Looking for inspiration...

Artist: Xiaogang Zhang (1958-)
Medium: Painting
About the artist: Classified as a contemporary Chinese symbolist and surrealist painter. Best known for his Bloodline series of paintings, which are often monochromatic, stylized portraits of Chinese people, usually with large, dark-pupiled eyes, posed in a stiff manner deliberately reminiscent of family portraits from the 1950s and 60s.

above: on show in Art Gallery of NSW (2006)

above:A Big Family ,1995
Oil on canvas
179 x 229 cm

The artist is using a more classic art medium-oil paiting. But what i see as valuable in his works is the emotions expressed, which is subtle but at the same time very impactive. He has his consistent style: monochromatic tones, the 'bloodline' (the stains), large dark pupiled eyes on the characters. Not being the artist himself, it can be hard for the viewers to tell what specific emotions he was implying. However, both the visual and emotional impact are quite strong.

WHAT INSPIRATION?

a quite direct appropriation from the artist
the blood stain and tears can come out by animation, so the image gradually changes, the emotions become stronger...

New Homepage Idea

A girl sitting by the window
(Rendered sketch or digital photo collage)
Grayscale + highlight of red (pink)

As mouse cursor moves around, you start to realise the girl is in a ‘scene’,
where there are also views (surrealistic) outside the window, objects hung on the wall [animation], photo frames, etc. not too complicated, but provides possibilities for links to other pages. These elements appear and disappear as the mouse cursor moves onto/away from them.
Something as ordinary as a room interior (though with surreal elements) is to enable the webpage a ‘layout’/ a page to start with,
So that the viewer is to start a virtual journey with the girl (who is looking out of the window, with uncertain identity, seemingly in deep thinking) of exploring her identity (By generalisation, female identity)
As the journey goes on, the organisation of elements on the page is likely to become more abstract, and the idea within the pages will be more related to sensational feelings, psychological world, where the response to these pages are not meant to be utterable, however to be impactive (if they achieves the effect I imagined)

Some good graphics

letters and shadows

letters and ink (sepia)

washing off the letters, nice thinking!

'fxxx proper typograpgy it is bullshit' (...well, i'm only neutral)

simple & effective masking

cool 3D

Research: Female image in photography

These photographs (found on the internet) are all quite sensual in various ways, expressing more about emotions than just the figure/portrait, in terms of the female identity. Below,I gave every one of them a narrative from my own perception.

• 'the heart on the rail track'
  emotions expressed: lost, confused, heartbroken...

• 'dancing with herself',
  expression of the 'self', embracing a 'new life'
  
  
• 'the game of choices'
  no matter what you choose, it turns out to be a game; even if it is a game, you have to make a choice... over and over again. (specifically about choices the female has to make?)

• 'the broken tape'
  why is the memory so painful? why getting rid of it is even worse?
  vulnerablity of femininity

• this one feels different from the above ones,
  like...a hybrid state of femininity? one is the expression of femininity, the other is a de-construction of femininity,at least seems to be so for me.
  

• a girl in white dress, sitting one the spiral staircase, with bare feet, and in sorrow.
  White hints the notion of 'purism', which is some times an interpretation of femininity. and bare feet? especially with the presence of her shoes. Her posture suggests a state of vulnerablity.

• 'the grasp'
  the desperate wanting hand, to grasp, yet perhaps getting nothing.
  seems she doesn't want me (the viewer), what she wants? makes people wonder. and the constrast of focus and blur works very well in this photograph. there is no emphasis on the individual identity other than the female identity.

• a girl with daisy
  the only portrait which sees the face clearly, however, somehow is also the weakest in the expression of emotions. Her eyes tells most of the story, where there is confusion, but also hope and aspiration.

Concept Articulation

As an attempt to articulate the ideas, yet perhaps still in bits and pieces...

Theme: Identity
-a virtual identity which solidifies and fades away from time to time by going through the site
Subject Matter: Female portraits (or transformative of that, or expanded...)
Visual ideas: the confusion of identities via the visual confrontation of female portraits Random portraits found online, yet (surprisingly or not) each pair shares common characters ...if this is to be used well, that 'confusion' and obsession will be achieved visually.

