Final Project

Before I started this project, I have no idea what I should do. I first thought I could take some pictures to compare the imaginary college lives and the real college lives. But then I found it doesn't work because they are not very different. Then I found some pictures in my camera. These photos were taken when I went to Taiwan last summer. When I looked at these pictures, I recalled some experience in Taiwan and thought it was interesting and I wanted to share with my friends. But how could I share these photos?
I wanted to make a short video with a back ground music. I chose a Japanese song which I like most as a background music. Then I cataloged the photos  I wanted to use based on the cities. However, I wanted to make my video more extrordinary. I realized that the difference of this trip was that I first traveled around the whole island instead of just visiting a single place. I wanted to highlight this part in my video. So, I decided to use the map in the video and when I reached a place, I would show the route between my departure and my destination. In this way, audience could see my traveling route very clearly and could also know the name of the location.
It is hard to think about the beginning of the video. I first thought I could start thinking about my trip last summer when I was tired of studying. However, I did not use this idea because even though it was a good beginning, it was still not very interesting. Then I decided to use a wish board as I saw in Taiwan, people could post their wishes on that board. I Thought it was interesting. When I was in Taiwan, I also posted my wishes on that board, and the last picture is the wish board with my wish note. I thought it was different and interesting and I wanted to make my own wish board and post the places I want to  visit. Then one of wish, which is to go to Taiwan came true last summer, and then I could link with my rest part of video. It could be more interesting to me.
At the last part of my video, I just use words to let the audience know that I love traveling and I could not stop my feet because I am young and I have the ability to go to some more places. I happened to read a sentence and I thought it was helpful: Traveling could help people forget sorrow and avoid ignorance.
For me, I think it is interesting to do this project, even though not everyone likes it. I like the music very much and I really want to make a good combination with my photos and hope every one will enjoy them and have interests in traveling to Taiwan.
However, I know it is not very perfect. For example, for the pictures I chose, I should make more descriptions so that people who have not been Taiwan could know it much better. I know it is not very unique video, it could be a part of my memory and maybe a few years later, when I find this video again, I could think of this different experience.

Brainstorming--- Travelling around

Since I love traveling and I want to make a video for my final project to record my last traveling experience.
Because we should focus on the beginning of the project instead of the end, I thought a long time for some interesting beginning. In the end, I decided to let my friends take some photos for me when I was studying. At first, I was buried myself in all kinds of tests and study, but then, I was so tired and felt like it was so boring to study all the time and I really wanted to go to some other places and experience something new. When I was thinking some interesting experiences I have had I thought about my last trip to Taiwan. Then, I just used my imovie to combine some photos I took last summer with music to introduce my interesting experience. Because Taiwan is a island and most cities are located at the edge the island, I just used a map to illustrate my route looks like--- this is the first time that I have had a roundabout experience of Taiwan.
I thought it is an interesting trip and passion to traveling is my characteristic. If I make this video, people who are interested in Taiwan will know a little bit more by just watching the video. Besides, I really want to share my interesting trip experience with others. It seems that life to me is like to enjoy the new surroundings and travelling like traveling.

Micro project 6

For this micro project, I choose to use a video.
My action words are to store and to flow. I choose the word: to store.
The object I usually use without any notice is my watercup.  Even though I use it ever day, I do not pay any attention to it and it becomes a part of my school life. However, I would feel uncomfortable if I don't have my watercup. I just cannot stand the thirsty feeling and I like to drink with my watercup.
The action word "to store" means to keep something in a place meant for some purpose.To relate my action word with my object, I decided to make a video about putting water into my cup. It is a kind of storage and I could drink the water I stored when I am thirsty.
 I know it is the primary function of the watercup. But it is easy to ignore it because it is too basic and normal. To my point of view, I want to mention this function and highlight that normal action.
 I got this idea when I used my watercup to store water one day when I was in the library. This function not only fulfilled the requirement of the relationship between the action word and my object. To highlight the process of storage, I decided to use a video and it could reflect the relationship: putting water into the cup means storing them for the some purpose later.

