KIEN

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Tate exchange

Power of materials: Coffee

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Tate exchange

Behind the scenes

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Material experiment collection: 1

photo by Esmond Sit

Assistances: Gabriele, Kien

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Project Reflection: 10

Developing from a concept of using wood scrap. Combining the technique with the textile material. Which after, it has generated me the new ideas.

 Before the break, I was carving wood in the studio like normally to make wood scraps material for the other object. Suddenly I realise that I have got many pieces of wood in a twisted form. Because I need a lot of wood scraps, so when I using a carving knife to peel the wood skin out, I will find the easiest and comfortable way to do it. So when I peeling those wood, at some point when my blade goes against the wood splinter, I will change the peeling direction. But it happens without my awareness. So, in the end, those twisted forms were managed by the gnarl. It kind of gives me a feeling when nature becomes the one who designed and we are just a machine or something. Without telling anything, I did test it on Mr Esmond and his girlfriend, and the results are similar to what I did. But anyways those form looks interesting. Will see if I have any idea to go on with this. 

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Tate Exchange: meeting 5

17/01/2020

Skype meeting with Rain

After talking to Rain, which has urged us to list the plan of the exhibition. To know the exact information that we have to know and things, we need for each part of the exhibition. So basically, we decided to separate the exhibition into a different part of activities which included discussion, screen (for showing documentary, movie etc.), Timeline of coffee, Installation and collecting audience story (by questionnaire, polls, etc.)

Also, we have to research and design a presentation for each topic. Which much be a lot of work for the next meeting.

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Student-led seminar: 3

After discussed two of the material expert at CSM. 

We planed to look more on material types in order to select the specific area of material that we want to work within this seminar. Because the material world is huge and deep, we cannot cover too wide. We both might agree on natural materials for now but let see after the next discussion.

After that, we also should look more on the typical use of the material and material properties that suit how we going to deal with them in the workshop. As well as in the processes of making and sustainability content.

Suggested website and places:

www.materialdistrict.com

www.mindsetonline.co.uk

Material lab (library) Oxford st.

Institute of making ( University of London)

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Tate Exchange: meeting 4

09/01/2020

A short meeting with friends, discussing the Tate exchange. We started with reviewing what we have now after discussed with Tate team. We refined from our noted, summarize and shared around the table. Then, in the end, we discussed our interactive installation area which eventually has changed the appearance but still kept the concept of playing with coffee consumption.

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Steve McQueen: Year3 A Portrait of London

Tate Britain

Steve McQueen’s artwork of 76,000 seven and eight-year-old London school children is one of the most ambitious portraits of citizenship ever undertaken, in one of the world’s largest cities.

The school paragraph is poignant recond of the journey from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Bittersweet and often moving, it can prompt us to examine the direction our life has taken, those we have left behind and those we still know. It is also a powerful and provocative reminder of how lives are shaped and formed.

Using the medium of the traditional school class photograph, this epic portrait of London’s Year 3 children maps a picture of the present in 3, 128 images. It captures a milestone year in a child’s development. This is the moment they become more conscious of the world beyond their immediate family.

It’s always relishing to look at children photos, you can see their fresh emotion expressed for those soft sponges. Which also remind you of your childhood as well. But when it comes to seeing 3,000 images of a group of seven to eight-year-old children, It was just another thing. For me, it reminds me of have our humanness is driven. It is easy to see that those children in that room are the one who will route the humanity in the next few decades. One day, those little eyes will have their own readily aspect. There will be more and wider perspective for us to learn along while we still seeing when is our next birthday.

The truth is, Firstly I wasn’t planned to visit Steve McQueen but what happens is me and Mr Gabriele, we were late for our appointment, so we weren't able to join our group to the coffee roster on time. So we decided to stay around Tate for any updates. Another thing we did on that day is, we went to a painting exhibition to see those elegant painting from the old day. Then there was a table full of papers and pencils, we were agreed that those papers are so good we should draw something on them. Eventually, we end-up with standing in the middle of the room drawing each other face, the master piece.

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Academic Support

09/01/2020

Academic support with Lee Camberwell. To go through assessment submission materials (with a focus on the written aspect) which included

Writing approach

Evaluative text

Project proposal

Reflective writing guide

Research map

Document and writing guide in the UAL e-mail.

