New Media Workshop at SMU

This is the second day of the new media workshop. It feels like I am back in school all over again. We are obliged to do a blog post with pictures and videos.
Three other ladies and I went on a real 'difficult' mission- take photos and videos. I captured some real interesting details of Chijmes.

We ended our 'venture' at Raffles City, wondering around aimlessly, until we saw....
The Christmas Tree!

Code Blue-Photography Exhibition

On 31st Mar - 1 Apr, the Code Blue special event was held at Central Forum with displays such as fish tanks with a twist, educational panels and two photo exhibition. One is a showcase of photographs sponsored by WildSingaopore but edited and processed by me. The other is wholly my own darlings. I am glad that I am part of this team and had a great time taking and processing these photographs. Some of these photographs seen here are not shown during the exhibition. There were 28 photos of the "Trashing Collection Trip) at the Code Blue exhibition. Some of them are not here while I have added a few new ones here. There are more fun shoots available on my Facebook, if you are my friend you can take a look there.

Polariods are taken my Sor, only one by me because I realised I am not an octopus after the first shot.

To Be Exhibited

Location: Central Library Entrance Lobby
Date: 1st-2nd week of Dec (exact date of my team's exhibition will be updated once it is up)Just look out for it, since everyone will be mugging there anyway.


Brokenness
.:Artist’s Statement:.

Singapore, in many aspects, is dependent on other countries, such as resources, standards and even perceptions. In this confined and limited room for display, the ideal and appreciation of Art are restricted by the limited exposure of the locals and their standard of what is ‘good art’. The quality of a work is usually but sadly attributed to the renown of the art school the artists attend. Thus, many artists though very talented are not recognized, and some give up the pursuit of their dreams. This series of photos is a personal take of the shared views of those in the struggle for artistic expression and recognition. The process leaves them despaired, desolate and shattered.

My series use the violin as the main subject to represent the Arts. The violin is an instrument that parents want their kids to learn at a very young age. It has notions of being exclusive, expensive and upper class. However, this blind pursuit has removed the essence of learning to play a good piece of music with the violin. The violin is seen to most Singaporean parents as a status symbol rather than a musical instrument. This series aims to change the perceptions of Singaporeans, through depicting the reality of a musician’s emotional struggle, one that is filled with passion but obstructed by several factors innate in our society.

Missing and Broken
In the beginning, some things are not in place, I just have to keep on searching.

A reverted Smile
A broken string and a broken smile, where am I heading?

A worn off bow
Hairs of a bow tear apart and break away; my heart is exhausted and my passion fades.

Shattered
The violin falls onto the ground. It is shattered.

Brokenness
It is shattered, it is desolated. I lose my fighting spirit to go on.

The End
Passion dies, marking the end of my little world - the world of my music.

Learning Process
Throughout this process, I learn to have balance of having deep meanings attached to my photographs and depicting something that others will be able to understand. I am more sensitive with capturing the forms and the play of lights, how it will affect the ‘temperature’ of the images and at the entire atmosphere of the images now. Also allowing my emotions speak by itself as I search for the element to portray these emotions. It is like some Art films, one lets his/her inner state of mind run wild and try to ‘catch it back’ or control the cognitive and let the rational works in displaying the subject matter to the general public. Hmmm yes, I think I do not really make any sense to you.

Self and Peer Assessment (*updated)

I felt that I nail it, the theme, the fine arts and the emotions for my final exhibited (going to be exhibited) photos, giving myself 100/100. Besides that, I felt that Paul and Mike also did well this time, 100/100. Paul captured the emotions with the play of colors, focusing on the contrasting red, white and black. Mike did a brilliant studio shot of a ballerina. I look the background Mike chose, the grays complements with the negative emotions of the ballerina at the same time portraying a classic look of ballet dancing. Meimei and Mark nailed the formalism of photography, however lack the ‘fine arts’ in the photographer, at least this is personal, because fine arts is really subjective. I thought Ivy has this really strong concept, but it wasn’t depicted that strongly from her photographs, I felt that ultimately the photographs need to speak more by itself. I felt that we would have done better with more daring distortions of our photographs, more cooperation in exploring the topic and playing with different techniques.

Final Exhbition (Phase Four)

Death
Death of a musician's dreams and career as he is slowly forgotten

Death 2

The reverted smile

Short of one, rejected one
The missing string refers to the missing local talents, the broken string stance for one that is losing faith and passion.Sandwich
The external obstacles refrained the musician from moving forward

Final Exhibition (Phase three)

Desolate
The sound of music dies as the strings lose their paths.

Discarded
There is no point in pursuing something, when the avenue to it is no longer of any use.

Hide
I need a rest right now

Brokenness
My violin is shattered, likewise my heart

- Commercial shoot
A Broken Promise
The string broke in protest as its beautiful sound is no longer appreciated by people

Fragmented
The violin falls onto the ground. I lose my fighting spirit. It is shattered, it is gone.

Fragmented 2
It is shattered, it is gone, it is forgotten.

Final Exhbition (Phase Two)

This time round, I tried to exaggerate the emotion of being abandoned and fragmented emotions of an artist. I loosen the strings and 'dumped' at the corner of HDB void deck where is dirty. Create also the isolated and desolate atmosphere.


The light brown piece is call the bridge.