Grades submitted

I've submitted the final grades for the class. You'll be receiving individual emails from me in the next day or two with a brief recap from me ("Beyond the Grade" I call it).

Thanks to everyone for a great term!

Stan VanDerBeek Exhibition

I really enjoy the Stan VanDerBeek exhibition, and it was amazing. Those are abstract visual art but still attracted me. Stan VanDerBeek like to use different way to present his art work, like collages, montages, movies, paintings. I watched some movies and collages but these are hard to understand. Those collages are from his early works, and maybe he want to tell us a feeling of continuous. Every piece of
Work has a connection between them.

I also like the Poemfields, this is also very good. He use a very special way to project his art work. It is very creative and smart. I like the way how he arrange those frames and pictures.

About the images, I like the way he create a 3D feeling on that piece, he is a very creative man to use all kinds of technique to made those art work decades years ago, that is amazing!

Transitions Blog

For my final project, I proposed to make multimedia blog about my ongoing life transitions.

As it was something new to me, I knew I'd have to experiment with platforms and construction. I considered two options. I'd been learning how to use PBWorks (a wiki platform) in another class, and I thought it might useful for something like this. I learned PBWorks technical limitations with my other project, and ended up abandoning it for the same reasons I didn't use it for this project. The other option was a combination of Flash and html. I envisioned links and other multimedia content to appear while I wasin the video blog. I thought the time for Flash work might prohibitive. What I found was that trying to use Actionscript to reference external html elements was blocked by browser security.

For content, my idea was to start with a standard video blog about the changes in my life, leading up to now and as they happen. Additional content would be items such as design projects I'm working on in school and at work, my own writing, some photojournaling of my literal and figurative journey, and links to outside online content that I reference in my narrative.

I've wanted to do a blog or video blog to document my year and a half of unemployment as it relates to the economic status of the country, as a whole. Though, I quickly realized that my content would be 95% angry and/or depressed. I think this project comes at an opportune moment for me to organize my thoughts and feelings as I come out of this state of being, hopefully into the type of life/career I've been hoping for.

http://timebased2011.nfshost.com/

Supermoon--

My friend invited me to watch the Super Moon on March 19th , and he told me a legend of Super Moon, he said the wolf man will come out on that day, human will feel different either spiritually or physically. I don’t believe the legend of wolf man but I feel upset and anxious on that day. So I decide to make a short video to express my feeling and my fear.

On March 19, 2011, the moon will be 3,56,577km away from the earth, its closest in 18 years. Its called Super Moon.
On that day, A handsome guy named Nathan is watching a movie < Wolf man>, he is very concentrated with the plot and imaging him self “changed” the same as the main character in the movie.
He is eating chips and ice cream when he is enjoying the movie. It is a horror movie , the music is creepy and the scenes are horrible, sometimes he feels not well and he can feel him self changing. After he say : oh my god, I feel puff up ! Then he become a fat guy.

Our Web, Our Growth.

Everything in existence has a beginning and an end. Whether they are living beings or inanimate objects, there are remnants left behind when we disappear from our sight. Although I have never been a fan of abstract art and usually take a literal approach to design, I feel more obligated to design something that has a cultural meaning and makes an impact on not only me, but life in general. This piece is not meant to be personal to me, but more of a personal message of how I view the world.

Our emotions, physical beings, and surroundings all start off as a clean slate. It's hard to imagine the theory of evolution bringing mankind so far from where it once was. Single-celled organisms...an Earth before technology existed...life before music...This is what I had in mind when starting the composition with a clean, white canvas. However, as time passes, the composition begins added random elements onto the canvas. They are random, and uncontrollable after their appearance.

The first piece, titled "Our Web", is a piece that starts on the pure canvas. Soon the first dot appears, and begins floating around aimlessly within the alotted area leaving behind a trail behind it. The trail is representative of many things: the materialistic and physical things that human beings leave behind, the emotional growth and connections we've established, and the seemingly growing number of people who contribute to it.

The second piece, titled "Our Growth", is the second piece that starts on a blank canvas. The random paint splashes in multiple colors build on top of each other, never allowing itself to go back to the initial pure clean state. It is about both the physical and emotional growth of us being individuals. Ultimately, we become the whole or sum of all these experiences which is what each individual paint splash represents.