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Student-led seminar: 2

This time we discuss more the overview of the seminar. Working not things like work-plan, objective, refine our understanding of our concept, in order to know that we got the same perceptive on the project.

We decided to come back to CSM again to meet Billie, Co-ordinator of the Materials and products collection.

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ED RUSCHA

Edward Joseph Ruscha IV is an American artist associated with the pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography, and film.

Ruscha makes us expect a straightforward advertising slogan. Instead, he creates strange or contradictory images. There is one of his sentences that I really like, He said ‘I've always had a deep respect for things that are odd, for things that cannot be explained. Explanations seem to me to sort of finish thing off’ I love the imply of the sentence which likely to tell you the keep being curious and be creative. 

DANCE? - 1973

This work suddenly becomes interested after I saw that it made of Coffee, egg white, mustard and graphite, on canvas. What a way to use those ingredients. 

Dance? highlights Ruscha’s interest in North American popular culture from the 1960s and 1970s. He created it with unusual materials including coffee, egg white and mustard. These foodstuffs are commonly associated with diners and fast food. The simple invitation to dance invokes light-hearted entertainment.

Bones in Motion - 2019

This painting demonstrates Ruscha’s continuing interest in combining idealised mountains with seemingly unrelated sentences. Ruscha often chooses the texts primarily for their sound, for example using rhyming words. He also uses phrases that evoke vivid or odd imagery in the mind of the reader. Bones in Motion also includes another recurring element in his work, realistically painted wood grain. Ruscha often paints textures and objects, isolating them against plain backgrounds or pairing them in surprising ways.

It is interesting to listen to how other artists speak about the narrative around their concept and the way they generated their idea which later presented through a piece of artworks. 

For more information please visit: 

 https://edruscha.com/featured-works/

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Student-led seminar: 1

For our student-led seminar, I have a chance to work with Ms Alina, our works are quite similar in term of exploring the materials and The way to bring out the positive value of those materials by design. Or to say that both our project have a part that speaks of something that makes people think further in any context that they might have overlooked or have not realized. And, she loves cat.

First Notes:

Skeuomorphism design

Transformation of materials

Revealing surprising possibilities of the material

Defining Bias

Possible Title: Don’t judge a book by its cover.

I was not in the studio that day but Alina did discuss with Maiko about our topic. She refined what we were talking about on the day before and listed done into topics.

We decided to go to CSM for the materials library for the started research.

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Blink: Malcolm Gladwell

During Christmas time, I bought the book ‘Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking’ by Malcolm Gladwell. Usually, I have to say that I have read that many books (Usually I love to read through magazines). But one of our professors was recommended this book to me (Sorry I cannot remember who but thank you) After reading this, It acutely developed my aspect that I have on my project. Which I wish I could get it before this. Now I just started my next book. I will intend to expand my knowledge further and do my best.

Malcolm Gladwell, I feel like he got a skill to make his writing quite easy accessible at the same time convey the curiosity of the story to your eyes which later it kept you follow without you have noticed. He collected stories from different sources of information and people from various background, such as a doctor, soldier, researcher, musician, etc. which those stories are from the past events from the history a long time ago to a story which just happens in the past decade. Those stories are speaking on the same narrative, about what happens in our unconscious mind, what could urge your thinking to reach its own summerise even before your awareness. A great book for the starting of this project.

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Japan House: Woodland Shade郷の灯

The exhibition explores the age-old local craft and folklore of the Tohoku region in northern Japan using state-of-the-art digital technology.

Starting for the Ground floor with some wood carving objects. What I always interesting when I go to see Japanese’s crafting is, Indeed I know that even how simple the object is, but they will always get something to impress me. So that’s what always happens and yes I still get that same feeling from this exhibition. For Japanese artworks and design, I feel like they are another uniqueness in the area. From many elements such as making processes, materials, design or even colours, it’s easy to spot the uniqueness of Japanese’s artworks but never for others to compare.  

POPPO WOODS

Poppo is the local name for the small wooden toys made in the Tohoku region of Japan. In a snowy forest in this northern area, wooden toys come out to play.

