List of Monumental sculpture projects 2015

  • 1 http://swannbb.blogspot.fr/2015/02/sunday-robot-play.html
  • 2 http://shuengitswannjie.blogspot.fr/2015/02/interactive-reading-room-tea-house-2015.html
  • 3 http://swannbb.blogspot.fr/2014/06/neo-ming-bed-luxembourg.html
  • 4 http://swannbb.blogspot.fr/2013/02/yuzi-paradise-tell-moon.html
  • 5 http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2011/09/12th-changchun-international-sculpture.html
  • 6 http://www.saatchionline.com/Shuen-git

Friday 29 February 2008

RMB city, Cao Fei, chinese checkers

I wanted to know how to get the L'Oreal Paris skin, how come the bag has only pencils?

I went back. Useless, bag is still on the floor.

Then, I googled. Found a site which mentioned about the Greenies and L'Oreal collaboration. And a side line about Cao Feis, RMB city in Secondlife.

RMB City! I checked and found an impressive, enormous catalogue of work and beautiful online archives.

It is cross disciplinary, exciting, solid research work. I also like the clean interface. Gray and red. Chinese and English.

I first saw Cao Feis work at Venise biennale - China Tracy.

What i gather is this, if you continue doing whatever you do, in the end you will find it. I go from freebie make up and end up seeing the most wanted on my wish list.

How do you account for that?

They say there is only 6 steps from your point of departure to the target when you want to link up point A to B.

This always amazes me. Are we really that free?

If I let you do whatever you want, in the end, you will still be doing more or less what you normally do.

Anyway, I am happy that i found this treasure.

Reading in sight.

Thursday 28 February 2008

Greenies Kitchen as Luxury brand playground, Other Virtual Worlds

Virtual World research data

L'Oreal Paris gives out 4 free skins, from a white handbag left on a middle class retro American Kitchen chair in the Greenies Home. Greenies are tiny martians, when avatars visit, everything is giant size. This white handbag is thrown open, left supposedly on the chair, but i found it on the floor. No make up, but books and pencils, ball point pen and a few coins inside. The object is names L"oreal bag... a puzzle, where is the glamour lip gloss that we touch to get the free skins? This publicity trick is a big success, it makes it playful and not purely commercial. I dont need these 4 skins, but not able to figure out to get to the prize intriqued me. What is the triggering point?

I went to Nicky Rees, got 3 skins, by clicking on the freebie billboard. The skins are nice - white, pastel and lollita Goth girl chic. I wore the Goth Girl shape and skin for a while.

Its spring time. I got this flower dress, when my avatar wears a pretty dress, I feel pretty too. :)


Film viewed


Jumper - 1.5*
a mix of teleporting, exotic locations, strange Matrix acrobatics, story is thin, London, Detroit, Rome. I only wanted to see what this teleporting concept, how did they interpret this. Dont bother, not worth it.

When the Cats away... (Chacun cherche son chat) 2.5*
A charming Parisien film on everyday life, neighbourhood lives of artistic people... not the luxury consumer bourgeois but the people who works - the people who supports and builds the Paris is beautiful dream. The little small scale artist ateliers, the immigrant population. Young artists, and old not quite made it artists (majority of artists). Local charm.


Paris 2.5* (same director as above "When the Cats Away...", Cedric Klapisch, several years later)

Has all the scenes that I am familiar with, every corner of the street. This is a good movie that I buy a dvd and show my family, look this is the city where I live, see this is where my house is... here, is a nice restaurant, here, i went to classes... here we walked and talked and this... my friend has an apt here... under this bridge... etc. Everybody is charming, with various episodes. But the scene in the restaurant where these rough market guys plays with a woman is vulgar. In real life it does happen, but same vulgar insensitivity, revolting. The plot is slices of life, compared to the HHH Paris movie, this one is "touristy" the HHH one is more poetic. In the end, letting actors improvise is a much more intelligent way to shoot an authentic movie. But can Cedric Klapisch take such a risk - there are too many characters, if they all improvise, maybe some illusion of Parisien charm would rapidly desintegrate. It would not generate a moving image post card Paris anymore. With the HHH film, there are limitations the characters are artists, cultured people, there is much less risk to seeing the crass side of real life.

