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2019 Thesis Project / Interactive Illustration
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my-exp
SOLUTION
Illustrating turning points in the life of a typical Chinese woman
To help people notice that everyone gets a different and unique life experience that we shall respect.
Turning Points in Her Life.
I decided to design a traditional Chinese female as the prototype for the initial formation of the role. Initially, the result I envisioned was a five different ages' story that generalized the first half of this woman's life, at the ages of 5, 15, 22, 30, and 40.
1. Childhood
“Early childhood is a period of rapid physical and mental growth and change. Children learn to move, communicate, and interact with the world and develop a sense of personal and cultural identity.”
In this painting, I conveyed five stories. Those experiences that happened at around the age of five may likely influence the direction of a career, the unforgettable bond between the mother and daughter, your best friend for life, etc. Such as I learned to dance with my friends, played hide-and-seek with my childhood playmates, had my mother at the bedside to take care of me when I was sick, and learned drawing for the first time. My teacher praised me for my talent, but I was tired of learning piano and had to continue.
This period is provided various opportunities for positive human development, but it is also a time when children are most at risk. The negative influences on a child’s development during early childhood can be irreversible.
2. Adolescence
Carl Pickhardt’s Rebel with a Cause: Rebellion in Adolescence: “In mid-adolescence, during the late middle-school and early high-school years, most rebellion creates needed differentiation to experiment with identity and needed opposition to gather the power of self-determination.”
To considerably summarize the stories of these rebellious periods, I selected mid-adolescence as an example to depict junior high school students. Six stories were told. Students laughed at her for her poor grades; the first award; parents quarrel and even fight, and celebrate the Chinese New Year; my family celebrated my birthday; get a watch as a souvenir...
3. Adulthood
The typical age of attaining legal adulthood is 18; most people have experienced love in this period. Jovi Casie pointed out in How love changes us supports this view: “It can bring us to some very dark places in our lives, but it can also lead us onto an even better path. When I’ve fallen in love, it’s always been this overwhelming feeling of bliss and freedom. The feeling of freedom is in the person I am and my potential in life.”
To further narrow down the concept of young people in love, I decided to focus on early adulthood, which is around 17-25 years old. The stories covered in this painting are her first love; Shopping with girlfriends; Meeting her soul mate; Staying up late to work overtime. It is hoped that readers will be able to see that these scenes reflect on the past partner, their presence and departure, and whether the choice of your next partner will change. Is your promotion due to your hard work in the past? I hope everyone can resonate, learn to face up to, and cherish every part of the good or bad experience.
4. Tricenarian
"The rise of anxiety among millennials is no secret – one in six young people will now experience an anxiety condition at some point in their lives. And, according to psychotherapist Hilda Burke, milestone birthdays such as 30 can turn even the most chilled among us into quivering wrecks thanks to the significance our culture has placed on them." Jessica Bateman explained Why we are so scared of turning 30? in 2016.
At such an untrivial turning point in my life, I have recorded many scenes as below: romantic weddings, pregnancy checkups, living with my son and husband, picking up the children from school, and so on. Reveal maternal love, shed the past tender and youthful, which is also a common choice for Chinese women in this age group, some even earlier. I hope that viewers can get to know the living situation of the early middle in China. Chinese women are encouraged not to conform to rules and regulations, blindly follow the direction of social development and ignore their pursuit.
5. Menopause
When women are aging, their health, skin, and body shape are confronted with enormous challenges inevitably, even if many studies have assessed the risk of anxiety and health disorder during the perimenopausal transition. Despite the fact that widespread anxiety in midlife women is substantial. As many as 51% of women aged 40 to 55 years report occasional tension, nervousness, or irritability, and 25% report frequent irritability or nervousness. But is there nowhere to find systematically investigate the relationship between menopause and anxiety?
DELIVERABLES I
Art Poster
The frontal side is full of the description of what others' can see from your outfit/ outward appearance. It included others' judgment, feelings, and stereotypes...
The other side panel is trying to generalize the most memorable moments and stories, which might be influencing her future in some way.
DELIVERABLES II
Parallax Interactive Art
The 2D illustration was adapted to the 3D interactive model to engage the audience further and reveal the things that are not visible in the 2D image. The parallax art is designed by coding, which creates the 3D effect and gives viewers the ability to rotate the model and view different angles.
HAVE A TRY
5.y/o. Childhood
HAVE A TRY
15.y/o. Adulthood
HAVE A TRY
22.y/o. Adulthood
HAVE A TRY
30.y/o. Tricenarian
HAVE A TRY
42.y/o. Manopause
PARALLAX INTERACTIVE ART
Coding Process
There are screen recordings of the parallax art process. I used a combination of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS to blend my illustration into parallax art on iPad, computer, and mobile electronic devices through code, making my illustration full of layers, to enhance visitors' interactive entertainment and engagement.
According to different layers, the other side of the character illustration, through the representation of physical relations of near and far, allows the user to check and control the story through the touch screen on responsive devices.
PARALLAX INTERACTIVE ART
Testing / Experience
This new experience allows the user to try tilting devices or to move them around with their mouse or finger, bringing freshness and entertainment to participants.
SHOWCASE
Imagine RIT
I appreciated the visitors who stopped by my work and left feedback and told me how my work inspires them.
It was a pressure experience when I explained my work to people from different cultures and races and got the chance to know their past stories and how they’re sympathetic to my experience from my work.
BEHIND THE SCENES
SOME PROCESS
To emphasize the opinion of everyone is mentally made by our personal experience; our bodies enrich our individual and unique memories. I hallowed out each character’s reverse side and filled out several stories focusing on different age groups.
So my final visual expression is according to the body shape by hollowing out the person's other side and creating the feeling of a deep cave. And each cave is filled with many stories and experiences which are only known by this lead character.
Previously, I was trying to create seven characters to generalize a typical Chinese woman character. Unfortunately, I didn't get enough time to finish that many stories on the other side. So I just based on the most typical characters that I finished and selected five figures to create their backstories.
Reflection
Again, a big thanks to all participants who have stopped by my project during the Imagine RIT. This was a super fun and challenging project for me, but I learned a lot during the process. I valued every thinking process and each piece of the audiences' feedback. I am glad the visual experiment successfully helped the viewers emotionally resonate with my design concept.
After delivering one marketing video, ten art posters, and five platforms of parallax arts, the visitors feel free to know our past experiences’ importance offline. It means a lot to me to awaken our experience’s significance and reflect that what we usually judge or make decisions for others is irrational. Thousands of background experiences prop up the significant choices everyone makes for themselves at specific times, and only by doing this can we determine who we become.
