and the SINK in the 2D room SQUEALS ‘ABUSE’.

more silk screening today. but this time most of us were asked to come up with more ‘experimental pieces’ since we have completed our normal (aka what is required in the assignment brief) prints last week. everyone seems to be talking about the halloween party last night and everyone seems to go "i am so tired" due to the lack of sleep the night before. (we are really getting all sleep-deprived and soon the dark circles around our eyes would not be due to face-paint.) anyhow, it seem to provide us with something to talk about besides work whether you enjoyed it or not.

anyways… back to silkscreening. i think i am quite sick of mixing paint, and washing the screen and drying the screen. and i dun seem to be able to come up with any fancy ‘experiments’ i only like the radial one. oh and fabric paint is so difficult to mix! it is, it is! the colours dun seem to come out right like the paper paint… especially if you add the soon-to-be-expired white paint. then it will become all gooey and like badly melted and lumpy ice-cream. eww. anyhow, there is no more time to ponder about silkscreening when we just got the brief of our next 2D assignment. the workload is piling up fast and furious, soon i will look as stressed as yew chen (thank you for the picture! :))… ahahaha!

Good Luck for IB my dear cousin!

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Past the witchin’ hour.

so today was eventful.

3D in the morning as we attempt to build study models. the final body covering is due in two weeks time. sigh… still need to find materials that would actually work! hmm… then, went off for lit lecture which was about absurd-ism. but jeremy was speaking more of comedy and how the genre of comedy works… when we see a familiar person in an unfamiliar situation. the Rowan Atkinson clips were hilarious! yes, he can do more than a Mr. Bean, and has very good comic timing!

after lit, helped with steve’s filming. (and in ‘helping’ i mean acting in it. don’t think i can bear to watch his video now! embarrassing….) the NGs are really funny. especially the part when i am supposed to make the paper ‘accidentally’ drop on the floor and they did not. hahaha!

Dinner today was at Can A and that’s when we decided to go for the halloween party at ADM> aka dress up as scary creatures and party at ADM. so went to liyana’s hall to put on scary make up. we all ended up looking like very sleep deprived undergraduates, which might not be all inaccurate! ahaha! it was quite hilarious. but yes, i think we do look scary. especially liyana and steve. jiayin was actually scared of them! ‘terrorised’ people along the way by wishing them happy halloween. ooh. i never dressed up for halloween before and it is actually quite fun. a day when you can wear anything and no one really cares! took loads of photos…since the turn out from our class was actually quite good! (Nic would be happy.) ended with lots of loud music and drinks… did not drink. was eating the chocolate fondue a lot though! haha.

and i saw the effect of alcohol on people. they get really, really high.

i wonder who would have a hang-over tomorrow.

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one and a half hours of tutorial

really did not feel like a school day today. who goes to school only at 5pm and have a 1hr and 30mins tutorial and that’s the end of the day? i wasn’t surprised that some of my classmates did not bother to make a possibly 2-hour journey (since NTU is just another island on its own…) from home and back just for tutorial. did not really catch everything in the tutorial either because i did not read John Berger’s text. hmm. i also found out that my teacher is quite a feminist and she doesn’t agree with the text. ok…

one question: what is the difference between the term ‘nude’ and ‘naked’?

tomorrow is going to be a tiring day with 3D and steve’s filming. i am going to act. ahahaha! no, seriously.

now you see why i have been browsing through youtube so much these few weeks… i am having a major film project for 4D and i really want to make a nice simple film which is easy for the eyes. it is all about the editing. but you need loads of footage to work with too, i foresee my weekend being burnt this week!

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Meow!

ho hum. so i am still in the hostel and i have been in this room for the entire morning. class today starts at 5pm. i realised that a lot of people do not have early classes too so i got company! hahaha! it is odd though, being in school yet not having classes.

this cat was outside my door keeping my company. 🙂 *streeeeeetch* reminds me of Brownie.

actually i am getting a bit bored. wish class would start soon. it is a good excuse not to be able to do my pile of work. "I had class. i was too busy." 😛

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“Mankind Is No Island” by Jason van Genderen

Tropfest NY 2008 winner, "Mankind Is No Island" by Jason van Genderen

what a beautifully simple short film.

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repeat after me: “I am Happy today!”

today is a good day. i started the day telling myself "I am Happy today" (i used to start my journal entires in pri 2 like that. except for the day of my maths test… ahaha!) after seeing how stressed Steve was. he is usually hyper and all so this was not usual.

so had our very last foundation drawing lesson with Qing today for this semester. ooh. i loved our models today. the first was this japanese lady who is expecting (8 months pregnant?) and she had this joyful glow radiating from her. it was so nice and peaceful to draw her and we could feel that motherly love from her slight smile and pose. wow. a woman is most beautiful when she is expecting? maybe. Qing, our teacher, did a sketch of her too and gave it to her after the session. (bear in mind he sells his sketches for quite a sum, we would know since we just went to his exhibition!) such a nice gesture. and she really posed a long time for us that her legs went numb… thank you! i liked my sketch today (will post it on my sketch-blog)…

then watched a dvd of British contemporary art in the form of Charles Saatchi’s ‘picks’. Damien Hirst, Ron Mueck, Mark Quinn, Tracey Emin… the known ones. plus many other interesting British Artists. i was quite disturbed by the works of the Chapman brothers. like mutations. and not in the X-men sense, more in the grotesque sense. But there were other interesting artists whom i haven’t learnt about before! 🙂 like Michael Raedecker who uses embroidery in his work.

