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

Saturday 31 December 2011

mesh, photographic realism

http://tokenchic.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/among-the-cut/
some v nice photos taken from sl.

xyz Qin, shaping the wood embryo

xyz Qin, shaping the wood embryo

There are two prototypes, one with Old Shan wood老杉木 (spruce=雲杉,fir=冷杉, cunninghamia(used in temples w scent)=杉), and the other with WuTong (paulownia tomentosa =tong= 白桐) wood.

The Shan wood was recuperated from an old church and the WuTong桐木 is maybe new? (bottom boards are usually in 梓 (catalpa=梓)).
Shan is more expensive and gives a dark rich sound
WuTong is light in color and weight gives a light singing voice. Says Master Shan单志渊.

However, other woods for top boards could be used too. Pine, cedar, spruce.

The two shosoin shapes are cut based on a pattern I drafted using dimensions given kindly by a Japanese friend who is a specialist in guqin.

A friend, Mr.Ke Huang Yi柯宏毅 used a long trimming tool to shave the board (a plane) into the shosoin shape. Long plane, short plane, and a mini bull horn plane. Long plane keeps the lines straight, mini plane turns and gives good curves used in finishing planing.
He did it in two hours, then Mr.Yuan showed us a "bull horn" shaver took, this little tool will trim the surface further into finer curves. The blade should be held at and pushed in a 45° angle (relative to the direction of the blade) to get a proper smooth curve and not perpendicular to the direction of the cut.

The highest point of qin is at the "chest" level, the thickest part of the qin. at 3rd to 4th hui
At 8hui and a half the board dips down a little bit to accommodate the fluttering vibration of the string.

The dip is at this depth: 1.5mm at 7th string, 2mm at 4th string, 2.5mm at 1st string.
The dip is feathered out to blend in w the rest of the board

Duration of the qin making process:
Minimum 8 months to Two years. This is to allow for the qin to get into position and for the qin to stabilise the overall form.

Here is the minimum duration without considering the settling in process, 23 days as follows:
After the embryo is done,
2 days base lacquer
2 days coarse deer horn powder鹿角 + lacquer
2 days medium deer horn powder鹿角 + lacquer
2 fine deer horn powder鹿角 + lacquer
2 top board base lacquer
2 top watery lacquer
7 top board lacquer 7 layers
last last layer
4 smooth fine polish 2 times

altogether 23 days.

When drying the lacquer needs humidity, humidity 85% is best, should be between 80-90°; if its any higher there will be a misty foggy sheen to the lacquer and it will not be mirror finished.

The "bridge" which holds up the strings should be .9 to 1.2cm thick; .9 will give a lighter sound and thicker dimensions gives a sturdier sound

N.B.Some of the terms of the names of wood and details are found in Jim Binkley's blog: Little Old Qin Maker. Thanks to the Little Old Qin Maker!!

Russian Ark ***, Paranoid Park ***

Russian Ark ***



A very interesting one shot feature film. I had seen interviews of "making of" on youtube, its also very interesting.
What a great idea, no editing, just in camera editing... the pre-production is also enormous, lots of organisation! The director had one day to shoot the film because the location is inside the Hermitage museum and they only let them shoot on the off day. But what a fantastic location, very special. Rare.

As the film rolls along - we are aware of the camera framing re-framing all the time, unlike an edited movie. We see real paintings, scenarios, color of the wall, painting frames, (in ordinary movies, when you see a painting, it is a decor so usually kind of rough, look-a-like paintings but here, all the details are solid, good! can stand up to a close up without any problems). Then the actors and actresses are doing a continuous tableau display - including the sound track... music. For example: we get the Marquis (with formaldyhyde smell and old costumes) to go from room to room, he talks to the variouis people in various ages, they might be in easy jogging suits, or sailors outfit, or old style suits, he goes up to a woman in a long black dress, like in a millet painting; she seem to be blind, but she knows all the paintings and could tell lots of details about the painting to the visitor - is this a tongue in cheek effort to say, all these museum guides, whether they see or not see, it amounts to the same, because only we could see with our own eyes, she could only give you information; therefore, she could be easily replaced with a "talking guide" box - or, is the movie maker saying; all this chitter chatter about a painting is all words, we must see with our own individual eyes? In anycase, movie viewers are slightly jostled by this blind fine manner painting tour guide. Such slightly off-set with many asides scenes are many, in almost all the running water tableaux/scenes. Too many to name. Each one intriquing and holds our attention.

