Sorry for the delay in posting, but here is out creative response!

We created a black box using foam cores and the black box is all you can see from the outside. With having an open side, if you put your head in the black box, you will see yourself in a mirror and the different colors reflected by foils (to make the reflection stronger we placed a lamp behind the mirror as light source). The material choice is inspired by Brendan as we see him making progress towards the sculpture. Brendan had made lots of black boxes with foam cores which will be arranged around the cloud structure. Our idea behind this installation work is people can never see themselves, even the faces they see in mirrors are not real. As self images are implemented by our illusion, what we think ourself look like may differ from our real appearance. This is connected with how Brendan plays with the reality and virtual reality: there is not a fixed boarder between the actual world and the virtual world because people can transform actual things into a virtual world as well as bring something we are used to see in virtual reality into real life.

Sadly I cannot upload images of our installation because I have used up my 500 MB quota. If you want to see it please let me know and I will email the images!

Artist Assistant with Brendan Tang, Sep.2017 — Jan.2018, Vancouver, Canada
Experience

• Capable of conducting research from various resources and condensing information accurately.
• Successfully made maquette to replicate the actual space.
• Skilled and detail-oriented in sanding.
• Experience of working with foam core as an art material.

During meeting with Brendan this week (week12), Sarah and I had more sanding to do. Brendan had made 7 cloud structures that he would like us to sand them. Here I attached a few photos of our progress and the tools we used. The grey areas you find in each connecting joints were glue residues, which we wanted to get rid of by sanding. The outsides were way easier than the insides as we can use large tool, like sand paper stapled on wood piece. For those small angled, inside joints, it was not enough space for a wood piece to come through, so we had to hand held sand paper to make them smooth. Also, as you may tell from our selfie, we had to wear masks the whole time because sanding can make the studio pretty dusty.

In my previous blog posts, I had also mention about sanding so basically I had been doing it for a few weeks. Honestly, it was tiring. Especially when I flipped the cloud structure and thought I was all done with one side, but when I finished the other side and went back to the original, I asked myself did I even sand this. Because sanding was more of a physical work, I think it gave me more insights towards being an artist: it is not just about idea. Even though your audience may not know all the hard work and physical efforts you put in the creating process, it is an attitude or faith that artists need to have, to be a perfectionist as much as possible. In other word, at the stage of coming up with idea, the role is an artist; whereas at the stage of constructing, the role changes to a technician.

The reading discussion we had on Monday actually connects perfectly with my thoughts above. We were discussing about immaterial labor and material labor. Life of being an artist needs lots of risk taking, because the value of immaterial labor is not presumable and never guaranteed. You may or may not get something out of your artwork. However, this is not always the case as artists who have fame already tend to have a more guaranteed careers. It is also interesting that Steven brought up the idea of Foucault’s panoptic prison. Artists usually have their life and work mixed up, which is similar with being in a panoptic prison that they are being watched by potential eyes all the time. This mix up of work and life is in fact overwhelming to me (despite I kind of feel I am already doing it) because there is always pressure of being watched so you need to regulate yourself constantly, and this makes having a complete rest impossible.

When I had meeting with Brendan last Friday (Nov.10), the work assigned for me was sanding wooden support structures. Different from sanding the whole uncut lumber in the previous week, this time I focused more on the joints of the support structure as Brendan wanted each piece to be connected with each other smoothly. I think the idea of having the structure’s joints smooth is more than just a decision on the artwork’s formal quality. Reason being visuals rendered through computing programs seem to have a stereotyped way of appearing in people’s unconscious mind that they are always perfectly executed and look so advanced. Particularly, for people who have no experience working with computing programs, artworks produced via software are more likely to be regarded as on a more advanced, modernized, or up-to-date level than a material based work. Having smooth joints may lead viewers wonder about how the structure is built as if it is naturally like this since there is no visible evidence indicating it being made by numerous wood pieces jointed together. Therefore, I consider trying to render a material based work perfectly is a way of blurring the boundary between virtual reality and reality, which is one major theme of the show.

