CRITICAL THINKING
Unit1+Unit2
Inspiration
I was inspired by the announcement of the anti-abortion bill in the US and I was shocked by the squeeze on women's rights by religious and other social pressures, with women unable to control their bodies by their own choice.
It made me think deeply about women's freedom to have abortions in the Chinese context. So I first looked up the definition of 'foetus' in Chinese, and it actually means that a woman conceives a weak flesh in a pleasurable situation. This made me realise that many people actually have abortions because they are not willing to conceive, and I wanted to give these groups a new way of looking at abortion.
Reasearch
After doing some initial research I started to form some basic ideas and visualise it. In this process I thought about the lack of subjectivity of the foetus in the womb and the fact that the mother's will is actually the most important, but wherever we are we are still lacking a full confrontation with the female will. The woman herself is functionalised. This made me want to focus more on the idea of the woman herself.
Also, at this point in the production I had a critical thought: if women choose to have abortions because of the traditional Chinese idea of the preference for sons, then is this within the scope of my discussion. After thinking about it, I thought that they would choose to do so because of their own future in a repressive patriarchal society. So in fact, my concern has always been with the disembodied plight of women in a patriarchal society.
Development
I used a paper notebook to record the shifts in my thinking throughout the process of making the project for easy review and reflection.
The initial idea was to choose between dynamic illustration, games and interactive installations.
After determining the form of the illustrations, I began to think about the thoughts and ideas that might be contained in my illustrations:
1. Children have no sense of self before they are born
2. Women have reproductive freedom
3. Lack of reproductive freedom for women under patriarchy
4. Some abortions in China stem from a preference for sons over daughters
5. The taboo of the topic
6. Impact of abortion on women in the marriage market
7. Abortion is an insult to women's personal value
8. Slut shaming
9. Happy deathday cake
Not all of them were applied to my future works, but they were the product of divergent thinking at this stage.
After identifying the topics for discussion and possible areas of divergence, I began to make further subdivisions for my illustrations. I divided it into six possible stages.
1. Conception that cannot be rejected (the egg cannot reject the sperm)
2. The taboo and shame of unwanted pregnancy (from the parents?)
3. Guilt and internal struggle within oneself
4. Reconciliation with oneself (child unconscious + getting support?)
5. Mastery of one's own body
6. Happy Deathday cake
Possible metaphorical objects extended by the themes of each phase：
1. Conception that can't be denied
"Unable to refuse" - the slide? Can't stop
2.(Outside) the sense of forbidden
Other people's gaze
Conservative views on sexuality?
3.(Internal) Sense of guilt
Scales?
Inner struggle
4. Reconciliation with self
Support from all sides?
Choosing a path for yourself
5. Take control of your body
The womb?
I took notes after the tutorial and kept thinking about how I could improve my ideas and opinions and learned a lot about the artists associated with the field.
Final Six Stages
1. when the sperm meets the egg, a woman's conception is uncontrolled and reproduction is a natural process that is irreversible.
2. When a woman becomes pregnant in unexpected circumstances, she must face the gossip and accusations of the outside world, which can be torturous for her.
3. The woman herself has very mixed emotions about the unwanted child, which in China carries extraordinary responsibilities and obligations.
4. the woman is wavering in her decision to finally have an abortion, which is a difficult process.
5. women are having abortions and gaining female power from them.
6. A mystery: a happy death-day cake that subverts abortion in the traditional sense.
Stage 1 Process
In stage 1, I originally drew and animated such an illustration. But then I decided that this form of animation was not what I wanted. I wanted the audience to be more involved, rather than having me control the direction of the camera as I do now.
At the same time, I wasn't happy with the presentation of the picture. As I wanted to paint in a metaphorical way, I chose to use this forced infusion from the mouth to show that the process of conception is uncontrolled, but the final image is presented as if abortifacients have been administered. The element of bondage itself is used to express the lack of autonomy of the woman in the process of conception, but in the picture, there is a kind of eroticisation, which I did not want. So I changed the form of representation and chose to show the process in a different way.
I decided to express the irreversibility of the physiological phenomenon of sperm-egg union in terms of the fragility of the foam.
After some revisions, I finished the illustration.
In order to present a more complete effect in the ar effect, I needed to complete the content that had been cut in the original frame.
The effect that appears after scanning the corresponding QR code.