Otherwise, how do you keep the viewers interest while time is passing?

In the movie Stroll, our interest is upheld by the rapid fire of dialogues also full of intriques, and the girl is charming, while we dont really see the two guys faces. One is a poet the other pragmatic man-man; we are held in hope to see up close what do these two guys look like? Whereas we see the "fiancé" up close with a steady frame focused on his face. We see who this steady man through a steady cam.

Watch the movie yourself. :)


Paranoid Park ***

poetic travelling shots of the inner mind of a teenager who done got some trouble and gotta get it out of his head. Skate boarding poetry.
The pretty girlfriend and the girl next door girl friend are very nice butterfly wing type subtle touches and depth through layering. Tells the story through non verbal eye contacts, revealing the inner characters. We viewers are seeing these eyes and smiles, words through the eye of the boy-in-trouble.

Wednesday 21 December 2011

High Quality Sim inspection Dec 2011

High Quality Sim inspection Dec 2011

Many high quality sims have disappeared as we go along from the time I entered sl. 2007
Sims are high quality not only because of its fine graphic qualities, but they had story telling possibilities which gave visitors real memories of events, experiences of events in real time. It's an ensemble of memories of people and interactions and playfulness, freely enjoyed times.

Often, I would like to go back and revisit, replay all the activities that we did. Just to see, has things changed?

Like revisiting my kindergarten school ground, why, these stairs are so tiny, swings so low, and all built in stone for little people. We were tiny then!

Some of the disappeared sims that I would like to revisit are:

1// Clock Island (Franck Muller themed on time and numbers)
2// Isakaya Tokyo TV (post war 40s full village w all items replicas, ritual etc)
3// Everwind (mediaeval role playing sim)
4// Greenies (tiny green men from outerspace, with occasional real life ad purpose : ie L'Oréal campaign for makeup, skin)

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Stroll***half


Stroll***half Russian film, 2003

Interesting Russian movie, the whole film is shot on a rolling moving camera. Almost like a one shot deal. The dialogue is a sparkling imaginative bolt of silk, running non stop. Images are in motion all the time that we cant really see the face of the two main male characters. And the girl Olga, we only see her face up close quickly here and there, and her silhouette - big bosom girl. So we only see her up to her waist until we meet the best friend of the first male lead. Olga was accosted on the street by one poetic young man Alexei, he falls in love w her and introduces his best friend Petya to her. Meanwhile they are walking non stop through out the street, on the bridge under the rain. Olga receives non stop here and there phonecalls, she tells the caller to stop calling her. All the time, the quickly running conversation has to do with imaginative scenarios of who and what she does, Alexei invites her to Moscou, she agrees but insisted on paying for her ticket. She lets him see her passport so that he knows shes ten years older than him. But she really like Petya more, because Petya is the more mature one. Throughout the two hours, by the time we meet Petya, we noticed that Olga doesnt have to talk in the peppy way to Petya unlike to Alexei. She talks abouts how she sees the two, how she loves them both. Finally the secret is revealed, she was on a bet w her husband to be that she could walk for hours on high heel shoes and that she could go on a honeymoon in Tibet and Himalaya. Both Alexei and Petya felt cheated and left in a state of pissed off. Olga runs out to chase after them both to reassure them that she didnt do it on purpose she didnt want to cheat them. We see her running out the door to catch them both. The film ends with a woman kissing a man, but we dont know who she is kissing. In the dialogue, Alexei says to Petya that, the finace had no idea what he just lost... even though the two guys were sort of felt let down due to being "deceived" by this imaginative adventurous woman. When pickpocketed by a band of gypsy women, Olga doesnt get angry, she thinks its a wonderful adventure, a piece of theatre! Olga is someone who has exceptional visions of how life is lived, what time is, what people honesty, and being in the moment etc etc. Olga is a gypsy soul hereself. We see that this one day walk has changed something in her life, maybe even though she truly loves her fiancé, but she loves more these two guys whom she has just met, just like that. She runs after them out the door.

The film opens and ends with Nina Simone's wispy voice singing about love.
Very good smart story building, but after the revelation of the premise, its a little "just smart" but still believable.

