eduwebtv Interview

An interview by eduwebtv on 18 January 2009.



source: www.eduwebtv.com

Exhibition Documentation

For those who missed, here are some photos!

The talk on "Why Art?":

Why Art ?

Is art important ?

The art around us.

Talking about how other similar projects inspired Semai.

Nice silhouette.

An analysis on the perception of knowledge from the East and the West. Taking into consideration Eastern's and Western's cultural and social background.

Other than telling the concepts of art, we also hoped to convey the message that creativity is an integral tool in education, and how creativity can change the dead-pan, pedantic, scholastic, ontological, meritocratic, study-for-exam-only education system that we have here.

Phoon Shiau Tyng showing some works to one of the visitors.

...with some explainations to assist all the more holistic view on the philosophy of the Puzzle Painting workshop.

Getting busy with the crowds.

Thanks to Choo Ping Hao, David Xavier and Lau Mengq Yek for documenting the entire process. And also for helping out on the presentation.

Exhibition and Talk

E-invites for Exhibition and Talk:Public Viewing & Gallery Walkthrough
17/1/09 (Saturday) 7pm - 9.30pm
18/1/09 (Sunday) 2pm - 9.30pm

Talk "Why Art?" by Tan Zi Hao (in Mandarin)
17/1/09 (Saturday) 8pm

Venue
11, Jalan BS 5/2, Taman Bukit Serdang, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor Darul Ehsan (map below)

(click to enlarge)

Contact
Tan Zi Hao 017-2604739
Phoon Shiau Tyng 012-3468102

projeksemai@gmail.com

*Do note that the talk will only be in Mandarin. For those who do not understand Mandarin may come on Sunday for gallery walkthrough.

Day 18

Workshop: Documenting Mistakes
Date: 29 December 2008
Time: 10-11am
Participants: Chin Yi Ton, Hee Li Jie, Lai Shu Wei, Lai Wei Shen, Lim Jun Hong, Saw Khe Xin, Wong Kah Lok, Wong Kai Wei, Annabelle Yap Li Xing
Details: Documenting Mistakes will train the participants to accept mistakes, to see it as an opportunity to learn, to see it as part of the overall documentation of the art like in Jackson Pollock's paintings or to see it as part of the art itself. This helps not just in specifically art subject, but also in real life - to shape a positive independent attitude towards conflicts, failures and mistakes.

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This workshop started with fury - action painting!
Here's the definition of action painting from wiki: Action painting, sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical act of painting itself as an essential aspect of the finished work or concern of its artist.

Do you agree that everybody has the potential to be an artist?

I don't know if you would appreciate such chaotic artwork, the main idea isn't the aesthetic but the documentation of their movements and strength. It is a painting of event. And this is action painting.

Kai Wei in red, preoccupied with the act of 'throwing' paint...it was a rare opportunity to do so even for me. Unless you have a studio, else who wants to clean up the mess.

A group activity.

Lai Shu Wei (center) did some interesting strokes and splatters. She is the eldest amongst all, maybe she did consider the aesthetic value of the work. But Wong Kah Lok (left) being too excited, kept sweeping the board with brush and pouring water, flattened all the previous actions. And that was part of the documentation too, constantly overlapping each other.

Creating a mess within 15 minutes (which at the end took me 30 minutes to clean up), I hastily rushed them into another room to continue other exercises when the time allocated for action painting ended.

As you can see the pictures from this previous post, I asked them to draw many things which I hoped would have them realize themselves the importance of making 'mistakes'. The idea of this workshop, first is to realize mistake as an opportunity to improve, second, that mistake/imperfection shows individuality that of unique value (the participants were asked to draw a line and a square; a set with ruler, a set without), third, to accept mistake and manipulate it into something of value - see mistakes as something inspiring.

A London based designer Anna Gerber published a book entitled All Messed Up: Unpredictable Graphics where she asked simple questions like 'what is mistake' and 'what is accident'. Putting us into such irony, it actually made us realize how creativity can be explored even through such a subconscious act in which we deemed negative and perceived as error.

All of those actually lead to one single notion - perceive conflicts, failures, mistakes positively. Somehow I believed it has become an Oriental cultural value that we have to avoid problems, being non-confrontational. I truly hoped such exercises of accepting mistake can create some radicals, best done through art education. You think?

Oh, this was the last workshop!

Day 17

Workshop: Visualizing Impression
Date: 28 December 2008
Time: 10-11am
Participants: Chin Yi Ton, Hee Li Jie, Lai Shu Wei, Lai Wei Shen, Lim Jun Hong, Saw Khe Xin, Wong Kah Lok, Wong Kai Wei

Details: Observation and analytic skill are important in the process of learning, the ability to see probabilities and possibilities assists in problem solving. This workshop provides exercises that we believe do such so, the participants will be trained to expand their imagination, to foresee and to be analytic. Construction of images based on 'impression' obtained through observation and memory, to this we named Visualizing Impression.

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'Draw what you have seen during the journey from your house to here.' This was the first sentence, and the participants started to trace back their memories.

I expected trees, cars, roads etc. Those were definite, I just hoped I got some cars or trees specifically drawn, can be in simple graphic form but has a characteristic that would also represent the real object observed during the journey, but I got none of those. I got the 'generally accepted'/universal graphic renderings of cars, of trees, of roads, of traffic lights and so on. No detail at all.

I moved on showing pixelated and blurred pictures as below:

Guess it.

George Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884), a classic example of pointillism.

So what's this?

