Final Major Project

Future

The future is undeniably one of the most unpredictable thing that can change many lives across the globe. The future is a scary thought, any actions that we do in the present can affect our future whether for the best or for the worse.  Although there are many theories  about the upcoming future and statistics based information made by scientists and professionals alike, anything from small to big can ruin these statistics and change the world entirely, take the extinction of the dinosaurs for example. In this project I will explore the idea of what people think the future is like or can be like. My research will range from theories such as alien invasion or current global issues and how this can affect the future. I want to know what other minds think and compare that with my own. I will fuse research from religion, science, conspiracies, artists and even TV shows to better understand the connection between these ideas and why, also how it can be interpreted into my own ideas.

I will Firstly start with research, then I will make post it and mind maps of ideas based on my research. Then I will start my proposal and get opinions from my classmates of my ideas and how I could expand that further with my Initial ideas later on. Because making a focus group is going to be a lot harder due to the current pandemic issue, I will be voice chatting over Discord with my classmates to discuss this matter. Hopefully by this time I actually have some sort of idea in my mind, if not I would do a lot more sketches, research and discussion with my classmates and just anybody that can give me advice at this point of time. Once I feel more confident, I will start my Initial ideas and yet again voice chat my classmates for a discussion over my initial ideas and which they like the best. At this time, I will also be making surveys and asking as many people as possible to cooperate with my ideas and give their opinions on my ideas. if this stage goes perfectly smooth, I will start to expand my research on the chosen idea hugely, and do more detailed initial work for it and also start to experiment further with what art style I want as well as the genre I chose. More surveys can be planned out if necessary depending on what I chose to do as my final piece, but over all if things are going well I will finally start on my final piece.

Bibliography 

https://www.vonwong.com/

Benjamin Von Wong

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/dali-salvador/

https://www.biography.com/artist/salvador-dali

https://www.deviantart.com/paooo

Salvador Dalí

https://www.dali-gallery.com/galleries/paintings.html

Salvador Dali is probably one of the most famous and versatile artist from the 20th Century. He is a Spanish artist and is the most famous surrealist artist currently and will probably remain the most famous for a very long time. In the course of his long career he successfully turned to sculpture, printmaking, fashion, advertising, writing, and perhaps most famously, film making. 

Surrealism is a cultural movement that started in 1917. As we all know, this is the time of World War I. Surrealism thrived in popularity because it allowed people to escape reality and sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind. It is basically a juxtaposition of uncommon imagery. 

Before moving into my current course, I remember studying Salvador Dali in my Fine Art class. What fascinated me the most was the concept of escaping reality and into a dream like world. Learning about this movement made me realised the hardship of the situation because people wanted to escape reality so badly that it resorted to an art movement as bizarre as this. I thought that cubism was fascinating, but surrealism to me surpassed my wall of curiosity. Since I would never know what it was truly like to be alive during one of the world wars, I would never also understand the true hardship of the feeling of the people back then also. When i look at surrealism, I can’t help but think about the word “desperate”. It is as if surrealism was a drug to help escape.
Dali works with Acrylics for his surrealist paintings. His illustration demonstrates the ability of the unconscious mind. Often Dali would use limited Palette yet somehow his paintings are still full of colour and vibrancy. I have noticed that he used mainly blue, brown, yellow and red throughout most of his surrealist paintings. This is probably because pigment was so hard to get at the time. What i have also noticed is that Dali really loves using the horizon line to split up the background of his painting which makes it all feel the more like a dream world. Obviously he combines strange imagery together that you wouldn’t commonly associate with each other such as the elephant with long legs and a fish eating a tiger. 
(example of me trying out this idea)

Evaluation 

Benjamin Von Wong

https://www.vonwong.com/

If the average American uses 167 plastic bottles a year, in 60 years they will have used 10,000 plastic bottles.

Von Wong is a Canadian artist, activist and a photographer. He is most famous for his environmental art installation such as strawpocalypse : The parting of the plastic ocean which has recently won the Guinness World Records of being the world’s largest straw sculpture in 2019. This project was so huge that even Starbucks Vietnam have decided to take part in this sculpture by donating their used straws to the artist and his team. The sculpture is currently located in Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam. This sculpture has recently blown up on the internet such as youtube and Twitter for successfully showcasing the message of single use plastic and its negative effects to our oceans. In the video below, the artist demonstrates “his vision” for this sculpture and the purpose behind his creation. He doesn’t believe that his creation will immediately change people’s views on not using plastic straws, but what he does hope for is to open the eyes of those people and to create awareness of how dangerous and toxic single use plastic such as plastic straws really are to our ocean across the globe.

