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Part observation, part confession

Saturday, June 26th, 2010

So, it’s the end of June, and I’m halfway into my Honours project—SCARY THOUGHT. If you don’t know what my project is about, you might want to read this post though my objectives have altered slightly as time’s passed. Now is the perfect time to critically reflect on my progress throughout the first semester. We were given the opportunity to present our process and findings in a quasi-formal verbal and visual (poster) presentation on the 10th and 16th of June. (Well, actually, it made up 75% of our total grade, so it’s a bigger deal than I’m making it out to be.)

Luckily for me I was assigned to the latter date, so that gave me a while to collate my ideas together, following my marathon completion of my artist book for my elective unit. In a nutshell, I formulated a new question/thesis, emphasising the merits of ornament over modernism, excess over restraint, maximalism over minimalism. The difference being a lot of me mixed into the concoction. I turned to critical theory and other texts to validate my arguments, and I believe I was able to confidently and convincingly articulate my ideas on, and more importantly my passion for, this subject.

I’m pretty amazed at just how much I bared my soul to everybody (despite my having known most of these people for well over 3 years it isn’t exactly like we’re close chums); I felt strangely bereaved and liberated. Like OH MY GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE, NO ONE WILL LOOK AT ME THE SAME WAY AGAIN! And conversely, NOW YOU SEE THE REAL ME; IT’S NOT ME, BUT IT’S ME. JUDGE ME, I DARE YOU. This project is as my blog title suggests a “part observation, part confession”. I stole this quote from one of my research texts, In Flagrante Collecto, but I’m sure this is not an exclusive sentiment.

Essentially this project is all about my love for kitsch. It enriches my social, cultural, intellectual, physical and emotional experience, and I need to—and want to—highlight this sensibility throughout. Of course, this makes my project an extremely self-indulgent undertaking, but I don’t think this makes my project any less worthy of investigation than exploring the history of type design, or designing a nation’s identity, or discovering more effective modes of way-finding in a city space. What these presentations ultimately made me realise is how diverse our interests are, but we are all linked by a genuine keenness to push the boundaries of art, design, sociological and anthropological discourse. It’s exciting (and terrifying!) to consider where we’ll end up 5–6 months from now…

My poster designs, with my observations and (elusive) goals for next semester:

End of semester poster 1 End of semester poster 3 End of semester poster 2 End of semester poster 4

The great part about this presentation is the scope of feedback I received, from both peers, lecturers and guest assessors. At one point we had 6 lecturers, which wasn’t as daunting as I’d imagined it was going to be. As usual, everyone had something to say about it. Egos flew (haha, I wish). I’ve scanned in notes that I found constructive, funny and … not so helpful. I didn’t post all of them here, but perhaps I will.

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Kitsch and Collecting the Mundane

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Last December I got accepted into Honours this year for Visual Communication, and I’ve decided to base my “thesis” per se on kitsch and collecting the mundane, which is the original title of my proposal. No doubt this will change with time. (I wanted to do a project purely on Batman, but that’s not exactly substantial in this context. At least this way I can chuck him in there somewhere, because he is a part of me. :P )

I am making a master list of kitsch films, books, magazines and every other periodical, TV and music, and whatever else pops up in my mind through out the year that I am investigating this topic. Feel free to leave a comment or better yet make a suggestion! I’m starting to notice that a lot of my lists are material mostly harks back between the 40s and 70s, the HEIGHT of kitsch appeal. Then again, I think, arguably, pretty much everything from any era can be considered kitsch—it’s a product of whatever era from which it derives. And it seems mostly exploitative, horror, sci-fi and smut reigns supreme in this category.

I will document my findings here and on my Flickr account, plus there’s been a group blog set up by one of my classmates, so feel free to look at that too!

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Happy Chinese New Year!

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

I wish everyone a happy lunar new year, a year of joy, good will and prosperity. As we usher in the Year of the Tiger, I hope this will remind us all to appreciate this endangered animal’s livelihood, and to continue to protect the few that prey the jungles of the world, so that there may be many more in the future.

