project #5 [aka] project #4, take 2.

Going everywhere without actually going anywhere, take 2.




Throughout the assignments I did, I felt like I was slowly branching off into different directions, unsure of what content I wanted my blog to house. From the beginning when creating my blog I intended to play with all the different types of geometry in our world. When I realized it would be difficult to capture this in photographs, I was forced to branch out into another area. With the photography project, I touched on the idea of a destination, and the journey one undergoes in hopes of reaching that destination- whether it is walking from class to class or an object being manufactured, used, and finally disposed of. The organization of traffic is everywhere- in both reality and cyberspace. I played with the idea of internet traffic in the organization of my photographs in my blog. In reality, lanes on the road restrict the traffic of cars. Hallways, stairways, and sidewalks restrict the traffic of humans. In reality, in order for us to get from point A to point B, we must make decisions as to which direction to go, where to turn, to get to their destination. In the online world, it is links that restrict the traffic of the clicker. In playing with this, I created a series of links and the user must choose the correct pathway of links in order for them to reach their destination: my photographs. During critique, someone mentioned that my photographs, although lacked physical human bodies, had suggestions of human life- for example, a door that is half ajar. I found this quite interesting and decided to extend my idea of destination and traffic, and its impact on human emotions in video form for project 3.

I think that the climax of my collection of works from this semester was my project from assignment 4. I feel like the ideas in my other pieces were ideas that have already been done before and were not original. Surely themes of technology advancements are frequent in time-based media work. The article entitled “The Paradoxes of Digital Photography” by Lev Manovich really inspired me to continue pursing my theme of technology even in times when I became doubtful of its originality. In project 4 I was able to develop a theme that seemed to be my own: the idea of going somewhere without actually going anywhere.. and when you do go somewhere, you end up back at the same place anyways- your bed. I quickly re-enacted my typical day in my bed.

In project 5, I wanted to explore many things. Part of me wanted to branch off into something new that I have not tried. Another part of me wanted to further push the idea of going somewhere, without physically traveling there to see where else I can take that theme. I naturally went back to the online world- with the ease of modern technology we can now shop, watch movies, communicate with friends, and even witness other parts of the world. I also went back to my original theme of links being used as travelling lanes.

Overall, I think my last project thematically is successful in bringing everything back to my original themes. Before, I was unsure about where I wanted the final end result to be, but I’m glad I was able to bring it back to sub-themes already present in my previous projects. I’m glad I was able to push my favourite theme a little further, into a new perspective.

[Reference sources]
Lev Manovich's "The Paradoxes of Digital Photography

Project #3

[Disintegration]

For this video assignment, I aimed to re-enact the link between human emotion and the repetitive process of traffic.

In this piece, there is a time lapse of a car driving down a highway, a hamster running on a wheel, and a girl; all these aspects slowly disintegrates to the music as the video progresses. The head figure symbolizes the deterioration of emotion, and energy of the human as the car repetitively speeds further and further down the highway. I chose to include the hamster character endlessly running on a wheel to help further emphasize the repetitive and draining process of driving, and traveling in general- no matter how long the hamster runs, he gets nowhere.

This piece differs from my previous projects on this blog as it connects directly with the presence of human emotion whereas, in my photographs there were only hints of human traces. I decided to chose this particular song because it has a strong rhythm that grows and progresses well with my narrative.

[Project 002] Digital Photo. (Organization of Traffic)

001. For [Photography] click here.

Maybe disorder can be okay..

After looking at the streets of New York in my first blog post, I was reminded of a family vacation in Vietnam a few summers ago. In Vietnam, my parents taught me the art of street crossing.

In Vietnam, the streets is an endless river of motorcycles, vans, cars, and scooters. There are no lanes. Pedestrian crossing and traffic lights are a rare sight- if you want to cross the street, you just have to close your eyes, walk, and hope for your life you don't get hit. When you do cross, it's quite amazing, traffic just happens to magically move around you. :P



Some images comparing and contrasting the organization of traffic from two different sides of the world:

organized, simplistic [VS] disorder, confusion

... where would YOU choose to shop?

Piet Mondrian painted this piece entitled "Broadway Boogie Woogie" (left) representing the restless motion of the citylife.

It's interesting the way he decides to boldly represent the city with strict grid-like horizontal and diagonal lines.

After viewing a map of New York City (right), the viewer can see why Mondrian decided to represent the city in the way he did; streets criss-cross in a never ending fashion.

Why are the streets of New York created this way? Space efficiency?
...To be able to drive down the street and predict that the next intersection is exactly 400 meters away from this intersection?
.. and that the intersection after that is exactly 400 meters away?
... and that the intersection after that is exactly 400 meters away?