The new assignment will be a class project.
Aim is to create a website that functions like a window and mirror (metaphorically speaking) for East and West.
You can download the PDF containing, assignment, planning and inspiration here

Earlier this year I was a guest lecturer at the Willem De Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. The assignment I gave the (graphic design) students was called: From I was here to where am I?. It was about my travels to China, and about the way I looked at China, and how the photos I made were showing my own, very subjective interpretations. I gave the students 1000! of my photographs as source material. Their assignment was the following:

Construct a subjective, fictional story about Beijing using 1000 photos made by me in Beijing between 2006 and 2008. Your interpretation of Beijing, based on my views of Beijing, is what is important. The photos may be cut-up, manipulated, rearranged.

Photos from their first presentation can be seen here:
http://www.remarksfromafar.com/afar_minor.html

The end results were many small publications (booklets) and one film, all using my photos as a starting point.

> Example 01
Here a Dutch student worked together with a Japanese exchange student. They had conversations about each others perceptions of the East, and turned that dialogue into a booklet:

There was a green and a red transparent sheet. Use the one, and you could read the views of the Asian student, use the other, and you could read the views of the European student.
You can download a PDF of the whole booklet here: beijing.pdf (beware! it’s a very large file – 16 mb)

> Example 02
These students went to Amsterdam to take photographs in Chinatown there. They first made a selection of my Beijing photographs, and then went to find comparible situations in Amsterdam. This resulted in a booklet,which was cut in half, making it possible to mix the different worlds.

You can download a PDF of the whole booklet here: anouk_lisette.pdf
(5 mb)

> Example 03
This is not the final result, but part of the process of these students’ project. They found an article about the use and meaning of colour in China, and decided to organize the 100o photos by colour. They wanted to see if the use of colour in Beijing was changing. They found software online that helped create this document:

> click image to enlarge

> Example 04
Here the students chose to make a model, a kind of filmdecor, using the photos. Then using stop-motion, they made a short animation. They tried to give a sense of how it is to look at, to frame the environment that you’re in. (This is also about how it is to be an observer).

china decors 2 from Natasa Lops on Vimeo.

Here are some of the answers the students gave to the questions about interactive and public art as posed in class on September 29th.

wang hao ning’s answers(.doc)
nan’s answers(.ppt)
liu yu qing’s answers(.doc)
mai shan wen’s answers(.doc)
li qian’s answers(.doc)
xia xiao’s answers(.doc)
xin xiao yan’s answers(.pdf)
zhan dan ping’s answers(.doc)
cui xin yan’s answers(.doc)
jin dan dan’s answers(.doc)
wu sheng’s answers(.doc)
li wen long’s answers(.doc)
mo wu ren’s answers(.doc)
huen kitho’s answers(.doc)
qiang’s answers(.doc)
ye chun ling’s answers(.doc)
wang wen juan’s answers(.doc)
lin yi ping’s answers(.doc)
zheng qi qi’s answers(.doc)

14 more to go.

YAH-Interactive is a design group in Beijing that specializes in both commercial and art projects, whereby interaction, animation and a lot of imagination is involved.

Checkout their weblog here: http://www.yahplus.cn/blog/onlycity在里昂/
and their main website here: http://anyah.cn/
and a experimental work here: http://yahlab.com/

They’ve just come back from France where, together with artist Liu Qiangyuan, they created an online project called: Only City
About their city of the Eye:
“Only city.org is a city constructed on Google Earth (…)by Yah Lab. They named the Only City “the City of the Eye” in Chinese which implied the capital city/the Forbidden City. Moreover, in Chinese culture the eye is the finishing touch an artist makes his work alive, It is the crucial action that gives life to anything. (…) Liu’s [Qiangyuan] real size woodcut figurines reside in the Only City and become a reflection as well as storyteller(…)”

Using Google Earth (which you could definitely call public space) they’ve created and environment where people from all over the world can connect. Woodcut characters made by Liu Qiangyuan, mix with the virtual world of games and online environments. Here are some screenshots of the site. Click on the thumbnails for larger version:

Visit the site here: - http://onlycity.org/

Today you’ll see the work of two Dutch artists, both active in the field of art and public space:

Daan Roosegaarde is an artist working in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.His work explores the dynamic relation between architecture, people and e-culture. In this interaction his sculptures create a situation of ‘tactile high-tech’ where visitor and (public) space become one.

