02_Inspiration

It is about how I get start of my Final Year Project.

* Looking for my concerned area from my previous works

The Invisible Tart (grouped work) (2009)
Pie and Tart (Irene Chan// Doris Poon// P Lam// Shawn Wong)

"What we perceive is usually not what reality is. 


In this performance, acoustic sound is distorted and transformed through the receivers. The unexpected outcome causes the audiences to ponder on their perception ."

In the radio world, every electronic object has its own sound. Through the radio receivers, we can perceive this isolated world. With our combination, objects become a choir and present an audio spectacle.

I felt very excited when I was doing this project. And I do want to continue my exploration in objects.

Our portraits (2009)

"Our portrait is a photography project which captures the belongings of females in different ages. The photographs leave lots of rooms for the viewers' interpretation. What the viewers generate is the most interesting thing for me. "

Behind the objects, there are many meanings. The time you read the meaning is also the time you read yourself. What is the thing you are curious the most shows your concern, interest and thought.

This project lets me understand the power of objects. Putting them into different frames can have different meanings. In this sense, our involvement is an re-discovery of the objects. It increases my insistence in doing a project about things.

* Inspiration from Silence One

Paul Plamper: SILENCE 1
ZKM Museum (Germany)

I saw the work in my Germany Study Tour. It is a sound installation, filled by the empty tables and the chairs. On each table, there are the speakers which plays the script from one person. It pretends to be a scene in the restaurant, where different people are talking and having food.

Viewers can take part in the installation by sitting on the chairs and listening the dialogues. Different tables have different dialogues, such as the couples, the family and the friends. The whole discussion is looped and runs for about five minutes with a sudden silence. (but the dialogues are in German and I cannot understand the story:( )

By the way, it is a very interesting experience to listen the story. Sitting in one of the tables likes being the victim to witness the story (in spite of nothing happened in reality). And you can hear the sound from the other tables. The distance of sound makes you feel like the one in the restaurant. The sudden silence creates a climax in the story. And it also highlights the start and the end of the story.

It succeeds in telling the story in the setting, but it cannot satisfy me with the only story it tells. It makes me start thinking of the possibilities of making a situation.

* Inspiration from Physics Textbook for Taipei secondary students

Different subjects and streams provide different points of view for us. To see the relationship between the objects and the world, Physics is a good starting point. I went to the public library and read the Physics books for dummies.

 One of the experiments mentioned in a Physics Textbook for Taipei secondary students inspired my idea of Final Year Project. The experiment is about the wavelength of sounds. Students are required to listen the sound from the PVC water pipes.

The concept of putting sounds in a special situation attracted me a lot, so I made up my mind in  the project 's direction.  

* Thoughts and ideas of the object 

To explore my insight on objects, I started taking photos on them. And I found the relationship between the object and human is the area I concern the most. I like taking the photographs on the objects, especially some special usage which differentiate with the proper usage.

An object contains different meanings for different people. It depends on many things. Education, observation, values, beliefs, memories, past experience and you name it! In our daily life, many places work for inserting the relationship with objects to human. Like museum, it is a place where indicates the relationship through telling an only story and providing related information. 

For me, it is a domination. Viewers' interpretation are affected by the information they provide. I want to make changes and widen the possibilities. Therefore, I create a situation or environment , instead of presenting the only story. People can wander around and listen different recordings in the distributed holes . How they react affect the content they can listen.