Stage 2 Process
Stage 2 was actually the earliest work I produced. This work has caused controversy, some would argue that it has a BDSM bent or that it creates some erotic innuendo. I think this is what the female nudity shows, but the female nudity in this image is also part of the point I want to make. I think the situation of the woman when she is being watched in the Chinese context is very naked, so I think it is difficult to remove this part. However, in order to prevent similar problems from happening again, I have taken extra care not to show sexual innuendo in the other images.
In this step I tried to use the GIF technique to make my images move, but I found that I couldn't add gifs to the ar site I was using, so I'm thinking of using unity in a future project to perhaps update my ar technique so that all future images can be rendered dynamic.
The effect that appears after scanning the corresponding QR code.
Stage 3 Process
The initial idea, at the outset, was to use neurons to represent the struggles and thoughts that are going on inside the brain. However, the subject matter is too small to highlight the theme and there is too much spectatorship and not enough engagement.
Further drafts add to the complex connection between infant and female.
During the process of drawing this image, I kept making colour adjustments to maintain a sense of balance throughout the collection, I wanted to be able to have the character of each one, but also to maintain the overall sense of the collection. This difficulty increased as the series of drawings became more varied, and I tried to adjust this to create a mutual echo for my colours and images.
After the modifications a more satisfactory colour result was achieved.
The effect that appears after scanning the corresponding QR code.
Tutorial notes
I tried to present my work in a vr format. I wanted the viewer to walk inside a narrow passage and need to look up to see my three-dimensional illustrations, while they could use the handles to leave their own comments on the surrounding walls. Once they have navigated one stage, they can move on to the next by opening a virtual door in the vr. Also in real life, when the viewer steps forward to the next stage, they feel the touch of a real object that corresponds to the image (e.g. a feather curtain).
After discussing with James, he gave me some new questions which made me realise that there were more aspects to consider in the implementation of this project.
In addition to this I think you will need to consider some of the following...
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How do you plan to exhibit / display the headset / work in the space?
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Can you source a VR headset in time for the show?
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Do you already own a VR headset and are you willing to use this in the show?
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Are you using controllers?
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have you thought about security for the headset?
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have you considered Covid or general hygiene for the installation of the headset?
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How will you cable manage the headset or attached PC/Mac
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How will you attach power supplies to the work and how will this look?
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Are you using a PC or Mac in the space to power the work?
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Will you conceal the attached PC/Mac?
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How will you secure the attached PC/Mac
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have you considered whether the content of the work is looping or is non-linear?
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what do you want the audience to see when they put on the headset?
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can the audience interact with the VR work?
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Would there be a monitor attached to show others what can be seen inside the headset?
So I opted for a more practical ar presentation for the upcoming POP art show.
The First
Pop Arts Show
The first time I ran a show I discovered a few things.
1. the internet was too important for my project and the location of my future exhibition needed to have a very good wi-fi signal. Everyone's patience is limited and if people don't see the results after 15 seconds of scanning my QR code, they will leave. 2.
2. the audience needs more guidance on how to use the AR technology to view my work, how should this guidance be designed?
3. my project should have been warned of the sensitive content that was about to appear before entering, but I didn't do a good job of that in this exhibition.
Stage 4 Process
From the beginning of the fourth stage I drew an analogy between the volatility of the female choice and the subtle tremor of the eyelashes, but the initial composition did not satisfy me, I felt it lacked impact and fragmented the image too much.
After the first draft I pulled the camera back and added a maze in the bottom left corner, trying to show the difficulty of the women's choices in this way. However, the subsequent effect seemed to be ambiguous and the addition of the maze reduced the sense of oscillation in the choices.
So there is this new draft, where I have changed the image to a front view, enhancing the visual impact through an almost symmetrical composition. At the same time the winding road in the centre of the image emphasises what I want the viewer to focus on at this stage.
After the modifications a more satisfactory colour result was achieved.
In order to present a more complete effect in the ar effect, I needed to complete the content that had been cut in the original frame.
The effect that appears after scanning the corresponding QR code.
Stage 5 Process
After Stage 5 was set to feature the abortion process, I was thinking about how to show the inevitable gory scenes of the procedure within the right context. In the end, I decided to refer to the images of magical girls transforming in Japanese anime.
But after actually drawing it I found that the image would look empty and the broken umbilical cord behind it would cut the image very fragmented.
So I redrew the sketch, this time referencing the fusiform glow from Stage 4 to make the subject stand out more and echo Stage 4. I also tried to remove the umbilical cord.
