Critical Reflection
to begin​
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I started mesearch and practice base on my experience of using new social media, which I see them as new technology to me that I first knew and used computer when I was 12. I started to spend a lot time within it until I realized how much different the virtual world is compare to the reality. What I didn’t aware was that how information and media shape people’s horizon, and how much political agitation, conspiracy and commercial advertisement are being carried within the messages we view everyday. If we open any social media today, we could virtually find news that we can never verify, I do see it as a scandal of technology, even for our civilization that the sophisticated science and technology are leading people to a world of illusion and fabrication. I started to worried that, reality and the concept of “other’s world” and “negativity” propose by German philosopher Han Byung Chul will eventually dissolve, by a highly homogenized society and the commoditization and instrumentalization of the capitalism in 21st century—neoliberalism.
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The research and practice I’m developing now is a continuing project of the previous. But I think I fell into a binary contradiction between nature world and human, human should consider one of the many natural creations. I realized it during the process of Dasein An Der Küste (Being-there on the sea coast), I was trying to record that everything was being in that space and duration of time, the sunlight, the sound of tides wave, my body, the perception I felt and the consciousness I had, as I consider cyanotype as a different way of recoding than camera that I stated above.
Why cyanotype
Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. The process uses two chemicals: ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide.
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I consider cyanotype a combination process of human intelligence and natural. The materials which form the images are sunlight and time. Which are not originated form human, from the nature, the universe., the godlike truth behind the material world. We are living in a scientism world. Imagine, it is harder to doubt an artwork than an article on the Lancet. Science has the strongest authority in the present day. In modern science, however, is established based on mathematical calculations., which embody the main trend of rational since the Enlightenment, in other words, rigid and objective science. This is how the world works in the past few hundred years. I do admire the achievement and contribution of natural science. It makes our live easier and saved so many lives. But the cost of this is the ignorance and oblivious of human value and concept. Galilean is the turning point of natural science. Galilean is an Italian mathematician, astronomer and scientist. He invented the first astronomical telescope and was he, the very first person apply the method of mathematical calculation into scientific investigation. After that, the world of science, including medical science, chemistry, biology etc, all become subjects of calculation. All result need to be proofed by calculation, otherwise it would consider a subjective thought or a pseudo theory. The most powerful way to persuade people is the rational mathematical methodology. It seems like that is the truth in our world but I don’t believe it. I believe in human’s feeling , intuition and. Instinct and karma. That differentiates human and a machine. That is the really proof of the existence of our consciousness.
There is more uncertainty in a cyanotype print than an accurate digital image, as it interact with natural materials, and I find the aspect of spatiality of cyanotype by placing it flat on the floor or other horizontal surface. I link it with Heidegger’s phenomenological way to reason space. For Heidegger, space is not a geomatical, measurable concept, rather, it is a “pure extension” of linear directions, measurable and calculable, and “substance” are extensions within the space. Because in our practical concern, directions become de-geometricized, our encounters give us a sense of space before geometrical calculation. Hence, I think that a horizontal print of cyanotype actually imprint the entire vertical space above the print, it could be a “description” or “demonstration” of all that happened there, which that is the way of phenomenology study, to study the spatial and temporal happening there.
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I will articulate more of Heidegger’s and other phenomenology in the theoretical research section.
I painted the cyanotype solution on a piece of cotton fabric to resonate with Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s example of his phenomenology of bodily perception: the world is like a cloth, and we are like a drop of ink dropped on the cloth, our body, perception and consciousness is interwoven with the world. And a cloth would better fit the topography of a beach. But during the time I stood on the cloth in the sunlight, there was a fast boat went just on the sea level in front of me. I started to worry that I would never find a space that have not been informed by human activities, and later I realized that we as one species of many should be treated as other creatures on the planet. In this sense, all creation of human, culture, society, politic would be one part of the world, there would not be a fundamental distinction and hierarchy between one and other. Every other creatures should have a equal status as human, and human-centralism makes no sense.
For this work in particular, the cyanotype records the existence of my Dasein (being-there), namely, me, being in that particular period of time and particular location, with all others sunlight, sound of waves, air, and my body, perception and experience. Dasein is Martin Heidegger’s term of a kind of mode or situation of a being, which Heidegger wanted to dissolve the body-mind distinction in the tradition of western philosophy. I aimed to re-find the kind of natural status of being which lose in our society, and that is the reason I create them in a wild space where far from human civilization, Nevertheless, it is exactly how I realized we probably cannot escape the world we, as human beings, created
By realizing it, I tried to create cyanotype record in a public park.
To further discuss the question of human-central perspective, I developed cyanotype to record some phenomena that people would seldom noticed, for example the trajectory of sunlight.To further discuss the question of human-central perspective, I developed cyanotype to record some phenomena that people would seldom noticed, for example the trajectory of sunlight. I setup a installation which I cover the cyanotype image with a frame and a paper which I open one hold in the middle, to open a hold is to let the sunlight goes through and to cover it is to make sure there wouldn’t be any other UV light. As the sun moves during the day, from sunrise to sunset, the sunlight will move from one side to the other, so that sunlight will leave its mark on the cyanotype image.
If we have a close look at the one has a blue circle, we can found that it not only record the movement of the sunlight, but also the changes of the weather.
I also explore how intensity of sunlight effect the depth or darkness of cyanotype’s blue. In the image below, I separated the whole block of cyanotype solution into different time length.
I also explore how intensity of sunlight effect the depth or darkness of cyanotype’s blue. In the image below, I separated the whole block of cyanotype solution into different time length.
Even though I have to admit that human being and the civilization as part of the natural world, but I’m still interested in reducing human what They, the natural world can produce. We cannot get ride of human involvement in the entire process of the production, but I can reduce it as much as possible. In this experiment, here, I put a big block of ice onto the image of cyanotype, thus, the ice will melt and wash away the solution, meanwhile the solution is reacting with the sunlight and creating the image.
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Untittle (2022), Cyanotype on paper Ice, 210mm×297mm
We can see that the paint was partially washed away by the ice, but some are left and eventually turn blue.
I read a book by Paul Crowther Phenomenology of Visual Arts (even the frame), where he criticized the method of analyzing artwork now are a pure capitalistic mindset, they simply distribute artworks into categories so that they can present to the buyers and sell them better. Paul Crowther criticized that they neglect the images themselves as an piece of art and impose meaning and historical value onto it. I created a aquatint work, re-creating Mondrian’s composition,
I stopped out the squares manually and etched them directly, I tried to reproduce the work of simplest structure in two dimensional form. I think printmaking would more about the process and the unexpected result we get, in this way, the capitalistic distribution would not work as every print is unique, and this experiment is particular, simple. It become a resistant to such a mindset
I found that there is a necessity to articulate the subject of phenomenology and explain my interpretation onto it, explain how phenomenology related to, influenced and are applied to my practice. But as I non-philosophy student, I do found that there is limitations reading and understanding philosophy texts even with some guide books and videos. I tried to read as different version of translation and the original publication of the works just incase there is any misunderstanding case by my and the translator’s limitation.
Pop-up Show
In the pop up show this year, I showcased two cyanotype experiment I done during the term. I used cyanotype to recall the orbit of the sun around the Earth in one entire day in the experiments this term, and these two I exhibited, one is that I think the most successful recall and the other is that the most playful one. The one with a white circle would be the best recall among my experiments. I covered the paper with a semicircular plaster. The blue trail actually recall not only the orbit of the sun but also the weather as well. There are intermittent blank separate the blue mark into sections, and the white circle would suggest a sense of the planet and the orbit of the sun as well. In terms of the way the work being exhibited, I leave them on the floor of the exhibition room just like how they are made. I think that we see work of art hanging on wall on an eye level is because the way the paintings or drawings are made was erected on an easel, human are the audience and the author at the same time. But in the process of my experiment, the authorship of human has been abolished. From whether the process or the human-central way of looking at artworks, I decided to put them flat on the floor.
Possibilities
I would orientate my practice toward action or performance art, as it is the way “art” should be perceived. There is still a binary separation between artwork and creators, this distinction had been criticized by Paul Crowther in his work Phenomenology of the Visual Art, as well as German artist Joseph Beuys. Art, as a kind of celebration of mankind, is now been used by distribution of consumerism. The way people “to understand” an artwork not is via reading the theory behind it, so that they could simply categorize art into different movement, style, contexts, etc. and neglect the perceptual or emotional aspects that audiences gain from the artwork before theoretical analyzation. For example, when I was planning my work that stood on the beach. I made a lot sketches in order to avoid individualism and heroism in terms of the composition of the filming camera. I don’t want people to associate with any of that, and so I draw many sketches to prevent a misleading message the composition might provide.
I had concentrate too much on what my work might provide or mislead other than the work itself. Therefore, in terms of action or performance art I will work on, I will need to concentrate on the action or performance, same as other medium. I think that is how artist and audience would effect by the binary separation of the subjective intention and the artwork as an object.