I didn’t really do much on new year’s eve. As with many other Chinese, I had a relatively big ‘nian ye fan’ (New Year’s Eve dinner) with my folks, then we waited until 11pm (8pm China Beijing time) and we watched the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, an annual program broadcast by CCTV (the China government’s puppet, in less flattering words :P ) throughout China and the world via satellite until about 2/3am. This is a ritual that goes with New Year for many, many, if not all, Chinese and their families. I couldn’t keep my eyes open at 2:30 so I didn’t see the final countdown. No big deal for me anyway. This event holds little resonance with me as the years go by. The day when I’ll pay attention is when China is no longer Communist. Last year’s was slightly better, but it really hit its peak in the mid-90s I reckon. Now it’s all about over-extravagance and explosions of colour, but I think the director must’ve took a note from viewers’ comments and restrained things a tad.

Hawkers BazaarToday in the arvo I went with my folks to Chinatown and also Southbank where the Chinese New Year action was. Russell Street wasn’t that much of a buzz, except for the dragons and the familiar bang drumming. The streets were awash in firecracker pellets, and the roar of firecrackers igniting and going off was always in the distance. Southbank’s Hawkers’ Bazaar was more lively and pretty with the natural and urbane beauty of the Yarra River landscape. The food was more varied, the main stage had music, opera and lots of dragons (of course!), and there were plenty of other stalls selling Chinese knick-knacks, parasols, good luck banners and the like. I’ve a bunch of photos I took on my Flickr.

I’ve finally returned to using my neglected moleskine journals; I’ve missed drawing like this. I’m trying to push myself to do more work for myself so that I don’t go absolutely batty working for tutors and clients alike, and being subservient to their outrageous demands of me, bless their souls. :)

Oh yeah, it’s Valentine’s Day. Happy relationship validation day! Of course, I don’t care one iota for this holiday. This is obviously because I am still single. (Single and still loving it!) Anyhow, last year I distinctly remember one of my clients lamented that we were both working on V-Day. I couldn’t really have cared less, really… Savings > love, at this point in my life.

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The Best of 2009

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Time to sum up the year! I’m sorry I have hardly updated my blog this year, but hey, here is a new layout sporting this poor neglected creature. I think my lack of posts says something of how awfully busy I’ve been, especially given that this was the final year of my visual communication degree. I am happy to say I have passed all subjects with a distinction average (alas, two points from high distinction, damn it!), but at least I’ve done well overall, and much better than last year at that. And to close up my academic year nicely I recently got accepted into the Honours degree of the same course! So I’ll still be a poor creative student for one more year! Here’s hoping I make the most of it!

Oh yeah, I got my Ps, yo. It took me 2.6 years to get there, but get there I did. That doesn’t mean I don’t still feel like a learner driver.

And now, summing up the year more superficially:

Number of films seen (approx): 29
Best film
Up!
An extremely, unabashedly and wholeheartedly sentimental film on what it is to be young and feel young. Made me cry, and is nothing below the standard of Pixar excellence—a visually spectacular treat, especially in 3D! Kevin is the greatest!

Honourable mentions:

  • Changeling
  • The Young Victoria
  • Mary and Max
  • Watchmen

Best album (or rather the album that defined my year)
Mucho Punk, and Mucho Musica, both by Clazziquai
I have quite possibly played both these albums (the former is the Korean version, the latter, the Japanese version) near a thousand times. I don’t listen to the Top 20 anymore, only when it suits me best (which is like, never) so I tend to limit my music tastes, but I’ve made some interesting discoveries this year too in the world of Kpop. See my honourable mentions.

Honourable Mentions:

  • Winter Magic – Hayley Westenra
  • DREAM – Yuno Ito
  • Songs for Ophelia – Ibadi
  • Purple Drop – Humming Urban Stereo
  • It’s Not Me, It’s You – Lily Allen

Best score/soundtrack
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
For actually being a way better compilation than the film itself. No, seriously, Nicholas Hooper has done a fine job, honing in his strengths to make an altogether, darkly dramatic and sinister mood, but never losing the youthful fun that comes with growing up in a wizarding world. More impressive to me was his ability to bend convention and experiment with sounds and instruments. God do I love an artist who makes calculated risks!

