Let's have a communication with our Environment
Welcome to this research space.
Hello, this is a space for clearly documents and present the research project undertaken during the MAPS Program. I am really honored and proud to be able to study Art in public space at RMIT and to have completed some large or small projects with different forms and meanings during the course of my studies. The research catalogue is describe the process and results what i am finding in the learning with a written way, Hope you can enjoy it.
I acknowledge the people of the Kulin Nations as the traditional owners of the land on which we live, and which we work. I respectfully recognize their ancestors and elders, past and present.
Dialogue with nature
Research Question: How can art in public space embody symbiotic relationships between human and the non-human.
Abstract of the project:
This research project, ‘Dialogues with nature’ uses temporary public artworks and multi-dimensional methods to foster embodied and symbiotic relationships between the human, the environment and nature. The research utilizes different forms of public artwork to sensitively engage with nature to encourage active reflection and emphasize partnership with the non-human.
Visual media and temporary public art have the potential to observe, change, and guide the way people look at nature. It can encourage people to explor the interdependence between nature, culture, and people. As such, this research has three key parts. Firstly, the collection of different views and perspectives from the surrounding citizens to create an archive of social media clips and camera footage that explores different perspectives and experiences of nature. Secondly, a series of posters that trigger people's thinking about nature in public space. Inspire people to observe nature from a new angle and trigger different aspects of thinking to change the way we see and understand the nature around us. And finally, different kinds of significant temporary public artworks that are designed to stimulate people's awareness of environmental problems, and create an emotional affinity and empathy for the natural environment.
Background:
Before I studied Art in Public Space, I completed the undergraduate study of Landscape Architecture Design. These two fields are completely different but have a subtle connection. Their learning atmosphere and research direction are also different. In the undergraduate study and until the end, I was miserable and lacked self-confidence, and my feel like my design was always one-sided and insignificant. Landscape architecture needs to intervene, design, and plan the entire site or a city from a large perspective and macroscopically. I seem to prefer in-depth design and research on small-scale venues, and I have always insisted on use small pieces to present more. I am thankful and lucky that I chose Art in Public Space as my field of graduate study, and I felt really empowered to delve into something I could love. During the learning process, I gradually gained self-confidence and a strong willingness to create. I want to incorporate my own ideas into the design and I am not afraid of failure.
“The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between the way Nature works and the way people think.” — Gregory Bateson
The starting point of this research began with a misunderstanding I had about nature. In my previous understanding of nature, I narrowly defined nature in a large area, a vast forest or a tall mountain range. These are indeed natural, but this is what I think is the "big" nature. This is actually like Donna Haraway coined the term ‘the god trick’ in her 1988 essay Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. She suggests that the tendency for scientists to seemingly set themselves outside of the situated, embodied world they observe as their object of research is an ontological move intended to preserve objectivity. (Donna Haraway 2008) We observe the view with a god view and put ourselves into a outside place, but sometimes we find the nature with a very close and daily. This experience and in-depth research, I am thinking: what is nature ? What is Non-human?
Perhaps it was my previous experience and wrong perception that put myself above the landscape and environment before studying this topic. For thousands of years, humans have been viewers immersed in the ecosphere, deep-air animals living at the phase boundaries where air and water meet land, mistakenly identifying all manner of things as organic and inorganic, biotic and abiotic, animate and inanimate, living and dead. Dictionaries full of nouns show the efficiency with which we have thought the world to pieces. (Rowe 1992) We are always arrogant to use design and art as an invisible hand to manipulate everything, we always forget to study the self. What is Human ? What is ourselves?
Snyder often directs us to Zen Master Dōgen Zenji's famous idea that "To study the self is to forget the self, and to forget the self is to find realization in the Ten Thousand Things," the multiplicity of beings in the world. Beginning to "study" the self and the world means beginning to awaken to these realities, allowing them to shatter our preconceptions about them, as they begin to manifest themselves. (Clark 2014)
In the context of the urbanized industrial revolution, the epilogue of the epidemic, we should reflect on ourselves and non-human. Humanity is facing a bottleneck, and the decline is progressively evident. Present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive, and the situation is rapidly worsening. (Rowe 1997) I believe that the relationship between humans and non-nature should be moderated rather than a hard landing (a precipitous fall, with irreversible consequences). We should recognize humans as part of nature and reverse human ideology by changing the way we think. Ease internal conflicts by seeking a dynamic balance. Find a symbiotic partnership between them, change the original arrogant mindset, discover further possibilities of nature, and promote the progress of human society. Recognize the limitations of society and break through the existing rigidity and stalemate.
Research objectives:
- Through special methods of collection, production, and editing to collect “nature” short films with different views and perspectives from the surrounding citizens to create an archive of social media clips and camera footage that explores different perspectives and experiences of nature.
- Make visual media (posters and short films) through interaction and advocacy on social media to enhance contextual information about different perspectives and experiences of nature to attract citizens, and re-construct people's perception of natural boundaries.
- Create temporary public art with hanging painted lanterns, combining the emotional power of art with environmental issues, creating a feeling of emotional affinity and empathy for the natural environment.