By acknowledging these above, I would like to highlight the significance of performance and action art that I will do. I will place a cloth with cyanotype solution on as part of my work, as I’ve mentioned previously that I consider cyanotype as a way to record Dasein, the existence of space and time, namely all that happen “there”. I’m now planning to do the action and performance in a “human civilization” context. I tried to escape human activities and human influence before in the work I stood on a beach, however, I found that I can never escape since one boat sailed on the sea in front. I started to think that human, as a creation of our nature, could our civilization and all these production including our history, science, social and political systems see as part of it? I will put myself back into our society and daily life, start from my personal situation, for example, into college, places I would go. I want to record that kind of existence, Dasein of me as well as all the other and their gazes on me.
I would like to demonstrate some key artists that I influenced by and how their work and process inspired my practice,.
Yves Klein and Martin Creed: to the essence of meida
Yves Klein is one of the great artists in the history of contemporary art, and I’m so inspired by two of his work. One is a huge object lying on the floor with just pigment in the form of powder inside a white frame. I was so shock when the time I saw this work and see the description on the label. “For Yves Klein, the pigment powder maintain the most intrinsic freedom and vitality of the colour to the utmost extent. However, how to fixed the pigment onto a canvas has been struggled him. Fixative would darken the work inevitably…until he found the perfect immaterial fixative—the gravity”. We know that Mondrian attempted to create a painting in a most simple and abstract way, which is the compositional paintings of geomatic lines and the threes primary colours, red, yellow and blue. Here, nevertheless, Yves was trying to abstract the concept of pigment to its original form. It is another way of returning. Over 40,000 years ago primitive artist combine natural materials like soil, mineral and animal flat to paint, in the 15th century, oil paint was widely spread in European artists. The pigment we are using now are synthetic pigments, they are produced by manipulation of chemistry and natural materials. This is Yves’ greatness. We see painting as a way of represent the reality on a 2D surface, but the pigment we used is actually a mixture of artificial or natural substance, I think therefore, the presentation we created using pigment is distorted by the impurity within the process that the pigment been made. What Yves Klein’s work shows us is the intrinsic characteristics of.pigments, not only in the way of the pigment being used, but also the way people observe pigment, as well as the production of pigments. In the long history of, whether Western or Eastern, painting, paintings are hanged vertically on wall or on easels, so that audiences or artists can engage with it in a most easy and comfortable way, in other word, that a parallel way to our eye view is the most relax position of human seeing. It is, nonetheless, the natural way of the pigments perform by the control of gravity. If pigments are not mix with fixative or adhesive, the paint would drip down, like some contemporary painting we see in the recent century. Yves Klein eliminate the control from human on pigment and let it perform its intrinsic quality existing under a condition of gravity that it given by gravity of our planet, namely, the world we all living in.
Yves Klein, ANT 84, 1960, collection MAMAC
Yves Klein The work, for me, rise a question of the originality and materiality of the pigment and a human-central way of seeing the world and the production. It questions the human manipulation, trying to reveal how object should be originally without human activity involve. I’m resonate with this work hugely in terms of Yves Klein’s attempt to eliminate the human vestige on pigment, more importantly, all materials. This very day, is a epoch of fake, distorted, garbled informations, and all that, is a consequence of inundate human technology.
The other work that I found inspiring is the Monotone Symphony. The symphony is consist of two part, an orchestra and a chorus produced a d major chord for 20 minutes and a silent for another 20 minutes. I was so surprise that Yves Klein represent the state of being and non-being in such an abstract way by using sound instead of visual object. Insofar as visual terms, we would virtually set that something is non exist when we see an object, because we can merely remove it from our view so that we don’t see it. But for music or sound, there is a simple feeling of “yes” or “no”, we can hear something, or we can hear nothing. The work discuss the two states of thing—being and nothingness—with would occupy a space and the absence of it. Moreover, a question arise from the discussion—our perception, the sense of hearing, is working consistently, once our ears or hearing organs get any stimulation, we produce that sense of sound in our brain. Hence, can we consider the nothingness as one kind of being? The question abandon dualism of yes and no, there is and there isn’t quality of the work and in our perception, seeing human senses are a permanently working receptor or effector.
Yves Klein in a Conceptual art performance in 1959.Credit...Charles Wilp; Yves Klein, Artists Rights Society, New York/ADAGP, Paris 2013
This concept discussed again in a work by the winner of Turner Prize 2001, Matin Creed, Work No.227: The Lights going on and off. The discussion was talked in a visual sense. Matin Creed filled an empty room with light for 5 seconds and then plunged into darkness or 5 seconds, and repeated the pattern infinitely. By perceiving the brightness and darkness in the empty room, the contemplation was posed again. .
Work No. 227: The lights going on and off 2000
Richard Whiteread and Zhan Wang: the materiality of space
Richard Whiteread is famous for her sculpture created by casting, I’m so fascinated by it and the way she discuss space. Richard Whiteread had created casting sculptures of, for example, the interior void of a room or a water tower, which brings up a alternative perspective of our three dimensional space, where we “inhabit” or “occupy”. There is an interrelation between her work and the body-mind distinction that I’ve been mentioned so many times here is that we think our body is separated, or isolated from other objects partially because there is void, vacuum or a distance between those objects, and no obstruction when we reach something inevitably. There is a convention that if there is a solid entity in space, which we think it is been occupy or fulfill by it, where we do neglect easily, however, is that actually those “empty space” are occupied by air or gases. From the works of Richard Whiteread, she subvert the common sense that our the empty space, or the void is a kind of nothingness. We can, therefore, partially dismiss the bod-mind separation in this sense, ew can imagine that the world we are living in as a swimming pool, but there is “invisible water”, our moves and breathes would yield fluctuations in the space around. In 1998, Richard Whiteread was inverted to create a work for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, London. She casted the plinth with transparent material and place it upside down on the plinth. I think she is questioning the idea that what it is to separate the outer and inner subject matter if they are visually same, in terms of her transparent plinth and the space around.
Rachel Whiteread, Monument, 2001, resin and granite
Heidegger in his article Art and Space, said that ‘The forming of it (the object) happens by demarcation as setting up an in losing and excluding border……in which surfaces surround an inner opposed to an outer’, in which I comprehend that Richard Whiteread and Heidegger both realize or challenge the dualistic demarcation of the outer and inner, where there is substance in both closing and exclusive of a subject matter , by recognizing the third element—the border, namely, the inner space and the outer space are equally occupy by substance and demarcated by their border.
More significantly, another artist, Zhan Wang, communicate this idea again but differently in his work Shiyin. He firstly cast a stone with transparent acrylic polish it and but it back into the sane substance of transparent acrylic. It is basically a transparent black of it, but we can still recognize the shape of a casted stone in light.
Shiyin, Zhan Wang, 2006
I think it communicate the idea of the equality of outer and inner substance and highlight the significance of border in his work poetically. He imply that the internal of matter belongs to the outside, as space equivalently, nevertheless, significantly, the object has existed, been in a form as such. It is a evidence of the existence of hat particular stone, even if it will eventually vanish or transform into something else. I was shocked by the way how Zan Wang “freeze” the existence of a subject matter. Human beings are mortality, but Zan Wang “photography” a transient being of a object concretely
Joseph Beuys and Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche:
action and performance as a way to achieve overman
The concept of an overman, one that overcome nihilism by understanding and admitting. his or her own value of humanity and creativity, was propose by German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche aimed to “revalue all values”. Under tradition of western philosophy and Catholic Catechism, the spiritual world, or, in other word, the super-sensual world were glorify, that appreciating the after-life, which would eventually end up in skepticism and nihilism of the present. Joseph Beuys and his works is a embodiment of celebration of human creativity and nature. He see natural resources as human organs, as we all relied on oxygen produce by forests and marine algae, animal resources fossil resources, etc. he said once in a interview that we are killing our organs, that we relied on to live. He was trying to interact with natural elements as a way to get into nature with action and performance art.
Joseph Beuys, I Like America, and America Likes Me, 1974
One significant example of it is I Like America and America Likes Me, which upon arrival, his assistants wrapped him in a large piece of felt and transported him, by ambulance, to the René Block Gallery in SoHo, New York. There, awaiting the artist, was a live coyote. Beuys spent three consecutive days, eight hours at a time, locked up with the wild animal. He sat or stood, wrapped from head to toe in his large felt cover and held a crooked staff, peeking out from the top of the felt. Beuys’ idea behind I Like America, and America Likes Me was to start a national dialogue. America in the 1970s, caught in the horrors of the Vietnam war, and divided by oppression of minorities, the indigenous population and immigrants, was far from the welcoming American Dream that the title of this performance suggests. The coyote symbolised a variety of things for Beuys: First, there are some Native American myths that suggest that the coyote represents the possibility for transformation, as well as an archetypal trickster. Then, there are certain creation myths in which the coyote teaches human beings how to survive. And while most European settlers and their present-day American descendents generally regarded the coyote as an aggressive and dangerous predator, Beuys saw the animal as something completely different: to him, it was America’s spirit animal. For me, that Beuys’s interaction with the coyote symbolize a human body wrapped by felt, which I considered a creation of human being using natural resources, engage with a natural and mythical power, is how human being treated natural power and the unknow. Beuys celebrate human creativity as he said “everyone is an artist”, what he mean by this is he believe that human have the inner creativity to shape our society, not that we can all be painters, sculptors or musicians. And the creativity are from humankind, not redemption of one’s sin at the present life and concentrate on the after-life. It resonate with Nietzsche’s idea of overman and Heidegger’s existence of Dasein, in the way that they all understand oneself in terms of their value of human creativity and materiality.