Wednesday 27 February 2008

Swann, Proust, comic book, Guttenberg Project, Gallimard

Swann is a character in the big book of Proust. Swann with two n's, not Swan the long necked bird.

I have wanted to read Proust for a long time now. I had collected the paper back versions, Folio. Earlier ones and later ones. But never opened any of them. Like a lot of my books, I just enjoy knowing that they are there, ready to go, when the moment comes.

Right now, over the years, I am more and more ready. I have on my shelf, a comic book version - in Chinese : in the style of TinTin the Belgian comic book clean line drawings; a Guttenberg version - pure text in English - free, and the leather bound Gallimard 7 vols. in French with illustrations - a gift from Swannjie Jie.

Sl is a type of animation. Now I think of He Youzhis words, aren't we playing out some kind of story in a miniature manner?

The stories created together with other avatars, are they really that interesting? If you told of your sl lives, how does it compare with your life in rl ? - Since there is a drastic reduction of details - and whatever detail thats given, it is rough and to tell you the truth - totally unattractive, if you were an observer, and not the player.

A comic book, in 166 pages, selected section of the novel has been drawn in flat clean lines. Dialogues reveal samples of sentiments of the great writer.

The English version, translated with original details followed closely.

Then, the real thing.

:)

Time for tea and small sweets.

I arrange my big fat feather pillows on the red sofa, next to the window opening onto the garden with white blossoms from some fruit tree.

Snow white, it flowered so early this year!


The Bucket List 1.5*

Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman. In homes and hospitals and famous scenes, like Great Wall of China, Himalaya... etc etc. car racing... all in hors d'oeuvres form, quick and postcard shot, one two three. Done. Finished. A car mechanics home thats like a Department store showroom. There is nothing special everything flash card style.

Tuesday 26 February 2008

Lenovo Island, 3Immersive, Chinese lessons classroom, csecondlife,












I visited a new Chinese Secondlife, only 18 people have changed Lindens here, its really very new. I checked the Chinese school, with the lessons. Flash files, such beautiful sounds, and huge calligraphy letters with brush strokes to show you how to write!!!

Its got an ambiance of the new China. Really nice! It has a very clean large scale corporate business look. There is a school, a huge huge Bank, hotel, sky blue color new bus - large glass windows - and all the general town planning items of a new section of town. Its quite close to reality! The Chinese school is housed in a Suzhou garden structure complete with lattice windows, Confusionist style tables and cushions.

Bamboo tables, Power Point screens - Chinese lessons with notes - I got a few lessons from the Note givers. The dialogue is contemporary Chinese conversation. If we have sl avatars all learning at the same time, this could be a very lively exciting immersive language experience. The first lesson begins on 3March2008. :)

Have a look! lenovo 156, 79, 41. Exciting, i am happy to not see - yet - another Chinese shopping mall type of get up. This looks and feel fresh, its smells like a normal place, not a commercial only place. Good. :)

Monday 25 February 2008

New Painterly Asian Beauty Skin



See, this head is made by my friend Saitot - a sculpty head - a new sexy look :) She will show me how to make a skin.

How about a truly Asian skin? With the classic Asian beauty ? I believe there is a distinctive beauty for each shape and tone for every race.

Hmmm, this opens a section on Beauty, and beauties of all types.

I saw a girl on the subway last week, small eyes, oval shape face, plum blossom mouth... exactly what i see in Ancient paintings of an Asian Beauty. These are not the Western norm of big eyes, large mouth, not Julia Roberts; and not these strange "Asian high cheek bones", slant eyes going upwards - exotism; typically triangular, harsh, flat and angular with pointy chins, shapes rather "aggressively strange" tinted with lackluster sienna - that often we see in ads when they want to show Asian type. Though lately the ads have improved. The Asians chosen are now tinted versions of the Caucasian faces.