-Use environmentally friendly materials to sensitively engage with nature, create temporary public art works with the organic garden in Madame Brussels Lane and find a symbiosis relationship between humans and non-human.
Contextual Research:
[Nature/Culture dichotomy]
The nature/culture dichotomy is fundamental to the discourses of nature conservation, which is pervasive in people's conception of the world (Wall-Reinius, 2019). Nature and culture are conceptualized as dichotomous in contemporary anthropology. The divergence between nature and culture also shows dualism, and many things in the world can be defined by dichotomy. I think that many things cannot be defined or divided by dichotomy. This is also some anti-dualism concepts. But there are also dichotomy that can be used to define some contradictions, because the dichotomy represents a strong connection between the two aspects and also two aspects have split. In reading, I found the discourses of nature and culture coexist in tension with each other, which at times surface as conflicts of interests when ideas and agendas differ (Wall-Reinius 2019).
There is a concept mentioned in many of Donna Haraway's articles: Natureculture. Natureculture is a synthesis of nature and culture that recognizes their inseparability in ecological relationships that are both biophysically and socially formed (Jussi 2018). This is a conceptual combination of culture and nature, expressing the inseparability of nature and culture as intertwined. This concept is also a questioning of dualism, we should demonstrate the concept of inclusiveness through culture and nature in a multifaceted way to build a symbiotic relationship with non-humans. Through the introduction of these concepts, I try to express my thoughts on people, culture, and environment through different forms of public artworks. Whether artworks can be used to bridge the tensions between human and non-human relationships and to establish a better bond to express the symbiotic relationship between people and non-human species to help them develop better.
There are two main definitions of nature. The first is dualistic, in which n ature is limited to what is not human or cultural, or not disturbed by humanity and society. Thus plastic is not part of nature. To be natural is to be free of human imprint. The second is comprehensive, used by the natural sciences, in which nature includes everything in the phenomenal world. Only the supernatural is excluded from the natural. (David 2010)
I choose Human and Non-human to express the two themes in my works. This does not mean that I divide all the two concepts into dualistic, but I want to combine the two to express their inclusive and tension in their. relationship . I like to explore the relationship between humans and non-humans in a comprehensive way, integrating the concept of human into nature, rather than isolating human beings from the overall concept and then exploring the difference between nature and culture. (See Ecocentrism)
Looking around through the spectacles of Western culture, we have mistakenly identified ail manner of things .as "organic" and. "inorganic," "biotic" and "abiotic," "animate" and "inanimate,"' living'' and "dead." Dictionaries full of nouns show the efficiency witfv which we have thought the world to pieces. (Rowe 1992)
[Ecocentrism]
Ecocentrism is a perspective that places importance on the ecosystem as a whole. humans considered an integrated part of nature, ecocentric views tend to include abiotic factors such as rivers and systems that include abiotic elements, such as ecosystems and watersheds. (David 2010) One of the ethical claims in ecocentrism I have been thinking about and agreeing with: human and non-human all have intrinsic value. In my previous thinking (before I start to learn graduate courses), I found that I initially put human beings in a god's perspective to overlook the environment, biotic and abiotic. This is actually an anthropocentric perspective influenced by secular concepts, placing people in a high position to control or ignore the natural environment.
Anthropocentrism, biocentrism, and ecocentrism are three terms i encounter in environmental ethics and environmental philosophy.
Anthropocentrism
In an anthropocentric view, the focus is primarily or exclusively on humans, with the natural world ignored or merely a background. (David 2010) In anthropocentrism, the human perspective is the most important and other issues take second place. We can describe most branches of study, such as philosophy and psychology, as anthropocentric. (Hasa 2021)
Biocentrism
Unlike anthropocentrism, biocentrism places greater importance on living components of the environment, including living individuals. It focuses on the natural world. According to this perspective, all living things in the world are equally important. (Hasa 2021) Biocentric thinkers often emphasize the value of individual organisms and the term biocentrism is sometimes used to indicate views in which focus and value are placed on living organisms (animals and perhaps plants). (David 2010) Moreover, biocentrism does not consider chemical or geological elements of the environment to be important as living things.
Ecocentrism
Ecocentrism is a perspective that places importance on the ecosystem as a whole. Unlike anthropocentrism, it places little importance on human beings. Ecocentrism is only concerned with humans when considering how human beings influence the ecosystem as a whole. (Hasa 2021) Ecocentric thinkers tend to be characterized by a more holistic approach, giving value to species, ecosystems, or the earth as a whole. However, “biocentrism” is sometimes used in a broad sense to include ecocentrism, especially if rivers and ecosystems are considered to have “life.” (David 2010)
We should take a more macro, multi-perspective, inclusive mindset to see ourselves and the things around us. I often think about the meaning of life, that we are both transcendent and insignificant, and that we should look at ourselves and non-humans equally. Our needs for the environment are also biological needs for the environment. Nature is not just a resource we use, it is both the environment we live in and ourselves. In addition, I still maintain some self-imposed "arrogance" in that I do not consider humans to be of equal value to other species. I agree with George Sessions in his Deep ecology concept that both non-humans and humans have well-being and flourishing value (synonyms: intrinsic value, inherent value) (Sessions 1995). Although the intrinsic value of the two is not the same, in realizing that nonhumans also have intrinsic value, we have placed the self (human) on the same scale as nonhumans and measured it as the natural part.
