After visiting V&A Museum and recording some objects that attracted me(find it here), today I did a bit research and selected 3 finalists for my next project.

Which one should I choose to focus on?

No.1 the Eternal
by Ruth Taylor Jacobson
Coloured and acid-etched flashed glass, with paint
London, England, 2004

The window shows traditional imagery used in Jewish art, such as lion, the stag and the eagle, which in the Jewish faith represents God’s protection. The main colour– gold, blue, purple and scarlet– are those ordained by God in the book of Exodus for the regalia of the High Priest.

 

Research: design for stained glass the Eternal

V&A museum also collected these design for the Eternal by Ruth Taylor Jacobson, it’s interesting to see how the artist used different materials like watercolour, pencil and collage to design a image on wove paper before making it into stained glass.

 

More Stained Glass by Ruth Taylor Jacobson

The first time when I came to the Whiteley Galleries at V&A Museum, I was amazed by the effect of stained glass, it combined colours, lights, mythology and faith in one piece of artwork.

 

It reminded me Nasir al-Mulk Mosque in Shiraz, Iran, in the morning,  the sunlight  illuminated the Mosque with all of the colours of the rainbow, reflecting on the floors, walls, and visitors.

 

(photos from Google Images)

I wanted to create my universe like this. In this universe, I am the Demiurgic, I am my God, different Gods and Goddesses are different kinds of me, actually, everything in this heaven, from life to death, would be a reflection of me.

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No.2 Microscope Art
by Nanotronics
nSpec®3D, 2018

“To build the future, you need to be able to see it.”
With virtual reality to allow users to walk through the molecular and atomic landscape of a strand of hair, human tissue and blood cells, and a plant cell.

 

Research: Art under the Microscope : Cell Picture show

Then I found pictures of a collaboration between CellPress,  University of Michigan Health System and Fiber Artists@Loose Ends. You could click photos below to see it clearly. For each image, the left  is a picture of cells , the right is how the artist interpreted the picture in fabric .

 

Most cells are transparent , but scientists make different parts of cells glow with fluorescent dyes, which is artificial but magical. It makes me curious about cells or human tissue from my own body, maybe I could do some dyeing experiments and use a microscope to watch them, then design fabric and make it into a Garment to wear, as my new skin, which could also represent my universe.

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No. 3 Uploading a Brain to a USB
by 3Scan
Whole Brain Emulation, 2018

This film shows an experimental process of brain scanning, used to create a digital model of a neural network. So far it has been trialed on small animals, such as the mouse shown here, whose brain contains far fewer neurons than the human brain. Eventually, this technology could lead to the transfer of information within a brain into a digital existence.

 

Research: Immortality Technology

“While many tech moguls dream of changing the way we live with new smart devices or social media apps, one Russian internet millionaire is trying to change nothing less than our destiny, by making it possible to upload a human brain to a computer.”  — The Immortalist: Uploading the mind to a computer 

“In Altered Carbon, the body no longer matters. As one character quipped: “You shed it like a snake sheds its skin.” That’s because the human consciousness has been digitized, and can be moved between bodies—both real and synthetic.” — Will we ever be able to upload our minds into other bodies? 

“The latest craze in Silicon Valley is for “transhumanism” — the belief that we can use technology to eradicate ageing, augment our bodies and minds and merge with machines. Is this the future? ” — the TIMES: Flesh is a dead format

“Whole brain emulation (WBE), mind upload or brain upload (sometimes called ‘mind copying’ or ‘mind transfer’) is the hypothetical futuristic process of scanning the mental state (including long-term memory and “self”) of a particular brain substrate and copying it to a computer. The computer could then run a simulation model of the brain’s information processing, such that it responds in essentially the same way as the original brain (i.e., indistinguishable from the brain for all relevant purposes) and experiences having a conscious mind. ” — WikiPedia

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It’s a hard decision to choose only one to focus on.

Then, after considering the following points:

1. Similarities in why I choose these objects: the image of colors and lights, could be away to reflect my own world, either through stained glass to create my imagination world, or through cells art  to discover the microscopic world, or brain science to present my spiritual world.
2. Both No.1 and No.3 are about eternality and immortality.
3. No.1 the Eternal attracts me more for its technique and material, stain glass, and the word of “Eternal” itself, but I’m not interested in the concept(Jewish culture and jewish Art) of this artwork.
4. No.2 the art under Microscope attracted me more for it’s colors and shape, could be a great pattern to make fabric and garment, because I’m considering to make costume in this project.
5. No.3 Whole Brain Emulation and immortality technology makes me feel ‘wooooooow‘,I feel so curious and excited about this topic.
6. Compared to stained glass and cell fabric, which are quite clear for me to think about how to make an artefact(actually I have already planed for it even before the project), No.3 Brain Emulation is totally new for me, I have no clue what to do and how to do, but challenge is what I come for right ?

So

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I decided to focus on the third object, Whole Brain Emulation by 3Scan, as the starting point for my new project.

Well, I never expect that I would make this decision, don’t know what’s next yet, but feel quite excited, and very nervous.

Cheers, to a new challenge.

Mowen

Royal College of Art, London
2018.9.26