Honourable mentions

  • Up! – Michael Giacchino
  • Mad Men: Music from the Series Vol 1, 2 – Various Artists
  • Mad Men: Original Score Vol 1 – David Carbonara
  • The Twilight Saga: New Moon – Alexandre Desplat (oh the shame, but oh the beauty of this score)

Best TV Show
Mad Men
I’d only started watching this show round about this time last year, but only in the last half of this year did I really sink myself into the smoky era of these dashing, mad ad men.

Honourable mentions

  • Collectors
  • The Big Bang Theory
  • Talkin’ Bout Your Generation

Number of books read: 162
Best books I can very rarely just choose one! (all have received 5 stars on my Goodreads)

  • Goddess of the Hunt, Surrender of a Siren, A Lady of Persuasion (trilogy) – Tessa Dare
  • Scandal – Carolyn Jewel
  • The Duke of Shadows – Meredith Duran
  • Hard Evidence – Pamela Clare
  • Delicious – Sherry Thomas
  • Not Quite a Husband – Sherry Thomas
  • Letters to a Secret Lover – Toni Blake
  • Riding on Instinct – Jaci Burton
  • Sex, Straight Up – Kathleen O’Reilly
  • Really Good Logos Explained: Top design professionals critique 500 logos and explain what makes them work – Margo Chase

Best comic arc
From my DC point of view, Blackest Night has undoubtedly been shitloads of drama, epicness and OH MY GOD THE ORGASMIC COLOUR OF RAINBOWS, and the mysterious disappearance of Bruce Wayne aka The Batman has left writers and artists with plenty of fodder for Dick and Damian (oh say that fast ten times), but to me, the most outstanding narrative throughout has been Greg Rucka and JH Williams III’s run on Detective Comics starring the ever awesome Kathy Kane, aka Batwoman. MUCH LOVE!!

From my Marvel point of view, X-Men still makes no sense to me (I can barely keep up with the bajillion series running simultaneously), Amazing Spiderman has gone to the pits, but I’ve been far more intrigued by the War of Kings, and now currently the Realm of Kings, as all manner of creatures and peoples fight for what’s left of them. Inhumans arc has been especially of interest to me.

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agIdeas International Design Forum – Day 1

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

What a day it was, eh? It’s a good sign when the logo’s not a poorly finished, pixelated graphic.

Stefan Sagmeister opened up.
Garson Yu finished. It was 6:30pm.

I’ll get round to adding more juicy details later…

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Free Comic Book Day

Monday, May 4th, 2009

Free Comic Book Day Mmm, it was that time of the year again on the first Saturday of May. When we celebrate all that is good and nerdy—FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, YAY. I and my good mate Andrew went traipsing around north-west and inner Melbourne devouring any freebie in our wake. Victoria only has 2 participating stores: Trading Cards Australia in Moonee Ponds and Classic Comics in Bourke St, City.

Free Comic Book Day Free Comic Book Day Free Comic Book Day Free Comic Book Day Free Comic Book Day

I finally caved and bought a Rorschach action figure—the cheapest I could find was at the Moonee Ponds store. Will photograph close-ups when I next find spare time. They definitely have the action figures and most comics cheaper there… Good grief, why do I keep going to Minotaur (Then again, prices differ for various things. It pays to shop around)? Also got Catwoman #27 and an X-MEN: First Class special issue dirt cheap. Very pleased with my self-restraint. *cough*

Am curious to read more Green Lantern after the reading a good preview of Chuck Dixon’s newest take on the Emerald Guardian. At least, I think it was Chuck Dixon. I can’t remember at top of my head, but it was good! And that’s the most important part! ‘Sides, Green Lantern is HOT. I dunno, there’s something about Hal that reminds me of Bruce … Plus Chris Pine (of new Star Trek fame) is said to play Green Lantern in new film soon to be in production in Australia. Huzzah!