I think that one powerful way to achieve, that what we call as humanity, is via our or people’s physical action. Because, we, as human, all value we can produce, all goals we can achieve would merely be available for us in our present life, present moment, with our physical body. There is a lot artworks produced by brilliant artist, however, misunderstood by their audience or distributed into where they should be or be understood in a way as such. We can only understand our existence subjectively, rather, an objective work, even we do objectify ourselves to some extend. for action and performance art, the first thing we have to admit is that there is a fundamental quality within us as a same kind of species as others, That would be a reason of my future practice orientating to physical action and performance.
Phenomenology
our intuition
In the late 19th century and beginning of 20 century, another German philosopher Edmund Husserl created Phenomenology following the study of his tutor Franz Brentano, which I think would be one of the solutions that be able to help with the capacity of people’s experience. Phenomenology is a philosopher of experience per se. It is a method of understanding consciousness in its raw form, it is not a empiricism which the experience of education and osmosis, but the rawest experience we perceive. His idea of develop further by Martin Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and was apply to a broad range of humanity, sociology studies. Husserl’s phenomenology’s aim is to build the foundation of science, it is a objective study of the subjective. Husserl and his phenomenology proposed a alternative approach to the truth from that which philosophy has been applying for the past 2500 years.. The seeds of phenomenology can be traced back to the Kantian distinction between the noumenal world of the things-in-themselves and the phenomenal world of the reality as people experienced via human sense. When other philosophers were still pursing the truth outside the subjective world that our senses present us, phenomenology takes a different approach, it studies the phenomena. That is the reason I said Husserl was trying to make a foundation of natural science, the precondition of the positive science we applied in our lives is our consciousness, we perceive one phenomena, we study it. Husserl, in this sense, believe that if we can address the phenomena, it can provide the foundation for science.
Martin Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty are two significant developer of Husserl’s phenomenology, they developed phenomenology base on different methodology, that it is worth knowing.
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Martin Heidegger and Dasein
the question of being
Martin Heidegger is considered one of the most important and influential philosophers in the 20th century, his theory influenced the later existentialism and great philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre.
Heidegger redefine his version of phenomenology other than Husserl’s, a foundation for nature science. He assert the of phenomenology as a method, ‘express a maxim which can be formulate as “to the things themselves”’rather than a “methodology” of philosophy. And the Heidegger’s phenomena of phenomenology neither simply the appearance of an object (semblance), nor an indication of something else that does not show itself directly (symptoms), or as the manifestation of that is incapable of ever manifesting itself (the Kantian phenomena of thing-in-itself). Heidegger’s term, phenomena in phenomenological sense, suggest a more specific concept that they occupy a place in human interactions with space and time, as Heidegger put it:
Manifestly, it is something that proximally and for the most part does not show itself at all; it is something that lies hidden, in contrast to that which proximally and for the most part does show itself; but at the same time it is something that belongs to what thus shows itself, and it belongs to it so essentially as to construe its meaning and its ground. Yet that which remains hidden in an egregious sense, or which relapse and gets cover up again, or which shows itself only ‘in disguise’, is not just this entity or that, but rather the Being of entities, as our previous observations have shown. This Being can be covered up so extensively that it becomes forgotten and no questions arises about it or about its meaning.
In other words, in my point of view, the ‘phenomena’ Heidegger elaborating is an intrinsic experience of that when we encounter and comprehend objects, event, time and space, is that what Heidegger’s definition of ‘phenomena’. Coordinating with “logos” constructed from phenomenology, asserted by Heidegger as ‘make manifest what one is “taking about” in one’s discourse”.’
Dasein is one of the significant concept of Heidegger’s study of existence, it can be translated as ‘there-being’ in English. According to Heidegger, Dasein can be pretty much anything, more specifically, it is Heidegger’s term for individual humans and the distinctive situations that we found ourselves in. Heidegger worried that the subject matter in the tradition of western philosophy neglect the nature, the complexity, the personal dimension of human experience. Thus, Dasein is a existence that entities on the specificity of their being; which each of us finds in the fundamental assertion: I am. Heidegger state two ways of Dasein’s being, the authentic of life and the inauthentic way of life, they are originated from Kierkegaard’s “first extentiallist”in which the authentic is the being that recognizing for what they are, ‘not lost in the practical world, whereby in inauthentic being, is signified to the being that living in the given outside, practical world and the everydayness is what Heidegger claimed to separate these two mode. Dasein’s being is consist of several different parts: Verfallen (Fallenness)— living in the inauthenticity lives revolves around the menial traditions, rituals, and social expectations that society imprint on people; Throwness—Dasein is thrown into the everyday world from birth radically after the process of Befindiickeit (the way one finds oneself in Fallenness); Projection—the possibility of Dasein’s projection forward onto it, its potential part of being; all these above can be induced under the concept of Care, in which it is the constellation in which Dasein has its being, all those matters to Dasein. More importantly, Heidegger demonstrated the relation of our existence with the world with which the concepts of Being-in-the-world and Being-with-others, where he resist the separation of subject and object in the philosophical tradition, as the ‘external world’ of object is already a part of Dasein’s being, as well as the subjective ‘consciousness’ of human beings.
The vital features of Dasein’s existence, I think its meaningful for my study and the solution of existential crisis, is that the self-awareness and self-interpretation of the distinctive situation of the being, the spatial and temporary aspect of Being., Heidegger treated time as part of Dasein’s being, its horizon is time. Heidegger was influence by Henri Bergson, that Bergson disguised the scientific knowledge of time and our experience of time, that the mathematical calculatable and spatially treated time from the first personal experience. Time is the structure into Care the concept we discuss before hand: Thrones—Dasein is already in the world, dealing with, what it receive from the past; Projection—Dasein is always “ahead of it self”, not “all at this moment”, it is a projection of the future possibilities; Fallenness—Dasein is “preoccupied” with the world, dealing with the concerns as they arise. Therefore, time is not in a quantifiable, geometric, linear and spatializable concept as Heidegger treated. In another respect Dasein is mortal. Death as one of the possibilities of the further of a being, Heidegger conceiving it to escape which the incompleteness that it has no future possibilities onto which to project. Likewise, in Heidegger’s demonstration of the world’s space, distance, in the practical concern, becomes de-geometricized, Heidegger suggest that our understanding and state of mind would pose the sense of spaces and direction before mathematically measurement of the space. A instance for our sense of space is that, we can get loose in with merely our sense of orientation a strange place.
Heidegger grasped an alternative perspective of reasoning the distinctive nature of Humana being from the classical tradition of philosophy some phenomenologist, nevertheless, started to worried that Heidegger had overlook the spiritual aspect of being and neglect the physicality of it. Hence, phenomenologist like Merleau-Ponty developed his theory of bodily perception in his Phenomenology of Perception, trying response to the materiality and physicality of being.
Merleau-Ponty and Body perception
taking body's horizon
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Maurice Merleau-Ponty focus on the living body of being, emphasis the physicality of human being in the world, more specifically, to perceive the perception on human people to reconstruct being-in-the-world. It is a call for people to return, to return to their primitive, intrinsic, intuitive experience and sense of the world that that are living in, bypass the cognitive science and knowledge, concentrating on people’s intuition, their direct feeling, their direct emotion and direct experience, rather, giving a direct contact to the world. . After the Enlightenment religious.was demystified and rationality was encouraged. But the significance of human body was disparaged until the emergence of the theory of “Übermensch”(Superman) by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Merleau-Ponty consider that the body-mind dualism is a pseudo problem and there is a need to ground philosophy in our living experience. It is very much like Husserl’s concept of Lebenswelt (Life-world). Merleau-Ponte had give a example to dissolve the body-mind dualism: if we hold our hand with one another, we can have a feeling that we touch and being touched simultaneously, the body experience of subjectivity and objectivity in one action; which dismiss the distinction of body and mind, subjective and objective. Hence, Merleau-Ponty claimed that we should start from the facticity of the world, the being-in-the-world in Heidegger’s term, and all those possibilities we have comes from the perception of the world, rather that the common sense nor cognitive science. That is the reason why we need phenomenology and discover the essence of the world via perception and experience of our body, even as we know that we cannot remove ourselves from the world and have a perspective from nowhere.
By reading the works from those we know as phenomenologist, I believe that phenomenology could be a weapon to inspect the problematic situation of having garbled message, photoshopped picture and the faded ambitious world
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IIn this unit, following the practice and research in the last, I continue using cyanotype and action as the main media of my practice and also tried different techniques in printmaking.
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in this unit I made two performance piece by extending the performance by the beach in unit 1.
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The first one was the one I created in March. With the same concept, but situated the work in a different context, I do it in the city center of London, Oxford Circus.