response to Cathedral

Carver used a narrator to describe the experience the narrator and his wife had when his wife's blind friend visited them. Even though the narrator first does not like him, at the end, he experienced something new to his life and he appreciated to the blind friend. The part the blind friend asked the narrator's wife to allow him to touch her face when he was leaving makes him so angry and the narrator thought there is something wrong with them is funny, it seems that he was sensitiv. Well, not related to the article.
 The reason why he wanted to touch her is that  based on her voice, he must have formed an image to the narrator's wife. Even though he cannot see her, he could "see" her by touching. The feelings could help us understand something in a different way. At the end of this article, the narrator mentioned that he followed the blind person's advice and closed his eyes to draw the Cathedral, he just followed his heart instead of copying the Cathedral. It could be different from the one he viewed because he has put some own thoughts and feelings into it.
If we just copy something by observation, it could be similar but we cannot get some deeper thoughts and our own ideas. We should create art based on our own thoughts instead of just observing.

MP5 description

In this micro-project, I want to be a person who have the ability to make animals talk. I got this idea from a character in a Japanese cartoon and she made a cat speak because she want to know what the cat thinks about.
I think it is interesting because every time we see an animal like a bird or a cat, we always think about what they are thinking about or why they are doing that.

I choose a squirrel as the animal character and the first picture is that it is eating on campus and I want to know what it is thinking about. Then I use my ability to let it talk in English and then we talked with each other then I asked it why we cannot talk in Chinese, it answered me because I did not set it ,which made me very awkward. So, I use an image from the rage comics to express my feeling because the rage comics always use some situations that make people awkward as their material.

Review for This Is Water

In this speech article, Wallace used two young fish's talk with an old fish in the water to introduce his topic: we always think things in our own way and make ourselves as the center of the world.
Even though we sometimes do not want to admit this fact, we really are. Just as the example Wallace used in his speech, the old fish cannot answer the question"what is water" in the aspect of the young fish. The old fish could only look at the surroundings and think about the world in his own way. 
Like the traffic jam we usually meet in our daily lives, if we have something rush and need to do it as soon as possible, we would get mad when we have traffic jam, however, because other people don't know  our situation, so as a result, they will think us wired and think us as the "easy mad" persons. Besides, because we always think ourselves as the center of the world, when we are stuck in the traffic jam, we always think that other people mass our lives and make our  lives worse. We just blame others. 
I do this things all the time, and always think that my life is the center of the world, and people should concern about my life first. If I have an important midterm this week and other people ask me to do them a favor, I will become unhappy and tell them I have an important test this week and I don't have time to do that. But later I realize that I am too mean and I could help them when I finish my test and it is not very hard to do it at the same time, I just think my problem is more important to me.

Micro-project 4

In this project, I choose my chemistry lab as my place on campus.  I have been studying chemistry for 2 years and I have chemistry lab every quarter. I like it a lot and I think doing labs is a part of my life on campus. Besides, I think I could ignore my surroundings and put myself into the experiment when I am doing lab. I kind of enjoy it, well, if I don't need to worry about the grade, it will be more interesting and i will love it more!  I think this place could indicate my characteristic, which is the passion to chemistry and the interest to synthesis of different kinds of chemicals.
The object I used for my first image is my goggles. The reason why I chose it was that it is important to wear goggle during the lab. It could provide the protection. I made my goggle as a wallpaper in the lab, which seems to remind students in the lab the importance of goggle. Besides, the signature in my goggle is from my TA last quarter. It could be a character of my goggle.

For my second image, I chose my hood as my background.The reason why I choose this place is that I usually work here with my lab and when I am near my hood, I feel like I am an expert instead of a normal student.  I use my heater as my object. It looks like a sculpture. It is interesting to watch the whole process of synthesis of different products. But, I am not really good at lab, so I always do the experiment in a rush, it seems that I was heated by the heater to make me do the experiment faster. I want the audience to know how our chemistry lab looks like and show my passion to the experiments.