Its a poetic fairy tales of a sort, and I do believe you could love many people all at once.

Here is a story that tells of the three types of love through Olga, that she was not "cheating" any one of them. However, its only credible in the framework of the film, because of clever scripting.

The film has very beautiful camera work too, and justifiable camera work, we are strickened by the a beauty of a cold blue sky of St. Petersberg through the reflexion of a car window showing all the buildings upside down and flowing in movement, (because its travelling in a marvellous curvy wave like scrolling motion on the screen); then we see its somebody in a car stepping out. In retrospect, we see the couple are not really seeing eye to eye. They are not such a made for each other couple. But there is reason why its a car reflexion that we see, because it was bet made for a day. Olga was in a car dropped off by her fiancé,where she began her walk.

When she meets Petya, we begin to see far away long shots, where we see her strutting walk on high heels, but the camera moves very quickly so we still couldnt see up close the faces of Alexei nor Petya.

Finally when the walk is over, in the bowling ally, we see Olga's fiance - a very ordinary good guy w common sense of fun, too common for a "wild horse" with run away spontaneous imagination like Olga - Olga is an exceptional woman. Olga came from a small country side - this also accounts for why she would be stuck with a man like this - everything fits in the movie.

Beautiful and refreshing story. Camera work flowing - reminds me of the one shot film also staged in St.Petersberg, the "Russian Ark".

Am very happy to have seen this movie.

I Vitelloni ****

I Vitelloni****A Fellini classic, black and white, 1953. Prize: best screen writing.

Everything in this movie is very human, measured, every character has its specificity within their lives.From the main 5 young man, to the young wife, to the bosses wife, the father, the father-in-law-boss, the aging famous actor, play wright to be, show girl, high society woman with a flair to flirting, movie house etiquettes and signs, everything fits perfectly. (make up, costume, manners all convincing and distinctive as per character)

Italian Miss Mermaid contest, young womens covered-talk about pre-marital pregnancies, everything fits. Mothers broken hearted by run away daughters w a married man, mothers distraught by missing daughter in law - (she asked herself if its time to make lunch by habit when in face of uncontrollable events coming up, making lunch brings back a normality, an order to their lives...) etc etc.

The marriage at the church, the masked ball, the grandeur and small hard working folks, the young boy who had to get up at 3am everyday to work at the train station... everything works.All details are so human and humourous at the same time.

Fellini does not despise his light hearted characters, he showed them as they are. Only someone who has seen quite a lot of human situations could he make such a film. However, maybe its collaborative? Maybe Fellini had lots of friends of all sorts, thats how he could have made such a rich convincing human comedy type of realism film?

Wonderful film, I back tracked a few times to see how he did the various scenes and dialogues just to not miss it, because he is not redundant, everything is very concise and useful - when Moraldo leaves the small town, the camera show various buddies in bed, sleeping, about to be awaken but not awake, not out of bed. Then the camera pulls away, Moraldo is leaving without knowing where to go, but he must leave, because he is a serious young man, away and away, goodbye small town good bye. (The young boy Guido asks him, where are you going? Moraldo doesnt know, he says good bye to Guido, and Guido says good bye. We imagine, Guido might be the one to leave also because he is so orderly and proper inspite of his lowly position, unlike the five buddies, he will be the one to leave. Two adults passes by Guido who is walking along the rail track towards the Sun, they pat him on the head, like for a young good boy.

All these tiny gestures throughout the movie build towards a certain ambiance, a solid master web of a story. They are not empty, not long winded, they fill in the scenario like so many strokes as in a fumato painting, suggesting who will do what in the future for the big picture.

Monday 19 December 2011

QR code in color


QR code, see if it works?