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I bought a big canvas again and painted cyanotype solution on it, but I coded it in a round shape this time instead of covering a entire piece of canvas.
I positioned one fixed camera opposite the street, it was so busy at Oxford Circus, I had one of my friends filming it for me. Here is the link for the video, but the quality was not good.
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After processing the canvas, I took it home and wash the solution away.
It does not look very blue, I think it was because the weather was cloudy, the sunlight was not strong enough, even though I processed it for more than 20 min.
The second performance I did was at the opening of the Barge House show. I prepare a lot more than the first one, from the sound to the presentation. I initially wanted to continued doing a similar action, but in a gallery space, however I change the plan and bring in a more in depth concept. I draw some sketches and tried to explain to different people, surprisely, I did get some interesting feedback and advices.
I was considering the position of camera and the actual space that I would perform.
I decided to push myself and interact more with the audience this time. What I would do in the performance was imitating the audiences’ action and the word they say. But there will still be any cyanotype cloth on the floor, which hopefully can leave some marks on it, In order to be more confident in performing it, I actually did some practice. For instance, I went on the street and mimic the pedestrians: I walk forward and imitate their waling gestures, speaking to their friend or walking their dogs. I think I did make some people feel offence and confuse, but, luckily no one was angry to punch me on the street. I think it will be awkward for both me and audience in the final performing, I can tell for the exercise. But really getting into another person and judging one’s act would be one way of “being-with-others”.
I was considering the position of camera and the actual space that I would perform. I wanted to have two cameras recording, one still and one move so that I can capture both me and the audiences’ action and reaction in the video. For the static camera, it will include the whole space of performing, and for the moving camera, it will record a more detailed scene. They actually was not successful as I expected, because I asked two of my friends help me with it. I will demonstrate this in detail in the critical reflection.
In the other aspect, for the sound, I think some to make people calm down and stated to meditate other people would be the best. Therefore, I reached out to one of my friend Jason, he is a buddhist and he do sound treatment for people using singing bowl, which is a Nepalese instrument originally used in playing buddhist music, it creates a magical sound wave in the space and relax people.
Json and his singing bowl treatment
In the other aspect, for the sound, I think some to make people calm down and stated to meditate other people would be the best. Therefore, I reached out to one of my friend Jason, he is a buddhist and he do sound treatment for people using singing bowl, which is a Nepalese instrument originally used in playing buddhist music, it creates a magical sound wave in the space and relax people. A diffusing sound spreading in the space I think can also provide a unifying atmosphere for the space and audiences.
I bought the biggest square as I can (2 meters by 2 meters) for the cyanotype cloth on the floor. I wanted to cover the entire room to suggest a sense that all the participants are all in one world, but the group show would not allow me to do it.
I bought the biggest square as I can (2 meters by 2 meters) for the cyanotype cloth on the floor. I wanted to cover the entire room to suggest a sense that all the participants are all in one world, but the group show would not allow me to do it.
There are two more steps to do before I cover the canvas with cyanotype. I will need to teat the edge of the fabric and prime the fabric with primer to provide a foundation for the cyanotype to perform better on the clothe. I had the two canvas with finely cut edges in my previous piece. I think the sharp edges isolated the content on the work and the outer space, I hope my work could suggest a sense of connection with the outer world and audience instead of a pale artwork framed in a cage.
For priming the canvas, I tested some different primers I can found.
And finally, started to coded with primer and cyanotype solution.
Pack it up in a tube and delivery to the gallery
Keep prepare on site.
Work video:
Photograph of the work:
Json and his singing bowl
Bring it back to studio and found a bug sink to wash it,
Apart from cyanotype on canvas, I’ve experimenting with cyanotype in different way. Since cyanotype started from a kind of water solution once it coded onto a surface, I make use of the water character, I use it as watercolour and use some watercolour technique painting it..
We can see that I can use the cyanotype for vague dying, but I cannot layer it up. If draw one layer onto a dry layer of it, the two layers mix or dissolve into each other, the image will distorted.
By knowing the quality of water of the cyanotype sanitizer, I started to paly with the forms of it, liquid and solid. I actually had one work in the last unit, that I melt a big block of ice on a cyanotype surface.
We can see that they are so different from the original process of making cyanotype print. The blue is not as strong I think it is because the dry in the sunlight. But we can start to see more texture of the paper.
These are extensive works produced with the process I record the sun track in last unit. I was trying to record the movement of sunlight of one week. How the sunlight moves in the continuous seven days are all printed on one frame. I recoded the paper with cyanotype after processing the light track in a day and again and again.We can see that even from a same position, how the sunlight hit on the paper could be different.
And here below, I printed the some seven day sunlight tack but on seven paper respectively.
Apart from the works above, I’ve done little more different experiments. Art As Vocation was printed with screen print during a tough time I experience after I came back from China in March. I talked to my family about my future, however I realized that we cannot understand me and a career as art practitioner. Marx Weber had a speech called Science As A Vocation, and the Art As Vocation is my manifesto that I understand what it is to work in the area of art and I fully understand how difficult it would be.
These two prints below are CMYK screen prints of colour blocks. I was experimenting objects with blur edges and eventually penetrate into each other. I think that there is interrelation between objects in real lives. The painting in impressionism are very good examples, in a physical or scientific sense, but the interconnection would be a more philosophical and invisible relation between objects. And these kind of interrelation would be the theme I explore in my degree,
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CMYKs are really hard to ptint:(
These two prints below are CMYK screen prints of colour blocks. I was experimenting objects with blur edges and eventually penetrate into each other. I think that there is interrelation between objects in real lives. The painting in impressionism are very good examples, in a physical or scientific sense, but the interconnection would be a more philosophical and invisible relation between objects. And these kind of interrelation would be the theme I explore in my degree,
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CMYKs are really hard to ptint:(
I’ve also had some work in mind might do in the future. There is one I want to mention here would be one I design for my death. There will be a machine that can record my vital sign of my body, connect to my body. Once I die, the machine can immediately receive the message and there will be a firework fired in the sky. The idea is that one’s live is like a firework for others, the descendants would only know the dead man’s achievement and live just like a blooming firework. They will whether forget it or remember it, but he had already gone, and leave nothing, the sky remain.
-critical reflection
In February, I created a piece of action art expanding the idea of my last work Dasein An Der Küste (the action piece I did on the sea coast), I moved it to Oxford Circus, create another version of the piece. Here we need to talk a bit about performance and, or action art, some artist would prefer to be called action art, which the term of “performance” gives people a performative and less serious sense as performance is seen as a kind of representative and fake action, it is not a authentic expression of the artist or subjectivity. And hat is a question worth considering for me, I have once thought that how can artist eliminate the performative sense in a action piece, cos we are not actors imitating a character in a script. But on the other hand, we, as artist , are actually writing scripts for our own project, we are the director of our own show. One difference I can found between these two is that, there is uncertainty in live performance where actors can retake the shot. What about live show like concert…. Let’s not fall into such a language game.
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Following a similar concept, the work in Oxford Circus is aimed to photograph an existence of mankind but this time, in the central of a modern city which has all those going on, consumerism, racial problem, global warming…. The cyanotype in this work photographed or recorded such an existence in such a complex context of human civilization. I coated the canvas in the shape of a circle, I think this is one of the point that I need to reinterrogate. I wanted the cyanotype solution to penetrate the fibres of the canvas so that there can be implication of immersion and extension, by abolishing a fine edge of the paint. You can see that in the next performance I would do in the Barge House exhibition, instead, I teared the fiber of the edge of the canvas, so that it materially suggesting the connection of the cloth with the external space. It is not an isolated, individual work of art like a framed painting or a sculpture distinct from the exhibiting space. For this piece of performance, I don’t think it had successfully express the idea behind, both on the aspect of the presentation of the work, the video and the work in itself. The position and angle of the camera is not good as we can see, and these are many pedestrians walking pass which were in the camera’s way. On the other hand, I was planned to perform nakedly in the wok, audience might be confused by it if I consider this as an continuous series of the work on the beach.
I’ve planned an action piece on the opening of Barge House show for 2 months, and the plan had been modified not until the day I perform. I initially wanted to move the concept once again into the gallery space and do it again. I think that I can go naked in a gallery space and reached a more complete representation of the concept of the series. In this case, the ocenpt of the work would be a record or photograph (the cyanotype) of a naked human body (which suggest the primordial existence of human form) being viewed as either a static live sculpture or an on-going performance, I wrote a proposal for the performance.
It might be too much for such a performance which conveying two aspects of themes metaphysically and socially. On one hand, socially, the work would communicate the social and cultural aspects that a primitive form of human existence presents publicly. On the other hand, metaphysically, it is an attempt to evoke the recognition of intersubjectivity between audiences and performer. Therefore, I decided to let the work carry one concept sufficiently by remodifying the entire structure of the performance. I would retain the most important part, I think, the cyanotype as a photograph of the invisible interaction and movement of audiences’ body and consciousness. I turned to convey the more essential and thought-evoking concepts of the two, which is the one of intersubjectivity, I think that the question discussing in the work would be a more enduring and it is an answer for my problématique.
