Starting from “Extend your studio space beyond the screen/the desk/the room.” I started thinking about what is the start of the starting point before extending the space. By referring to what I did for action 1, I want to start from a tiny point where everything started.
A dot can be the beginning of everything, it can be the first microorganism that appeared in the ocean thousands of years ago, it can be our earth, it can be dust in the universe, it can also be the starting point of a line on paper.
I spent a very long time on understanding the brief of action 3, I was so confused about what the form could be. But then considering the commonality of studios at school in the normal time or at home like what we are experiencing right now, I’m thinking if I can combine those spaces together someway. Myself as the main object using both spaces is the connection for them.
In terms of spatial relationships, I hope to connect the two spaces by myself, and I think ‘extending’ is not limited to space. Creativity and imagination are also extendable, and I’m seeking what valuable and interesting in this mental space. All these theoretical actions are done by humans, and I want to jump out of the limitation of the physical spaces.
Lexicon: More than human-centered; scaling in/scaling out
At the end of the black line is a black box. I hope it can remind me to think out of the box at any time. The studio in reality is like this black box. As “designers situated in the box”, I hope we can transcend physical constraints and come to a spiritual level. I don’t want my creativity to be constrained by the actual knowledge system, also based on what we practiced in class, I was doing this stretch lexicon with Shankar and Zahra on “more than human-centred” it actually connects my points together. I don’t want to limit myself to one direction, it contains the shift between large scope and miniature in design.
The picture in the middle was drawn when I was preparing to apply for graduate school at the beginning of this year. At that time, I was under tremendous pressure, not only psychological but also financially. When looking at this painting, we need to look at it from another angle. After rotating by 90 degrees, we can see a trace of light in the clouded sky and connected with the dark blue ocean. It is a reminder for me to be optimistic even under a high-pressure environment. I’ve been trying to connect artistic thinking to my design practices since they have dramatic differences and are somehow contradictory. I want to take that idea back to my practice. I’ve been struggling with different ways of thinking based on different areas of study. I can still remember when I was in my first year, John was walking me through the print media studio, and saying that design is limiting our original creativities, and suggesting me to continue in the visual art area. But I chose design eventually because I want to explore a different perspective of thinking aside from the 15 years of experience in the visual art area. I started learning drawing at the age of 3 and continuing learning in that area until I came to ECU and joined the industrial design program. Design thinking is helping me forming the way how I look at this world, at the same time, this kind of emotional and subjective view in visual art is also affecting some of my design practices.
By cleaning the old studio spaces while doing this action, I felt lonely in this place where I stayed for 3 years. Recalling this time last year, I still had classes with my friends, talking about grad design, but now I’m the only one continuing to go to school, which makes me feel a little sad. I transform all things I left for my graduation design to this new studio space. Here’s what ends in my studio.
I really want to focus on exploring want I have started researching within spiritual peace and mental balancing with the help of nature. I found water magical to find spiritual connections with nature; I found the aquarium actually helping me calming down; I started thinking deeper and trying to find the connection between individuals and the planet. There are so many nature-related elements in my design, and I’m still using paintings to express myself as well.
Here’s where I have started with that research: http://gradshow.ecuad.ca/industrial-design-2020/cloud-2020-april-tian/
