“.” (Period)

Jenny Kim

The End

I define life/time/moments as a paragraph where all kinds of words, sentences gather to make up one story. 5 years that I spent in Emily Carr were full of stories with dynamic experience. And it’s time for me to put a period on my last sentence to conclude my story of attending Emily Carr University. Often a period(.) is there to finish up a sentence. Making an end to it,  and it also allows a new sentence to come right after it. So I thought It’s an interesting concept that it can be both the end and the beginning of something. 

So for this installation piece I’ve used plexiglass, projectors, colour lighting and sound as my medium. All of these mediums are so vulnerable and can be easily interrupted or affected by the environments that it is surrounded by just like how I have let myself get interrupted and be exposed to the habits that lead me to negativity (physically and mentally). At the same time, these constant experiences of having to put period dots on my growth as an artist and as a person gave me a lesson and courage to start something new to develop myself. 

Plexiglass Design

Each Plexiglas glass is in the shape of a record panel cover with a laser-cut engraving of design that describes what kind of interruptions and experiences I’ve gone through. and the projection of a record will rotate as the sound comes on for individual record panel projection. (They will be playing at all different time) And at the end of all records playing this whole frame of “difficult times” becomes one big record panel expressing that this periods are over and a new lesson that I’ve learned through these experiences will begin.

Screen Projection

For the background, I was trying to give the idea/vibe of the time when you go to a store or restaurant or something, but they are closed because you’ve visited at the wrong time, like how bad I used to be with time management of my previous life ). And each closed sign will flicker as the audio plays, and when it end, the sign will be turned off, representing that I’m not revisiting that time or going back to make the same mistake = realization.

Installation + Documentation

Since the projection of each record panel will be projected through the Plexiglass it will be hard to define the wordings of each one unless you go really close to it to read them. Just like how each experience was an important event that helped me to grow but it’s something that I don’t want to look back with attention and remember the details of it. 

Da Capo


A musical term and it means from the beginning

My motivation for this project comes from the idea of really listening to our passion to not doubt about our goals in our lives because of others’ opinions towards our goals. With this motivation, I decided to make an installation piece that will remind me of my life goals after I graduate. My short-term goal is to get a job at a music record label company in Korea called “AOMG” (above ordinary music group). And my long-term goal is to open a café later in my future. So, I’ve decided to make two tracks for each goal, triggering the program to create a visual to appear on the projection.  

Process

In the beginning i started off with doing research for the record label company so i know what kind of music style they are known for and also their process of making their album. After that I’ve made two tracks that would suite their music style and tried out their ways of making music. 

For the AOMG1 i made it with the dark and punky vibes and for the other one it was more like fun and playing around with rhythm and layering. For the cafe sound tracks i made one that i would play in the morning and one for the evening. And my inspiration for these tracks came from the feeling that morning skies and evening skies give.  So,for the morning track it’s cheerful and relaxing and for the evening it’s comforting nostalgic and soothing. 

After all these sounds making my next step was to design album covers for each track. So, for AOMG tracks i decided to draw while listening to the track and use photoshop to add more design to it. And iused my photography that i took when i went to downtown and also used photoshop to finish it up. For the cafe since the sky was the inspiration for making sound track i took photos of the morning and evening skies to design the album cover. 

Visualization

For visualization i used processing to program a system where the visual will react to the specific sound. I used geometric shapes and same colour scheme of the album cover to create the visual.

Final Result of the Installation

Jenny Kim

"Don't be cliché." this is one of the don'ts on the art-making criteria when artists start brainstorming their ideas for their artwork, but this is one of my main two components that is included in art practice. Dos and Don'ts are the main two components that I always have in my artwork. I focus on expressing what is essential in our world that we become unsensible because we heard it so many times and think that it's cliché. But I don't spoon-feed the message behind the work to the audience to keep cause curiosity, which is one of the dos on the art-making criteria. My work's visual aspect will attract the audience because it's familiar to them or simply because they are pleased by its aesthetics. I use a projector, light/shadow, plexiglass as my primary medium when creating my work. Even though these materials bring creative and unique outcomes in terms of the aesthetic part, they are fragile and vulnerable for the audience to engage closely. Still, the curiosity will trigger them to engage with it through simple interaction such as going close to the projected visual, and their shadow will be in the way. I employ the use of sound to trigger the emotional engagement and also to create a certain atmosphere/mood. This interaction allows the audience to be reminded of what is essential in our world, such as giving others some space, understanding, genuine kindness, etc., became so vulnerable and cliché because we are insensible.
Profile image of Jenny Kim