Although the performance in Barge House show was the first official public present of my performance practice, there is too many could improved, the performance in its own, outfit, sound, recording. The most significant issue is that as the artist performed, I was not concentrated enough during the performance. I found that I was spaced out for a very short moment during the performance twice, I don’t know whether I was in daze in such a interaction into other person or merely because of lacking concentration. Another thing is that the performance was lack of a consistency in terms of my action of mirroring the audiences’ acts. I rise my right hand when the audience rise their left, but sometimes I rise my hand instead. These two I think are the two failures of the work. I should decide how should I imitate their behavior before the performance, and concentrate more in the process. Some might have questions of my outfit in the performance as it is such an important aspect as it could symbolize a lot via the costume. what I initially plan was to dress as myself, even though I’m mimicking the audience’s act, the aim is to imply that there is another human like you out there. But he is another entity completely different form you, there is might be a similar structure of your body and consciousness and his, but you two are different. This idea might be hard to understand as I need to consider the symbolic aspect of outfit in performance art. I carefully choose the music during the performance but it seems that it might cause misunderstanding. The sound I selected was “singing bowl”, an instrument from Tibetan and Nepalese region. what I like about it and the main reason I used it was it creates a sound wave echoing in the room, I feel like it can evoke a resonance acoustically and spiritually between people in the room. But I neglected the sense of oriental ritual. And I used the sound as a sign of switching imitate targes, the musician made consistent sound and once he knock on the singing bowl, I will change the targe audience, start another imitation. This might not be obvious enough for the participants. On the other aspect, the cyanotype canvas is a bit obscure in the work. I’ve interview some of the participants, people were confused by it. They thought that the canvas was a stage or an area that I will perform onto, when I step out of it when during the imitation, they were surprised. Here is a comment from one of the participants.
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​My intention for setting a canvas was to imply a structure of the relationship that people are connecting, intertwining to each other spiritually. We are not some sort of separated individuals in the world, as Martin Heidegger put it, to be is to be-in-the-world. But some of the audiences feedback was quite interesting here. Most people would feel uncomfortable when being imitated by an Other (I was planned to write a sign and tell people what would happen in the work but give up for some reasons), especially when one is in a public space and become the focus in the crowd. I think being in crowd and being watched was that which I didn’t realize, they would not be able to concentrate in the interaction and connection between us, But being uncomfortable and bewildered might be a common or universal experience when we encounter dissidents, even I was simply following their actions not raising an objection. I wrote a short passages on Joseph Beuys, and relate his performance to humanity, I concluded that performance would be experimental action or performance would be the way people be able to realize there are quality of some kind inhabit inside every human being and consciousness, I think such a similarity among people that have embodied in my work here is the uncomfortablilty when people encounter the Other, one that imitating him or her in a public. It might be a reaction on a sociological extend rather than a philosophically conscious recognition, If we looked at Abramovich’s performance she did a few years ago in her retrospective exhibition in MoMA, which she sat with the audience face to face, it seems that it is easier to build up connection between them. it might because they were sitting still or staring at each other for a longer time than in my work, I think people are getting more intimate relation with the artist, but the work took place in a public space, likewise. Sitting statically on a chair might help calming down the audience and get into touch with them emotionally. I think I have to do some more psychological research on the topic next time if I will create another piece of performance. What I had so far were mainly inference from some philosophers, even Merleau0Ponty worked with Gestalt Psychology in his early years, but people like Carl Jung and Lacan or there might be more psychologists that are related I believe.
Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present 2012
But one that surprised me most was this: He is saying that the relationship between me and the audiences were predisposed, the performer in the work was waiting for response from the audiences so that he feel I was lonely in this position. I think he is correct that my role in this work is passively mimicking the audience’s reaction, even I subjectively design the pattern in the work. But my intention was to present a connection between consciousnesses and body. would such kind of loneliness he felt though the work be his experience when he is in relation to others? For me, as the performer in such a proposition I had set for myself, I did feel a bit helpless during the show, even with practice before hand and preparation. I felt happy when the audience realize what I’m doing and giving responses, there is an expectation that I hope people can understand me. But if there is a introduction before the performance, the audience might get more involved in.
I sense a subjective design in the performance of your act itself that makes me feel particularly uncomfortable with this design, where human connection is engineered and you need to be powerless or wait or look for the Other, and I feel you are ruthlessly lonely
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My personality would probably scream at the audience to show them me hahahahahaha.
I’ve also continue using cyanotype as a main material of my practice and found some meaningful discovery. Cyanotype is firstly two kind of soluble chemical powders and mix each other, I tried to explore the materiality in another form of water solution, which is ice. I freeze the cyanotype. I can use it to draw on papers, but it still has the capacity to reflect image. They present very different.
With many examples and representations we can see, I started to conceive, whether those images are still photography or something new. The word “photography” is consist of two parts: “photo” which was a Greek word means light, not in the sense of light and heavy but physical electromagnetic radiation that can perceived by human eyes., and “graphy” denoting drawing. Therefore, the word “photography” could denote drawing with lights. However, in these practices we can see, they are not simply setting up a proposition for an image and using camera to photograph it. By manipulating the medium which bearing the reflected image, the cyanotype has its change in itself. I can draw with frozen cyanotype solution and create image or it the ice of cyanotype solution melt. Imagine when one take a picture with a camera, the camera process some kind of transformation during the exposure, for example it melts. I don’t’ think they are merely some reflection of static image of the world, they “photograph” the movement, tension of the transformation of the “ice”. The medium transforms simultaneously when the work come to a completion. Acrylic or oil paint, on the contrary, dry after artist complete the process of painting, and the image of a photography will not be noticed until it was printed or exposed.
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In The Origin of the Work of Art by Martin Heidegger, he propose the characters of art works: the “thingly” character, the work that “a thing that is made…since the artwork us something else over and above the thingly element. The something else constitutes its artistic nature.”; and the “workly” character of the work, which makes artwork an artwork other than or above a thing. In the case of my cyanotype prints from the “cyanoice”, the very first impression we get from it is that, they present the liquid state of water as the ice melt in such a condition, they make no different from any blue water stain or watercolour, in terms of the final production. But the chemistry of cyanotype are not, in the other aspect, it reacts will UV light in sunlight, process an image of something blue, where a transformation take place during this reaction, the processing of the image. But this is not a thingly character of them, but rather the equipmental being of the equivalent, in other word, the usefulness of the material. It seems that we have now reach a dead end, which the way Heidegger had sought for answer in his article. We have to took another path, a Bernett Newman way of thing the subject matter and materiality of the cyanotype. In the work Onament 丨(1948), which he didn’t made a ”arbitrary abstract decision” of want he had or going to paint, be conceive what had happen on the canvas for eight months. For him, it was a meditation of the result work, but in my practice here, I have to think of the process and the result work together since the transformation of the material was equally important as the presented image. I would like to introduce an artist called Meghann Riepenhoff, who did exactly the same practice that melting ice on cyanotype as her work. She uses water and cyanotype as her subject, but her concept behind I think would be of the materiality of water and the transformations and movements.
Meghann Riepenhoff, Ice 38, 42x88"
Meghann Riepenhoff, Ice 133, 42×88“
Since I’m taking the way to the origin of the material, sunlight and water, that form cyanotype, I will have to trace it to the very beginning of them. Sunlight and water were there on the planet way before the first human, even the first living being appeared. The planet was cover with ice caps in the first some trillion years, later, the ice caps melt and mountains show, single-cell organisms started to appear. Through an enduring evolution of climate change on the planet, we are finally able to see such a flourishing and diverse ecosystem. Sunlight, as the source of energy, and water, the source of nutrition, are the two essentials that lives can attain. Therefore, the transformation, melting, by the coordination of sunlight and water, implies the birth of human and lives in its original state, It is not an ice-cream melted after taking out from a refrigerator, nor an ice block melted in a shot of Whisky, but the natural transformation of water from the solid state to liquid, with the supervision of sunlight, which that brings human and other creatures to live. A live in the terms that, not the incubation of eggs, nor the parturition from vagina, but which that lives started to Be, where make existence possible.
When ice started t melt, lives germinate.
-unit 3 proposal discussion
The subject matter
I’ve been researching so many different artist and theories during these two units, and I almost get lose in the extensive world of writing, until a point that I realize I’ve actually digress from the ultimate goal I set for my practice. It is something a razzmatazz that there are so many fabulous perspectives to solve the problematic.
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Now I have to return to the initial; problem that I put myself to focus, which is intersubjectivity, not in the psychological, but the philosophical sense. I wonder how people get to know and interact with each other. I suspected the body-mind distinction which will and have lead a lot of us to nihilism. I would like to believe in a closer and plausible way of see the other in our live, I hope that epistemologically, people are connected to one another, we can authentically perceive one and experience the thing that happen around us. Human’s perception to the world have been destructed and distorted by the prevalence of conspiracy, consumerism and nationalism, so that our emotion are in a situation that is so overwhelming and vulnerable, people don’t trust our governments, mass media their friends or even themselves. Our humanity is in the midst of crisis up to this point.
