Thesis Documentation

Previous Research

I started this project with my grid of nigh, however I felt the three directions are not
powerful enough for me. So I went MoMA which is one of my favorite museum. I
was holding all the questions like what was the most interesting thing, or why I had
no passion for any of the three directions while I was walking among MoMA’s great
collection of paintings. The miracle came while I was staring Claude Monet’s “Water
Lilies.” I found that this master piece shows Monet’s lift to me. Nature and his sense
are the inspirations for every brushstroke. The way Monet organize colors and
composition indicates his training, his thinking about colors and what he has pursed
for his whole life. I think that is why this painting deeply touched me.

Claude Monet. Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond. c. 1920. Oil on canvas,
three panels, Each 6' 6 3/4" x 13' 11 1/4" (200 x 424.8 cm), overall 6' 6 3/4" x 41' 10
3/8" (200 x 1276 cm). Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund. © 2008 Artists Rights Society
(ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris Wikipedia Loves Art at the Museum of Modern
Art This photo of item # 666.1959.a-c at the Museum of Modern Art was contributed
under the team name "Stephen_Sandoval" as part of the Wikipedia Loves Art project
in February 2009. Museum of Modern Art The original photograph on Flickr was
taken by Stephen Sandoval

I summarize that as the relationship of inspirations, daily life and lift goal, and I found
this theory can be applied into other paintings. Like this one “Still Life with Old
Shoe,” in this painting the artist hides his skills, and focus on the color and
composition. He symbolize an apocalytic landscape with using a lot black and
complementary colors. It let me think of a figure who was pursing something so hard
that he lost lots of precious things. Because the artist works much harder on his goal
and weakened his painting skills.

Still Life with Old Shoe is a 1937 oil painting by Joan Miró, now part of the
permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York..

Then I developed this theory. The theory is how people deal with relationship of
inspirations, daily life and lift goal. It works as a map of life. I created a system that
can help people to know themselves better. For example, have you ever felt like one
of your greatest ideas was wasted? Or you feel you are stifled by the normal life, and
you have no answers to why your life becomes more and more boring. The system
will help you find the answers and lead you to a more interesting way to live.
To visualize this theory, I did some research about the diffusion of religion. I found
that the most usual way is to tell stories. For example, Bible, Buddhist sutras, Alkoran
they all are telling stories and teaching their believers with the stories. Different with
dry theories, stories telling always is a more easy with to catch people’s attention.
Philosophy needs stories too. Nietzsche merged his theories into his book “Also
Sprach Zarathustra.” I just started to read it. In this book. Nietzsche claims that “Gott
ist tot,” it means “God is dead.” He means when people stop to believe in god they
will lost the foundation of their beliefs.It is a complex theory, however the story allow
people to understand it in a easier way.

The movie “2001: A Space Odyssey,” tells a story that shows how human’s evolution
is affect by a featureless black monolith. It hinted the theory named
“the Übermensch” of Nietzsche. The Übermensch means overhuman, above-human or
superman. There are more than 40 minutes that no one talks in the movie, sound and
image tells all the stories. That encouraged me to explain my abstract theory by an
abstract way.
At first I was planed to build an immersive experience telling a story that implies mytheory. Because I thought this would be the best way to let the audiences to learn it.However I found that story telling would generate too much work. Different peoplehave different experiences, it means I need to create a lot of stories to cover theirexperience, so they can feel connected to the theory. Then I started to think explainingit with abstract methods, like gestures. If it can be recorded as a video, audiences willable to watch it again, so they will be able to understand it better.In this case, I need to find out how to design a gesture system that tells the story in anabstract way. The first thing came into my mind is Kung Fu, because Kung Fugestures usually have meanings, and it is a powerful way of performance. The mostimportant thing is I have passion for Kung Fu. During the presentation, my teacherKate Sicchio suggested me that I don’t have to lock myself with Kung Fu fighting. Iagree with that, if I can create a Kung Fu gesture system that can help people withtheir meditation, maybe I can design it into an app, so more people can learn thetheory.