Check a painting by Chen Hong Shou, a Ming Dynasty painter. Here we see what curves mean. It does not necessarily mean hour glass curves, big breast small waists. It is more wave like, as in water, in the overall contour of flowing curves.

I will make a new skin, the painterly Asian beauty, delicate, soft lined, no bone structure visible type of ideal soft lined beauty. For example, Monica Bellucci is such a beauty. Her overall shape is round, we dont see any bone shapes, entirely enveloped in smooth cushiony flesh, and not at all stout. This is an ideal of what female beauty is like - its not Madonna with muscles all over. Muscles are also beautiful, it is just not the specifically female type of beauty. There are all kinds of beauty.

Sunday 24 February 2008

web comic, He Youzhi, avatar loneliness, Sleuth, Le Limier

I began sl wanting to make a comic book out of the various scenes that i lived through in sl. So far, while i was taking the photos, I was so excited. Now, I look at all these jpegs, they are flat - how could we make it interesting for others to read?

Then we must have text. Dialogue, stories.

I interviewed the very famous Mr. He YouZhi in Shanghai, he has a special section in the Shanghai Museum, dedicated to his work. He said, I can no longer go anywhere because I am over 80 years old, and I get tired easily. I can go to Hong Kong maybe for a few days, but going on a boat to San Francisco is too far. His eyes are sparkling jewels. He said, I taught at Angouleme, they invited me. But what is there to say? I could only show them the beauty of a drawing line, but what is there to say?
For me to draw and create new works, I must have new stories. He taps his finger to his temple, whats in here, is old stuff! My head is old stuff, only younger people with new stories could create a new comic book style. Would you stay for dinner with us? (yes!!!) He said, "the road is in your lips" - this means, if you are lost, you only have to ask directions on the street. He smiled, very kindly he said, come back, again, when you have more time! I will show you my latest publications. I was so happy that he granted me the visit.

Now, I look at all the online webcomics, and remember what he said. Yes, the world is very different for the internet savvy graphic artists. They do have new stories, and different standards of social behaviors, love, courtesy... everything is different, the contexts are so different. Not only there is a cultural difference. There is notably a epoch difference, and behavior difference. People are much harder today.

He Youzhi's work is fine arts, its not popular repetitive Manga, not cartoons in the american sense. It is very well drawn, fine line drawing work, one of the most expressive. His pictures are stylised, the body sitting just right, arms, movements, everything correct. The weight, center of mass of each limb, the composition of the page. A master. Each frame could be a stand alone composition. You can admire the picture over many hours, its precious. The drawing goes with the story - to have new stories, the drawings would have to be different.

The current style in vogue around the world is not kindness, but scowling cool stances. No one smiles in todays comics. More like sharp teeth and sneering smirks and ruffled hair. From Beijing, to Tokyo to Hong Kong to Paris to NY, all the same. Its super uncool to be smiling. (Except for Hello Kitty of course!)

However, real people want kindness too!
I talked to many sl avatars, some of them told me their rl stories. Everyone needs the same things, just like in the old days, no different. But in todays social vocabulary, its much more cool - to be harsh, to be rushy, to be "unavailable", and in one click - they cut you dead - it means they are doing the cool thing, and you, you are nothing but a has-been. Dont even mention any such thing such as "loneliness" thats sooooooo uncool - because loneliness, is really, it is nothing - it is so common.


Film viewed


Sleuth 2.5*
Even though I knew Michael Caine is to be the inspector, I looked carefully and really did not see Michael Caine at all, the make up is sooooo good. The story is more on class struggles, snobbism...hinges on this. In the new version, its got a new edge of bisexual flexible moral standards that this old version is much more upright in some way. The new version where Caine played the old writer, the character is much more sympathetic. Here the Sir Lawrence is definitely a total loser, we have little sympathy for him. The old mansion doesnt look aristocratic, but mothy, playhouse for an old man. No true style, maybe in keeping with the character.

Le Limier 2.5*
Very good acting, Jude Law in a juicy role. Michael Caine is very good. The house, designers cage, is cold. Everybody needs lots of shots of whiskeys to keep warm. :) Not a moment slack. The text, dialogue is superb. Based on older movie Sleuth. Also with Caine but he was playing the younger character.