Deep ecology
Contemporary radical school of environmental philosophy that is ecocentric. It focuses on the intrinsic value of nature and takes a holistic approach that emphasizes ecosystems, species, and the planet as a whole. It claims that the primary cause of the problem is anthropocentrism, which it opposes by asserting that humans are fully a part of the natural world and of equal value with all other species. (David 2010)
[Cognition + Affect = Effect]
Human cognition is a macro and high-dimensional aspect, and I try to read articles and books in the field of art to understand its impact on my research direction. Combining the emotional power of art with the cognitive power of other disciplines expands the possibilities for understanding, feeling the urgency of climate change and taking action.
Our societies face enormous and terrifying environmental threats that are often difficult to witness or experience. For example, the existential threat of climate change remains abstract for most people and therefore difficult to understand and easy to ignore. Artists can transform environmental challenges that we cannot deeply understand into forms that we can experience and understand. Give the question a form so that people can understand it. Make it real so people can feel the impact. (Curtis 2020) We can shape values, provide information, reduce fear and promote courage, invent new rituals, sound the alarm, and bring people together for collective action. (Curtis 2020)
[Place-making]
Reading Kwon, Miwon’s One Place after Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity. reminded me of some concepts. It mentioned the need to redefine the relationship between art and scene. It has the conceptual limitations of existing models of site specificity itself, but the site of the artwork can be redefined and beyond its boundaries. The light, sound, smell and texture of the venue combine to allow each viewer to interpret the installation from a personal perspective through "place-making" and develop private narratives to connect the experience to their lives. Rather than separating from yourself, simply observe the artwork from the perspective of a third party.
Audiences engage with the artwork by "seeing, listening, and interacting with the artwork," Edmonds' article also writes, arguing that the artist has a responsibility and obligation to facilitate the audience's experience, inspire it, and gain knowledge about it. Use observation as an assessment to discover how the work is more effective in eliciting responses and experiences from the audience. (Edmonds 2018)
[Environmental art]
Environmental art is art that addresses social and political issues relating to the natural and urban environment. (Tate 2021) This semester, I have deeply explored the concept of environmental art, hoping that through the combination of environmental art and public art, I can better interpret nature and guide people to observe and understand nature from different angles. Since this semester's projects include in response to Agnes Denes 'A Forest for Australia' (1998). Agnes Denes is one of the most famous environmental artists. She doesn't just highlight the relationship between humans and the natural world, in fact, it prompts attention to the damage done. I use environmental art to explore how art can help ameliorate the problem of climate change and other similarly challenging environmental issues such as land degradation and loss of biodiversity. I hope to convey a message through my work, to connect people with the natural environment (i.e., to have empathy for the natural environment), and to integrate art into ecologically sustainable development.
[Environment issues]
With the progress of industrialized society, the impact of many people's actions on the earth's environment is not negligible. Extreme weather, an increase in endangered species, etc. are all consequences that we need to pay attention to. Artists today who collaborate with nature in the face of increasingly urgent warnings about the consequences of climate change make art that draws viewers' attention to elemental resources — those we and other-than-human species cannot live without, and that for far too long we have taken for granted. (Cartiere 2019) In research I found that environmental change depends not only on promoting awareness and action primarily visual arts, but also on reconnecting us with the natural resources we depend on through artistic design.
I made a collage that visually combed and shows some of the major environmental issues. These environmental issues are closely related to us and environment now, and we need to formalize them and actually take action. The human species steadily pursues its own exclusive monoculture; pushing aside and destroying biological arid ecological diversity while giving lip service to preservation of the Ecosphere. (Rowe 1992)
Melbourne is experiencing hotter days, bushfire smoke, more intense storms and flooding as well as sea level rise. The disruption caused by these impacts is already affecting homes, businesses and the natural environment.
[Bushfire smoke] Victoria has had longer fire seasons since the mid-1990s and fire days are projected to increase by 42 per cent per year in Melbourne by 2050. In January 2020 Melbourne’s air quality was the worst in the world due to smoke from bushfires.The 2019-2020 bushfire season was unprecedented in intensity and devastation. Throughout the summer multiple fires burnt large areas of Victoria and all states of Australia, resulting in 34 fatalities and huge losses of land and wildlife. Fires were contained by early March.
Bushfires are the result of a combination of weather and vegetation (which acts as a fuel for the fire), together with a way for the fire to begin – most commonly due to a lightning strike and sometimes human-influences (mostly accidental such as the use of machinery which produces a spark). Depending on weather conditions, embers can be transported by wind from one location to another, causing new fires or spotting.
[Heatwaves] Melbourne is experiencing hotter days. We currently average 11 days greater than 35 degrees. By 2050 we will experience an average 16 days greater than 35 degrees. The 2009 heatwave increased demand on health services including a 46 per cent increase in ambulance callouts and a 12 per cent increase in emergency department presentations.
