Hanwen Hu

This sound assignment was a challenge for me. After thinking about it, I decided to make an issue about my experience of riding a green leather train in the same year-this kind of train is hard to find in China now. First of all, due to the difficulty of finding the train number of the green leather train, and due to time constraints, it is difficult for me to take a direct ride to record, so I went to some related museums, but there are still some differences between the sound recorded in this way and the sound heard outside, so I had to use Adobe Audition which is somewhat daunting to me. Luckily, I didn’t have a lot of trouble with the binaural downmix.

In the selection of materials, I tried to be as close as possible to my childhood memories, for example, there is a recording of a peddler hawking at the station. I deliberately made it sound vague, because for me when I got in the car, the sound of this kind of hawking goods was so vague. Of course, this work also has some dissatisfaction. For example, there are a few sounds of unzipping the zipper that may seem inexplicable to outsiders, but at least for me, it can indeed bring me back to that memory. Yes It was a precious experience for me.

Below in my work:

    Hanwen Hu（hh2856)

    5/14/2023

  1: The concept:

At the beginning, my plan was to make a documentary video about Jiangxi Yuzhang Academy’s illegal education and abuse of minors. However, due to the personal reasons of the originally planned interview subject, the interview could not be completed, so I had to change the subject. Just at this time, I learned that a classmate of mine who was studying in Hungary was about to return to China, so I came up with the idea of ​​interviewing him-production A video about Chinese students living in Hungary. Of course, what finally made me make up my mind is also my own reasons – I will go to New York in the second half of the year. Although New York is different from Budapest, I can still learn about his way of integrating into the local area during the interview.

  2：Process:

When I chose the interview scene, I realized that I didn’t have much choice in the interview itself – the interview could only be done on zoom, and with roommates on both sides, both me and that classmate had to use a virtual background. While such a limitation is undoubtedly great, on the other hand, it also prompted me to present this video in another way – with the help of the interviewee, I got some of his videos about Hungary And photos, combined with some scenes I took myself and some public materials on the Internet, I managed to have a rough plan.

Here are some picture I had at that time:

Of course, I also encountered some other problems during the production process. First of all, some video materials are taken from mobile phones, so I have to make them fit the screen. After thinking about it, I decided to use the triple mode instead of the dual mode, because I think three side-by-side vertical videos can make better use of the screen space, and Compared with double-up video, triple-up video is more novel and attracts more attention. The next problem is tuning. In order to make the background music not conflict with the human voice, I spent some time on Audition, but thanks to the professor’s teaching, I finally overcome these problems.

Here are some picture I took when I was working on the editing job:

3:Collaboration:

It’s hard for me to describe this, because I did this project completely by myself, but I do appreciate my partner – he is willing to take the time to respond to my interviews, and provide me with resources such as videos that he has, This is a great help to me. There is also the help of the professor. The professor taught me many new ways to solve the difficulties encountered in editing. This process also taught me to have the courage to ask the questions you have, otherwise they may continue to haunt you.

4:Result:

Although the result cannot be said to have fully met my expectations, I also think it is still a qualified work. In the shooting of the street view, I deliberately reserved some jitter and adopted the form of triple video, because I think it will be more impressive. People feel real. Of course, due to the length of the video, I also had to make choices about the video, focusing more on the part of “adapting to life”, and reducing the shaping of the main character, that is, my friend. But all in all, I’m grateful for the assignment, which gave me a chance to showcase and improve my crafting skills. In the future, I will also flexibly use the knowledge I have learned in this course to better achieve my goals.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ig4y1G76x/?spm_id_from=333.999.0.0&vd_source=aa6af8ad1e86b99da0a49512904ecc21

Hanwen Hu

When I try to reproduce my drawings in Illustrator, I have huge difficulties – it is almost impossible for me to reproduce my drawings on paper, it is too detailed for computer painting. So I decided to adopt a new method – draw each part of the picture separately on the computer, and then collage them together. Of course, for the overly complicated part, I chose to scan and upload.

First of all, I chose the solar system as the center of the picture. The ball in the upper left corner represents areas and creatures that humans are already familiar with, such as cats, forests, and fish; while the black triangle in the lower right corner represents the parts that are still unknown to humans. Such as ocean and snow mountains. And just as the triangle represents firmness, these areas are also very “stubborn” to protect themselves.

Given that aliens may have a completely different language and writing system from ours, I decided to use graphics and simple symbols as much as possible to represent the ecology on Earth, which is why I chose arrows – this way of pointing should be universal.

All in all, I hope this pioneer plaque is an effective reflection on the condition of humanity and our planet.

Here is my pioneer plaque:

Hanwen Hu

In the article, the author highlights the challenge of authenticity in modern media. The author believes that although previous documentaries focused on the “real” restoration of real scenes. But in fact, sometimes considered “abstract” and “uncertain” elements are more likely to make people believe the authenticity of the documentary.

Why do people tend to think that something “uncertain” is true? The author believes that this is an emotional mobilization. In this regard, my understanding is: when people watch such documentaries, their rationality may even be aware of the distortion of the content, but their emotional curiosity about uncertainty will make them want to understand, and in the process Instead, they are misled by these “uncertain” pictures or videos.

In fact, the current media as a propaganda machine has already proved that “real” things can also be used to deceive others after being edited, such as selective reporting or modification of filters, playback order, etc. to achieve expression and facts The effect of a completely different meaning. It is difficult to make people believe in fabricating lies, but if nine are true and one is false, or even 10% of the truth is used to mislead, most people can often be deceived. Therefore, the meaning of documentaries may have changed from a documentary to an emotional carrier, and we living in the information age must face such changes whether we accept it or not.