As I usually meet with Brendan in the BAF gallery, I also get to see the show they are curating at this moment: You, Only Better, by artist Kim Kennedy Austin. In this exhibition, Austin has made drawings in dark indigo blue flocking, which is similar with the velvet or suede material often seen in car interiors and jewelry boxes. Austin has appropriated figures contained in advertisements from magazines which the main target audience were often people who live in affluent communities. Basically there were various kinds of approach or recipe for self-betterment in those ads, plastic surgeons and personal fitness trainers, for example. Looking at Austin’s cartoony drawings, I start to see the invisible controlling of people by societal conventions that people have to follow certain routines in order to achieve self-betterment which is accepted by others. Also, self-betterment seems to be an achievement made for other people but not the person himself/herself, as the change need to be acknowledged otherwise it means nothing. Interestingly, I noticed that although some drawings of figures are headless, which means anonymous, but I am still able to tell the gender of those figures from their poses or actions. This may reinforce on the differentiation or division of gender, or the appropriate behavior to perform a gender that people are taught by societal conventions.

In the past three weeks, I had been helping Brendan both on research and making physical progress for the installation.

On the level of research, I was collecting information about fragmentation, glitch technology, screen tears, and virtual rendering of the reality. Fragmentation is the process or state of breaking or being broken into small or separate parts. In computing, it means the storing of a file in separate areas of memory scattered throughout a hard disk. The definition of fragmentation pushed my thinking towards an article I read, Deconstructing the Map written by J.B. Harley. In that the author argues for map being an instrument of sovereignty for those in power which reverses the conventional idea that map is a precise representation of the real world. Therefore, if maps are benefiting the powerful producer much more than the mass users, deconstructing the map will enable us to slice through the preconceived notion and make us examine every aspect of our relation to the world. In relation with Brendan’s show, I think he is deconstructing the preconceived representation of clouds in people’s minds.

Glitch is a problem that stops something from working properly or being successful. Screen tear is a sub category of glitch which means a sudden blur on screen that disconnects the image. Screen tears are most likely to occur in online video games. It is interesting that when I was searching for screen tears videos, there were only one person recorded the moment of that screen tear happening whereas the rest of the videos were tutorials on techniques to avoid screen tears. Personally I am not a game addict but I had experienced screen tears in watching movies. I find the moment of a screen tear in fact brings me back to reality and reminds me I had put myself into the protagonist’s position. In Brendan’s installation, glitch and screen tear will be included through the way that the sculpture is executed to reinforce on the “digital cloud” concept.

Virtual rendering of the reality refers to using computing programs to simulate the environment of the real world. Watching the scenes built with VR programs without the VR glass (or helmet) is a different experience as it is more like going on a tour but not being in the scene. Another issue that came up to me after watching VR videos is playing the same scene in the original program differs from playing in mp4. or mov. format because there seem to be delays occurring in the latter. Relating to Brendan’s installation, I think he is doing the opposite of virtual rendering: rendering the online clouds in reality.

Here are some related images of my research:

In the past weeks, Brendan had made a great start of the sculpture. I am glad to see how a professional artist process his work. What I had been doing is cutting, measuring the foam cores which will be used to make cubes. Those cubes will be floating around or put inside the cloud sculpture. Brendan had also given me a few spheres to do experiment on making the surface smoother. I tried to cover the spheres with nail polish top coat, clay facial mask, and acrylic paint. I would say the one with acrylic paint was the best of the three despite there were still some visible brush strokes. The nail polish top coat covered sphere looked nice as if it is covered in glass, but the problem was the coat wouldn’t try on the texture even though I blow tried and left it for few days. The sphere covered with clay facial mask was the least successful one. The mask did give the sphere a plaster covered look at first but when the mask dried completely the cover started to crack. One more job I had been doing was sanding the wood that will be used in building the sculpture’s structure. I think I will be continue sanding for next week as well.

 an image of the cutting, measuring of the foam cores

From September till now, my job for Brendan consists two main sections: making a BAF gallery maquette and conducting research.