My third image is also in my lab classroom and the sculpter is composed with my buck-id and the object in the middle is the product we used in our lab--- Vanillin. I also put the chemical structure on it. I want to use my Buck-ID to indicate it is the stuff I used in the lab and show my passion to the lab. For this picture, I enlarge the products  to tell the audience it is interesting to synthesize a lot of different chemicals, some of those you even don't know what are they. It is magic. For me, I want to tell the audience that the lab is a magic place and I love this kind of "power".

response to Blurring of art and life

In the article, Blurring of art and life, the author mentioned about the relationship between art and life. They are related and it is difficult and wrong to make a clear line to separate these two.
I totally agree with this opinion. I think the basic idea of a piece of artwork is from maybe  some details in our daily lives.  I think the most creative artists always get the ideas from their lives and they usually spend a lot of time observing and thinking about how to express their observation in an art way. Just like the example used in this article, some daily routine like teeth-brushing is also a kind of art. However, we usually ignore it because it has become a part of our lives and we would not think it should be art because in our point of view, the art should be unique.
In my point of view, I think art exists everywhere and it could be huge and even small. It could be in the gallery and it also could be in our house. The matter is that we should have a pair of unique eyes to find these kinds of art and express them to others in our own way. Even though it is the normal things we people do every day, it still could be art because we interpret these behaviors based on our own thoughts. Because it is different ,it is art.

micro project 3

1. postcard: I choose this because I think it is my important memory to me.  One of my habit is that when I visit some where, I would like to send a postcard to myself and also my friends who know my habit would also send me the postcard to let me collect. I think it is important to me when I am going older because these postcard could remind me a lot of stories.
Key word: Sweet memory.
2. Jade Bracelet: The reason why I choose this one is that it is my birthday present from my parents and it is the symbol of health, wealth and luck. To me, it is the symbol of my parents and every time I see my bracelet, I will think of my parents and feel like they are close to me even though they are in China. Besides, I really like jade and I think I could be lucky when I have it. It could also be a character of China and I come from China.
Key word: Parents' present
3. Passport: For this item, it is important to me because I need to use this to go back to China!! If I lose this, I might be stuck here for a long time :( My basic information is shown on the passport and as we all know, we could get a visa when we go aboard, I like to see those different visas when I am free. I am so proud of them and it indicates that I love travelling.
Key word: Identification.
4. Credit Card: Well, from my point of view, I think if I do not have any money, I cannot do anything. I might be starving even though I was survived from the fire.... So, I should keep them to make sure I still could buy something. lol Besides, I am a girl, I love shopping, to be honest. If I don't have my credit card, I will be disappointed.
Key word: Shopping.
5. Cell Phone: I think I need to grab my cellphone with me because I like listening to the music and play some games by using my cellphone. Besides, I like to talk with my friends when I am free. Okay, I know it is typical for girls. I enjoy the time talking with my friends through the cellphone and we chat many kinds of topics and I think it is interesting.
Key word: Entertainment.
All in all, even though these stuff could not reflex all my characteristics,  they could to some extent, indicate that I am a person who loves families and regard friendship as a part of life. Besides, those postcards also indicates that I love traveling. I use the radial composition in my final image and put the credit card in the middle to illustrate that money is important to me. I know, every one loves money :) That is my final image , and hope everyone likes it.

response to "Feet in Smoke"

this article talks about a true story about the author's brother's electrified  experience. This experience even killed his brother and even though he was survived at the end, he could not remember a lot of things.
I think even though it is really good new that the author's brother was survived, this experience near death touches the author and every reader a lot. In this article, the author described his thoughts and his observation when his brother did not wake up. It touches me a lot and let me think of the experience when my grandpa passed away. When we went to the hospital, he has passed away. It seemed that he would wake up and smiled to me even though I know it was impossible. I still remember my mom cried so desperately beside my grandpa she would not want to leave. For me, I just cannot believe the truth and still thought that it was a joke. When I touched my grandpa's hand, I felt that it was not as warm as his hands used to be and he no longer could hold my hand again. Then I cried out and felt how fragile lives are.
Now I am away from my hometown and every day I just wish my families could be safe and healthy because after this experience I believe that  no one could be more important than them and we should love them and care them when we are all alive and lives are fragile like glass.