Von Wong mainly focuses on plastic and the ocean shown by the images above and his gallery which is also linked above. He communicates global issues through dramatic, fantastic scenes, pulling on the emotions of his audience using photography. The artist has a strong passion  for the mission to spread awareness which is why he is using the social media platform as a podium to speak his mind. What I have noticed is that he would always use plastic to create the ocean, and he would always have a model making very dramatic poses as if they were in a movie just like the image above where a person is dangling off of a cliff as well as the man desperately trying to push the plastic ocean apart and away from himself. The artist makes his message very clear and easy to understand from the way he showcases his very dramatic photography, and I think this is good because not everyone are good at riddles. By throwing this message directly towards people in huge capitals makes it so blindingly clear. Because it is so obvious, it further succeeds in raising awareness, which I think is a really important factor. Like I said not everybody are good at riddles, there is no point making something so complicated if you just want to spread a simple message.

(Example of trying out this idea)

Evaluation

 PAOOO

https://www.deviantart.com/paooo
Unlike the other artist, I do not know much information about this artist besides some of his social media stating that he has worked in a couple of PS4 games. I risk to choose his concept art over other more well known concept artist is because I am drawn to his view of what I assume to be current real life places but in more of a futuristic style. His style although it seems more fantasy like is still quite realistic, for example the mog of the pollution in the air which we see in the first picture of this very moggy and dull Paris. I can tell that that is Pairs because of the Eiffel tower in the background. Other concept artist I feel although yes they take inspiration from real places, it is not to this extent. When I think of this word “Future” I imagine something that can be achieved based on what is possible now. When I looked at some of his environment concept art, I can definitely see that although it draws to the fantasy world like most of the other concept artist, I can still see it as being real. The Bottom picture looks like an abandoned place and for some reason this screams realistic to me also. The desert like appearance screams global warming to me and although this city does not appear like it is based on a real place, maybe the pyramids from Egypt but that’s all, I still think that the lifeless appearance of this city can be true depending on how humans cope with the current issues. I know that there are many desert like art all over the internet, but I put the desert picture there for variety and to give my opinion on it.
I am also drawn to his use of textures. He probably uses more textured brushes than normal brushes. The textures are executed so perfectly and I think that these textures are the reason his art work looks so realistic. Looking closely I think he also uses textures from pictures of rocks and metal in some of his paintings because they seem too real. What makes me think he uses pictures is also the top right picture of the lady on the big screen TV. In my own piece, I think I can really benefit more from using textures also.  This artist really made me realised how important textures really are as it creates its own unique style as long as it is executed well which I really like. I have also noticed that this artist loves using limited palette, his paintings look like it’s mainly in two colours with sometimes one or two very different colours added in to make it stand out. I am also not very good at gray scale like paintings, so this is another reason to why I chose this artist because it is a challenge for me to experiment with to see if I like it or not.

(Example of trying out this idea)

Evaluation

News Article

https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2959/grace-grace-fo-satellite-data-track-ice-loss-at-the-poles/

NASA 1

https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/doomsday-luxury-bunkers/index.html

expensive stuff

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/travel-interests/arts-and-culture/ancient-sites-built-by-aliens/

aliens

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2146713-box-jellyfish-will-destroy-future-oceans-by-gobbling-up-the-food/

destroyer of the ocean

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/27/china-taking-digital-control-of-its-people-to-unprecedented-and-chilling-lengths

Evil China

Historical Reference

Because of the pandemic crisis, most of the references used are taken from online sources.  

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/dinosaur-extinction/

DINO

https://www.history.com/topics/religion/hinduism

HINDUISM

https://www.history.com/news/10-allegedly-mad-monarchs

evil people

 

https://www.britannica.com/technology/history-of-technology

technology history

 

Primary sources

(currently do not know how to obtain)

 

 

Ideas generation 

(Mind-map in progress)

 

proposal

 

FMP_project_proposal Jasmine Wongthip