✮Van'z Journal✮
project 1
Shrine Of Self
Shrine 1 - activity 1, briefing of the project.
20.07.23
Shrine 2-
activity 2,
camera and dslr.
For class, we were basically just playing around with cameras and the functionality. We went through the Basic settings of camera. I grouped up with Tong Yan and Sophia to share the camera. We went around school just experimenting with the cameras and taking photos indoors and outdoors. Through pushing ourselves to different settings, it was fun to try out all sorts of setting, though the terms like iso, shutter, focal, etc. will get some time to get used to and know which term belongs to which definition. I liked playing with the brightness, contrast and focal.
We were tasked to have a moving image work that’s static. I decided to film a calm area in my room, however in truth it’s a small chaotic area.
27.07.23
Shrine 3- activity 3,
lighting class
03.08.23
the lighting project Shrine. I decided to have my bathroom as the main as a subject. While I'm in there, I had a vision where there is a spotlight in a dark lit bathroom onto my body as I lay down on the floor and water is running.
I chose this light specifically as it is the easiest to carry back home. And it was also the easiest to assemble, however. My bathroom is tiny, so it was kind of difficult to set up the lighting in a way that I wanted. The lighting was also big. Thus, I couldn't do the spotlight effect that I wanted. I wanted a specific spot to be shined and my body to be sitting there. And as the water. Is hitting my body. This setup was a little bit risky however I managed to get it. Well. So just in case the lighting gets wet,
I decided to shower in a cold water because there will be less water vapor. But I was in a cold, and I was afraid that the light would drop onto me onto the water, especially as I am showering. At some point I had a footage of me praying that it doesn't drop on
me as I was fearful. The difficult. Another difficulty with this work is that. If because of the water vapor, the camera does tend to fog up easily, thus I had to make sure that it was on focus and it is also not blurred up by water vapor.
I really like dimly lit bathroom and the bathroom is my safe space. Where I would sleep before I go to school, when I just wake up, or when I want to relax, I usually just lie down on the floor and rest. The water is very therapeutic and calming, but this is where I rest.
Activity 4 and 5
editing class
5.1 class
10.08.23
Just some simple editing and how to compile all the videos into one. Channel. Even if it's the true channel work. For viewing purposes.
For the second class we were learning 5.1 sound, sound, round sound and it was fun experimenting and trying out Editing. Different directional sounds and customizing direction sounds. We went into the music room that we have access to to try out the dimensional. Sound systems, which is a 5.1, meaning five channels into one master plug. There we saw a synthetic that synthesizer that we decided to try playing with. However, it wasn't working well, but later some of my classmates managed to find a way to play with it. A few weeks later we visited the muse which is like a synthesizer library. There we learned the history of different synthesizers that were there. And. How uniquely different each of them is. Would come back to play around with synthesizer in the future to make my own music for my Art videos.
FINAL SHRINE
17.08.23
The Goddess’s Bedroom
I am a clean girl, I wash my body, I wash my face, I wash my hands and feet, I wash every strand of my hair. my shrine which no man will ever see, my fortress, my solitude. I wake up and answer the prayers of my people, my body, my temple, and myself, I leave my shrine day to day to fill my devotion jar.
Inside my room I am messy, I am a mess, no one needs to know. My room is just like my guts, all over the place, things are missing, cut out, things that I wasn’t born with, things needed, unneeded are all in one place. My room is my temple my shrine my haven. Here I am at peace, I can slumber without any voyeurism, with no eyes judging the placements of my jars and pens and pants. I am a Messy Goddess. I pray to myself every day to bring another day.
i don't want to expend on this work anymore as it is just a peek into the room of a Goddess. That is the name of the character i created for this work. she lives alone in a room that's only lighted by ambiance.
You know how you know about God through Bibles or scriptures or stories, but you've never really like? Know them. If God had a bedroom, would we have known how messy or tidy the aesthetic of his room would be? Would it be minimalistic? Maximum stake. I find it interesting the mystery of what God's room could be like or what is his real self like, his real personality, what he truly feels, and what he truly thinks. And gods have these barriers. Idols have these barriers that they wear so that people don't judge them or they get a sense of control over how people see them. Thus they become superior to the other or are seen as more superior than the others.
This is my safe space and no one will truly understand my safe space. Other than myself, this is where I rest. Only enough. I sleep in the shower quite often. During the day I sleep on my bed and during the night I shower and sleep on the floor. This is a constant cycle for me. At night I'm usually awake. I prevail more at night. Well, this day I sleep it away because I feel drained. I wanted my work to be my daily life and like the inside, a peek into the shrine for of a sleeping goddess. Of a goddess that loves to sleep. I wrote many poetries about sleep. I love to sleep a lot.