Friday 22 February 2008

Gift from Geeks













I looked at Aimee Webers site, very nice and clean, also very good article on the reality of "going Pro" for people who has some dreams of making a living from living in sl. Then I looked at the Midnight city SIM, it was empty except for me, and one other wandering Japanese.

I also read the very famous informative blogger - Wagner James Au

This confirms more and more what i feel about Secondlife, because of the information and general overall capacities. It is most useful for people who want to explore, test an idea in rl with enthusiastic,always kind and willing viewers of others online, on a small scale. A true virtual world community - thats not a negligible world of exchange!

From a users point of view, Secondlife has been a kindergarten for real life.
A very unique, creative, 3d immersive, graphic tool enabled kindergarten with children from all over the world - and it allows anyone to do kindergarten all over again in any subject. Isnt this a gift of a sort from geeks?

Wednesday 20 February 2008

Double Decker bus, Beach side donut vender, xo olpc



Double Decker bus built by Five March - she kindly sold me a copy!







I am buying a mobile bus to put fun things and drive it around to catch some viewers... after all, ice cream trucks, mobile library, bread delivery, hot dog stands, arent these all good? This is an attempt to bring an elegant music through a grassroot conveyor.

So I looked at some buses. A donut beach side bus, and a DoubleDecker, definitely when i saw the DoubleDecker, its really charming. Of course all this is second to what i really want, an Airstream! But I will make my own. :)

This Double Decker everymans museum is similar to XO olpc idea, bringing something new, un reachable to people for whatever reason, time, money, simple lacune... people just didnt know about it.

What I like is the discovery, the first moment of seeing a door opening, and the joy.

I want to get an XO One Laptop per child computer. I wanted to get a doubledecker bus - well, I got one from Five. She happened to be making one, so I ordered one from her. :) This is similar to my interest in the Airstream Bambi... but the Double decker is no Bambi.

I had a contact from Texas... they wanted to do a conference on secondlife... hmmm, how about XO + Secondlife? How could that be done?

I wanted to make a comic book with my Secondlife photos... thousands of them now. But I have no energy to do it right away. It takes much concentration.

And my eyes are killing me. I must not look at the screen so much.

So, i wont be online for a while. :)

Thursday 14 February 2008

Very nice day! Bercy, Cite Cine ugc Bercy, and a surprise sl discovery !!!



A visit to a Japanese sim, because they sell sewing notions! People invent all kinds of things in sl. These tiny pin cushions etc... everything.

Met a geneologist lady at the Festival de Jardin Chaumont sur Loire today. I had two glasses of champagne and many little sandwiches, was totally late! Went to the wrong place - turns out that Chais are general names of all these little brick ex-wine making places!

Anyway, i am glad i made it to the place. There is something very nice about the reception. How to receive and make them feel happy, and warm and welcomed? Thats hospitality ... isnt it. The lady told me about meeting Jeanne Moreau, who is in her 90s, when a journalist ask to speak with her, she hushed the journalist over to a very comfortable place, and make the journalist feel all ooooh aaaaah... now that is a lesson isnt it? Even Jeanne Moreau makes this superb effort, a real display so everybody talks about it later... win win win all the way. :)

Now, today, why was i late? There is another discovery even more spectacular online, in my sl world today... hmmm cant reveal it now here.... but will be revealed when its time.

S has send me back the cd with her cat drawings... she really enjoys creation!
Its so nice to see. These family cats, doing human things.

Sunny day, cold wind, i took out my huge sun glasses - so when i fall asleep in the train going home, no one will see... hahahah

Tuesday 12 February 2008

Enjoy the Kindergarten of sl before exiting to rl !!! A Digital Guqin Museum Service





University of Southern Mississippi, Pace University :: collaboration with Digital Guqin Museum Services.
DGM Services include: Design and build, program design, interpretation of Oracle Poems, evaluation of existing design object and performances, live events, conception and realisation of sl experiences with the target of outputting to real life.