[Flooding and sea level rise] Melbourne will experience more severe rainfall events, increasing the likelihood of flooding and storm surge.
By 2050 sea levels will rise by 24 cm on 1990s levels. In 2018 Melbourne experienced a 1 in 1000 year rainfall event with 50 mm of rain falling in 15 minutes. This resulted in flash flooding, train lines suspended and power outages across the city.
[Urban heat islands] As a city of nearly 100,000 inhabitants and over 460,000 people in employment, Melbourne is a densely built up area. There is also a correlation between the size of the population of a city and the magnitude of the urban heat island effect.Urban heat islands (UHIs) affect the functioning, liveability and health of our cities. Climate change is expected to exacerbate these effects through increased temperatures – particularly through increases to the frequency and intensity of heatwave events. In the absence of any steps to mitigate the UHI effect, by 2071 we would expect an additional 7 days per year over 35 degrees that would not be experienced by those outside of the City – i.e. due entirely to the UHI effect.
Marda Kirn writes in the article "Artists can put environmental challenges that are 'out of sight, out of mind' into a form where we can understand them experientially" I add ideas about environmental issues to my work, aiming to raise awareness of environmental issues, and use the emotional power in them to arouse public sympathy for a dangerous environment. (Cartiere 2019) Environmental issues are still abstract to most people. With the increasing urgency of climate change, species extinction and endangered resources, we need to act on a combination of these issues.I hope that through the combination of environmental art and public art, through my works, I try to connect people with the natural environment (i.e., to have empathy for the natural environment), explore the relationship between people, society and the environment.
Environment issues collage, 2022
Mind Map:
My project is coherent. I try to think by focusing on one key idea and adding, deleting, combining, and editing throughout a whole mind map. Each semester I make different changes in my mind map, analyse concepts and combine the feedback from teachers and friends.
Whole Semester Mindmap ; 2022
#citynaturespace
Dialogue with nature I : Awareness-raising: challenge our perceptions of nature
[Descripition]
Through special methods of collection, production, and editing to collect “nature” short films with different views and perspectives from the surrounding citizens to to create an archive of social media clips and camera footage that explores different perspectives and experiences of nature.
Mind map; #citynaturespace; 2021
Pre-collection video; #citynaturespace; 2021
Travel fragments video; #citynaturespace; 2021
[Exploration and Procress]
Awareness-raising is an important part of the work. Donna Haraway's God trick, which made me reflect in the beginning if people were looking at nature in a God view, putting me in an out-of-this-world, macro-perspective. We should look at nature from multiple perspectives. Sometimes we are macroscopic, because we live in a city, and nature is far away from us. But we need nature, which is also lacking, and neglected. The nature-art writer John Grande posits that “… we still cannot define what exactly nature is. It can be a word, a subject, an objective generalization, an issue, or a state of being.”
In further research, I found that it can actually be found from different perspectives such as details in life, fragments in travel, and perspectives under different lenses. Human is also nature, and everything on the earth is a gift from nature. What I need to think about is that different people have different definitions and views of nature. I wanted to express the different nature in people's eyes through my works. Maybe it was the moss growing in the corner of the wall or the wind in the vast forest. I want to show this process of discovery in the project. All the individuals living in society should be varied by their different life experiences. We cannot see things as isolated, static, and one-sided.
I produced two videos as a series in this project. The pre-collection video with the hashtag is the main way to create an archive of social media clips that find details in life, fragments of travel, perspectives under different lenses, etc. By making a hashtag in the video as an interactive way to invisibly and potentially influence the audience and spread the knowledge of nature in my research to the audience as well. This public art is intended to show the spatial material as a process (similar to a small loop film) through projection as a design medium, rather than as a static framed image. The immersive experience and projection create an immersive sensory experience and social media interaction that allows the viewer to understand nature, not stick to the “ordinary” normal way. Soliciting videos is also a project that gives people a sense of participation. The other video is a video clip taken from my surrounding friends and me as an archive of camera footage, using editing and production to present an observation of nature. The travel clips captured by drones and the detailed observation of the ecology are used as a contrast between the "God's view" and the immersion, which stimulates the audience's thinking about nature and paves the way for the re-construct of the perception of natural boundaries in later research.
This video series is a site-specific art creation for the museum site. We need to redefine the relationship between art and scene. It has the conceptual limitations of existing models of site-specificity itself, but the site of the artwork can be redefined and beyond its boundaries. (Miwon Kwon 2002) I use the “place-making” mentioned in the article to render an atmosphere of the site using projection, and use the concept as ideologies to construct a space. From the site research, the surrounding residential areas are more crowded. In busy urban life, people need a nearby place to relax. Using particular forms of projections can turn the original utilitarian parking area into sensory relaxation. To debunk conventional notions of nature by embedding projects within the surrounding environment.
The whole series of videos is through special methods of collection, production, and editing to collect “nature” short films with different views and perspectives from the surrounding citizens to create an archive of social media clips and camera footage that explores different perspectives and experiences of nature.
[Methods undertaken for the research]
- I use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit, product and collect videos.
- I created a hash tag on Instagram to collect photos or short videos that people feels or thinks about nature in their daily life.