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Therefore, I turned to a philosophical methodology of investigate which I think it could be a lifestyle, phenomenology, specifically the Phenomenology of Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the two great scholars that investigate the state of human being. Even though the poststructuralist denied that there is any certain structure in the study of subject and object, like Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, the sense of security brought by certainty is still engraved in the genes of human beings. I still believe that there is a way that diversity could be balance and linked in a world that is fragmentized and deconstructed.
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Hence, this fundamental structure between subjects is necessary to become the foundation of my practice. There is no sequence of such structure and the world set up or base onto, the emerge simultaneously, as they can not exist independently, an event or subject is embedded into such a structure and the structure emerge once the event or subject emerge.
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Base on the study of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, I would like to visualize that structure of between subject. In Heidegger’s philosophy, one being have to BEING-IN-THE-WORLD and BEING-WITH-OTHERS, which one being always involves relation to other entities, and Heidegger’s Dasein is understanded within a Network related to ready-in-hand entities and dissolved itself into others in the world. Merleau-Ponty developed Heidegger’s philosophy and bring it into a more physical way as Merleau-Ponty though Heidegger had neglected the importance of living body in its being. Merleau-Ponty dissolved the binary separation of subject and object by a simple instance he gave: if we hold our left and right hand together with our finger interlocked, we can discover that we are touching and being touched, in the sense, the one here is the subject and simultaneously the object for itself. Similarly, such kind of reciprocal perception can be applied on our experience of being in the world and with others as well, the distinction of subject and object, material and spiritual world was dispelled. This kind of “You are within me, I am within you” bring up a sense of connection between people, there are invisible tread reciprocally linking subjects together. in order to present a fundamental structure of the world visually, a interwoven and intertwining structure of fabric is appropriate. Instead of normal fiber, I tend to use paper yarn to suggest a stronger and tougher foundation for the “world”. The foundation is not a work on itself, cos the world would not attain with not matter in it, but with merely a structure.
By having such a foundation for a work, we can now start to set forth the “world”, which is the content within the structure. What is it t be a world or the world? how my primary subject, intersubjectivity, disclose itself in the world brought up by an artwork? In the Origin of the Work of Art, Heidegger claimed that art or a work of art is an instigation of a strife between “setting up a world and setting forth the earth”. To “set forth the earth” means that to “bring it int o the open region as the self-secluding” and to “a world” is “the self-opening openness of the broad paths of the simple and the essential decisions in the destiny of ahistorical people”, I interpret them as the process of presenting and bring forth the material world and the world that the work of art intended to establish in its artistically distinctive way. Heidegger argues that artwork are not mere representations or imitations of the reality but are instead self-contained worlds that possesses their unique truth and essence. A self-contained world can only exist with human consciousness, in my perspective, “the path of birth and death, blessing and curses keep us transported into Being“, the subject or the perceiver would always be us, human. We are who valuing the world, thus the world will always about us. The discussion of intersubjectivity, at the same time, cannot take place without being in a world or context. Therefore, the work would have to reveal a relation of human and the world we dwell, how we “set up a world” in the original, lifeless and meaningless void.
-Art as evasion
Art as evasion
I’ve hoped that audience can understand me through my work, but, I chat with Leora Brook (one of my tutors) today, I realized that there not much of my personality or enthusiasm behind my work. To escape from the reality, pressure from family, and self-exploitation, I immerse myself into the vast ocean of art and philosophy, try to forget my arms and legs, as well as my perception, until slumber, my contemplating consciousness is what remain.
Am I fear of the past?
Yes.
What is that you of?
I believe that I had a happy childhood more than a lot people. I lived with my grandparents with my family. My grandparents love me, very much, for nothing in return. They died, however, before I understand filial piety and love.
I found that the effort that my parents love and nurture me, will eventually become my obedience and maintenance in return when I grow up.
“I’ve put so much effort in my study and won some awards, why haven’t you never praised me?”
“That would be sycophancy and I will become an enabler of you, son.”
I don’t; know how I can face them, and the tradition under Confucianism of that has circulated hundreds of years. To protest would not be my solution, the intention of Confucian thought of reconstructing a harmonious human relation was great in the era of the state that moral and social disorder resulting from the collapse or neglect of proper rituals in ancient China. But there is no huge development on such thoughts and traditions when we have to contextualize them in the society now. It will make things worse if we impose them into the social milieu we currently are.
I run away, from the overwhelming destiny, from the exception of being successful.
That might be the reason that I ‘m now into metaphysics, even though it looks ludicrous to study metaphysics after “the dead of subject. I wonder why I would suffer from this, why people get painful and nihilistic from things, why people change when another died. And the western philosophy had progressed as the world change over time, while Chinese had stagnant for its own political, social and historical reasons. Hope that one day I could find a way out for the problematic I conceive.
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I’ve experienced a excited time in my creative career, I had my MA degrees how in July, I collaborate a social engaged art project, a graffiti wall in Brick Lane London, I’ve learn a lot and working toward the final research festival.
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For the degree show I created a installation, made up of two pieces of 170 by 90 toughen glass—one with a live size cyanotype print of my body, the other sprayed by a special type of reflective paint.
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By visualising myself and reflecting the situated environment, the work is a attempt to explore the relation of a body and the audience, namely, intersubjectivity, to the extent of a fundamental, essential state of being. I think a naked body is the most primitive sate of human being, in the metaphysical and material extent, and cyanotype, which is a process that generate image by sunlight and water, are two very essential sources that constitute lives. So that I try to presenting me in the primordial, fundamental state of being a human. The reflective “grids” behind are a symbol of the invisible relation. People recognise their own subjectivity, like Hegelian Master-Slavery dialectic, through encountering others, so that the intervening structure of the reflective paint motivate audience, lead their vision to the entities around.
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I wanted to construct the installation using real yarns, which there is a direct representation of the concept of interwoven structure in a weaved fabric, my initial plan was to weave to surface with paper yarn and create cyanotype on it, to achieve the idea that my being is intertwined with the world.
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I brought a loom and started trying to do some weaving. I realised that that will be a huge among of work if I will have to weave surface that can print a live-size cyanotype on.
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The grids above are a minimalised visualization of the intertwined structure.
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I used a special type of spray paint and try different ways of transferring it onto galls in the shape of the grid. I think that in creating a reflection with the mirror effect paint, the audience would not only see the work, but also impose their subjectivity onto the work, so that I can eliminate the audience and work dualism.
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I used a special type of spray paint and try different ways of transferring it onto galls in the shape of the grid. I think that in creating a reflection with the mirror effect paint, the audience would not only see the work, but also impose their subjectivity onto the work, so that I can eliminate the audience and work dualism. The paint did not perform so well on glass as it was on acid tape and acrylic, but those have no such transparency like glass. I screenprint a type of resist onto the glass and spray the mirror effect paint on, and then wash away the resist as it is water-based, in which would leave the negative of the image.
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I brought two toughen glass, 170cm by 90cm and making a steel stand in mental work shop for the two glass.
For the process of cyanotype, it takes me a lot tome experiencing this new process. I will have to mix the cyanotype solution with gelatine, coat it on the glass. Interestingly, I contacted with a student in BA, who did lots of cyanotype on glass, but seemingly, he doesn’t feel happy with me using his technique. But apparently he didn’t invent this. The weather was too hot for the gelatine to dry, and the glasses were extremely heavy, so it become a tough job for me. I did it twice cos there was bubbles on the surface.
There are dissatisfactions. I think neither of these two glasses are finished as I expected them to be. The cyanotype was too light, almost invisible when natural light comes from behind. And the reflective spray paint doesn’t not stay good on glass for unknown reason. I did experiment with the spray on acid tape and Perspex, they performed quite well and stay firmly on the material. I would say the colour are merely not powerful enough so that it does not see that well in the exhibition site.
I’ve received a lot feedbacks on private view, as well as during exhibition days. One surprising comment I heard was saying that, I’m brave to presenting my naked body in such a western context. I have not thought of that perspective before. I come to UK when I was 18, but unlike some oversea student around that would struggle with self-identity, I have never think of such problems. When I connect with people I see them as different individuals, even if they are from a same century or race, they are still separate entities. Admitingly, there are racism gender bias going on and on, and we cannot deny that there is a entire system of such discrimination, but I still believe that one have the capability to choose what he believes in. I don’t think that there is not what we called “blind faith” in our time, as getting information is so easy that it would just takes seconds to tell you Einstein’s theory of Relativity or of quantum physics. If someone never question those social unfairness we experience everyday, or is even aware of them reflectively, he must be either a bloody idiot or pathetic mule。 But interestingly, in a psychoanalytic sense, that is perhaps one of the reasons why I would see phenomenology as the predominant methodology in my research and practise.
Base on this piece, I come up with that creating an interactive installation, so that we can actualize or physicalize the interaction. I think that if people or the audience stay on a visual extent, they will not fully entangle with the event.
