/
http://sparkfun.com/

And Again

2008-01-29T16:50:00.000-08:00

Panel 2, progressed. Panel 1 was very dark, almost too dark for my liking, even though I am a very dark person by nature. Classic Chinese landscape scrolls were very light by comparison, so I'll be incorporating more of that quality into the later sections of the landscape. IE, on this panel the landscape is moving into heavier fog banks. I have to say that I am enjoying the freedom to interpret the artwork across such a large scale medium; typically I have worked small before.
More detail appears on panel 2, again feeding into the idea of the observer moving in closer to inspect the work on a small scale (And as I am planning right now, subsequently activating motion sensors to slow down the projected animations and pause them, rendering the whole piece a temporary still image. This is a landscape that exists, moves and breathes while you are not disturbing it, much like the real-life counterpart, the Oregon coast, goes about its business when ignored and left alone. I am interested in the idea of a gallery piece that will do its own thing while no one is around, or around but keeping still and quiet.)

Can you find all the hidden wildlife, houses, and obtrusive radio towers? Answers on page 100.

Second Time Around

2008-01-27T19:41:00.000-08:00

Behold, the beginnings of the second panel. This sequel picks up where the first one left off.

2008-01-25T17:56:00.000-08:00

Today my first panel is nearing completion, and I got two more foam boards from Oregon Art Supply, specially cut to fit in the back of the car, which they do just barely, no joke.

Panel number two commences tomorrow. It takes me a week to comfortably finish a panel, therefore I plan to spend appx. five weeks to create the mural, and get heavily into the animations to be projected, in the third part of this term.

Grand Opening

2008-01-22T17:08:00.001-08:00

The past weekend marked the commencement of charcoal hitting paper (finally). There was no ribbon-cutting ceremony, no television coverage, and the only attendee was myself.
On the left is the first of five panels of the landscape, unfinished as of right now. Each panel is approximately 51 inches high by three feet wide. Currently I'm trying to figure out ideas for the eventual framing or backing of the panels for the showing.
On this panel in particular an animated waterfall would theoretically be projected in the bottom left section, the sky above the hills would be mostly projected and animated, and ditto for moving cars along the highway running across the midsection of the landscape.

2008-01-17T16:48:00.000-08:00

Today I purchased five 20 by 30 inch foam boards from Michael's art supply, with the intention of taping them together and using them as temporary backing (pictured) for the mural panels (each panel being 51 by 36 inches appx). It wasn't until later that I discovered that Oregon Art Supply had 40 by 60 inch foam boards, and the cost was half as much. Suffice to say the smaller boards were sold back to Michael's and I got one large board from Oregon Art. The adhesive they sold me (pictured) is terrible for the heavy duty paper, however, and I'll have to use masking tape like I planned before.
Stonehenge paper in large pieces is a horrible pain to deal with, both metaphorically and physically; 1) It dimples under its own weight when you're not looking and 2) I have paper cuts (not pictured) from cutting it down from its initial 18 foot length.

Thoughts on Exhibition Space

2008-01-16T13:37:00.000-08:00

I wondered what if I placed a bench a certain number of feet from the exhibited scroll, at a certain distance across the floor so that the animations can play freely on the landscape when the exhibit viewers are near or on the bench, but if the viewers move past the bench and start moving forwards, tripping the motion sensors and causing the animations to slow down and eventually quit playing, and when people finally move up close to study the scroll in detail, the scroll essentially becomes a still image.

2008-01-14T11:20:00.000-08:00

Recently I purchased a 15' roll of stonehenge paper at the book store for half price. Initially I was entertaining the notion of creating a gigantic mural charcoal landscape for over the break, and bring it in for the rest of the group at the start of Winter term and make everyone look bad. Inevitably this did not happen, and furthermore I did no work at all on my BFA over the winter break. However, I am now planning on using the large roll of paper to base my final project version on.

