User:Stonestone/RWRM-08
1
Interview 01
My thesis is about my work. I work with still and moving images. I will discuss the style and techniques I use and what motivates me to make work. I now make 3D images (using blender and [name other software]) and photography to make images of female bodies in soft, bright colours. This process began with a series of works called ‘space out’, in which I aimed to make people feel more relaxed. I became interested in how my art could change the way people feel. As part of this process I researched the Gysin, Burroughs Dreammachine. I will also discuss my current project [bonsai] in relation to previous work and to work by others that has influenced me. I use Photos and 3d images to create space out feelings.
Q:When did you start work on 3d images and photography which creat space out feelings? A:I started since the end of 2015. I took photos of a girl in a photo studio when I was traveling back to Beijing. My photos and 3d works are mainly in pasty soft colors. I started from taking photos with this style, then I also brought it to my 3d Works. For me these kinds of colors can make ppl feel soft and melt inside, they are not very dramatic will never give ppl strong 'shock'. I don't like that. The communication between me and my audience should be gentle, gentle also can be powerful in someways. For example, this is a photo I took by accident, I was trying the lights which were orange and pink. Turned out, it is quite pretty and peaceful, also interesting..
Q: Why interesting? A: In this picture, you don't know what she is doing [Steve:so the gesture is ambigueous huh?] Yes, also you can see the shape of the girl and see the colorful shadows on her body.
Q: Is it on screen or ? A: They are printed. I printed them out and had an small exhibition along with some of my similar 3d prints at Stroop Rotterdam during December 2016. It was a really small one but it was my first solo exhibition, my friend Funda gave me this chance to show my work. I got some good feedback. Basicly, most of the people just told me they liked the colors, that's already good to hear.
Q: How big are they? A: They are in different sizes, mostly A3.
Q: Did you also tried different format? A: No I didn't do that. I only printed them out. Prints are mostly more lively than all the other formats for images. I printed out my works(photo and 3d) Life is on print, not on screen. Print gives works life. For these works I wanted to creat the sense of plastic, so I used gloss photo paper, to make them shinney and more plastic.
Q: What software I use to creat figues? (software question) A: Makehuman software for generating human body and Manuelbastioni Lab which is a plugin of Blender by Makehuman, which makes my workflow became faster when I only need simple pose and details of human.
Q:Do you think it is not important that the figue is not particular people? A: I just want the feeling of the human not a specific human, just a concept of a human. I also did that in my photo work, I took photos with asian girls but basicly I don't want them to be recognizable. Those bodies are more presenting the bodies not themselves as the specific person. Th
Q: How did you built the evernment(3d) and what did you want it to be like? A: I built them in different ways, and always put the everinment in the last few steps of the images. For example my first few 3d work touchless, when I was done posing I started thinking why they have troubles of touching each other or why they are trying to touch each other. Although it is not a fictional project, I want to put them in an interesting and probably narrative space. One of my works in Touchless, there are 2 people, one is inside the other one is outside. One person tying to catch the other person by making its hand going through a window, the other person also trying to hold the hand, but under the window there is a whole. The space is totally chaotic and dangerous , I am trying to mess up with people, and expressing the feeling of touchless or let's say a bit hopeless.
Q:More about Touchless A: Touchless is my first 3d project. I started it in May 2016. Through this work I want to show a status of the moment before two people touching each other.I used transparent texture on human bodies and an ambigueous space to create the feeling of void and a bit danger.
Q: this is the idea of ppl can't touch or connect, and also the sense of ppl disappearing either because they are all the same color, they are transparent, that's the idea of noise will take over, visual noise.that's like all the information, all the noise is going on. So if you think about it, at one point we want to make ourselves distinct from the noise , i am here, I am not easy, on the other side, we want to give up the noise, give ourselves over to the noise so with the flikr machine, you give yourself over to the noise. Is that the SpaceOut is. A: It is so weird that two extrme things can bring similiar fact. In Buddhism, they say :"The form is nonexistence, and nonexistence is the form." （色即是空，空即是色）. I guess that is it.
Q: You are telling that people are losing touch, tell me about that. A: I grew up in a kind of special time of China Beijing. All the "good" things suddenly rush into our life. People start catching all the trends and are afraid of being out of time. There are way more IT companies, more people using Iphones, people are always on their phones because news are in there, friends, food ,music, cleaner, massager are all in the small things. We are connected physically, disconnected mentally, but we are human, shouldn't we have more connections? It happens in some big cities of China. People get more lonely by communicating with people by click a useless heart. Also I thought maybe because of that asian people get to know west world more than west world knows us. But basicly people doesn't care about what is happening in this world. People care about what they are familiar with, and don't want to explore the world more.
Q: The work that you make is kind of paradox, very technilogical. you use a lot of softwares , the photos maybe the base of it. It is automaticly a bit critical of technology, the problem of the technology. This would be a great dream isn't it, that knowlege distribute evenly accross the planet, ppl actually believe this. You are using technology, why you are talking about technology? A:Everything has its two sides, depense on how you use it. For me software is the tool for me to communicate with the world, the others hear from me through the images I made in software, they receive them through their screens. I love technology, it is so great that we are becoming more and more advanced. It is really hard to say how the caveman will react if he can see this current world. The fact I don't like is actually people don't know how to use them, as a result people are the ones being used by them.
Q:Different between NL and Beijing. A:I think NL or Europe is way better than Beijing from my perspective as an artist or just for myself. I actually started doing my art project after I got here. In here, art seems like a normal thing, which is a part of people's life, and people can accept more ideas even though they might not like them. When I was in Beijing, I got presure from life a lot, everything was around making money, I never thought about doing something to make myself happy because I thought (just like most of the people), money can bring me all the things I want. My mind now is going 'crazier and crazier' and I can't stop learning new things. It is something I never have had before. I feel like I am making things which have been in my mind for a long time but I did not see it, now they are keeping coming out.
Q: Do you think the ppl in your 3d images want to stay there or come out (if you are the person what's your choice)
A: I want to come out. It is a really bad world, no inside no outside, you can't touch although it seems like you might can touch. It is too bad.
I have been watching West World, Meave the smartest first woken-up host wants to go out of the world. She is just a robot, have been living in some narrative loops for her whole "life", knows nothing about world outside. Even though, when she finds out her life is just pieces of scripts, she wants to leave, she needs something real.
There is always the spirit of finding the truth in all kinds of life forms, not only human ,maybe also a little flower.
I saw a youtube show about a man locked himself in a purely white little space for 3 days, he went a bit crazy in the end. He told audience that not talking to people doesn't make him go crazy, it is there is no reaction no feedback from people makes him crazy.
The touch or let's say the original simple way of communication by which you can really got feed back from people, maybe just a touch, maybe a nod, maybe a little smile you get from each other , is the thing makes people not being alone.