We chose to use foam core to build the maquette. Despite the BAF gallery provided us a model maquette so that we don’t need to do measurement and calculations, the physical process was a bit more challenging than my expectation. There were few times we got stuck because the maquette wasn’t looking as good as our intention. For instance, the liquid glue did not dry completely which made the maquette look dirty or the foam cores were too thick to put pins (for reinforcing) through. The thing I got out of this experience is it is crucial to have the capability to work with what I’ve got so far instead of starting over since the same problem may occur again and again. My favorite part of the maquette is the windows. I found the decision of using transparent plastic pieces besides the main entrance was working well as that’s where the windows are located in the actual gallery. The maquette that BAF gallery provided us just used foam core for the windows, but I think using the transparent plastic would help Brendan better in checking the “street view” of the installation for those who go pass by the gallery.

This maquette will be brought to Brendan and he will discuss how the gallery space is utilized in detail during our next meeting.

As for research at this point, I had been going through visuals that relate to cloud, installation art, and wooden support structure. Brendan invited Sarah and me to join a Pinterest group in which we share our collected images and the next research would build on those images. I am enjoying doing research this way as one image always leads to more which feels like I am on a trip that there is no destination, meaning I could stop wherever I like. For instance, when I was searching for “supporting structure,” this image of an iron made jellyfish came up. Even though it does not have direct link towards the cloud motif, I start to think of using wire to construct a cloud shape from it. It would be interesting to see a soft, unreachable cloud being transformed as a solid-structured, touchable sculpture.

Project Outline: Brendan Tang

Students: Sarah and Aohan

Meeting time: Flexible; depends on Brendan’s schedule as he is traveling intermittently this term. Each week we contact each other via email and text message.

Meeting location: Brendan’s studio or the Burrard Arts Foundation (BAF) Gallery on Main and Broadway (108 E Broadway, Vancouver, BC V5T 1V9)

Project: While we have signed a Non-Disclosure agreement, so we have to remain somewhat vague, this is an installation, open to the public in January and produced through an artist residency, that has evolved from Brendan’s past work. Primarily working in ceramics with a footing in illustration, his recent work has combined traditional Chinese ceramics and contemporary mechanical forms, akin to materials in video games and other digital media. For this work, he is planning to push this digital juxtaposition with elements of virtual reality and its surrounding discourse, combining them with the clouds found in ancient Chinese ceramics. Given its central position in the traditional/digital Venn diagram, the cloud will serve as the main symbol for this installation.

Detailed Schedule:

September

• Meet with Brendan and colleagues who work at the BAF gallery.
• Make a maquette (three dimensional, to-scale model) of the BAF exhibition space. The maquette’s scale is every half-inch equals a foot. This allows us to envision the entire space as we plan and build the installation, consisting of sculptures and potentially other mediums, such as drawings and digital projections.

October

• Clean and organize studio space.
• Research (primarily online): cloud forms, glitch technology, fragmentation (renderings of the real world and where they get messed up).
• Research: scaffolding and wooden support structures online, the more DIY the better.
• Research: Screen tears, skew morphing, virtual rendering of the real world, precedents of analog representations of digital things, different aesthetics of what a glitch looks like. Also, producing the “uncanny.”
• Research the various materials we are thinking of using and our potential techniques.
• Practice making paper cubes, spheres, and other geometric shapes (to be used as models for potential sculptures within the installation).
• Try to find a portable projector, within budget, in Vancouver or online.
• Plan installation in maquette.
• Poster presentation!

November & December – (to be further scheduled.)

• Build the actual structures, sculptures, forms and illustrations for BAF show.
• Peer Studio visits
• CBEL Responses

January

• The exhibition opens! All of you come!