As evidenced to a certain extent in one of the photographs below, the desks in the studio are great to use and quite large, but they simply do not accommodate my scroll width-wise OR length-wise, and now I am thinking of cutting the paper into large panels to work with separately. There is no place in the studio that I can see that would allow me to unroll the entire roll of stonehenge paper and work on the landscape comfortably. Furthermore I risk damaging the roll by rolling and unrolling it to work at both the studio and at home.

Cutting the paper into panels will allow for easy transport and also paper preservation. For the final incarnation, I have multiple options including fitting the panels together, or playing with more interesting layouts like Chinese-style folding panel screens, working with the idea of framing the panels into 'windows' to look at the landscape with, or even hanging each of the panels as separate scrolls complete with dowels.

Modifications, Prototype images

2008-01-14T11:18:00.000-08:00

Photo Update for Week 7/7

2008-01-14T11:10:00.000-08:00

End Fall Term BFA critiques

2008-01-09T11:21:00.000-08:00

Thank you to Johnnie Mazzocco, Robert Smith, Colin Ives, and Michael Salter, who formed my review committee.

The just-posted artist statement formed the basis of my presentation to the faculty and grad student review committee at the end of the fall term. In summary, the feedback I received stressed that I narrow down my range of ideas for the final project. Furthermore, my reviewers were primarily interested in the notion of the cultural landscape scroll in itself, and not nearly as much in road trip anecdotes incorporated into the landscape. They suggested incorporating the landscape itself into whatever animations would be projected onto the finished scroll, and also how the landscape itself changed with the animations.
Other comments for myself to think about were various versions of moving landscapes, including the idea that I would physically unroll the scroll to different sections of the picture over the course of the gallery show. Sound effects and interaction were brought up, and as of this point I am not completely sure how to proceed with these elements in the final piece. I am considering features such as treetops blowing and the ocean swelling as the viewers walk by, triggering the animations with motion sensors, and also elements including birds and cars that follow or evade the viewer as they walk back and forth in front of the landscape. At this point, I am interested in mainly drawing the viewer into the world I have created. I am trying to elicit responses and reactions to help them experience what I have created as much as possible.
My review committee also suggested working with different ambient lighting situations with the scroll and projections. Mask colors with the animations can come into play, since projected colored light tones on a white or near-white scroll can have different effects on the materials.

I am considering using other media in addition to charcoal, such as ink.

