Category: Communication Lab

The authenticity and representation of truth in the media we consume on a daily basis are of significance because it provides information that we may need, social understanding, and communication to a larger demographic. Many of us see clips of news segments, reels on social media like Instagram and 小红书, and advertisements daily, which can subconsciously give us information even if we aren’t paying attention. However, there are always multiple perspectives and biases to the information we are fed in most cases: news platforms will give information based on their political affiliation, if there is an argument between two internet influencers there will always be two sides. Depending on whichever the viewers see first, if it is the only part they see, then it will be the perception that they hold of the situation regardless of whether it is true or not. Furthermore, misinformation in the media especially in the regards of healthcare, drugs, and anything that affects a large population could have adverse consequences and jeopardise the well-being of the entire community.

Live broadcasts can give viewers a sense of trust with the platform that is streaming. It is difficult to falsify videos of events that are currently happening, and even if it is, the connection with the viewers is established as they can also feel as if they are there in the moment. 

In In Our Own Image, Ted Ritchin talks about the fluidity of the digital in terms of personal expression. In my opinion, fluidity of the digital describes the versatility of digital mediums such as video, photography, and online blogs. It’s about how these forms of art adapt according to who the viewers/interacters are, and how they can evoke different meaning according to how someone’s mood is or the situations/environment they are set in. 

For example, this illusion shows two different interpretations. One time, a viewer may see the white vase in the middle, but others, they may see the two face silhouettes facing each other. In terms of fluidity of the digital, if someone is feeling heartbroken or confrontational, they may see the faces, but if they are happy or have been shopping for flowers, they may see the vase. It’s about the duality of art and digital mediums. 

Photography is not necessarily the best way to capture reality. For example, many travel accounts always hyper-edit their photos to bring out the colours of sunsets, and the camera angles always change how viewers would see it in comparison to if they were at the scene themselves. Furthermore, there is no true way to really exemplify what the human eye sees with a fabricated lens. No matter what, there is always distortion. However, it can also bring out things that the naked eye cannot – zoom lens and microscopic cameras help us to envision what we cannot purely see. So in a sense, photography also encapsulates the concept of the fluidity of the digital. 

For the visual metaphor project, we were asked to create a 60-90 second film explaining a story with a voice over. Hugo Wang and I were partners, and decided to create a story based off of the poem “Elm” by Sylvia Plath. 

To start, we drafted the original storyline. We decided to create a story that follows the progression of a breakup, starting with the initial breakup then the contemplation period and eventually the loss of self in other people and substances. 

Section 1: The breakup. The man is seen with the girl, then the girl disappears and and he is left alone. After, he is seen by the riverside, fading into it. To film the disappearing scene, he had to stay still while I walked away, and we cut the video into two parts and crossfaded it. As he is leaning back, we rotated the camera with his motion and crossfaded it with the video of the river. With the heart in the coffee, it is a visual representation of heartbreak. 

Section 2: The contemplation period. The man walks alone in various scenes, from walking across bridges, to structural forms. As we were in the park, I noticed that a lot of the structures allowed people to disappear and reappear at certain angles, and we decided to utilise that to have a continuous flow of the man just walking. We also filmed the scenes at different perspectives for more contrast while still providing the flow. 

Section 3: The loss of self. The section is introduced by the church, signifying a change of heart. Then we follow the man’s journey through his eyes at a party, observing people, then seeing all of the faces of people he has used to try to get over the breakup, interspersed with moments from his contemplation in black and white in quick flashes. In the end, we see his vision fading in and out, just seeing the party lights. 

In terms of the music, we chose “Destroy Myself Just For You” by Montell Fish because the lyrics and entire tone of the song describes the story we wanted to portray. Integrating church bells as a change of scenery helps to let viewers know that it’s the start of the decline after the contemplation period. 

We decided to put a film/retro filter on the video clips for Sections 1 & 2, to portray the reflective tone of the scenes. For the third section, we increased saturation and contrast to create a little bit of a darker tone. 

Contributions: We both filmed segments – Hugo did most of party scenes and I did most of the park scenes. I did the video editing and Hugo did the audio editing. 

Overall, I loved doing this project and learned a lot about how to portray emotions in a visual context by pairing the visuals with audio. 

Special shoutout to Daniel Cashdan III for being the actor!

Video link: video

Poem: Elm by Sylvia Plath

0:00-1:10 of this clip from The Proposal: link

link to proposal: proposal

 

My initial memory for the sound visualisation was going to be from the perspective of sitting in a coffeeshop in New York City on a rainy day, watching all the people passing by. However, the more I recorded the sound samples, the more I realised it sounded like it would be from an underwater scene – which brought me to a memory of when I was about 14 years old. I was surfing in Half Moon Bay when I got a leg cramp and fell off my surfboard. My leg got cut by the fin and I remember moments fading in and out from above water and underwater. 

For the basic structure of this, I started out with the background sound of a video recording I took from a rocky beach in Niagara Falls. Then, I recorded the sound of a lot of people talking outside of a street in Xuhui, and also recorded the sound of someone playing music on a speaker as they were standing on the street. I layered these for the first bit of the soundscape.  I then isolated the water for a few seconds and faded in recordings from an outdoor skatepark in Puxi, first recording the skateboards rolling and people doing tricks, then recording a group playing slow drums in a different area of the park. These were to emulate the sound of my heartbeat, and also hearing the noises when I came out of the water. For the rest of the soundscape, I faded in and out other various noises such as the airplane flying overhead with the water consistently in the background. 