The inspiration for this mini collection is from the need to leave my own mark in the world; I've often contemplated what happens to us after death and the impact we create in society. I wanted to create something that was abstract and expressed a theme with something beyond me as an individual.

I intend to showcase this piece on interfacing white long hallways (in an art gallery). The multiple display throughout the long hallway will show the random effect and be aesthetically pleasing. Unfortunately, due to technical limitations, I had to add in a reset timer to clean the entire canvas for both pieces so that the additional shapes would not crash the computer

Ceiling in Motion -- Dingnan Zhang (Paul)

 

I came up this idea before I came to Boston. I tried to push myself to “do something different!”in this "new" world.

I am from a different country where is totally different cultural background. Being “different” is not so hard for me: I speak different language, I don’t like burger king very much, and I also don’t think the restaurant in China town is that ‘good'. However, this kind of “different” is not exactly what I want. In other words, those differences only mean that I don’t want to explore, or even feel this new culture. This culture is new for me, but I am new for it, too. I am just like a new born baby. And I am pretty sure  when you are a baby, no matter what you are looking at, there must be a lot of  fun!

Basically, I was trying to refresh my original view to observe this world. In the beginning, I have been hanging around the city and looking for anything which can be special and unique. But I failed. Then I realized that I need special angel rather than special objects. My first video was taken two months ago in Prudential. At that time, I was standing on the escalator, and moving around my head to relax neck. Suddenly, I was attracted by the incandescent hang on the ceiling. The escalator was moving down slowly and smoothly. Simultaneously, I noticed the lights upon my head showed an incredible rhythm. I felt so happy, and  recorded this moment by my iPhone immediately. When I showed this clip to Ben, he mentioned that he liked this ‘ceiling motion’. Eventually, “Ceiling in Motion” also became the name of this project. “Ceiling in Motion” this name inspired me. It offered me an unique angel to explore this world. Another special part of this video is that I tried to shoot this view again with my DSLR. However, it has never come out as good as the original one. After all, I realize this is life which is always changed by time, and many other factors include my mood.

    This project was built up by several different clips. Even though most of them have been shoot several times, like the “bridge”, “tunnel”, and so on. I dropped most of them, because I was trying to find out that “different”. But some of the videos were shoot by once,such as the last piece. I even knew it would be unique when I shoot them. The truth is, at that time, I was going to shoot the wave of the lake, but a duck flew into the scene accidentally. This video became my favorite part in this project. I treated it as a gift from life. Sometimes it happened to come into your life, but you cannot always be ready for it, so you have to take the initiative to find it. Like what I stated at the end of the video -- Life has a lot of surprises, just keep looking...

Human Interactivity and its influence on Creativity

For my final project, I decided to go with Human interactivity and its influence on creativity because from the time I was born, I have been interacting with people from all walks of life. This interaction and exchange of information has molded me to be who I am today. Every handshake, every smile, every tear and every hug has a huge impact on me. Even when relationships fall apart or you lose a friend, there is something you take away from that experience. This is what I wanted to bring forth in this project.

For me there are three elements that I feel have influenced my work deeply. My life in college, I met my closest friends. These people I met in college are my friends, even today! I met my fiance' in college. I was a resident assistant in college and that had a tremendous impact on my life. I learned a great deal from students from different backgrounds and cultures. I was introduced to different foods. I found diversity at its best at school. I will never trade this experience for anything my whole life.

Second thing that influenced me greatly is my military life. i love the military and I am proud to serve my country. The military really pushed me to explore my boundaries. I learned my weaknesses and faced my fear. I have learned to respect my fellow soldiers and understand leadership in its true form. Am I a perfect leader? I don't think i can ever be perfect. I think there is something new we learn each day. In that aspect, I am still very much human and yes I am a leader, a leader in my own way.

And finally, my fiance', Hong, who has always been there to push me forward. We have been together for a long time and the only reason we lasted so long is because she was able to stand by my side through tough times. I learned that even at my strongest point, in front of her I was very weak. She is much younger than me, but she is far more driven. She knows how to talk to people, she knows how to build her bridges and keep them. I still have a long way to go in that aspect.

These three pieces in my life have effected my understanding of creativity greatly. This is what my piece was about. I am glad that I got to share it with all of you. i hope that we all will continue to see each other in the future and we will continue to Network! I want you to all to know that you are now a very important and diverse part of my life! Thank you for being a part of it!