User:Stonestone/RWRM-07

iasnoB namuH 栽盆形人 : lasoporP tcejorP

7 December 2016

Introduction

Bonsai

Bonsai (tray planting）is a Japanese art form using trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of Penjing(盆景) from which the art originated, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese. The Japanese tradition dates back over a thousand years.
Bonsai, as a deformed plant, the way it looks is based on the aesthetic of its makers. The meaning of its natural life is no longer existing. With the development of aesthetic, technique, culture etc., the looks of Bonsai have been changing diversely, the types of Bonsai are also becoming more and more.

Somehow, the Thing is more like a bonsai less like a tree.

Human

Bonsai makes me think of ourselves. Because of all the the development of human society, we have been being deformed and changed into human who are fit for the current world. From nude to dressed-up, from writing letters to send sms, from pen to keyboard etc. . There are so many "powers" which make us walk into tomorrow from yesterday, make us keep updating the way we talk, the thing we do, the feeling we feel, the dreams we dream, the way we see ourselves.
Therefore, I would like to make this project which speaks to how society changes people and how external powers influence the subject, which can be matched with how people influence bonsai.

Powers

Here is the list of powers which make human current human that I would like to apply in my work:

• Technology (internet, electronic devices)
• Pop Cultures
• Popular Aesthetic（fashion）
• Media Orientation
• Success
• Consumption
• Emotional Demand
• Communication
• Stereotype
• others...

Project

The work will be a series of images and animations of bonsai trees which use the human body as a plan and uses 3D images as a background. So there will be photos and a video, I am also thinking to make a photobook as a side product or a close-up of this project.It relates to my culture (China) combines my interest in photography and video.

Overview

I always want to create works with the feeling of soft, a bit "voidy" and also ridiculous(a bit black humor behind) at the same time. This work will also follow this rules. Besides, it will follow three formal tracks which I have worked on in my old works(more details below).
(a) Color:
(b) Human figuration:
(c) The manipulation of form:

Photos

Each photo will show one type of human bonsai based on existing classic Bonsai type ((add foto) ). In the photos, models will be deformed as a bonsai with different features based on specific powers. For each power I would like to make 3 / 4 different ones. The background will be a vogue and virtrual space.

Videos

Video work will be matched to photos, one by one, showing the details (close up) of human bonsai with 2d/3d motion graphics showing the growth of "vines", movement of "leaves". I have some ideas of voice-over for this video, but still not sure which is the best way to do it, I guess I will try all of them and choose one on post-production stage. The options are:
(a) Human Bonsais tell fictional stories related to themselves (as bonsai);
(b) Tell a fictional story from a bystander's perspective;
(c) Human Bonsais hum a song.
For now, I prefer (c) which (I think) could create more ridiculousness which fits for the atomasphere of the work.

Photobook

Plan

Timeline

112016 - 022017 : Technique Researching / Sample Making / Problem Solving.
032017 : Pre-production, including photographing, filming, and 3D scan if needed.
042017 : First Post-production and fixing. (find problems, add details, re-shoot, re-edit...)
052017 : Second Post-production, "Debugging" and Perfecting. (More detail fixing works)
062017 : Third Post-production including pushing Online, print, prepare projection.

Pre-production

Subject:
Camera (mine) / Color Filters (mine) / Softboxes (3 or 4) / Sound Recorder (wdka) / rig (?) / things for shooting

Post-production

• Mocap
• 3d Scan
• 2D/3D Animation

Setup

Series of prints on one wall will be framed and one projection on another wall; there will be a bonsai in between them.

Involved People

Teachers

Teachers from Piet Zwart, teachers from AV station, teachers from Interaction Station will / are giving me all kinds of helps on technique and developing the idea.

Helpers

Funda B.R : Ceramist, illustrator. She can help me with making tray and pot.
Adam P : 3D artist who keeps giving me advice and ideas on software and technique.
Xiaotong Gong : Motion graphic designer, illustrator. She can help me with 2D animation (design/draw/animate).
Fencha : New media artist who can give me advice on music and exhibition build-up.

Models

There will be friends and classmates, will also be some other people with different features, for instance: different skin colors, hair styles, and body shapes etc. .

Related Previous Works

The Bonsai piece is a development of the previous projects, for instance in my work for example 'touchless'which is a series of transparent people that try to touch each other.

It is as if people are starting to make a virtual world for themselves (se); I used a lot of soft gradient colours, which reflects societies impression of what girls should look like. There is an issue of power here, society dictates how people should be: Chinese people, like myself, should behave in a particular way; Germans should be serious Ect. This means, ultimately, that diversity of society will be reduced by these stereotyped impressions.
Dream machine: sometime people want to get out of their bodies and have more intese experience, abnormal experience. last year worked on a project called Space Out, which investigated such technologies of self. I became interested in Burrough's Gysin Dream Machine, research on how Dreamachine influence on people's minds, and as an important reference , how to apply the principle of the producing of mental illusion and Space-out experience caused by Dreamachine on my project Nosebleed. Nosebleed is a video work which shows the views that people might see when they get nosebleed suddenly (skies and the top part of the building) when they are walking on the street. In order to bring the space-out feeling for the people who might see the work, the most efficient way is to create alpha wave as a key to bring people the similar experience of Flicker and Dreamachine in it with the strobe effects like Dreamachine.

http://vimeo.com/165968701

Relation to a Larger Context

• Place holder*

Meaning practices or ideas that go beyond the scope of your personal work. Write briefly about other projects or theoretical material which share an affinity with your project. For example, if you are researching urban interventions, you might want to research about Situationist approaches to psychogeography, urban tactical media and activist strategies of reclaiming the streets. Or, if you want to explore the way data is tracked, you might touch upon the politics of data mining by referencing concerns laid out by the Electronic Frontier or highlight theoretical questions raised by Wendy Chun or others. (Keep in mind that we are *not* expecting well formulated conclusions or persuasive arguments in the proposal phase. At this juncture, it's simply about showing an awareness of a broader context, which you will later build upon as your research progresses.)

Bibliography

+++