Reflection on Ted Chiang’s Book:

In this story, the author’s description of the alien’s language and communication habits is very interesting, and the process of the protagonist and the team understanding the alien language is also thought-provoking.

First of all, since the structure of alien language is completely different from that of human beings, it is impossible to directly understand the pronunciation. Not only that, but the written text of aliens is also very different from that of human beings. This difference is not only reflected in the difference in the text but also in the way of use in essence—the text of aliens directly expresses ideas, while the text of humans Most of them have to be combined with spoken language or pictograms. This leads to the fact that aliens can use very similar text to describe completely different concepts, and it will be difficult for outsiders to participate in this kind of communication. For humans, wanting to express emotions and ideas in words at the same time often requires the cooperation of the context, but these aliens don’t seem to need it. Not only that, because of the shape of the alien’s 7 limbs and the ability to predict, they can even express them at the same time. Writing out all the parts of an entire sentence is beyond the reach of the human way of thinking.

Of course, the protagonist’s research on alien communication methods has also affected herself, allowing her to think from the perspective of the present and the future at the same time as an alien. This influence seems incredible, but it is undeniable that when the two are completely different When different communication styles collide with each other, at least one party will be affected considerably. This also reminds me of the science fiction novel “Three-Body Problem”. In the collision of human civilization, they even learned to lie in a fully transparent thinking.

Therefore, I like such stories very much, because I have always believed that the collision between different languages ​​and communication methods will bring about miraculous changes, and these stories always stimulate my imagination.

Hanwen Hu

Feelings after reading:

In the article, the author focuses on explaining his understanding of digital imaging technology. One of the points that resonate with me the most is that he believes that although traditional mechanical photography and digital photography look similar, they are actually two completely different things. Different from the traditional chemical imaging process after mechanical photography, digital photography only needs to be transcoded and printed, which is actually a great convenience. And this fast process also reflects the “fluidity of data”.

I remember seeing mechanical photography when I was very young， I once follow the step after video cameras stored images on “film” and developed the film with a developer in the imaging room to complete the photo. I can still remember that dim and reddish environment, enough to make an unsuspecting child think he was on the set of some kind of horror or suspense movie. And the processing is not always perfect, the wrong processing method, the wrong proportion of the developer solution, an extra light source accidentally in the dark room…too many factors can ruin the photo. But digital photography is different. A simple video camera can adjust the exposure and focus automatically, and the post-processing can even be completed with the aid of a computer. A digital photo flows down the tide of data and comes straight into your hands. I’m a big fan of this clean and effective prop.

Of course, there is also a simpler version of mechanical photography. There was once a popular camera called “Polaroid” in China. It has a miniature “darkroom” that can be used to complete photos in the camera on the spot. However, due to the limitations of mechanical photography, a compact camera that achieves such a complex structure will undoubtedly not have a large storage space, which also prevents photographers from shooting as they wish. On the contrary, they must consider which scenes they want to shoot , After all, the film is only a little bit. Of course, digital photography also has its disadvantages. Too convenient post-processing makes it impossible for you to distinguish the authenticity of those photos in many cases. In many cases, a few post-production pictures can convince a large number of uninformed people that there is such a person or person on the earth. In this digital age, this may have far more serious consequences than we imagined.

Just let time tell about the future of digital photography.

Early on I decided to make a diptych about NYU Shanghai. But after careful consideration, I think I can expand this theme, so I went to shoot some pictures from the mountains on weekends. My main consideration in shooting is the connection between man and nature.

During the shooting, I accidentally discovered the beauty of the heavy fog on the mountainside. I felt so small in the boundless hazy beauty. I was shocked by this magnificent beauty and I could only record this beauty as much as I could. 

NYU Shanghai is my school in society and in the city, and the mountain is my school in nature. In the collage, I designed the effect that the left eye is in the school environment, and the right eye is in nature. This reflects my two-way connection with nature and society as a human being.

Here is my photo chart:

And here is my final work:

(p.s: in case I just fixed the blog and found what part I’ve failed to upload, I will reupload these ones by one)

For this assignment, first I set up an idea that I want to put these 8 pieces into 2 groups, one represents the cities or artifacts, and the other represents creatures, or nature lives, like insects.

For the artifacts part, I chose to make it in a more abstract way, which turns out to be close to what I had in mind, I use “+” and “-” to represent the magnetism and electrics, and other lines and squares to reflect the buildings.

For the creature part, I think for a long while about which creature I shall choose, finally I made a decision to use cricket, because It usually appeared in Chinese fairy tales, and left a deep impression on me.

My first full size square is based on the concept of “message sent and receive communications”, so I focused on that, also the comparison between receive and sent.

My second full size square is focused on the  symmetrical visual and conflicts, it happeneds similar to my imagination.

Since I never did anything like these before, it actually kind of challenged me, however, I still finished it, in all, I think it’s a funny experience to me that I learned a lot from it.

  My Diptych is basically about NYU Shanghai’s new campus and its 10th anniversary since NYU Shanghai means a lot to me as my university. The main message I want to express is the richness of school life reflected in some small details of NYU Shanghai in the 10th-anniversary celebration.

  What I plan to shoot is the interior of NYU Shanghai Qiantan campus and some pictures of the JingYao dormitory, because the combination of the two represents the real image of NYU Shanghai.

  I want to use purple or black and white as the background – the former can represent NYU very well, and the latter is a common and beautiful background, but I still need to consider it. In addition, how to make the purple background not look inconsistent is also worth studying The problem.

Below is my draft work: