Documentation 💾️
How did ancient Chinese literati view the world?
The "'observation" of the ancient Chinese literati was a universal, contemplative, creative observation." It's the mutual triggering of the mind and the five senses.
Unify all the senses of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling and feeling.
「They had a dynamic way of observing」
The landscapes of the ancient Chinese were often presented in the form of scrolls, and they usually viewed a painting dynamically: slowly rolling it together with the right hand and unrolling it with the left.
Whereas most Western paintings are just hung on the wall, the viewer usually stands still to scrutinise them, they are static.
What are the characteristics of modern viewing styles?
Modern ways of seeing have reshaped the relationship between "eye" and "mind". Trains, film, theatre, and pictorials together show urbanites a "new world" of infinite extension - transcending geography and difference, replacing the prospect and depth of perception with fleeting images. However, this way of viewing strips away the feelings of other senses besides the eyes, turning it into a mere act of seeing, lacking the interaction with the "heart".
Modern ways of seeing have reshaped the relationship between "eye" and "mind". This way of viewing strips away the feelings of other senses besides the eyes, turning it into a mere act of seeing, lacking the interaction with the "heart".
Sitting on a speeding car
When we were in the car, we would always look out the window. What you see through the window is unselectable and discontinuous. Everything we see in the view merges into remnants because of the speed and forms new unities in the flow. Hence the form of viewing the car is in fact a formal representation of a modern mode of viewing.
「The glamour of different references」
When we are observing the scene outside the car window, if we switch to a different frame of reference, we will have a different feeling. Therefore, by switching the reference to feel the "movement" and "stillness" of things, we can create a kind of gaze in the flow.
Merge the two
Modern ways of seeing have become so convenient and advanced that can fuelled the desire to see, but also let people to get lost in it, and it seems difficult for people to look at something with the same concentration and create the same extraordinary richness of feeling as the ancients did.Inspiration
I want to combine the ancient Chinese literati's way of viewing with the modern way of viewing. Although the ancient literati's way of viewing was very in-depth, it was strongly class-based. This is exactly what the modern way of viewing can compensate for by using a variety of media. Therefore, I would like to integrate the ancient and modern ways of viewing, using the car window as a carrier, and allowing the participants to switch references in the process of observation, thus switching flexibly between gaze and glance, in order to create a broader visual experience.
Those Ignored Streetscapes
Many of my relatives work on trains and have been faced with the view out the train window all their lives and have become so used to it that they don't gaze and observe.
And I find myself in the same situation in my life, I need to take an hour bus ride from home to school, twice a day round trip makes me feel numb to the view outside the bus window as well, thus losing the ability to observe deeply. Therefore, I recorded the scenery on my way from home to school every day, and used it as a sample observation to develop a wider range of observations.
Interactive logic
「What is the difference between a gaze and a glance?」
-visually-
Since there is no fixed visual subject during a glance, there is a visual residual effect and motion blur when looking at a landscape in a car, whereas a clear subject can be seen when gazing. Therefore, the visual contents of sweeping and gazing are different.
-eye movement-
Gaze is to focus on a specific area or object, with relatively slow eye movements.
Whereas, glance refers to the rapid movement of the eyes across the visual field and each scan lasts for a short period of time.
「How to make the eye to interact with the world?」
I use a Tobii eyes tracker mini as a tool for eye-world interaction. This eye tracker can record and display the viewing status in real time. And by using the gaze point, the visual axis of the eye can be turned into a mouse, so that it can be linked with the touchdesigner.
「Creating a dynamic blur vision」
I used touchdesigner to create a motion blur effect and it can be updated for different scenes.
「How to recognise a gaze or a glance 」
「1」In Tobii's interaction with the computer, it is possible to set up a function where gaze over 5 seconds turns into a click. I combined this feature with td visual effects, where the viewer scans without a point of view and sees only a dynamic blur of shadows. But after a certain amount of time, a window opens that slows down the street view and the viewer gazes through it.
「2」In the absence of a gaze point, the viewer can only see the remnants of a motion blur. When the gaze exceeds 5s, a window opens through which the viewer can see the slowed-down landscape.
「sound design」
In addition to viewing, I wanted to convey the difference between gazing and glancing through sound. Therefore, I recorded the sounds of all the representative things along the way to school and the ambient sounds that could be heard while sitting in the bus. When gazing, you hear the sound of the thing you are gazing at, and when glancing, you hear the reverberation of the ambient sound.
Transmutation of the Unusual: Design Proposal
I set the venue for the presentation of my work in a gallery, and I want to create a sense of familiarity and strangeness by reproducing the viewing space inside a car. Through the reproduction of this scene, I wanted to reproduce a modern context of viewing and create a bridge between the viewer and the ancient mode of viewing through the view of the car window.I devised several plans for reproducing the car viewing scene, and ultimately chose to present a full car door in the scene with a monitor in the window to present the interaction image I did create.
Making process
︎Lastly, thank you so much for your browsing, it was a pleasure to share this project with you ! 👋️😋️