Concert Hall Light

This is a screenshot I took when I was watching a concert on YouTube. I immediately paused the video to take a screenshot. In this picture I can see the blue vertical lights and the yellow circle lines at the bottom. It gives me the feel of seeing a fire and rain in one picture. The vertical blue lights move up and down giving you the illusion of falling rain at least from my perspective. I think this would make a really cool art installation. I wonder if I can make something like this in a painting.

Seeing Things Through a Water Bottle

I was on my way to the nearest hawker from where I live and I took my water bottle. I put it in front of my eyes then I took a picture and this was it. The background was a pretty dark street and streetlight in the background. To me, it looks like a corridor of a convention hall where you would usually find the lift. I think if I have more time walking around the city I would find a lot of cool stuff that I can snap through a normal water bottle. I wonder if I can make an entire exhibition and people have to see everything through a curved plastic bottle or a distorted curved plastic cover.

Edward de Bono Video Response

Where does creativity come from? According to Edward's video, creativity is not natural talent. Some people may seem better at generating new ideas and it can make you feel like you are not a creative person. The truth is, that person might have trained his creativity skill a lot more that you do. Creativity is a skill which everyone can learn. It is true that some people might be better than others just like everyone can play tennis and some people are better at skiing. 

How to train lateral thinking:

-Challenging existing concept or idea

-Extraction - is where we find the concept and new ways out of it.

-Provocation - we set up a provocation and we move forward from that to a new idea

-Random entry where we enter different point

You can learn lateral thinking and the more you practice your lateral thinking skill, the better you are at it. Rather than waiting for someone to come up with an idea, you can generate some new ideas.

Amy Tan Video Response

By far, this is one of the most interesting talks on TED that I've ever watched on YouTube. She talks about how everything happens for a reason. She also involved supernatural things in her talk which is very unusual for a normal creative process. I managed to write down a couple of things from her talk:

-When you are faced with the idea or prospect of death very soon, you begin to think very much    about everything.

-What you are going to find is what matters.

-If you try too hard to think what is the story about, then you will only write about that.

-We are all concerned with the things that we see in the world than what we are aware of.

-Sometimes you can feel that the universe is helping you like it’s giving you hints and clues but you    are not quite sure about it.

-Sometimes you are equipped with skill but they may not be the kind of skills that enable creativity.

Kaws

This sculpture is called Kaws. These sculptures are very versatile. They can be made into other popular characters such as The Pinnochio and Bibendum or the Michelin Man. I see it as a very contemporary piece of art and I think if the artist would let other artists use his design, people would come up with crazy designs. I wonder if you can put one in very unusual places like at the traditional market just to confuse people. It would be a very cool experiment.

Accordion Paper Sculpture

This is a paper sculpture made by Li Hongbo. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a normal stone sculpture. But then someone with white glove started to lift it up and then it looks like that thing in the picture. I think this is a very brilliant idea and very well executed. I wonder if you can make something similar to this but with an actual building where the building can be stretched out without compromising the strength of the building.

Connectome

Connectome is a neural connection map of the human brain. To be honest, I had no idea what that thing is the first time I saw it. But with a little bit of research, now I know that it's something very interesting. It looks like a flower bouquet. I think if we use the same technology to create the map to create the same thing with the human nervous system would result in a unique artwork. I wonder if we can 3D print this map and put it in a museum.

Europa

This is Europa. It's one of Jupiter's moons and to me, it looks like a very dirty stripey eyeball and I like it a lot. The colour of it reminds me of the outer space and its surface looks very abstract. I like abstract looking things and this is probably one of my favourites. Because it is made out of ice, I can imagine standing on this moon and looking into the horizon and all I can see is these deep brown canyons and white mountains.

Black Hole Event Horizon

This is a picture of a black hole. Most people see it just like a normal black  hole picture. This picture is taken from the movie Interstellar because this movie introduced a different way of seeing a black hole. The yellow part of it is called 'The Event Horizon' and it's basically just light trapped around the black hole. This is what excites me the most. I think the shape of it looks like something we would see in a modern art exhibition. And it looks like a gyroscope.