Each poppo toys is carved from one single piece of wood from this species of tree by the craftspeople of Yamagata. An amazing wood carving technique, showing the consequence of what could turn a piece of wood into artistry, using a simple component of tool, material and hand.

For this collection, the Otaka Poppo (a lovely name to pronounce means ‘toy hawk’) was developed in the Sasano area of Yamagata Prefecture.

The various birds in the collection, each is considered by the people of Tohoku to have a special symbolic meaning. Could be too long but I could be regret if I did not write about what are these cuties birds symbolized. 

Hawk / Taka  -  Business prosperity; career success; protection against evil.

Owl / Fukuro  -  Happiness and good fortune.

Chicken / Niwatori  -  Good omen; first bird to be heard in the New Year

Wagtail / Sekirei  -  Prosperity for the family; fertility

Copper Pheasant  -  Bird common to mountains of the Tohoku region

Bullfinch / Uso  -  Nagates any bad fortune from the previous year and brings good luck for the New Year

Flower / Sasanobana  -   Protects against fire 

Kokeshi are wooden dolls from the Tohoku region of Japan. The shape of the kokeshi dolls is very simple. The head and body are turned on a lathe by hand and then decorated with painted features.

There are a number of stories about their origins. They are thought to have been first made during the Edo period (1603-1868 CE) by local craftspeople for visitors to the Hot spring towns in the northeast of the country. Different styles of the kokeshi have developed throughout the region yet all maintain the same fundamentally simple silhouette.

Whether they were simply designed as souvenirs or toys for children, many believe they have a spiritual significance, protecting children from harm and warding off evil. In Japan, it is often said that the human soul inhabits the body of a doll (maybe that’s why I always see this doll the Japanese horror movies), and the popular association of the kokeshi with souls of children makes these dolls particular powerful, Over time, these beautifully simple dolls have become imbued with deeper meaning.

Kokeshi dolls and Otaka Poppo toys have, for centuries, been a part of this region’s cultural landscape. They are the physical manifestations of the wished and teachings of its people. These craftworks were originally made using the latest technology available at that time. /But, in today’s digital age, they can be seen as outdated, and may stand forgotten on a shelf, their original meaning lost.

The best part of the exhibition, we can carve our own Kokeshi doll on the digital lathe! I was standing there for a while like a kid found new stunning toy.

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Quote:

"things are what we encounter, ideas are what we project" 

Leo stein

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Makerspace Visit: South London Makerspace

On Friday the 13th of December, Maria and Gabriele introduce me to know Barbara, our senior from the previous year which later she took us to one of the maker space located in Herne Hill. 

South London Makerspace as said on their website - is a social community workshop. It’s owned, run and maintained by the members; there are no paid staff so everything is done on a volunteer basis.

The area of the workshop itself is not so big, whether say It’s a compact size of maker space. One of the members kindly introduces us around the space which is very interesting. They included  Woodwork, Electronic, Metalwork, Textiles, Laser cutting and Screen printing. All of them are ready for you to engage. The membership is not too expensive as well (£ 20 per month) for this numbers of tools and activities.

We joined the party which is a very lovely party with friendly people around. For me, The interesting point of this space is that you can meet people from many different background or career. Some of the people that I have met, they are economist, freelancer, artist or one of the women I have talked to, she’s very friendly, she’s a gardener who working on her Wardrop project at that moment. So it quite interesting to see how people from different background are interested in one same topic, making.

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Alice Channer: Soft Sediment Deformation, Upper Body (quilted gray) 2018

Inkjet print on silk

This work depicts a geological formation and is printed on silk. The fabric has been pleated, giving the work texture of fish scales and producing a pixelated effect. the work draws parallels between the man-made and natural world.

The artist wrote: ‘I want to mimic a geological process that happens on a massively non-human scale using industrial processes (pleating, printing) that are usually used to make clothing and that operates on a human scale. This is a deliberately outrageous conflation of scales and kinds of body.’

This work is inspiring me a lot in term of the narrative and processes of making which also linked with the core of the story around the concept. It does actually give a natural feeling of a fish scale in my front mind. Also with a technique pleating and printing pattern on silk that conveys the apprehension of a man-made object.