[Site, Material and Location]
- Showing Site: Museo Spazio Pubblico / Public Space Museum, Bologna, Italy
- Collecting Platform: Instagram/ Gmail
- Materials: Projections
Adobe Premiere sceen shot 01 ;Pre-collection video; #citynaturespace; 2021
Adobe Premiere sceen shot 02 ;Pre-collection video; #citynaturespace; 2021
Instagram screenshot; #citynature space; 2021
Photos; 2021 PROPOSITIONS FOR PUBLIC SPACE, Museo Spazio Pubblico / Public Space Museum, Bologna, Italy
What is NATURE?
Dialogue with nature II: Re-construct the perception of natural boundaries
[Descripition]
Insist on exploring the core idea of people's different views and perspectives about nature and themselves, and trigger people's thinking about nature in public space by adding visual media (posters and short films). This work focuses on using the poster as one of the methods to produce environment art and enhance contextual information to re-construct the perception of natural boundaries, increase people’s knowledge about nature.
Mind map; What is Nature; 2021
Four seasons poster; What is Nature; 2021
[Exploration and Procress]
Following the two-dimensional motion play activity like film. Poster as one of the media methods, can better help the subject to carry out street publicity and give new meaning. This form of expression can better help me expand the contextualizing information and increase my thinking and creation of environmentally themed art.
Media is hardly just about media. Furthermore, nature is not merely nature either but embedded in the cultural understanding of life. (Jussi 2018) This work I made four seasonal posters to promote the subject, enrich the content of the theme by adding my own environmental art thinking and ideas, increase the expressiveness of the narrative to arouse people’s resonance, and promote the information and meaning behind it more effectively. Media are in and of nature in ways that expand any talk of the environment into a virtual ecology of ‘social, political, ethical and aesthetic dimensions’ ( Braidotti 2006 ) I choose to add environmental topics and environmental art to enrich the content, because nature covers the environment, and we need to help ourselves understand nature and ourselves by discussing environmental issues and art. Environmental protection behaviors developed from environmental issues are also to protect nature and develop their own interests.
Poster is a way to convey information. Using imagination to make posters can better show the environmental issues and the changes that climate issues bring to people, and arouse people's resonance and thinking about the past and the future. Poster is a way to understand and explore the expression of environmental art. It draws upon literary, filmic, and creative arts practices to argue that imaginative practices from the arts and humanities play a critical role in thinking through our representations of environmental change and offer strategies for developing diverse forms of environmental understanding from scenario building to metaphorical, ethical, and material investigations. (Yusoff 2011) I try to use imagination to create posters, add a sense of narrative and a unified creative style to connect various elements in nature.
Environmentally themed art is increasingly addressed in research as a means to raise awareness of environmental problems and motivate pro-environmental behavior. (Keller 2020) With the development of society, more and more people are beginning to pay attention to people's impact on the environment. Through my works, it arouse people's thinking about environmental issues and thinking about our nature. I seek to investigate our human relationship with the environment through the production of posters and the display of imagination.
At the same time, the relationship between human and non-human has be considered in the poster, because humans, animals and plants are all part of nature. When thinking about environmental issues, we must also pay attention to non-humans. They also face environmental and survival issues. What is shown in the poster is diversified, multi-angled, and multi-directional. When thinking about the relationship between human and non-human at the same time, I also show the persecution of non-human by the development of modern society on the poster, and call on people to protect the living environment of animals and plants.
[Methods undertaken for the research]
- I use Adobe Illustrator to create posters.
- Propaganda in the broadest sense is the technique of influencing human action by the manipulation of representations. These representations may take spoken, written, pictorial or musical forms. (Lasswell 1937). Propaganda has been an effective tool to shape public opinion and action for centuries. In this project, I used posters to promote my concepts and ideas. My concept is to let people use different perspectives to understand nature and contact it. In order to achieve this goal, I need to choose symbols, pictures, and other design elements to present them in the most effective way through my poster.
- Propaganda has three advantages that can be used in my poster.
Broader influence: The short film needs to be screened through venue equipment. The poster can help increase offline ways, such as post posters in public areas, distributing posters, etc. This way allows more people to see the information.
Further information: Simple symbols and bright images can help people better understand the information behind them, let people associate spontaneously, and expand the meaning.
High-efficiency spreading: At the same time, posters can be better saved and shared on platforms such as people's social software. Taking into account the psychological factors, not everyone has the patience to watch the complete short film, posters can be an efficient way to see and achieve the see is everything.
Propoganda Techniques ; What is Nature; 2021
Propoganda Examples ; What is Nature; 2021
Propoganda Methods ; What is Nature; 2021
[Design and Thinking]
There are many types of posters, with different themes and designs. In the learning process, I first research the types of posters and some cases to conceive my design. Posters are different than other art mediums because they are generally made up of both graphic and text elements. One of the appeals of poster media for artists is that the graphics can be eye-catching and artistic. While the text is usually informative or can have a call to action. A poster is a usually large sheet with images and text which aims at conveying certain information and making it noticeable to the target audience.