It’s also agIdeas Design Week, but I’m going to be attending the agIdeas Design Conference, which kicks off tomorrow for 3 days. 3 days non-stop of design! With the likes of Stefan Sagmeister and Tobias Frere-Jones speaking, will I live through it all from sheer awesomeness? Watch my blog for posts in the next few days.

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Of vigilantes and hot, sweaty man-hugging

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

The SpiritI saw The Spirit at the Jam Factory this morning with Sylv. Since we went to the very first session of the day we had the whole theatre to ourselves! That was great. The movie—not so great, but still entertaining albeit on a superficial level. The excitement died down the instant we left the cinema.

Essentially the Spirit (Gabriel Macht) is former rookie cop Denny Colt, brought back into the world to rid Central City of the bad guys, namely the Octopus (Samuel L Jackson). He has the begrudging blessings of the Chief Commisioner Dolan (Clearly Commissioner Gordon and Batman have a far healthier work relationship than Dolan and Spirit ever had…) who doesn’t exactly approve of the Spirit’s methods. Well, shock horror there.

I’ve always thought that Frank Miller is a mad genius but lately his work has been nothing short of confusing, bizarre and way beyond the post-post-post-post-modern. And yes, his misogyny and sexism is duly noted (Selina Kyle the whore much?). But in spite of all this, I still enjoy most of his new stuff since he dares to push his audiences to the limit. The only work of his I simply could not handle was The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Completely unnecessary and ultimately infuriating.

I have not read any of Will Eisner’s work (yet), so I guess my opinion on the film adaptation could have been much worse. Miller’s brash over-the-top style oozes long-winded, unintentionally hilarious monologues, gratuitous violence, obscure references to other comics and femme fetales sporting bizarre outfits and kinks. Did not expect (and yet not surprised) to see a Nazi homage/spoof in the film, with Samuel L. Jackson playing the mad Josef Mengele-like “experimenter” and Scarlett Johansson sporting a prissy dominatrix get-up a la camp!SS- she-wolf. Was rolling my eyes at this spectacle the whole time. It reminded me painfully of Miller’s fascist villains in All Star Batman and Robin series and The Dark Knight Returns. Eva Mendes’ character Sand Saref (which in my mind was sans-serif, go figure that) is painfully irritating even for a femme fatale, while Sarah Paulson’s Ellen Dolan is the “resilient” down-to-earth lady in the sideline. A scarlet woman and an innocent damsel for our swashbuckling superhero. Hoo-hah.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (I’d give it more like 2.85)

What was way more awesome was watching the X-MEN Origins: Wolverine and Watchmen trailers back to back beforehand. Bloody brilliant. I truly cannot wait! That said, I intend to purchase the Watchmen graphic novel, but am not sure whether I want the paperback or the hardback. There are so many newly released books related to the film. Talk about marketing for the weak-willed masses.

And breaking news: apparently a Dark Knight sequel may be set for release in 2011, as hinted by the film’s executive producer himself, Michael E. Uslan (also responsible for pretty much every Batman production in motion picture). I think I may be warming a bit more to this idea now…

Have spent nearly half of my pay in one day on comics/books:

  • Over and Over: A Catalogue of Hand Drawn Patterns – Michael Perry
  • The Perils of Pleasure – Julie Anne Long
  • Batman: The Long Halloween – Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale
  • Batman: Private Casebook – Paul Dini, Dustin Nguyen
  • Batman #685 – Paul Dini, Dustin Nguyen
  • Amazing Spiderman #853 Variant Third Printing (the Obama issue, lolz) – Mark Waid, Phil Jimenez

Geebus, I don’t know how to save money…

Anyhow, some weeks ago I had applied for a web designer job at Lincraft, and had forgotten about it following my project with a new client, but I got a rejection email today. Ah, well. C’est la vie. I can’t travel to Clayton regularly anyway…

You know, after last night’s epic Australian Open men’s singles final, I am totally shipping Federer/Nadal. They are so awesome and so lovely! :D Can’t they both be number 1 together? :(