Artist Statement as of end Fall Term

2008-01-09T11:16:00.000-08:00

Ben Davis
Artist Statement

The landscape of the Oregon coast is imprinted in my childhood memories. For over a decade our family has traveled from Eugene down the Oregon coastal highway to visit both my American grandparents in Coos Bay, Oregon, and my Chinese-American grandparents and relatives in the San Francisco, California Bay Area. My first serious encounter with Chinese landscape scrolls came during my Chinese art history class in my first year of college when I noticed how the Asian landscapes distinctly echo the Oregon coastal regions. My project communicates a road trip narrative across an Asian-style Oregon coastal landscape. This method also explores memories of growing up by telling the story of the journey. The narrative landscape is composed of personal anecdotes and interesting quirks from my own recollection, which the user may view in the landscape or access by direct interaction with the piece. To me this is a metaphor; in order to make the journey to either one of the sides of my heritage, I must travel through a mix of scenery that echoes both cultures at once. Here, my journey is composed of stories and memories as I travel through the cultural representations in my life.
The ancient Chinese landscape scrolls possess majestic, meandering mountain and tree lines with expansive bays. The mediums used are primarily black ink wash, charcoal, and engravings. The visual connection that the Oregon coast and Chinese landscape scrolls have is a representation of the full-circle quality my background possesses. Either the Asian characteristics have manifested in the Oregon coast, or vice versa. This matter takes a very interesting turn when considering the fact that I, a Chinese-American born in America, have never been to China. My concept therefore takes on a strange, conflicting, and ultimately fascinating set of connections and disconnections. I am creating manifestations of my Chinese heritage, which I have only experienced certain qualities of, while mostly experiencing an American heritage.
The use of scrolls as a medium represents information made into a visual landscape. The scrolls provide references to linearity, written word, hieroglyphics, and timelines. By presenting my journey of cultural duality in this way, I achieve a continuity with a beginning and an end. Information is laid out in a sequence to experience one part at a time, or viewed as an entire journey if the viewer steps back and sees the whole piece.
I employ the form of the scroll as a tool to tell the narrative of my cultural duality. I am exploring the possibilities of using sequences of animations, still images, or written anecdotes centered around family travel and constructing them into a full journey. In essence, it is the retelling of my travel from one culture to another and the experience it entails. I am also working with more abstract methods of physically incorporating text collages clustered into landscape forms, so that my recollections of childhood travel experiences literally compose the displayed journey. All the collected information, displayed on the landscape scroll, may be changed when the user interacts with it by touch screen or buttons. The changes cause chain reactions and the entire landscape of information changes as a whole, symbolizing how my cultural journey has changed over my lifetime.
My project incorporates landscape scrolls that blend both Chinese and Oregon coast landscape characteristics, which in turn reflect the cultural duality of my Chinese-American heritage. The piece uses a depiction of a road trip to illustrate my traveling to and from both sets of grandparents and relatives, and my journey through a visualization of mixed culture. The scroll also displays how my many childhood memories of family travel make up the larger, illustrated journey, achieved through a number of methods, which consist of using text and image collages and layouts in landscapes, and laying out recollected stories in sequences that make up the entire story of the journey as a whole. The user can, via interaction, alter the outcome of any single story and observe how this alteration causes everything else in the sequence to change over time, representing how my own cultural journey has evolved over my lifetime.

BFA Group Title

2007-11-14T13:42:00.000-08:00

I've been throwing possible names for the BFA group at the wall. Some of them stick. Some of them stink. Some of them just bounce back and hit me.

The list so far:

Spacing Out
Alternate Space
ALT + SPACE

Site Specific
Site Address
Site to Behold

Off the Map
On the Map
Opening Address
Cutting the Ribbon
New Document
Blank Page
Bright White Paper

Artist Statement

2007-11-14T12:25:00.000-08:00

My working artist statement as of today:

Growing up with a Chinese-American background allowed me to experience two very unique cultures simultaneously. Being literally a product of two cultures put together as one in the way I look and perceive the world, as well in my taste in everything from food to art to music, has put a unique spin on my existence. In using narrative methods in the format of Asian-style landscape scrolls, I hope to coalesce my influences in one area. By doing this I strive not only to provide others with a view of how I perceive my world, but also to further explore the fascinating juxtapositions and interrelationships my own mixed upbringing has to offer.
The ancient Chinese landscape scrolls, with their majestic, meandering hill and mountain ranges, jagged tree lines, and expansive bays, usually presented in black ink wash, charcoal, or engravings, distinctly echo the landscapes of the Oregon wilderness, specifically the Oregon coast, to an eerily stunning degree of similarity. To me this is a representation of the full-circle quality my background possesses. Either the Asian qualities have come to light in the Oregon coastal landscape, or the Oregon coastal landscape has sought to mirror the Asian characteristics.. Furthermore, the landscapes of the Oregon coast are imprinted in my childhood memories. For over a decade our family has traveled from Eugene down the Oregon coastal highway to visit both my American grandparents in Coos Bay, Oregon, and my Chinese grandparents and Chinese-American relatives in the San Francisco, California Bay Area. To me this is a metaphor; it is as if in order to make the journey to either one of the sides of my heritage, I must travel through a certain mix of scenery that echoes both cultures at once.
My project communicates a kind of road trip narrative across an Asian-style Oregon coastal landscape. This method also seeks to explore childhood and old family memories in telling the story of the journey. The narrative landscape is composed of unique, almost mundane anecdotes and interesting quirks from my own recollection, that the viewer may either view already in the landscape or access by interaction with the piece itself. Here, my cultural journey is composed of stories and memories, as I travel to, from, and in between the cultural characteristics in my life.