Narrative: (if to have a story line?) a solo journey of that 'someone', speaking in simple words (text & soundtrack), or answering the everlasting question: Who are you? who are you? who are you...... This is a quick PS combined image...to give an idea of the 'searching for identity'...which can be animated with simple Flash (in this case, it is no longer portraits)

or something like this... (stupid?)

Structure: preferably 'organic', or at least appear to be organic, in terms of the juxtaposition of different pages.
For example:

Wk 05 Class exercise & Other websites

Class exercise:
Before...

After...

Some examples of webpages:

http://www.cpeople.ru/

‘Creative People’-homepage

'Fudge'
http://madebyfudge.com/#2

Feature a Photoshop desktop background for whole website

Post 3: Critique of a website in terms of Web Art/Design (UPDATED)

Topic:
Each student is to present a site / (v)blog or some other online experiment that engages them – as an example of an art form or design - how it contributes to the development of the internet and identifying possibilities for contemporary art/design practice. This will followed up by a critique of 700-800 words due next week – posted on blog. You will need to consider:
a. whether it falls into design and/or art (and why);
b. how it relates to other art/design forms on the web.;
c. how it may reflect in content or style your final project.

Website I found:
Erwin Olaf: works by the artist
http://www.erwinolaf.com/

Interesting & sarcastic homepage to start with,subtitles:first image: I WISH____middle image: I AM____right image:I WILL BEThe overall style of the website is concise & effetive, with good visual impact.

Question a:
It does fall into art /design. and because it is primarily a online gallery of the artist's work, it is more of an form of art.

Question b:
Compared with personal blogs, this website is more about the constructed identities online, especially seen from the Self-portraits series from the artist. So it is 'constructed' instead of being straightforward or personal. However, there are also other photographic works that shows more besides the artisit himself. Different from showbox websites, this one is far less commercial and has strong visual and emotional impact on the viewer.

Question c:
This website definitely has the potentiality to influence my final project. As been said above, it is related to online identites mostly in the medium of photography (digitally processed). Even if the art medium is going to be different. The idea is similar (see to Post 1) .

Critique:
The content of the website is brilliant and intriguing. However, in terms of webpage design, what i envision is something more robust and vigorous. Instead of being a 'gallery' /display of artworks, the whole website could have been a piece of art work, which in itself touches people.

[Response to Feedback-please see to comment 3; Comment 3 is part of this Post]

Retrospective: Visual Idiocity

on 12-8-09
I always knew it, today I just got it confirmed: For the gigantic fact that we've been trained day and night 'architectually' for 3 years (emphasising 'day and night'), we are still visual idiots!
I am not ashamed of admitting that though. There are different levels of visual sensibility. Presumably, architecture is dealing with 3D, which is spatially superior than 2D (or Graphic Design). However, when it comes 'down' to 2D, the fact is NOT that I can handle it skillfully, but rather, i had the feeling of having wasted all the years learning nothing in terms of the ability to produce a visually effective graphic design.
I remember the experience of struggling in the process of visual design: I foresee the possibility of myself getting it done (had a glimpse of light), but then got lost halfway, and ended up producing some mundane version of cliche. Question: Is it time for me to get over this?

Weakness(lacking...): Technical skills, aesthetics, design sensibility...

Post 1: Exploring "Identity"

What is IDENTITY? It could be interpreted in many different ways. Identity tells you who someone is. But that is what we all know and are very accustomed to. Would it be more interesting if someone’s interpretation/ presentation/ performance of identity makes you wonder who he/she is? Factually, many artists (esp. Post-modern artists) have done similar things in their artworks. Some of the expressions are quite strong and intriguing. They are not always pleasant, but most of the times “attack” people’s feelings and their way of seeing things.

There are some artists I think to be most relevant in terms of my understanding of "identity":

-Cindy Sherman (U.S.)

-Yasumasa Morimura (Japan)

The Start

A brand new START isn't a solution at all. Nonsense does make sense as good as good sense.

I always believe the VISUAL matters more (is more expressive) than the verbal; but how? Let's find out! That would be the first thing I am keen to learn and explore.