Enjoy the Kindergarten of sl before exiting to the adult rl !!!


University of Southern Mississippi has made 3 Oracle Poem Givers according to client specifications (client is me). They are very good!!!

I will show you a photo of all three objects.
Object 1// Gumball Machine
Object 2// Roulette Wheel
Object 3// Chinese Medicine Cabinet with 100 drawers

The Gumball Machine is superbe, balls are rezzed - as many as you want - with jumping balls and non jumping balls, very colorful in a glass globe.

Once you paid an amount, $1 linden, you can retrieve a ball which slides down a cuving tube
the ball will bring you a Poem. The Oracle Poems are authentic Wong Dai Sin Oracle Poems...

Object 2// you click and a ball is rezzed and pretends to fall into a slot, and you get a poem

Object 3// a Chinese medicine cabinet that the students have gone to researched for an original model; once a payment is made, the user chooses a number from 1-100, speaks it, the corresponding drawer will pop open and a Poem is delivered. The Poem will be randomly attributed to the drawers.

So the same drawer called twice will contain different poems.

I will put up some pics once I get around to it.

Wednesday 6 February 2008

Wong Dai Sin of Hong Kong





I just found a Wong Dai Sin website, it explains who, when, where was Wong Dai Sin originated from. Wong Dai Sin is a local Diety in Hong Kong. Everybody knows Wong Dai Sin.

So, I had started to use his poems a few years back to train students in poetry writing because its their local cultural reference and would be more fun. Grass root fun.

This time, i took the book and put it into Secondlife - for people who might want to find some answers from the Oracle Consultation Method.

Took me a whole morning to click and retrieve the oracle from a website - i already have the original wood engraving copy, but found a text version from a website. But i must draw countless times in order to get all the Oracle Poems. Several times, the Oracle says, please pay more attention to your question, recite a few times in your heart before clicking!! hahahahha. I clicked too often too fast for the Oracle... not enough concentration!

Anyway, for curiosity, and a little test - I started to think of a way to see if and would we get what we want if we tried insistently? if we persevere? While I am doing this repetitive task... sooooo boring. So finally i got down to 5 Poems that still need to be retreived. I said to myself, how many times must i click before i get exactly the poem i want?

In fact, its between 3 to 15 times. Even for the final one - imagine, 1 out of 100, i got it after 7 times!

But some numbers do come up more often than others. During all the clicking, no.1 came up onces, no.76 came up ones, and lots of others came up at least 20 times. It took me 3 hrs to retrieve all the poems via this random draw method.

I like my oracle book in secondlife, i hope people come to consult it.

Its a three step procedure, according to real life.

1/ Draw a random Oracle poem

2/ Draw for a confirmation, if you click and get //# # //= confirmation

if you did not get a confirmation, then the Oracle Poem was not meant for you, and you must re-draw another poem - then try to get it confirmed, once you have Poem+Confirmation sign, you go to next step

3/ reading and interpretation of the confirmed poem.

Enjoy, come get your Oracle for the new lunar year!

:)

DiDine, robots, and macaroon cookies



Watching live shows, sharing viewing experience together; its not exactly the same as watching it at home by yourself on a computer... This is a screen within a screen. You can share "movie viewing" experinece this way. :)

Didine, the french contemporary girl who lives in Lyon - who is so nice to everyone, and her friend the snappy fashion coquette girl, the one who jumped to her death. And a young girl with her petit vieux - whom she married, happy as can be. The star of the movie - one of them aside from DiDine, is that old white hair chic aunt of a handsome young man. This aunt, dry, smart, well brought up - was smothered by conservatism of bourgeois upbringings... see how poor she is, poor and respectable, she missed her life. No money, she buys these little soft cookies, offers them to Didine, didine took it to the toilet (she saw how the aunt licks the cakes and puts them back in the package - she would have liked to eat cakes, but these... hmmm. So Didine buys real macaroons, those expensive cookies, not a few, but at least two dozen! Wow, this is such a contrast. Its like 200 times more expensive than the Lu cookies!!