Nebula

This is a picture of a Nebula. I have always been fascinated by its presence and the first time I saw it, I was blown away by its colour and the abstract shape. Even the size of it is really big. So big, we need a couple of light years just to get from one end to the other. I think the colour of a nebula is affected by its compositions. I wonder if we can recreate a smaller scale of a Nebula here on earth. That would make a really nice piece of art.

Reflection on August 18th

On this day, I learned how to create questions for certain topics and I learned that the first questions are usually more predictable and very generic. My group and I were given a picture and it was a picture of an old Chinese painting and immediately my head is filled with questions regarding the picture. We had to write what we see in that picture and start questioning it. We also learned how to create a proper mind map. But the most fun thing about all these is that we got to work as a group.
We also learned the 10x2 technique. 10x2 is basically writing 10 things you see in a picture and write 2 questions for each points.

Reflection On July 28th

On this day, we got to do assignments in class using mahjong paper when in fact our group totally forgot about the mahjong paper. We were supposed to write things about artists or designers that break the rules. We stayed back after class and we did some research about those artists and I got to talk about Jeff Koons. I learned that artists can create incredible artworks if they are brave enough to break the rules and create something amazing out of it

 

Reflection on August 11th

We were told to write down our responses in three different categories: see, think, and wonder. We need to write what we see in the picture which is a picture of modernisation. The picture consists of an old building with a car passing by in front of it and a tall modern building right behind it. Because we worked as a group, we were able to gather quite a lot of ideas through a different point of views. Then we had to summarise those ideas. Overall a very fun class because we got to work as a group.

Reflection on August 4th Lesson

I learned how to make a mind map. The point of making a mind map is to write down ideas as much as possible. It does not matter wether it makes sense or not, wether it's possible to do or not, we need to write it down whatever it is. It’s better if we have different minds to work with because we can merge a lot of other ideas and create some new ideas out of it. And limiting our ideas is very important because it helps to focus on creating many solutions for only one thing. We talked about toilet paper and how we would utilise the toilet paper into something useful.

Butterfly Wing Scale

This is a picture of a butterfly wing under a microscope. We usually see butterfly wings just like every other objects. But we never notice something very complex and very detailed like this one actually exist. It looks like some kind of dried pasta with colours. I think if we do this to other small animals we might actually get similar results. I wonder if we can use 3D printer and make a larger scale of butterfly wings with the same detail as the one in this picture.

Kintsugi

Kintsugi is a way of repairing broken or cracked pottery. This repairing technique  was originated from Japan. The first time I saw this picture I was like "wow the design is very modern" but then I realized that this cup has been repaired with gold fillings. The repairer didn't try to hide all the cracks and imperfections. Instead, he tried to emphasize the crack by using gold thus creating something that is more beautiful than before. I wonder if I can do this not only to pottery but also other sculptures.

Julie Burstein Video Response

In this video, Julie Burstein talks about many things. She pointed out a lot of things and tells a lot of stories.
-She said that imperfection is what people cherish
-Creativity grows out of everyday experiences
-The best place to learn about anything is through stories and being open for that experience that might change you is the first thing that we need to embrace
-Artists also speak about how some of their most powerful work comes out of the parts of life that are most difficult

She also talks about pushing out limits. Like how pushing up against the limits of what we can do. Sometimes pushing into what they can't do helps them focus on finding their own voice.

In our most difficult time of our lives we tend to feel sad and stressed and feel like this is a dead end but she wants us to embrace it and make something beautiful out of that devastation. At the end of her speech, she said: "We all live in the cycle of creation and destruction, of control and letting go, of picking up the pieces and making something new." To me this is a very powerful quote by her and I find it very inspiring.

Elizabeth Gilbert Video Response

In this video by Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of best-selling book ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, she tells a lot of stories and philosophies. She pointed out quite a lot of points in the video but in a very indirect way. One of my favourites is people tends to be afraid that they will not be able to create something better than what they have created before just because their previous work was really good. They usually feel overshadowed by their great successes and have no idea on how to top that.  For short, people are afraid to make mistakes or they are afraid to leave their comfort zone. The thing is, we do what we need to do whatever the outcome is. According to her, one of the main factors that cause this problem is people are sometimes afraid of being humiliated by rejection. They are afraid that they will never be good enough for other people From this video, I can conclude that we must not be afraid or feel daunted by what other people says to you. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it whatever it might be. If your job is to draw, then do your drawing.