MP2: way to the classroom.

Description:

In my project, I use some pictures to illustrate my way to the art education class.

I usually start from Thompson Library because I have a class at 718 and I need to have breakfast at cafe in library.  Then, around 9 am I go to the classroom at stadium. I usually search for the squirrel because I think it is interesting to observe their behaviors and they are soooo cute!! I also listen to some music in my phone. The picture shown above is one of my favorite song.  Every time when I pass the RPAC, I am disturbed by the road maintenance process. It is so noisy and dusty, which make me walk faster. Finally I reach the door at stadium and then after going upstair, I would go to my classroom and sit ahead of my computer to prepare for the class. 

So, that's all, that my way to the art education class. Even though it is simple, I enjoy it. Besides, I hope the road could be repaired as soon as possible! lol.....

way to stadium

       I usually go to this class on foot. I have a class at 718 in the morning at Independent Hall, which is the earliest class in OSU, I think :(  So, after that class I usually go to grab some food and then I head to our classroom in Ohio Stadium.

       When I first heard that our class was in Ohio Stadium, I was shocked. But then my friend told me that the department of art education was there. Even though I know the location of stadium, I cannot find the entrance exactly. I went from Thompson cafe after my breakfast, and when I passed the independent hall, I was blocked because of the construction, sigh, I had to go back a little bit to cross the road. Maybe because it is early morning, the cold weather made me feel like it is still winter instead of spring. I can smell the "sweet" water vapor in the air, and I like this unpolluted air and it is different from the air at noon or in the evening. The air feels a little colder and fresher than that at noon. I always look at the road and some animals on the road instead of people. Well, I would look some cute girls and boys, lol. I think it is funny when you look at the animals' behavior. It is hard for us to see squirrel in China. I think it is funny to see them crossing the road or eating. They are not afraid of me and I even could be so close to them. They just look at me and it seems that they are asking "Who the hell are you?" lol.

         Well, back to the description of my way to class. I then passed RPAC, and I even could see some one go out after working up. How much do they love sports could make them work up so early, I even could not wake up after they finish doing exercise if I don't have class. I am lazy :) The favor of sweat could be tasted. I think it is more quiet in the morning than at noon or in the afternoon. You could not hear so much noise made from the traffic, a feeling of morden industrial society. Then I found the door to the department of art education. After I went upstair, it is hard to find the classroom even though there is a sign on the wall. I first passed my classroom and went around the floor and then decided to go back to the room I first passed. After I asked the instructor, which is my instructor in the room, I finally found my classroom.
        I just want to put some unique pictures I could see on my way to the classroom and put them into a typical map.

first micro project.

Person close up. I My friend were whispering when I took this picture, which means I was very close to them.

person and their surrounding space. I took this picture when my friends went far away from me. 

unstable image.

stable image.

the image from the point of view of an ant.

Radial image. I took the sun because it could be the focus in the middle. 

Symmetrical image. you can see the line in the middle of the body and it  is the symmetrical line.

Asymmetrical image. 

My name on campus. My name is on the BUCKID, and I put it on campus and took this picture. 

Image from the point of view of bird.

Questions:

1. Compared with the first experience, I prefer this experience. The similarity of these two experiences is that I looked at the compositions in my camera before I took them because I want to make the patterns look pretty in my pictures. Besides, I also took a lot of pictures and then chose the best one as my project. 

The different experience from the last one is that I need to fulfill the requirements of our instructor instead of taking the material I want. I need to think about the requirement and compare my photos with them. Besides, those requirements are unique and different from some ordinary photos I used to take. For example, the unstable and view of ant and bird. It is very different from those pictures I used to take. 

