Looking at my space experiment, there are too many things happening there, graffiti, texts, symbols, expression, abstract art, toys and dolls, textile art, installation, spatial art, digital painting, portraits, which made me so confused — which one should I focus on? I can’t find an answer, I wanna everything.

During a tutorial, Isabel helped me to point out what she has seen in my space, what she thought I could research deeper by looking at some artists she mentioned. To find my paradigm, she suggested me to list down 10 things I have done in this space, choose 3 to focus and do deeper research and experiments, then for next project, I could decide the final one and focus on it.

Step 1, I listed down all my interests and experiments in this project :

1. Abstract Expressionism
2. Human Emotion
3. Anger, Anxiety, Depression
4. art as therapy to heal me
5. Activism 
6. censorship
7. control and be controlled
8. Grafitti Texts and Calligraphy
9. energetic and passion
10. Spatial Installation
11. Space Expansion
12. Shelter: private space
13. Self Portraits
14. Human body
15. Dolls and toys
16. Custome and accessories design
17. fairytale,  magic, and fantasy
18. Childlike and naive art 
19. Happy and cute animation(especially Japanese animation)
20. textile art
21. Symbols and signs 
22. Repetition
23. Full up/no space/show energy
24. Use my body to express (body performance)
25. Fashion Photography
26. Light
27. Rhythm: similarity between music and art
28. Globalism/Cosmopolitanism
29. Humanity
30. Cross-cultural understanding
31. Global issues: conflicts, violence, poverty, climate change, etc.
32. Gesamtkunstwerk (All forms of Art )
33. Bring things together
34. make a positive impact
35. Interaction art: art as experience
36. mind and brain
37. create my world
38. telling stories
39. art entrepreneurship and branding
40. self
41. freedom
42. environment／nature and human life
43. will (will to life/power ….?)

Step 2, for some of the words mentioned above, I found them could be combined, or some are the different forms of the art model, so here is the 2nd list :

1. Create my world (my goal)
   1. philosophy of self (alone but not lonely ?)
   2. telling my stories based on my experience (related to human emotions)
   3. with my imagination
   4. Gesamtkunstwerk (All forms of Art: painting, music, light, sound, installations, space, costume…..)
   5. Full up/no space by repetition/ layers and layers/ bringing things together
   6. art entrepreneurship and branding
2. Expressive art to discover Human Emotion  (the context of my world)
   1. Portraits as a form to discover human emotion
   2. human figures painting/sculpture/installation to discover human emotion
   3. discover an abstract way to express emotion includes anger, anxiety, depression, happiness, sadness, passion, energy…..
   4. it’s a way of self-therapy
   5. dolls and toys are another forms of portrait and human body art
   6. Use my body to express (body performance)
   7. will, human life
3. Spatial Installation  (a set to present my world )
   1. space expansion as a form
   2. space as a private shelter (how about emotional shelter?)
4. Mixed Media Textile Art  ( forms of expressive art)
   1. Dolls and toys ( a form of expression) 
   2. Custome and Set design  ( a form of expression) 
   3. Mask and headwear design ( a form of expression) 
   4. Fashion Photography ( a form of expression) 
   5. Signs, Symbols, and marks making ( related to the emotion)
5. Childlike and Odd  (could be the style )
   1. inspirations from the fairytale, magic stories, fantasy 
   2. Pop art and Japanese animation
6. Global ( could be the big background )
   1. Humanity  (related to human emotion )
   2. Activism and Social Issues  (background)
   3. Cross-cultural understanding
   4. Global issues: conflicts, violence, poverty, climate change, etc.
   5. environment  and human life
   6. Globalism/Cosmopolitanism
   7. international relationship
   8. make a positive impact

Step 3, after consideration, 4 keywords left:

• Self
• Emotion
• signs and symbols
• All forms of Art(bring together)

this is the general idea of the paradigm I wanna focus on:

• Area:
  • Expression of human Emotions in Contemporary Society
  •  emotional expression of self (in censorship/conflicts/rapid development/global issues?)
  • Self, Will, and Emotion in (violent) conflicts and crisis globally
• How:  
  • Building Emotional Shelter(a private space in social communities) 
  • Making Expressive human figures and portraits in the form of 
    • painting and textile art
    • dolls and installation
    • costume and headwear
    • body performance (in photography )
    • could try all forms of art

So for the rest of the week what I’m going to is :

• make dolls sculptures and installations based on different emotions
• try different forms of  garments and headwears
• Yihe will be my model, photograph him to express emotions.
• Find someone to photograph me for emotional expression.
• Research on human emotion issues and how artists express human emotion
• Talk to a tutor about my paradigm and finalize the Paradigm:  define the area of inquiry, objectives, and formulate the negotiated brief.

Thanks to Isabel for the tutorial,  encouragement and showing a clear direction.

Mowen

Royal College of Art, London
2018.12.3