After the colouring I changed the original red umbilical cord to gold, echoing the spindle-shaped glow behind it. On the one hand, because the umbilical cord is the same body organ as the female genitalia, on the other hand, it weakens the presence of the umbilical cord and further directs the eye to the centre of the image.
An overall adjustment was made to the image. The colour of the blood underneath the body was changed to bring the image more into focus on the upper part.
The effect that appears after scanning the corresponding QR code.
Stage 6 Process
In the early stages of my conception, I wanted to refer to the concept of parallel universes, creating pairs of souls of babies with different professions, metaphorically speaking, with multiple futures for babies. But then I felt that this might confuse the theme.
It was gradually changed to the current composition, but at the time it was still debating whether to celebrate in a room or in an imaginary ocean, so you can see that I drew some water ripples underneath the feet.
The initial colour sketches are used to set the tone, but I will make repeated adjustments during the process to ensure a sense of collection and uniformity.
As many of the previous stages I had presented in an abstract form, I chose to present my subject in a more realistic form in the final one, so I finally chose to set the scene in a real room, allowing the whole project to make the transition from abstract to figurative.
During the painting process I continued to refine the details, modify the layers and adjust the colour tendencies to finalise the series.
For this last one I have paired it with a chant of Happy Deathday song, and the above is the result of the ar-technology rendering.
Critic Before
The Second
Pop Arts Show
1. Music? (now solved)
I will add corresponding music in according to the different stages to make my audience feel more immersive.
2. The difference between the screen before and after the sweep? Something hiding?
The ar production site I'm using now doesn't allow me to add animations with transparent backgrounds, I'm thinking of remastering my work using unity. At that stage, maybe I'll add some animations to achieve a better visual effect.
3. Animations?
I'm considering whether to add a completely different visual format. What I would prefer is to combine animation with the ar technology I already have, as I mentioned before.
4. Why ar?
I think having the audience use their own phones to interact with my images is an important part of electronic empathy, so I think ar technology will help my work to better empathise with the audience.
5. Don't see all the illustrations at once, one after the other (solved)
I will rethink the way I present my work so that the viewer can navigate in order without seeing the mystery directly.
6. Need to scan the code six times and load it six times, can I reduce the number of times? (Solved)
I have created a page to collect all the different URLs and the viewer now only has to scan the code once (to get to the page).
7. Scan the physical object?
In my previous discussion with James, I discussed that I wanted to use different materials for the exploration of women's topics, such as inflatable dolls or clay etc. So if I add this format to my work in the future, I might add the ar program for scanning physical objects to my project as well.
8. Using the wall as part of the work?
As I would like the viewer not to see all the illustrations at once, I may not rely on the wall to develop the further presentation.
9. Different materials?
I think it's worth trying, I will try to print the paintings on different materials to observe the effect while using my mobile phone to check if the ar technique is still possible.
10. VR?
We have explored this topic before. I think at this stage using vr technology needs to take into account more micro business and safety aspects, so I think ar technology is more suitable.
The Second
Pop Arts Show
This exhibition is the first time that I have presented a complete series of works to the public and I am very much looking forward to the experience of the audience. I have found the following points to note about this exhibition.
1. Different QR codes corresponded to different paintings, but there were instances where some visitors used the same QR code to scan all the paintings
2. There were too many QR codes, which made it necessary to scan them repeatedly.
3. Due to the constraints of the exhibition space, the way the images were presented made it impossible for visitors to see the progression between the different paintings.
4. It was again clear that my work needed good internet and lighting conditions.
The impact
of the work
⬆️My work was posted on Instagram by viewers.
⬅️A BA student came to me and asked if she could do research on my work.
Next move
Configure the six illustrations with different sounds.
1. Sound of bubbles breaking, the sound of blocks collapsing
2. Sound of a crowd talking, sound of a fire burning
3. The sound of talking to oneself
4. The sound of footsteps, the sound of a signal light dripping
5. Sound of blood? The sound of flapping wings, the wind
6. The sound of singing
After a discussion with Max, it was decided that future projects would be in one of two directions.
1. same theme, different presentation.
2. different themes, same presentation.
I personally prefer the latter.
Public Exhibition
Consider presenting a new approach to the exhibition in 7.4.
Preparation required:
1. 6*a2 size premium printing paper, booked the Digital Media Studio in advance for printing.
2. 6* wood/Alex board. Use to stick the print paper on to ensure the picture is flat.
3. Hanging fishing line/other thread. Make sure it is secure.
4. find a venue that is spacious enough and has enough light.