2. I prefer the second experience. Even though we have some requirements to follow, it is still interesting to explore and dig my thoughts to take the best pictures. I think it is interesting to do some brainstorming to produce the most unique and funny photos and work. It feels like I am an artist.

3. The photos I prefer is the radial image. I took a picture of a sun and I also use the branches of a tree and adjustment of the focus and the exposure to make the sun as a source in the middle. I think this picture is different from other's, so I like it a lot.  

Wexner Gallery Review

I went to Wexner Gallery this Sunday and this is my first time that I have been there. It is different from those galleries I have been to in my hometown, China.  To be honest, I cannot undertand the works shown there. Well, it is art and we should not treat them in a normal way :) I saw one of the notebook, The drafts were shown on the notebook and let us audience know how the artist has thought and produced this work step by step. I think it is a good approach to follow the artist's idea.
However, art needs people to obtain the ability to interpret the art works based on their understanding. I think for me, I always would like to look at the work first and get my own first and then read the notecard beside the work to check it. Sometimes I could get the same or similar idea with the artist, but sometimes I think it is hard to interpret their thoughts to produce the works. For example, I saw a project called "color", but it is all white without any color. When I first saw this work, I first think that it is giant and all white, and the materials are metal. I thought it might want to tell us that even though some simpel metals could form an art based on the arrangement. But after I saw the name, I gave up. Well, it is art. lol

note.

Content issue

Formal

Horizontal one: western, landscape. Eastern: portrait. Movie screen, computer screen, Camera screen. Cinematic

Vertical one: western: portrait. Eastern: landscape.

Implied lines:

Balance and symmetrical,

Make things feel stable and static

Unstable and dynamic:

Rule of 1/3’s. Golden Rule.

Asymmetrical balance:

Radial Symmetry: Radiate from the center.

photos.

elevator in SEL.

On my way back home.

Someone left drink bottle outside the MP lab. I have studied chem there for almost two years !!! Nightmare. 

It is a gate in the material engineering building. The light is bright and there are some partens on the wall, making it look like a building in Greece. 

When I went back home last night, I met my friends and took a picture for them.

This one is also taken on campus. I first wanted to transfer the feeling of the silent dark night with a bright light, but I think my phone is not so good enough to take a good image :(

I took this picture on my way home, waiting to cross the road. The stranger also waited with me. Her pose attracted me and I took this picture.  

This is my favorite photo. I like it because the colors are bright and opposite colors. 

Besides, the composition of this photo is different, I made my toy dog head towards the window. It seems that it is looking at the scenery outside the window.

The reason why I took this picture is that I got these two bottle full of rocks quartz crystals from my roommate as a gift and the cup is my birthday gift from my best friend in China. Those things are important to me. 

I took this picture from my notebook. In this notebook, there are so many cute cartoon characters and they are beautiful and I sometimes would like to try to draw them. I think it is also a kind of art. 

Response to Nipple Jesus

In this article, the most important concept the author wants to transfer is the extrordinary way we could develop to exactly express our feelings and develop our own thoughts even though we could get some ideas or judgement from othters. For the art, it should be something abnormal and it is a kind of provocation,which could cause reaction of audience. Sometimes, the reaction could be negative but it could let audience consider some issues more deeply and in a different direction. The Nipple Jesus was destroyed in the end, which made Dave unhappy because he thinks it is a good piece of art. However, his friend thinks it is awesome since this piece has caused the provocation and it is the purpose of the contempary art.
   The article seems casual. Even though most of the gallaries look similar, we could find the differences and the unique part if we observe carefully. The art is just a tool to express our feeling, we should treat it in a netural way because some art could, to some extent, make us audience uncomportable. However, we should not be too sublime and we need to treat it as a kind of art performance instead of a problem.

response to Walker's and Barrett's articles

     In Walker's article, the author mentions about the importance of the big idea of the artworks and the differences between the big idea and the subjects. The big idea is about the conceptual ground for artmaking, but the subject matter serves as the context for examining the big idea. I think it is important for artmaking people to form a big idea before they begin to perform their arts. The big idea is like a signal which could let us keep going in the right direction.
      I think even though we need to focus on the big idea, we still think about the technique skill and material,etc. We should not let the big idea go beyond these skills. We should consider the big idea first because we need get some general ideas which could inspire us to do some artmaking. However, if we wan to make our work more attractive or formal, we should improve our work by using these skills. Even though the context is important, we need to consider the ways we use to express the context.
   