Qing was talking a lot about how the idea matters more than the skill. that as long as we have ideas, it works. i think he is preparing us for the next sem where the skill becomes secondary and developing our own style is more crucial. anyway, talking about style… he likes my sketch of the expectant mother today as he feels it is simple yet you won’t get sick of looking at it. what a compliment! :)) makes my head big. hahahah!

then went for WAH lecture. we weren’t late today! time to plan what to do tomorrow morning when i don’t have 4D lesson!

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what do you do when the lights go out?

First it was the internet connection… next it is the lights. Ok, so I was trying to get on safari, but there was no connection throughout the block. So huihuan and I thought, might as well shower since we can’t do any work anyway… and so I showered and when I was about to get out of the toilet cubicle… the lights went out. I was so so glad that I am done with my shower!! Had to navigate my way out of the toilet and I realized the whole block was shrouded in darkness.
Loads of people talking and complaining about not being able to do their work. Many talk about sleeping since the lights are out. And there is that group of smokers just below my room deciding to smoke since there is nothing you can really do in a blackout. (second-hand smoke!!)
And then the lights came on. And then they went out. And then came on again. After a longer time, they went out…. And this went on for about 6 times and counting. Now I am trying to anticipate when it is going to turn dark again.

Anyways, enough of my hostel block’s quirks.

I actually had tutorial (or rather consultation) today, and it is a Monday! My ‘no-school day’. Ok, so had to see Michael in the morning and each group was scheduled different time slots. We reached a little late only to see a group of our friends sitting outside michael’s room. Hmm… the pristine white walls and high ceilings and the big group of us sitting there just reminded me of oral exams! The anxious waiting before the person before you comes out and tells you it is your turn for the exam… so he was running late. And he didn’t seem particularly excited about any of our stories. But I guess it is time to film it now. *Big Sigh
(people reading this… time to sign up to act for me! :D)
spent the rest of my day thinking up new ideas for shuning and steve. But just staring at your own dialogue (esp if you have been staring at it for the entire weekend already), does not help. Help comes in the form of your other friends’ brilliant, novel ideas. Thanks Lydia and Nic!

note to self: never shower when the internet is down, chances are you may be stuck inside the shower with no lights?!

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we never make mistaks

("We Never Make Mistaks, 2003 by Multistorey)

 

i was reading this book on how the accidental mistakes can become part of your design… so an optimistic thought: it is ok to make mistakes (or mistaks)! 🙂

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print. Print. PRINT!

yesterday did silk-screen printing for our 2D colours assignment. we were so excited at the start of the lesson with printing our t-shirts!! But (there’s always a ‘but’), after one trial, we realised how tedious it was and how difficult it is to get it all perfect that we lost confidence in printing on our t-shirts. Next week, next week. it is a really long process for each print as each required 3 colours. so you:

1) mix your colours (which takes forever to get as you need a really specific shade and hue),

2) do your first print-layer 1,

3) go to the sink and wash your screen,

4) use the hairdryer to dry your first layer of paint (this takes forever!),

5) blow dry your screen,

6) do your print-layer 2,

7) wash your screen,

8) dry your second layer of paint,

9) dry your screen,

10) last print layer,

11) washing,

12) partial dry 3rd layer,

13) dry screen. and that’s the end of one cycle of printing. then you go and consult your colour wheel for your next 3 colours and start on your second print and then your third and so on….

well, the good thing is that you definitely get that sense of satisfaction when you finish each print! just hope that you dun make any mistakes or water drops on your print in between. had to get lydia’s help to hold down my screen for me too! i think thata worked better than attempting to do everything with just 2 hands. 🙂

so that was 2D. ate a late lunch after that and then met up with my classmates again in the evening for Qing’s exhibition at Pagoda Street. The gallery featured all his works from his drawing classes, he would be at the back drawing us on his sketchbook. of course most of the drawings exhibited was of our seniors but we did spot a page of us! haha. the performance art he screened was also quite wacky. all involving this screaming chicken. i predict that we would also be doing strange performance art with him next sem! hahaha!

Ps: Claire: hah. no i haven’t been losing that many scissors!( (i tend to lose more rulers) i usually find my scissors pretty quickly but this time round it is really gone. 😦 and no it is not from ikea.

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square brackets.

Reasons why today went wrong:

– there was that negative energy flying throughout 3D class today. not a good sign…. loads of arguments, suaning, mood swings and of the usual lack of inspiration to get our study models right to how our teacher wanted us to do. hmm. it was unusual, really unusual. i did not feel any of he first 3 fore-mentioned moods though, but yes, still couldn’t get our study model right.

– got our major assignment for 3D. [Die.]

– I lost my scissors (which i did not even use today. i hope i can find it tomorrow!)

– did not understand the very cheem ‘biography/autobiography’ film screened during Lit today. (All about a philosopher whose work is about the ‘Deconstruction of Philosophy… Ironic? he speaks and writes in Paradoxes too!… and all jeremy said after the film was "Er… bye-bye." not giving any insight to what he made us watch!!)

– I forgot to bring my hostel room key out today!! (thank you huihuan for coming back early! :))

Reasons why today felt better:

– my buddy came to school. at least.

– Dinner at Canteen 5 with Jiayin, Steve and Yibo was amazing. (not food-wise but the crapping, chatting session we had for about 2 hours over dinner and a big plate of fruits was so relaxing. i had a lot of fun just talking… )

today was such a terrible day.. no i shall rephrase that. today would have been such a terrible day if not for dinner. strange how much a chatting session can do to relax a person. shall stop thinking about that looming work for the next 4 weeks tonight. Break-time! 🙂

(an illustration by Artractions: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7025004)

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