Chihlee Technology Institute 致理技術學院 Dec15-16, 2011; TaiChung sl in rl friends

Chihlee sl+rl campus, Nomilly Valeska
Cloud
Inaea: Unesco, Sandrine Han
Art Education
Tiny Avatar as gift
Sl friends meeting in Taichung
HuaKui MobileMusic, Swann Jie + Shuen-git
Sl locations and trees

Zhong Dao Tang: Qin and Qin Culture, Taipei. New York Qin Society and Friends Symposium, Oct 2011

Zhong Dao Tang at QiDong Street, Taipei, Taiwan
Shuen-git Chow 周 旋 捷 invited to the Qin Symposium to present "Pale Ink 2004" and "Half HunDun Qin 2003-2006" to Zhong Dao Tang members and New York Qin Society members.
Shuen-git reading Chang PeiYou's Meeting Proceeding notebook
Jerome Li, master of ceremony at Qin Symposium; Half HunDun Qin could be seen behind him, also sg's computer for running "Pale Ink"

Zhong Hua Qin Society's blog on the event.
Green= added commentary by Shuen-git Chow
Key
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Zhong Hua Qin Society's blog on the event.
Green= added commentary by Shuen-git Chow
key
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Sunday 18 December 2011

Talk at Chihlee Technology Institute, Taipei, Taiwan. Dec16th2011

Some questions which came up again and again vis-a-vis Virtual Worlds - especially the one in Secondlife - Are Virtual World things real?

To reply to these puzzling existantial queries, I have written back in 2009 my experiences for Secondlife-world time.

The main points are here:

Time is a limited ressource and the person who spent time specifically for you, to be with you - in person in real life, and online via their avatar - has given you the gift of their time and is a real friend.

The Virtual World becomes "real" when the people inside invest their true selves in it. What is life if you are stripped of memories? We have only memories - to provide good memories, you must have high quality experiences.

This translates into high quality objects, scenarios and time - just like in the material world - immaterial world and material worlds are both components of real life.



http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/11/high-quality-sim-for-good-memories.html

Sunday Robot, Oct2011






Sunday Robot, Oct 2011
Stainless steel, model size: table top approx 8 inches

Wednesday 14 December 2011

HuaKui BallBall, large, medium and small

Real human scale 1:1 small

Human scale with different mannequin sizes. Left: Extra Extra Large, building size ball, 20meter diameter; Top: Large ball, sitting 5meter diameter sphere; Right: Extra Large ball, 10meter diameter.


Large size ball with mannequin as human scale

Saturday 10 December 2011

3 idiots making of ***half, The White Sheik ***half, Intelligence of Being Human

3 idiots making of ***half,
New pop film everybody says I would like. I got a hold of a making of, thinking it was the film, after I watched it entirely I find it very informative. Very good. I like to know behind the scenes type of mechanics and the actors, what efforts they made to achieve for example a lisp for a character etc. All very impressive and I really like last scene of the clear magnificent setting. So clear, water and sky all in one. Apparently the actors had oxygen problems, they were gasping for air after each piece of dialogue! Wonderful making of.

The White Sheik ***half
Fellini has made this very multilayered film about a young bride to be falling in love with romance as portrayed in Photo-roman comics, and he clearly showed each characters multileveled humanity. Regardless of how naive the girl is, the lady editor is warm and friendly towards her, she wants her to enjoy her romantic dreams. The taxi driver chases after the husband from place to place and waits to get paid, because he knew the husband is in hot water, so he waits without breaking the husbands "show". Very human. And the police man, in his detective professionalism, gets the husband to say his name, his fathers name, each time he utters his name; clack clack clack, the typewriter gets going as if hes already committed a crime... very funny and subtle. The "white sheik" comes on land, and faces this big fat woman, his wife who slaps the girl, and gets his man. So immediately the white sheik denys all doing w the girl, climbs on the back of the vespa, holds on tight the fat woman - she is the one for him! She resolves all his problems, and is the true pillar of solidity of his life! All the pretty girls in the world are just little snippets of candies, no more. The girl is played by a very pretty saintly pure young actress, very gd in her role. Fellini's wife plays this nosy woman, w very bright eyes, a little kookie but so likeable. The Juilette of the Spirits, same charming eyes. In the end, the girl gets together with her new husband, who is now truly she knows he is her white sheik. It is good that she had experienced this little dream breaking romance. It is very intelligent this movie shows each person involved in the production of romance, so necessary in peoples difficult lives. Each character has rules and boundaries that makes their lives not so easy and each part provides something sweet to make life go easier, and nobody is really that naive to believe in it at the first degree. So, this movie is so great in that all these multiple simultaneously occuring layers are all happening so well, nobody is mean. Everybody can make a little room for the other when in need. That, is being human. Intelligence of being human or rather Deploying Human Intelligence.