The idea is a sculptural version of the intertwined subjectivity, I’m planning to build spnable blocks woth a column intersect in the middle of them. The blocks would be sprayed with mirror effect paint. As the audiences walk in between the sculptures, there is not only a visual reflection of the recognition of their intertwined subjectivity, but also physical interaction since I would design the gap between each sculpture narrow enough to crate a direct and physical encounterness.
I did some modeling of that idea.
In the summer break, I’ve done a most “influenced” work, to the extent that the work had been discuss widely in Chinese speaking Internet, but the way that it has a positive influence. I collaborate with someone from RCA, we white-wash the wall in brick lane London. First of all, I have to clarify that I have a different intention with YIque, the artist I worked with. And that comes to the most important lesson I’ve learn from this project is that—when there is an opportunity that you work with another artist and co-creator, discuss the intention of yours in every single aspects, if there is any divergence, then don’t start. I will explain the entire story from my perspective of view now. But I haven’t been so highly involved in a political discuss ever in my live, I can still remember Leo asked me what do I think of HongKong, and I said I’m not interested in politics.
A lot main stream media had reported the event, but for me and my practice, I don’t want to be label as an artist involved in political struggle.
We were walking around Brick Lane on the day we came up with this idea, and there were three of us, Yique, and a friend of us from Chelsea. Yique suggested that we paint the wall of Brick Lane all white and spray a group of emblematic slogans proposed by the Chinese government which is the famously known “Core Socialist Value”. I remember that he thought the Graffiti walls in Brick Lane had been commercialized, becoming a “spectacle” as Guy Debord articulated in his The Society of Spectacle, where people lose their capability to critically reflect on information but are driven by mass media and fetishism of commodity, Whereas China, known as a socialist or communist country, the Chinese government did political propaganda in a more direct, powerful way which paints a white wall and sprays Chinese characters in red in the last few decades mainly in the countryside, in which that has left a strong impression for people live during that time. This idea caught my attention immediately, I can imagine it will create a strong visual impact on Brick Lane., but I started to think, about what it can be and mean. What I was interested in was the interaction and dynamic created by the strong constraint between the white wall and colorful graffiti. I still think that any signifiers make nonsense when they justify themselves in their own contexts, one would not want to go to heaven if he doesn’t know hell. It is not a right or wrong, good or bad justification, but a Hegelian Master-Slave dialectic, or a figure-ground relation in Merleau-Ponty’s term, a process of recognizing Others. And for the “Core Socialist Value”, is not about how great and marvelous Marxism or the philosophy of Mao is, but I consider such values as universal values that are valid in any culture or race group, what makes it so different is it is proposed in a “typical Chinese” way. In my opinion, there is no absolute justification of value in all countries, every country is a consequence of complicated results in the same period since the bipedalism of humans, and millions of cultures generated and degraded in such history. On another aspect, graffiti is not a style that would be permanently exhibited in a museum or gallery, it changes constantly day by day. The wall in Brick Lane has been covered by different graffiti artists over and over again, we can see it completely differently the next day we vibist it, which I think suggests a kind of fluidity and uncertainty. There is not an absolute time of peace or war in history, the world is changing constantly, and the same for people’s lives. We started our research and bought materials, our plan was to paint the exterior wall paint and spray the characters with a lancer-cut wood board. Apparently, our initiative idea does not go through rigors research and does not have a clear aim of what could achieve, cos I think that even though we were born and raised in China it is hard to know the complete situation of our country in a place that predominated but a different ideology, for many and complex reasons. I and I both believe that there will be an intense conversation at the time they work physically be there.
We grouped up some of our friends and invite photographers and video recorder, we expected there will be a documentary demonstrating the entire process of the project, the preparation, actually execution of the work, reaction of audience, etc. For me, I never expected it would be any other artwork that be discuss in they way they do in a gallery, The conversation would be intensive, vehement and a conflict between group of people might arise. But still, I still underestimated the tension of such topic could be.
Our group was gathering up and moved to Brick Lane on the night of 4th August. A lot people asked us what as gonna happen as they see a group of people were painting the entire wall white., there was a few of them love it, even they didn’t know our plan, and some of them felt angry of our whitewashing, because they know some of the artists’ were covering by us. It was a lovely night, every one was expressing their passion toward the community. Some staff from local council came over and gave us penalty notes, the police came too, but they cannot arrest us. This is part of our plan, I’ve been told that it is better to ask permission from local council before we started. But I waned to create a “enclave” there. An Enclave is a territory surrounded but another state or entity, where it actually isn’t. By creating such circumstance, the British government or local authority were force to involve, such a context of foreign, in terms for China and its territory, so-called “democratic”, well-developed in some aspect, in the sense of Orientalism, would be absent. Ironically, our belongs got stolen at the time we giving our information to the council people. I was so angry and painted a question mark on “法治” which stand for Rules of Law.
the very first reaction on Internet was exhilarating, the wall was found by some Chinese student in UK, it was considered as a work inspired by nostalgia of live in China. As the work was spreading wider On social media, especially among Chinese users, polar response emerged from conversations. Some think that we are promoting political propaganda for CCP（Chinese Communist Party, which they consider it an inaction of political ideology, some think that we were satirising the unachievable goal proposed and propagated by Chinese and become a satire of Chinese Communist Party and its politics, local street artist were resented by the impetuous and impertinent whitewash on the big coverage of those works.
I didn’t want to make any affirmation in such a short time, I think the work would be cover when it is covered again, which the conversation would eventually been part of this diverse and vibrant community. But I underestimated the speed of its spreading and did not clarify with every single group mate on when and how to response to the public, so that some of them have exposed themselves under the hostile and intense argument.
I have to reinforce that, for my personal stand, even the work consist of political symbols, but it is not a opposition or intended besmirch to any nation or ideology. We could not e=imagine that the conflict of the work had cased a series of cyber bullying and even death threats, but it is the very dilemma, that the work didn’t found any flavour from neither the supporters of CCP or opposers, reveal the complicated situation of our nation in the West. Here in UK, there are Chinese nationals and international students, as well as Chinese diaspora who have come to the UK for various reasons. There are also different groups and organizations engaged in political struggles motivated by ideological strife. And for those local street ‘s anger, I.can see a type of strong conservatism of a absolute definition of graffiti or street art, regulated by those “locals”. We’ve connected other street artist beforehand, asking whether they would be willing to see their work be covered, they admit the nature of graffiti that covering is part of the dynamic.
Yique, one of the three creator of us, had put himself in front of the public and media, he gained the most vituperation, but also started to interviewed by somemedia, even AI Weiwei support us on his twitter. But I found his intention at that time was swing, I started to confused his acquisition, cos as he put himself in the spotlight, the entire group were in dangerous. I tried not to response to any comments and vituperation, cos I don’t think that is how this work ought to be, but Yique keep defending for the work and try explaining. I’m still happy to accomplish such a work even it was created in a short time and immature intention and lack of knowledge of the situation of our nation. The quarrel finally started when Yique wanted me to post statement to support him responding to the attackers on the Internet. I refused to do so cos, for the first thing, he asked for it, he should have be able to keep lowkey and contact with the art sphere and bring the work into the discussion for its artistic aspects. Second, we had different attitude of addressing the impact brought by the work, we need to ensure the personal security of our group, cos we are the ones that people looking at, it is acceptable to sacrifice the work for a while in terms of keeping it away from a political movement.
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The only thing that as I excepted, and the most successful part of the work is, after such struggle in the world and online, local graffiti artists started to paint their own work covering our graffiti, which I think that is the way street art works.
This piece and its subsequent development have many aspects worthy of discussion. This work, or graffiti work, was achieved through a process of being repeatedly covered as it became part of the wall. When I revisited Brick Lane a month later, I knew that this piece had entered the next stage. In fact, the day after the event occurred, the local council had already covered some of the fonts with white paint - the local authorities did what we had done once again. This is also why we did not apply in advance for permission to do graffiti on Brick Lane. If we had informed the local authorities, it would have made them absent from this matter because whether they allowed us to do so or not, their knowledge of the matter would have prepared them to take a position on this spontaneous practice. If they had allowed us to carry out this act of art, they would have become supporters of the matter, and this support is not an urgent response but rather a platform to provide.
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In our initial intention, such overlapping of signifiers and symbols are the exact dynamic conversation we excepting. In my view, anything that valid, such as a concept, a country, an identity, could only Be itself and present once there is Others. We can discern ourselves on;y when we are embody in a environment, which consists of the Big other, in a Lacantian sense, and other people. This is same on our country, or any value or lore that we are told.
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Our recent actions were not entirely well-organized, especially concerning our team's social media presence, which is primarily composed of our friends. On the second day after the incident, as we received more support, some of our teammates publicly claimed ownership of the work on social media. They faced backlash as a result. Initially, I had no intention of taking a stance, but because some of our teammates lacked a comprehensive understanding of the situation and made posts on the internet, I felt compelled to share the burden of online harassment alongside them. Personal information about both Yique and me was exposed online, and many people subjected us to online harassment.