Collage, painting, photography, and other methods are often used on posters. The artist I borrowed in the early stage was Henri Matisse, known for both his use of color and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He has intense colorism and bolder simplification of form in visual art. These shapes were seemingly simple yet expressive, distilling the world around him into a few lines and colors.
HER name is revolution is a public art project about posters. Twenty female posters show the symbolic level of conflict in the public space, and at the same time show the connection between feminist thought and practice. On the poster, I observed the inner perspective connection and strong textual discourse. These elements made me think better about how to improve my poster.
Through the case study, it is found that contemporary artists prefer to use words, and sentences to show their strong emotional color in posters. When looking at these posters, I was often attracted by these words, and think about the spiritual impact of posters. Kelly Doley’s No Future is a poster about climate change thinking, using pessimistic words to reach the hearts of the audience. The simple strokes of dead fish are drawn in the gaps in the text, making people aware of the serious environmental problems. Katie Sfetkidisis also uses powerful sentences to show the feminist manifesto in her feminist Poster Project.
In the preliminary design, I referred to its intense colorism and bolder simplification and wanted to create a magical world of plants, animals, figures, and shapes in my design. The concept of poster design in the early stage is still under the in-depth understanding of the poster form, so the poster form is relatively simple. In the process of learning, I changed the design. The older simplification of form is retained to depict the elements of nature, adding contemporary poster elements and design considerations. Drawing lessons from the works of some contemporary visual artists, the overall poster was redesigned.
When restructuring my design, I kept the simplification of form and increased the display of the text in the poster. I hope to use What is nature to ask every audience what nature is in their hearts, and deeply explore people's different views and perspectives about nature. The message in the poster is not only asking people what nature is in their eyes but also answering people. We, animals, and plants are all part of nature, and we need to consider the environmental problems caused by ourselves and arouse people's thinking about environmental issues. Raise people’s awareness of environmental issues through posters as a means of stimulating environmental behavior. In the poster, the graffiti details refer to Kelly Doley’s No Future and Miso’s All those shape projects, using graffiti as the background of the poster. The animals and plants are refined into simple lines to outline natural elements.
In this series of posters, I chose the theme of seasons to unify the style. A season is a period of the year that is distinguished by special climate conditions.
In the process of surveying the seasons, it can be concluded that the division of seasons in some places is different. Using Australia as an example: The people of the Kulin nation lived their lives according to their own markings of the changing seasons. Seven Wurundjeri seasons are described in the Woiwurrung tradition. And there are six Noongar seasons in Western Australia's South West region, which are indicated by changes in local plants and animals. The Nyungar year is divided into six seasons as can be seen in the calendar wheel. The seasons were not defined by strict dates but by changes in temperature, wind, rain, and food availability.
Attributes of the seasons may vary by location, but there are still broad definitions that cross most of the boundaries. In most people's perception, seasons are divided into four seasons. The four seasons—spring, summer, fall, and winter—follow one another regularly. Each has its own light, temperature, and weather patterns that repeat yearly. I choose a more common division of seasons-four seasons in my poster. This distribution is also more characteristic. I chose to make these four posters with a unified style and different details. Express my thoughts on environmental art and show current environmental issues. I choose different characters to show that they are all part of nature, they are the whole and have different details. Express the entanglement of human and non-human life in the poster, showing the situation they face under environmental problems.
In the winter poster design, I designed a blank space. In the initial design, I wanted to create the city as the protagonist of the poster, but the idea of the city was difficult to connect with the previous protagonist. I want to make people think about what nature is and interact with each other through blank design. Using imagination to depict nature in their hearts. In daily life, there are always graffiti on the streets to express people's ideas. People can show their ideas on winter posters, and make winter posters as a drawing board for people to use their imagination to show different people's understanding of nature.
Design process screen shot 01 ; What is Nature; 2021
Design process screen shot 02 ; What is Nature; 2021
Painted lanterns
‘Dear Agnes’ project
Dialogue with nature II: Combining the emotional power of art with environmental issues
[Descripition]
Create relevant specific forms according to Agnes Denes ‘A Forest for Australia’ Response project, and create public artworks that sensitively engage with nature. Using public art as a bridge between people's consciousness and the environment guides people into the thinking angle of its construction and triggers a dialogue between nature and self. By making temporary public art like hanging painted lanterns on the field to suggesting and metaphors for environmental problems. The combination of environmental art and public art promotes the audience's experience of the work and inspires people's empathy for the natural environment and embedding the arts in ecologically sustainable development.
Mind map; Painted lanterns; 2022
Video; Painted lanterns; 2022
Photo; Painted lanterns; 2022
[Exploration and Procress]
Build a step-by-step mindset for the audience, bring people to nature and inspire positive interactions with nature. From 2D designs such as short films and posters to this semester’s 3D public artworks, fill the research of three-dimensional to create more substituting public art. Marda Kirn writes in the article "Artists can put environmental challenges that are 'out of sight, out of mind' into a form where we can understand them experientially"(Cartiere 2019) I add ideas about environmental issues to my work, aiming to raise awareness of environmental issues, and use the emotional power in them to arouse public sympathy for a dangerous environment. The patterns of environmental problems are painted on the lanterns, suggesting metaphors for environmental problems, giving form to abstract climate and environmental problems, and sounding the alarm.