Activity 7,
VR
The VR class is really fun. We were just exploring how to make VR videos. using illustrator and Premiere Pro. It was interesting to me how You could add an Illustrator file. And edit it. On in real time. I was playing around with a lot of perceptions and warps. To see how body skills would look and how the angles would look if we were to use humans if we were to use different images. I wanted to experiment. Trying to. Make a liminal space but as well as playing around with it. The possibilities of how the images will get stretched in VR. It was a very interesting experience. I genuinely had fun. In this class learning how to use VR. Later on, we got to use a VR camera and look. My classmates and I decided to run around and record things and have it look like POV's.
Activity 8 and 9
multi screening and
experimentation of sounds.
In the afternoon, we did. Sound Experimental where we used a sound recorder and a contact mic to play around. With. Exploring sounds. Micro sounds especially. What I discovered was that some things do not come off on the mic, the contact mic. The same way you hear it. So it was pretty experimental and fun to try out. Like, oh, this item sounds like this instead. Tong Yan and I went around the school to play around with the contact mic and hear different sound recordings.
In the morning class, we did. Multi screening projection would be learned. The slaves and master terminologies as well as. The process of multi screening at the same timing.
Our favourite would be the metal chair where it is outside building 4 and. We will put the contact money on the metal. Rails of it is I would bang. The rails She would knock on him as well and they mix interesting glassy metal sound. And at one point I decided to walk around while and stomp on these mental rails as the contact man is still on it. And it made really interesting sounds that shocked us. So. It was actually a fun class.
DEVELOPMENT OF PROJECT 2-
SELF DIRECTED
I have a book where I write rents of. How I feel as a girl or how I feel in perspectives. Not all the time. It's about how I am as a girl, but rather like. I still wanna explore. Conversation of thoughts and I write it down so that I can like. Verbalize it to myself. Without forgetting. There was a movie called. Valerie and her Week of Wonders, Through this movie I delve into the topic of girlhood, womanhood, and. The inner misogyny as well as the symptoms of misogyny. Because girl who is seen as. A pink thing with a bow on top. I wanted to. Have a conversation about that and research about that to see if is that even really true because it's coming from a stereotype or immediate thought rather than. A collective. Experience being. Talked about.
I have these three girls that live in my dorm. Even though we're all from different ethnicity, Upbringing. And childhood. We all have a similar sense of girlhood or understanding of girlhood. We all feel a common sisterhood, even when we're not related by blood. And. The three of us. Our international students. While Ilani. Is from Australia, but she is an Islander. She is now living in the city to pursue her studies. All four of us met in the dorm they currently living in. And as we got closer, we decided, why not we cook? For all of us. Every night is a way to save money. And honestly, that made that change. Our whole dynamic was where we became close and we started having more discussions and conversations. I just wanted to make a work that peaks into. Our daily life in a Get to know them. As well as exploring the. Grow hook conversations.
I talked to Sofi about how I want To record it in a homemade video. So I experimented with the DVR where I have to use a cassette tape I let my friends take the camera once in a while to film around the surroundings or themselves and have fun documenting and it becomes a collective. Artwork instead, as I am asking my friends to join in and participate. I didn't expect this to become a documentary, but rather I wanted it to be just. I focused on movements, but I later turned it into a documentary as I wanted to do it about discussing their life and their experiences.
In the first session, I managed to cut down all the footage from my VHS after I transferred. The VHS to a digital format. I managed to cut down a lot of footage to be around 5 minutes. However, I was struggling with documentaries. As I'm not used to making documentaries, this was the first time I made a documentary. So, I decided OK I will push myself with this task. I was lost in the editing and the formatting, and I was overwhelmed by the whole process. I had a sleepover with me. Friends and ask them questions about girlhood, about womanhood, The footage ended up being more than one hour. It was around two hours and I decided. To try editing that. However, it was just a lot of long-windedness and I felt overwhelmed again. So, after taking a few days' break, I decided to revisit it with. Asking the same friends. Much more. Solid questions and more structured. As I was struggling with structure. That helped me with timing it better. So instead of one hour, I managed to drop it to 34 minutes, and from 34 minutes I managed to drop it to 20 minutes. Although I want the video to end up being 5-10 minutes max, I didn't want to cut off that. Conversations I didn't want to cut off. The topics and their passion, I wanted it to be just heard. So, I felt that 17 minutes to 20 minutes was all right It's more of a lighthearted documentary about the four of us as a friend and as a. As well as the common girlhood. However, I feel that in the future I could execute it better This was a fun exploration and I felt that I learned a lot from this.