         In Barrett's article, I agree the idea that denotation and connotation are different. We cannot just make a judgement by looking at the appearance. As Marilyn Kern-Foxworth mentioned, "You can see me and you can see that I am black, but you don't really know who I am. " Denotation is what you could see and we don't need to consider. However, connotation is the meanings of those you see. As a viewer, we should interpret the purpose artists want to transfer.
         Even though I agree that people with different ages and education could develop the skills to recognize the denotation and connotation in art work by learning. However, I think it is more important to let them think by themselves than teaching them. Different people could form different ideas to the same art work based on their experience and we should not force them to form the same  basic opinion when viewing the work. It could reduce the chance to improve. Besides, only the person who has similar experience could have the same feeling and understand the artists' purpose better. We cannot develop this kind of feeling and understandings by teaching.
 

responses to Kidd's, Hickey's and Weschler's articles

       For the Kidd's article, Kidd mentions the preference such as left to right, top to bottom, big and small and in front and in the back, etc. I have not noticed these "habits" before the author mentioned. It seems that we just pick up these kinds of rules and habits instead of thinking in our own ways. It is important to develop our own thoughts and design some things which belong to us and unique. I agree the point that Kidd mentions that we need to take something we have made and use it to claim a moment for ourselves. These things just belong to us. That could help us develop some extraordinary opinions and ideas.
 
      However, I think for the "in front of and in the back of" part, it is a little bit difficult for me to understand and I think even though we develop our better and more unique ideas than the previous ones, who exit in front of us, we really have relied on their basic ideas and knowledge concluded from them. We cannot improve our thoughts just based on our knowledge.
   
       For the Hickey's article,   I think the point that the basketball players should have the ability to show their unique skills in this field. They should not be the same and they should not be limited by the rules. Players should try their best to show their talents in the game and should not focus on their territoriality, which could block the innovation. At the end of this article, I really like the guiding principles. I think these five principles could encourage the players to show their talents to the audience.
     
       However, in this article, I think sometimes the deadline could play a positive role for people's innovation. If people work without deadline, they might leave the things along and they even don't want to make an effort to do it. However, if there is a deadline, people will try their best for the results in the limit time. Some people could even get more unique ideas because of the push of the time.

       For Weschler's article, the author talks about the importance of the facial expression. I think people usually express our feelings and thoughts by our different expressions. It is difficult to analyze how those complex muscles work together. I think it is the gift for us human beings.
   
     However, I think it is not necessary for us to speak if we are familiar with each other and we could form a common facial expression signals.

introduction

     My name is Menglu Han. I am a second-year student. My major is pharmacy.
I like watching movies and some cartoon when I am free and I also like listening to different kinds of music. It is based on my mood. I am not very interested in doing exercise even though my parents and my friends always ask me to do that. But I like watching some sports games such as soccer and basketball. During the break, I would like to travel around and take some photos. It could help me to remind me some sweet memories when I look at them as a grandma. lol. I think during the school time, eating is my favorite thing. Maybe because the time in school is a little bit of boring and tasting different kinds of delicious foods could color my life. Just kidding. I think during the time in school, it is relaxing and comfortable when you eat and talk with your friends. It is a kind of release. I enjoy it a lot. Quarter is so stressful and we need to find some ways to relax. Eating yummy food is my way.  I think the class today is interesting and I could experience the brainstorming. It is to develop an unique idea to some ordinary objects.
Because I like watching movies, I want to list my favorite top 5 movies.
1. Spirited Away.(a Japanese cartoon movie)
2. 50 First Dates.
3. The Notebook.
4. Before Sunrise.
5. Pink Panther