Nadal and Federer

TENNIS-OPEN-AUS-NADAL

Australia Tennis Open

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When cultures collide

Monday, January 26th, 2009

So by some divine providence we are blessed today with both Chinese New Year and Australia Day. Let it be known this may only happen once in a hundred years. Now you might be thinking (or rather, I might be thinking too deeply) how do you go about celebrating both? Which holds more precedence over the other? The answer isn’t all that clear-cut to me, although one friend on Facebook promptly replied it’s all in the “red and gold envelope, baby!” True. Money is a very nice incentive for well, anything. I haven’t had lucky money since I turned 18, but today mum presented me with a red envelope! :D And in it was … a $20 note, that is, in American dollars. So that’s about $30 Australian. Not that I’m going to use it since I’ve never even seen an American $20 note. I’m glad to say that I think Australia’s note system works better, at least with the colours and the texture of each note’s design. And don’t forget those ‘windows’!

Money aside, I spent my Australia Day listening to the audio of We Can Be Heroes and cleaning my room and organising my visual diaries. I’ve accumulated eleven A3 journals this holiday just to paste in inspirational material, hee! Yes, very fitting indeed. Would it have been more fitting to go out and watch Australia again? Maybe. Not. Although I did find out in the Herald that ACMI was letting people go into the Setting the Scene exhibition for FREE today. FREE(!!!!!!). I paid $10! And it wasn’t even that fantastic to begin with. Anyway, for the REAL (albeit satirical) Australia, you seriously have to watch We Can Be Heroes (now that’s playing with stereotypes):

If you had a naked Chinese man and a naked Aborginal man, they would be exactly the same except the naked Chinese man would have a slightly smaller penis.

Oh Chris Lilley, why you so awesome?

Australia Day at Dunt with Daniel and Nathan, and don’t miss Ja’mie’s rendition of our national anthem—Advance Australia Fair:

Year of the Ox 2009

Chinese New Year was a slightly more eventful affair. Last night, watched the annual Spring Festival Gala on CCTV (that is, China Central Television, essentially the Communist Party’s puppet station) up to the point when my eyes couldn’t stay open anymore. It was a much better effort from last year’s dismal performance. The stage was friggin’ ENORMOUS. Obviously the set designers have taken a cue from the epic scale of the Beijing Olympics Ceremonies, but I’m impressed with the way they utilised the actual small space to make it look endless with light projection and perspective in the background graphics:

2009 CCTV Spring Festival Gala

The most bizarre performance I saw was one with Jay Chou, with this amazing little kid, and finally a surprise entrance from Song Zuying:

Song Zuying and Jay Chou

Dinner tonight at Footscray (probably one of the better Chinese restaurants, if that’s possible) with my folks and my aunt.

Anyhow, thoughts on my nationality colliding with my ethnicity aside, it’s been a busy week for me. I’m still having weekly driving lessons (and my growing frustration at not being able to park properly is inversely proportionate to my instructor’s patience with me—amazing! Dad would have combusted out of fury the first time round…) , and I have a new client who has the potential to make me big(ger), and really expand my portfolio. I’m beside myself with anxiety but I am excited that I’ll be able to be flex my creative muscle since I’ve been whining about having nothing to do for so long (no excuses on my part though).

Slumdog MillionaireI went to Laura’s house last night and we watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Next Doctor, on the ABC (not the first time for me though, hehe) and afterwards Slumdog Millionaire, which I liked, but I wasn’t that “affected” by the story as the media/Golden Globe hype may suggest. Don’t think I’m a cold, heartless bitch though—it’s just another one of those rags-to-riches, Cinderella-esque fanfare types, and well, really, they get kind of old, not to mention the image portraying Mumbai is sort of feeding the preconceived notions of unsuspecting, ignorant viewers. But the protagonist is kind of amusing what with his vacuous expression 60% of the time. And I liked the originality of the plot that explained “how” he proved he wasn’t cheating in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. You’ve got to watch the film to see. ;D The soundtrack was pretty ace, and the editing was superlative too. The ending is rather Bollywood-esque as well which is sweet. :)

Rating: ★★★½☆

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