By drawing my own thoughts about environmental issues on paper lanterns. I combine natural and environmental issues while also responding to the location. Temporary public art is produced t to elicit empathy from audiences for the imperiled environment. Scatter paper lanterns to hang from the branches, creating a partnership between the trees to connect the installation. In addition to its site-specificity, Collaboration represented an increase in scale, an aspect intended to literally include viewers in the work by surrounding them in an immersive environment. (Chatwin 2013). I also hung some cards under the lanterns so that the audience can leave their thoughts on works or what they think about nature. I am trying to use public art to encourage people's consciousness and to unite the environment, allowing people to question and interact. Really thanks to classmates' and friends' help, they share their thoughts on nature or what they understand about nature on the cards and hanging on lanterns.
There is another reason why I choose lanterns as a medium: lanterns are an ancient Chinese traditional handicraft. Lanterns have the meaning of blessing and wishing. It carries the meaning of the spiritual level. I also hope to express a vision for the future and have a better chance through people hanging cards under lanterns.
Lanterns image; Painted lanterns; 2022
[Methods undertaken for the research]
- During the testing process, I found that the sculptural works could not better meet my demand for temporary. Static constructions within the built environment limit wild nature's tendency to grow and transgress boundaries. (Chatwin 2013). I chose some simpler materials to facilitate the design and acquisition. Paper lanterns are relatively easy to obtain the semi-finished product. I can use paints to paint the scene I want on the paper lantern, and use paint to show my thinking about environmental issues. The materials of paper lanterns are more environmentally friendly and can be recycled on the basis of temporary public artworks. Instead of choosing more modern materials such as plastics, I chose to limit the range of late materials to wood, steel, textiles, etc. I hope to deepen the connection between the work and the specific environment through the material. Combining natural and man-made elements, retard modern elements can better respond to the site and create a connection between the audience and the site.
- In my exploration of materials this semester, I was thinking about the different properties expressed by different materials. Nature and materials are interacting, and their underlying connections can resonate with their surroundings. Its characteristics influence the viewer's experience and understanding, with the aim of exposing the viewer to alternative perspectives that in turn may reinterpret their relationship to the natural environment.
--By combining natural and artificial materials, use environmentally friendly materials to sensitively engage with nature, resonating with the surroundings. I draw some paintings represents some issues that the place has: Sparse vegetation (Withered trees, birds with nowhere to live), Deserts expanding (use a dry brush to paint the feeling of the desert), Lands drought (Black cracks on the ground), and bush fire which is a big environmental problem in Australia
Lanterns pattern design; Painted lanterns; 2022
[Site, Material and Location]
- Materials : Paper, Steel, Acrylic paint
- Location: Altona's Treatment
-Testing Site: Since Altona's Treatment site is inaccessible, I chose Argyle Square as my test place to see how my work would look in an outdoor environment.
Altona's Treatment site photos; Painted lanterns; 2022
Organic Garden (Finding the smallest Organic Garden in Melbourne)
Applied Design Research Activation Project – Living City Design
Dialogue with nature IV: Symbiosis relationship between human and non-human
[Descripition]
Create temporary public art works with organic garden in Madame Brussels Lane and marketing a focus point for "finding the smallest garden in Melbourne". In this artwork, symbiotic relationships are used to analyze and define the interaction and interrelationship between humans and non-humans. Bamboo is used as a natural and environmentally friendly material in Organic Garden to construct the pavilion and ecological corridor, adds the consideration of environmental issues structure. Expand the organic definition of the original site and explore the partnership between people and the environment.
Design rendering video ; Oganic Graden; 2022
Design rendering photo 01 ; Oganic Graden; 2022
Design rendering photo 02 ; Oganic Graden; 2022
[Exploration and Procress]
In the preliminary exploration and investigation of the street, the concept of "Discovery our organic garden in Madame Brussels Lane" from the original site could be used and amplified. My design uses this promotional concept as inspiration to create an organic garden that engages and interacts with the audience. By adding the Hash Tag of "finding the smallest garden in Melbourne" (echoing the previous design) or publicity hotspots can attract more people’s interaction and participation. Embed a memory point make Madame Brussels as a brand, which can quickly spread and deeply into the human mind.
The mini-garden is a dome structure that is inspired by the environmental issue of urban heat island effect because it seems to me that global warming and urban heat island effect takes the form of an upside-down bowl that covers the city. The steaming hot air and the gradually serious environmental problems are like a giant steamer cover the environment in which we live in. Marda Kirn writes in the article "Artists can put environmental challenges that are 'out of sight, out of mind' into a form where we can understand them experientially" I add ideas about environmental issues to my work, aiming to raise awareness of environmental issues, and use the emotional power in them to arouse public sympathy for a dangerous environment. (Cartiere 2019) By adding the discovery of environmental issues in the form and structure of Organic Garden, I try to reconnect with the interdependent and symbiotic relationship between us and the environment.