When the aunt finally accepts to tasting them, she bites a small mouthful, the flavour that she doesnt like, she spits them out again! To show how fussy this woman is... and then she bites into different ones making comments and telling her memories of her youth...

Didine is a sweet person, but why how did she get into her "rut" ? We dont know, but in the end she got her man. :)

Very subtle fine movie.

Compared to the Halle Berry, What we lost in the Fire... there is a difference of zillion meters... No amount of crying can convey a sadness as the lady licking an ordinary industrial cookie from the package.

Well, I didnt write this well enough, i know.
Just to keep a record of what i saw.

This is my year of the movies, secondlife, and maybe robot making!

These are short notes to myself.

Sunday 3 February 2008

Le Ballon Rouge hhh and the original

Juliette Binoches movie, and she is a great actress! We see the marionnettes and the voices... then, zoom, its her, she puts all the voices in with great animated facial gestures... see we should learn to speak with animated expressions. What a great scene. HHH has made an authentic movie of Parisiens lives, it rings true. Divorce, art, dreams, people on the street, baby sitters, annoying neighbours and irresponsible friends... presents, single mother... small apartments.

Only thing i say is flawed is the costumes. Juliette Binoches character in everyway is an artistic person, not a name brand user. But all her clothes are very very chic, stylised outfits. And she changes clothes way too often in the movie. She starts out in a revealing bra in a little sweater... very nice... all the outfits are beautiful on her. But her character does not seem to be the type who wears all these fancy outfits, as they dont really co ordinate with the rest of the apartment or her rambling messy life.

The boy is cute, the half sister is adorable, piano teacher, puppetier, everybody very authentic.

Then i looked up in youtube for the original. The original film is charming, so French in the kindly attentive way, the little boy asking everyone to share an umbrella so his red balloon deosnt get wet...

Both the original and the hhh version are authentic. One is the nostalgic soft charm the other is the human, warm details. Both are great.

And the heart wrenching touch is the finish, a song sung by Camille, it sents shivers up my spine each time I listen to it. Its in a trailer - also in Youtube.

Camille Dalmais, i looked up some web sites and found one that had some lyrics of her songs... Great lyrics, so precise, so careful so simple and good.

Great film. A master is a master. The work of a master film maker, it looks easy.


Checked on Youtube: Found someones comment, that the theme song Chin Chin... etc
is a french version of a Chinese song!! by Cai Qin

Original lyrics

被遺忘的時光 蔡琴 The Forgotten Time

Cai Qin interpretes

詞/曲:陳宏銘

是誰在敲打我窗
是誰在撩動琴弦
那一段被遺忘的時光
漸漸地迴昇出我心坎

是誰在敲打我窗
是誰在撩動琴弦
記憶中那歡樂的情景
慢慢的浮現在我的腦海

那緩緩飄落的小雨
不停的打在我窗
只有那沈默不語的我
不時的回想過去

是誰在敲打我窗
是誰在撩動琴弦
記憶中那歡樂的情景
慢慢的浮現在我的腦海 (less)
Added: 27/03/07
Category: Music
Tags: 被遺忘的時光 蔡琴 The Forgotten Time



French version
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=hXcL4L6Nubo
Camille Dalmais interpretes

Friday 1 February 2008

real life : the weakest point


I was writing my paper on the Digital Guqin Museum, suddenly I noticed I couldn't upload the paper! I had missed the deadline by ONE month, due to the registration date and paper deadline date are similar, and it skipped my mind!

So now, I re-evaluate why and how did this happen?

Sometimes its so strange, I begin to think there is some super natural forces. So far in my life, I had important letters lost through strange circumstances. I had imagined the lost letters - via post - was an excuse of the sender... but 2 years later, I received them with many post marks... the letter had been travelling around the world! and finally arrived 2 years later!

Exporting sl to rl is a lot more work then going from rl to sl - people say the learning curve is steep... but the other way around involves not only a "learning curve" anymore.

It involves real life collaborative efforts, and at any step of the way, if someone suddenly weakens, your structure is only as strong as the weakest point.