Pixel rendition of Evening in Venice by Monet.

...I then asked them to imagine what's the original image without the filters. The response from this exercise sounded better than the former.

The next exercise consumed the most time, as they needed to watch short films/videos where I would interfere (pause) and the participants would have to imagine the next frame, sort of like a comic game, thinking about the following occurrences.

The list of short films/videos shown (click url to watch):

1) Is A Woman (music video)

music by Lambchop, directed by Shynola

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jfaqxcuebs
Pause while the leaves were traveling in group - Question asked: Where do you think the leaves are heading to? Draw it out. Meanwhile consider the previously observed environments, weather and season.

2) Superflat Monogram (commercial)
from Louis Vuitton, directed by Takashi Murakami
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C84FLwm3DA

Pause while the girl is entering another world - Question asked: Imagine and draw the world she and her handphone enter.

3) Bad Eggs (animation)

by Zax Inc.

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG4coPHkTmQ

Pause before the last egg hatches - Question asked: Draw what's inside the egg. Consider the context and think about reasons on why the last 'bad egg' doesn't hatch earlier with the other two.

4) Grrr (commercial)

from Honda, directed by Adam Foulkes & Alan Smith

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puGvk1RgmrE

Watch the entire video without pausing - Questions asked:
- How many chickens did you see?

- How many candles did you see on top of the cup made 'cake'?

- Describe the 10 ways as shown in the video, on how the engine being crushed and destroyed, if possible say it in sequence.

- Draw 3 flowers seen in the video.

Also in the dvd I have Tim Burton's first short and Björk's Wanderlust, but time didn't allow me to show them. I thought the videos are interesting still, show if any of you would like to watch them, just click!

I continued the videos after they drew what's in their mind. Though I skipped this for 'Bad Eggs' which made them a little upset and kept begging me to tell the actual 'thing' inside the egg, this was funny. I told them what's in the egg was what they drew and for those who weren't satisfied with such ludicrous answer, I asked them to dream about it at night.

Still they went back with a lot of noise calling me the bad guy. :D
Well, if any of the participants read this, click the url and watch it here then. Good luck.

*Projek Semai has no affiliation with any of the above directors/image makers/singers who created/produced the short films/videos. The film works were picked simply because we believed it has the value of creating suspense and triggers the children's imagination, where it would be of good use in this workshop.

Day 16 (Cézanne's Play-replacement)

Workshop: Cézanne's Play (replacement)
Date: 27 December 2008
Time: 12.30-1.30pm
Participants: Chong Jun Kiat, Lai Shu Wei, Lai Wei Shen, Lennon Ng, Ng Sin-Ee
Details: The idea of Cézanne's Play derived from the 'form-oriented' approach of Paul Cézanne on the use of geometric shapes while visualizing the natural form. This truly physical activity of perceiving forms assists the participants in drawing/painting. Also from the very basic geometric shapes (cone, cube, cylinder, sphere), how can the participants imagine and rationally add in details to make each shape an object of particular interest in life. Other than the very act of seeing 2-D visuals in planar abstraction, we are also interested in the experimental Sensorimotor stage as suggested in Piaget's 4 Stages Mental Development, in which other than 'sight', touch is also an integral part of the learning process. The participants will also learn how to visualize through touching shapes, and mentally conjure up an object with details manifested by the shapes. Such were the physical ways of learning art.

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Being content with the previous Cézanne's Play session, I'd hope today another obedient batch. But some of the participants were rather ignorant and there was a juvenile fray where three were involved, eventually brought up to this one hour lesson, or somehow culminated here, hence the obedience I was hoping for was left to be indulged.

Immature yet uncompromising throwing and thrusting of words continued throughout the entire session - set a negative lot for themselves.

Same thing again, first I introduced the principle of lever and its application in layouts and conducted a simple drawing exercise where compositional balance was of utmost important. Then I got them into drawing three lines and that three lines had to be implemented in a scenery based on the structure formed. Later, three shapes (triangle, square & circle) - whether shape in a shape, overlap, separate etc - in any way, any size, therein form a still life picture or imaginatively carve a group of random objects.

Showing them the famous The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch aka Skating Minister (1784) by Sir Henry Raeburn. A visually direct example for me to explain the idea of lever, at the same time pointing out the focus point on the face as load and the leg on the left as effort that holds the entire balance of the picture and the person itself, and the standing leg as fulcrum.

Participants were asked to compose a visual composition with lines and dots varied in size, blackness and thickness.

The 3-line method can be useful if you are running out of ideas in composition.

Some might find it difficult; clearer explanations with lots of patience should do.

After the all too planar drawings, we arrived to more sensational exercises - aforementioned in the details of the workshop, playing with shadows and the sense of touch.

Not a guessing game, but rather they have to think about a plethora of possibilities signified by the shape(s) silhouetted before the light source, as the pictures below:

What can this shape be?

Marilah kita berwayang-kulit.

What's this? A deer or some horned antagonists of the Hindu epics?

Then it's time to get your fingers wantonly sensible:

They have to draw out what they have touched in the black bag. By touching the shapes, they have to imagine and visualize the details.

Ever wonder what's inside?

A physical exercise - visualizing through touch.

The workshop got better when they have such fun. But the exchange of scorn persisted till end while I nagged tediously, and such a mundane cacophony too - till end.

Something Sweet

We found a sun in our inbox lately and thought of sharing it to all the participants and readers:

' Sun With U All '
(from a very nice person named Chik Ying)

Thanks again.