Steve Johnson Video Response

In this video, Steve pointed out many things about where do great ideas come from. He started the video with an example and ended it by talking about the first example. Those ideas include:

-Let the ideas merge/bond
-An idea is a network - a new idea is a new network of neurons firing in sync with each other inside your brain.
-Take your ideas from other people. We stitch those ideas together and create something new out of it.
-A lot of important ideas have very long incubation period
-Great ideas often fade into long periods of time
-To shorten the long hunch incubation period, we connect those hunches with other people’s hunches

In this video, he is also talking about incubators for baby and how they would work in South Africa but if we give them expensive equipment and not able to fix it, it will only last for a year or two and it will break . To me, it’s very similar to this Chinese proverb: “Give a poor man a fish and you feed him for a day. You teach him to fish and you give him an occupation that will feed him for a lifetime"

Ink and Water

This is a picture of ink underwater. The way the ink expands underwater fascinates me because I like abstract shaped object so much. In this particular picture, I can see a lot of people curling together. A lot of legs, arms are in this picture. The cool thing is, you can see different results depending on when you take or see the picture. The shape of this ink is very dramatic and it feels very alive. I wonder if I can do the same thing on paper.

Non-Newtonian Fluid and Speaker

A non-Newtonian fluid is a very strange yet cool type of liquid. I saw this fluid when I was watching some random Youtube videos. The first time I saw this thing, it’s like seeing a deformed creature rising from the depth of hell. I think just like the sky, you can get inspiration from this thing because of its abstract shape. It makes me wonder if I can control its shape and freeze in instantly. It would make a really cool sculpture.

Sky

The sky is something that we see every day. It's abstract shape is very unique to my eyes. I have seen the sky so many times and every time I see it, I can see so many different shapes. It got me thinking, a lot of people tend to ignore what they see every day. Because it’s always been there so people don’t always pay attention to it just like the sky. I wonder if I can actually create something out of all the shape it has. Some abstract painting would be cool too.

Leviathan

This is an artwork made by Damien Hirst called 'Leviathan'. This is not his first shark sculpture but this one is his biggest shark sculpture so far. The sculpture was made with real shark Hirst acquired at the London's National History Museum back in 2006 and finally finished the artwork in 2013. I like this sculpture because there is nothing like it. The way he displays it is also very unique. Definitely one of my all time favourites.

Unusable Utensils

A very exceptional artwork by Giuseppi Colarusso. If you think about it, spoon, butter knife, and fork are very useful for us especially when it comes down to eating food. The artist made all those three became pretty much unusable because he replace the handle of the utensils with ropes. It makes the artwork very interesting in a certain way that it makes the audience giggle. Overall a very clever design and very different. This design break the rules

Balloon Hulk

Hulk - A very muscular green superhero often seen as a very angry monster has been made simple by Jeff Koons. I have talked a lot about Jeff Koons because his artworks are very unique. Hulk with his famous muscular body looks very different when Jeff Koons decided to recreate him as a balloon figure. But not just a regular balloon toy, it’s made out of metal while still keeping the aesthetic of a balloon doll. Nobody will ever know that it’s actually a metal sculpture unless someone tell them

Play Doh

Play Doh- an object that is usually meant for kids has been made extraordinary by the man himself, Jeff Koons. This sculpture may look normal to most people because it looks just like an enlarged version of Play Doh that has been put and stacked together. But to me, the way he made it unusually big is what makes it very interesting. The ordinary Play Doh now looks like a very colourful sculpture and the abstract shape makes you feel curious.

Balloon Dog

This is an artwork designed by Jeff Koons. He is one of my biggest inspiration. This artwork, the famous Balloon Dog was made using metal and the size is also not very small. It is very unconventional and very interesting. Because most people would see balloon dogs as a regular object, Jeff Koons decided to create his own version of balloon dogs using a very contradicting material with balloon. The result, a very very stunning artwork that turned many heads and caught many attention.