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Yique and I had differing attitudes toward online harassment. I believed that any posts I made were solely aimed at freeing our teammates who didn't fully understand the truth, and I didn't feel the need to respond to online harassment. However, Yique chose to engage in arguments on the internet with supporters, opponents, and trolls, which led to emotional distress for him. Yet, his proactive approach gained more attention. Clearly, this wasn't my approach, and I still held firm to my initial strategy.
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Nonetheless, I also reflected on my own actions and our team's behavior. Before undertaking any public project, I realized that it's essential to ensure that the entire team is aligned with the project's intentions. If it's not a collective effort, I have a responsibility as the project initiator to explain the purpose, process, and potential consequences of the project to every participant.
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Once I return to college, I did another performance.
I got the inspiration when I saw the waste outside my house before I clearing them. All the leftovers were packed into bags in the big bins, just as the same way we saw them in the supermarket, presented on the display shelves, waiting to be consume. Therefore, I decided to redistribute them, like a deliverer whom deliver goods from the supermarket from home to home. I found a shopping trolly, putting the packed waste in the trolley, take them out onto the street, find a bin (home), for them.
I named it sub grocery. I wanted to create a word could mean a subsequent or inferior behavior of consuming commodity. I named it sub grocery. I wanted to create a word could mean a subsequent or inferior behavior of consuming commodity. The performance is a improvised idea that I come up with when I took the bags one by one to the garbage station.
Research festival
I’m recently doing research on German philosopher Martin Buber on his famous book I and Thou, which sometimes translate as I and You in English. I found him accidentally when I was walking in the library. I can never imagine someones’s book have such a similar title with my work and more importantly the concept.
In his book I and Thou, Martin Buber considered the world as twofold proposed two fundamental “word”.of relationship between entities, the I-It and the I-You. Martin Buber gave an example of a tree to elaborate the distinction of I-You and I-it. When we contemplate a tree, we can accept it as a a rigid pillar in a floor, we can feel its movement, the flowing veins, the sucking of roots, the breathing of leaves. We can assign it to a species and observe it as an instance, with an eye on its construction and its way of life. We can nevertheless dissolve these into a number, into a pure relation of number, and eternalise them. Such a quantification of characters is the basic word of I-It. In contrast, the basic word of I-You happens when we contemplate a tree with will and grace joined, we have drawn into a relation.
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That might sound like traditional Confucianism which Confucianists believe that the order among people grounded on the universal Li, a fundamental relationship, but the Confucian Li tempt to preserve the social order, but Merleau-Ponty and his idea of embody phenomenology concentrate on and emphasis the subjectivities of individual beings. Among all phenomenologists and their effort to dissolve the dualism of subject and object, Merleau-Ponty is the one and the.only that sought a path to our bodily being via science and psychology, whereby his background in psychology. Alike Merleau-Ponty, Martin Buber aimed to establish such a intersubjectivity, not in the way of scientific experiment, but by spirituality and religion. It is noteworthy that there is no direct evidence proofing Marin Buber connected with the famous phenomenologist like Husserl or Heidegger in the early twenty century, but it is from his early translation of Daodejing, a classic text and fundamental work of Chinese Daoism, disclosed his context and concern had informed by his intercultural, engagements. Both Martin Buber and Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy were dedicated to disclose the salient experience of properties of things before they are submitted to the distinction of the mind. Such holistic perceptions of things prevent us fro the cultural, social, sexual, all those bias generate in the history of human civilisation, in which all our conflicts, fear, depression come from.
For the research festival, I’m planing to make a artist book. Martin Buber’s poetic writing had touched me, cos he conveys his existential idea not in a academic elucidation. Academic writing could be a powerful and direct form of which explaining philosophic concept, but apparently, it has grounded in the disciplinary system, a poetic expression of words would evoke people in adopting direct experience of life in the text.
My plan is to have some two pages of writing, one [age of acrylic sheet. They will be present on a display on a display stand.
My plan is to have some two pages of writing, one [age of acrylic sheet. They will be present on a display on a display stand. It is goona be a 1.7m high sculptural book but there is no a way to fold it, it would be open up as a world. My plan is to have some two pages of writing, one [age of acrylic sheet. They will be present on a display on a display stand. It is goona be a 1.7m high sculptural book but there is no a way to fold it, it would be open up as a world. I will create a mirror effect writing the word “thou” like the piece on the degree show, so I send one day write a page of thou with marker.
Ongoing print research printms
photopolymer
I’ve experimenting with photopolymer with aquatint screen, it is the original technique of making a polymer plate that exposing the photo positive and the dots which create the tonal effects. I experimented with different exposing time of the polymer plate and that is what fascinated me in this process. Photography is a way to capture the time scene of time and space , it is a unique spatio-temporal movement, representing such movement by solely mimicking the appearance or phenomena of it. But, here, I’m trying to find out the most approach exposure time that can gives the most information given by the original photograph and the movement. But this the drawback of such process is the cost of time and plate.
I failed experiment with photolitho It gives no information as it is over exposed in any duration of photolitho.
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photolitho
Object, 2023 is a hand written text exposed on photolitho zinc plate. The idea is playing with the word subject to resist the objectification of artwork is always an object out there which people can never understand. I chose a manual written text to over enrich the message with the artist’s presence in the work.
The Acceleration is a new series of print reflecting on technology, specifically in daily transportation, that influence our experience and accelerate that. The invention and application of railway and telegram were the most significant technology in the 19st century that change not only people’s live, but more importantly, how the world works. They were new patterns of exchanging messages and moving from place, it was the trigger from zero to one. Human kept developing faster and more efficient forms of communication and transportation, base on the logic of telegram and railway. Such transformation is a huge leap forward from manualism to mechanism. However, such accelerating experience had surpass the development of social ideology and adaptability, human being are becoming the servant of their invention. In Martin Heidegger’s work Question Concerning Technology, he rejected the idea that technology is a neutral instrument, holding no moral baggage, and claimed that technology has all kinds of moral baggage on it and changes the entire trajectory of society as a whole in the way that technology dissolves the premodern relationship of human and the material world that any resources from nature will eventually serve our live, into an abstraction of those which concerning how much profit or utility would produce from those resources people have. Such perspectives will them alienating relationships of human. In
By realizing the crisis of modernity as such, American scholar Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek proposed the ACCELREATE MEANIFESTO for an Accelerationist Politics. Accelerationism is a new interpretation of the traditional Marxism. Leftwing accelerationist re-interpret the Rise of Technology in Marx’s 1857 Introduction, they believe that by liberating technology from the limitations, the over developing technology will eventually drag down and destroy capabilities immanently.
However, in the acceleration series, I attempt to present the Nausea and dizziness in live that such accelerating society brings to us.
Envisioning Research and Practice in the Future.
In the course of this year's research and practice, I have ventured closer to societal engagement from my initial projects. This has made me realize how insignificant my previous research and work have been in addressing real-world issues. The world is full of war, discrimination, and doubt, and people are constantly in distress. My vision of resolving the human condition through the dissolution of binary oppositions seems naive in the face of more severe social crises. It carries a sense of detachment, which is unfair to those suffering. However, getting involved in politics can be quite dangerous for Chinese individuals, even if it doesn't pertain to domestic or China-related political events.
Simultaneously, I have witnessed the hypocrisy and arrogance of the contemporary art world in social events like exhibitions. While every artist approaches their work with passion, once they enter the gallery system, no one can change their objectification. This has left me feeling quite despondent. Criticizing capitalism and the free market has been ongoing for over a hundred years, and it's possible that humanity may never transition to another form of society, whether it be a communist one or any other. Perhaps becoming an accelerationist is a path we have been inadvertently pushed into, one that accelerates capitalism toward its own demise. Yet, this is clearly in contrast to the phenomenological approach I admire, which advocates a return to the essence of things, a deceleration.
If we focus on direct experiences, rooted in the capitalist social system, will it give us a stronger class consciousness? But if we suspend phenomenology in the context of capitalist society, will it lead us to overlook the crises of capitalism? From this perspective, phenomenology is not a method to use in dealing with politics and ideology. It is better suited to addressing opposition between subjects, rather than critiquing capitalism.
In the 20th-century phenomenology movement, many attempted to link phenomenology with Marxism, as there is an evident connection between returning to the essence of things and dialectical materialism. For instance, Hungarian philosopher György Lukács used a phenomenological approach in his work "History and Class Consciousness" to study the class consciousness of the working class and the ontology of social existence. According to Lukács, while it may appear that Western economies continue to prosper, with advancements in production technology, specialization of labor, and rationalization of management, the conditions of the working class have significantly deteriorated at a deeper level. This is due to the "alienation" of labor and the "reification" of workers in the production process, making workers mere cogs in the assembly line and alienating them from the products of their labor. Lukács argued that it was essential to raise the working class's awareness to make them understand their situation of "reification" and "alienation" and realize their right to control the results of their labor as the masters of their work.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty also proposed the concept of the "historical body" in his work "Phenomenology of Perception," suggesting that Marx, by starting his study of history from human social practice, effectively acknowledged the combined role of the mental and the material in a holistic sense.
So, my next research direction will move from the ontology of individual existence to the integration of phenomenology with history and ideology.