Roosegaarde: “My artworks explore the dynamic relation between architecture, people and new media. In this research the sculptures are a materialized collision of technology and the human body. Through the use of new media the sculptures trigger human senses to make a sensual engagement with their environment. For example interactive landscape Dune enhances the daily behavior of people, reacting to their sound and motion as they pass by in the evening. Here the visitor changes into a participant; a direct influence on the identity of the interactive work. Fused into an intelligent and sensible environment, the artwork becomes an extension of our collective, social skin.”
Visit his site here: http://www.studioroosegaarde.net/

Giny Vos‘ work is characterized by a poetic use of technology. It is mostly “created for public spaces.  This means that, by and large, the real existing environment plays a significant role in the final result. (…) I consider the processes that take place at any given location to be just as important as the physical characteristics thereof, so I often make use of movement, in the form of light or digital displays. At the same time, the work also always tells its own story; it is not an illustration of the place where it is, but rather tries to expand the experience of this. In this way, the work seeks to place the given situation (literally and figuratively) in another light, whereby a new situation arises, without the existing one being obscured.”
Visit her site here: http://www.ginyvos.nl/site/reizendzand_eng.html

Here are links to some organizations in Holland that occupy themselves with art in public space (= public art?):

SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space) is a public art institution, based in Amsterdam, that develops exceptional art projects in relation to public spaces:

SKOR aims at promoting the quality and experience of public space and endeavours to bring experimental approaches and critical discourses on art in public space to the attention of a larger public. The organisation focuses on interaction between art, partner, location, and the public and establishes connections with developments in new media, architecture, urban development, and landscape architecture.

Visual and written documentation about all their projects can be found here: http://www.skor.nl/listpublish-680-en.html

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The Researchgroup Art & Public Space (in Dutch the ‘Lectoraat Kunst en Publieke Ruimte‘), stimulates research and theoretical reflection on the role of art and design in the public domain.
On this mainly text-based site you can find various publications on the topic of art in public space. It is pretty tough english for you to read, but if you’re truely interested in the topic of art in public space, and you’re english is OK, I recommend you take a look.  http://www.lkpr.nl/index_en.php?page=publicaties&id=6

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Stroom Den Haag is a centre for art and architecture with a wide range of activities. Starting from the visual arts, architecture, urban planning and design the program focuses on the urban environment. (…) Stroom wants to contribute to the permanent development of the reflection on the city and the part that can be played by the visual arts in this context.
Check out their projects here:
http://www.stroom.nl/programma/index.php?lang=en&time=past

Starting on December 5th, the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, undoubtedly will offer some interesting events.
One of them is the Urbanism/Architecture filmfestival.

30 classic architecture and urbanism-related film and video works from 1920s classics to modern cinema will be shown in the mainstream theatres of Shenzhen for a special 20-day film festival. A number of seminars and discussions on film and architecture will take place across the city.

An excursion to the Biennale will tie in nicely with our Public Art project which starts in December.

On Sunday September 27th most students presented their final work for the subjective mapping assignment. Hopefully, I ‘ll be able to post some of the work, links to the work or documention of the work on this blog. For now some photos taken during the presentation.

> click on the photos to enlarge

Here are some pics from the “treasure hunt” that Hao Ning organized as her project for the subjective mapping assignment. (click on the images to enlarge)

Hao Ning hands out our maps…


the maps are studied…


and off everyone goes…


which direction to take?…

Nan has found another clue…


a next clue is found af t Ground Zero Space…


there’s some discussion…


and the prize is…listening to a song


the maps are collected…

tea afterwards is quickly replaced by beer!

Here is the PDF of todays presentation. It also contains the assignment for you to think about for next friday (october 9th).
Download here