Through creating an irregular bamboo dome structure to build a gathering space, explore the cooperation and partnership between humans and non-human. The bamboo net has many bamboo planters for growing organic plants and hanging small potted plants, people can sit in the small garden and enjoy the greenery while relaxing. People can grow organic plants that can reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers; non-organic gardens often use large amounts of herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers to pollute soil, waterways, and the environment. Organic gardens are usually more stable for the environment and people can have a more positive effect with non-humans in organic gardens. At the same time, the design is expanding the planting of edible plants can help increase plant diversity and living space for organisms to achieve a good, balanced symbiotic relationship by gaining more space for plants and animals (insects) to live.
Functional design and utilization are also considered in the garden. The dome structure creates a kind of semi-private space, which can attract more surrounding people, especially those who come to eat and rest here to gather here. Create a gathering place to provide vitality and greenery in this site. The mini-organic garden is a multifunctional area that allows people to have many different activities. People can perform some performances or have rest in it. The semicircle has 2 doors in and out, which brings convenience and flexible space to people. It has seats made of sandbags, which at the same time act as weight support for the whole structure.
I also designed the bamboo corridor. It is located in the outdoor area of the street, providing decoration and lighting to the street. Bamboo is also used as the structure. Since the flow of people in this area is relatively dense, the upper space can be used flexibly without hindering the crowds. Plant some climbing plants on the corridor to enhance the aesthetics and maintain the integrity of the whole line.
[Methods undertaken for the research]
- I use SketchUp / Rhino to create Organic Garden digital model and Lumion / Adobe Photoshop to render photos.
-I try to use symbiosis to interpret the partnership between humans and non-humans. Symbiosis is a term that identifies persistent relationships between species. (Egerton 2015) There are close, long-term, interactions and interrelationships between two different organisms . Different scientists have different definitions of symbiosis, and I try to use the German mycologist Heinrich Anton de Bary defined it as "the living together of unlike organisms" in 1987 to explain the symbiosis between humans and non-humans. “commensalism has been expanded to include all those ecological unions in which, although both parties do not benefit, as in mutualism, neither one is harmed…” (Egerton 2015) Both humans and non-humans live under the same space (on Earth) and I think they are part of nature. (See Contextual Research-Ecocentrism) In this close and tense relationship, there are co-linked, cooperative, co-dependent and competitive at the same time. Symbiotic partnerships can achieve all sorts of degrees of intimacy and proximity, in which boundary lines between partners then literally disappear. (Bosch 2022)
Symbiosis is as synonymous with Lynn Margulis as evolution is with Charles Darwin. (Singh 2021)
Lynn Margulis has made it clear that in nature partnerships are the predominant form of life; that life processes can only be understood in terms of the interactions of such partnerships; and that their inherent complexity can only be understood by taking a holistic approach. (Bosch 2022)
Spatial vision photos; Organic Garden; 2022
Organic plants photos; Organic Garden; 2022
Materials; Organic Garden; 2022
Structure Form; Organic Garden; 2022
[Site, Material and Location]
- Main Materials : Instead of choosing more modern materials such as plastics, I chose to use Bamboo as the material, to construct the design, which can "place-making" the site to create an emotional affinity and empathy for the natural environment.it has the advantages of tensile, compressive, and bending strength. Using it to build the design can also show our thinking about Melbourne's environmental issues and the concept of environmental protection.
- Location: Madame Brussels Lane
- Detailed Site: The location which I choose is a recreation area on the street, this area has a larger space and a green lawn. The previously rest site is transformed to create a more attractive and flexible gathering space, attracting more people to come here.
Location; Organic Garden; 2022
Digital dome structure ; Organic Garden; 2022
Digital corridor structure ; Organic Garden; 2022
Thanks for this golden opportunity and to work with RMIT and ISPT. This project has been selected to proceed to detailed design, fabrication, and installation in in Madame Brussels Lane.
Timeline:
I listed the works and designs of the corresponding time period according to each semester. Sometimes I feel as if I still have a lot of time to complete them, and sometimes I feel that time flies so fast that there is no way to follow the pace of time. I will always miss this time, the time I loved, worked and struggled to learn.
Time
Semester 1 2021
Semester 2 2021
Semester 1 2022
Semester 2 2022
Public works
#citynature space
What is NATURE
Painted lanterns
Organic Gardens
Period
COVID-19 Lockdown
COVID-19 Lockdown
‘Dear Agnes’ project
Applied Design Research Activation Project – Living City Design
Acknowledgments:
Really thank for the academic help from RMIT school. The school's learning atmosphere and library have helped me a lot. I spent a good time in this school. I'd eternally grateful to Dr Fiona Hillary, she is the edifier and thoughts leader, she has given me a lot of academic advice and project support. I am also very grateful to Dr Clare McCracken, Dr Catherine Clover, Jodie Haines, Dr Ceri Hann and Jess Sansum for their help and advice. They gave me the confidence to innovate, challenge and thinking. Thanks to RMIT building 50 for the study studio place. In this studio I spent each of the different, distinctive, interesting semesters. It has always been with me, allowing me to have an exclusive learning space to think, create, research, and explore. . .Thanks to my family and friends.
Thanks for all, let me meet you all.
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