For effects, I added lots of reverb and amp for the water noises, limiter and equaliser on the skatepark, reverb on the people talking, echo on the music, and full reverb and echo on the airplane noises. 

Overall, this was a cool project to explore. I had previously used other DAWs such as Ableton Live and Logic Pro, but it was a bit tough adjusting to Adobe Audition. If I were to take this project further, I would add more elements and perhaps mute the water noises especially for the parts portraying underwater in order to better convey the emotions. 

final soundscape: link

For my memory, I think one of the most prominent moments I remember was when I was sitting in a cafe by the window when it was raining outside. The window looked out into a park in NYC, so it was perfect for people watching. I was reading my book and drinking coffee, listening to the sounds of the rain as ambient noise while music was playing softly in my headphones (they were not noise-cancelling). It felt extremely peaceful. 

Sitting by this window, I saw people running away from the rain, but also saw the slowness of people enjoying a walk under their umbrellas, free from the water dripping down from the sky. I heard children laughing as they splashed in puddles and cars honking as the drivers tried to navigate the slippery roads in the traffic. From the coffeeshop itself, I heard the coffee being made, and people having various conversations as the soft French music in the cafe played in the background. This is one of the moments I had cherished most, because as I grew older and became busier, I haven’t had moments to just enjoy sitting in a cafe in a very long time. 

For this assignment, I want to do a diptych that portrays two perspectives: one of the subject and one of the viewers towards the subject. I also want to make a tribute to a significant historical figure of some sort. Some ideas are Joan of Art (a play on Joan of Arc, who heard voices when she was 13 to save France and help with the coronation of Charles but later was burned at stake for a variety of “crimes” and became the patron saint of France), and Lee Krasner (wife of Jackson Pollack, and hid in his shadow for the entirety of his art career – was not recognised until after his death). Every situation is in the eyes of the beholder, and there are always multiple perspectives that contribute to the rise and downfall of a historical figure. 

An idea I had for Lee Krasner was to stage a photo where someone is painting outside the window, and I am (taking the photo) looking through the eyes of Krasner, watching from behind the shadows and curtains. The second photo would be a collage of things that represent concepts significant to her life story as told by others – for example, a face mask and curtains to represent how she was overshadowed, a marriage certificate to represent how she was only known prior as Mrs. Pollack, and colourful paint splatters as a tribute to her painting style. 

 

For this project, I decided to base it off of Jasper’s Song by Flume. This song starts out quite mild, then starts getting distorted yet simultaneously flows as it progresses. Due to the multiple layers in the song, I was inspired to create a piece that reflected the flow and layers of it. 

With the One Black Square assignment, I really struggled to make full usage of the entire canvas. With this project, I wanted the symbols to reach out towards and even past the shown pages, as this song gave me the feeling of extension and a continuous flow. I decided to use the similarity and figure/ground concepts to fully express the feel of the song to me. 

In all honesty, I wasn’t quite sure where to start as I was pretty new to Illustrator. As I was listening to the song, it sounded like a flower that bloomed into something angry, mysterious, and passionate. Thus, I decided to create a sort of piece that had tendrils flowing out and extending through the entire page. To represent the growth of the song, I decided to make the piece from bottom up, as if it’s a sheet of music but rather another form of visualising the sound and almost watching it progress along with the music. 

If I had more time to do this project, I would pay attention to the details more. I wanted all parts to interconnect, but unfortunately, some parts of it were very slightly disconnected or not following the flow. 

For this assignment, Hugo Wang and I  decided to explain the evolution of communication methods to the aliens. We want to emphasize on how technology advancement and societal changes shape the ways human communicate by including important milestones and highlights (new tools, better speed etc.) throughout human history.
The primary way of communication is via oral expression. It is a straightforward way for us human to exchange information and it became more important after written and spoken languages were constructed. It is also important to let aliens understand how our biological limitations and capabilities shape the way we communicate with one another. On the plaque, we wanted to use long lines to represent the “talking” process. As introduced in the book, aliens used long antennae to write. Therefore, we think it makes it easier for them to understand what we are trying to convey if we could borrow some of their communication elements and incorporate into our plaque.
The next component on the plaque sheds light on how humans overcome physical limitations to convey and exchange information. In ancient times, humans used pigeons as messengers due to their natural homing abilities for long-distance communications. The notes are tied to the birds’ legs and they are sent home with a message. This signifies the primal phase of remote communication that is rather time-consuming and unstable.
With the development of governance, communication systems were made possible. We included the postal system to signify how humans could also collaborate with one another, on the basis of social systems and constructs (governments, religion etc.) to facilitate the process of communications. However, the tool to communicate stays rather primal. Horses were the main way to transport these mails.
With the advent of electrical telegraph and the continued study of how sound is transmitted via the human voice, a more convenient method of communication emerged. This is a significant development in the evolution of communication methods because of the amount of time and resources saved on this important invention. Telephones made it easier for businesses to communicate with each other and as the network expands, the area one could reach is also expanded.
The eventual two devices represent the modern way of communication. Humans started to apply written and spoken language on devices (mobile phones, laptops) to communicate with one another. The communication system is more advanced compared with traditional dialing system and the possibilities of communication become almost limitless.
To build links among these different phases of communication, we used arrows. Even though it could be risky for aliens to understand that this signifies progress, it is a safe and easy way to represent the concept of evolution without overcomplicating the plaque.
To further simplify the threshold of understanding the plaque, we used a circular pattern to demonstrate the whole process as in the book aliens were accustomed to using circular shapes to write and comprehend texts.