PRESERVATION OF BODY MOVEMENTS USING HAND GESTURES

IDEATION

With so many vast languages in the world communication is vital for humans. However to explore other ways of communication there is non-verbal and this can be seen through a variety of ways. Our body movements can do a lot of communication without using words. However when this is connected to culture its becoming less and less appreciated and explored. I intend to preserve body movements by hand gestures in relation to culture. The purpose of this is to incorporate Performance art into Media arts by interaction focusing on hand gesture movements. Body language is:the conscious and unconscious movements and postures by which attitudes and feelings are communicated,for example, putting your hands on your waist can be a sign of anger or tiredness. 

MOTIVATION

• Non-verbal communication as performance art.
• Modernization is erasing cultural dances 
• Hand gestures have different meanings and interpretations.
• The thrill of the drama and mystery behind hand gestures.

OBJECTIVES/PURPOSE

• To explore the relationship between body movements as an art and the cultural influence.
• To link interaction with body movements
• To create a fun experience for audience to learn and experience the mystery of communication non-verbally.
• To preserve the culture of body movement.
• To revive a dying tradition.

JUSTIFICATION

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For my research I will be focusing on Malay culture, Indian dance,Thai dance,ballerina dance and mostly Botswana culture. From observation most of the cultural dances tell a story about one thing or the other. Dance is expressive and from it different interpretations can be absorbed. In most cultural dances of expressive hand gestures nature is the key element,for example animals(animism),weather,plants/flowers,places.

Types of Dances using hand gestures

BOTSWANA:
Botswana culture the bushmen have their traditional dance and most of the time in their storytelling it involves imitating animals.They can also be a communicative way of showing how they heal the sick,this is because the Bushmen are well known for their love and dependence on using nature in all aspects of their lives. Their dances are narrative and mystical.Imitating animals ,Storytelling/body movement dance. Bushmen are hunters and gatheres and this is protrayed in their dances of hunting prey for food.Hunting upclose.

MALAYSIA:
The Malaysian tradition of dances with body movents includes Tarian Lilin. This is a special type of dance using candles.Candle dance. Another type of dance is Zapin dance. This is an ancient folk dance that was introduced to Malaysia by the Arabs who traded with them. Apart from the Malaysia's state where the zapin is danced by its people like Johor, Kedah, Terengganu, Kelantan, Sarawak and Sabah, zapin is also danced by the people in its neighboring country like Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei.

Other dances:

INDIA:

A lot of Indian dancing has hand gestures. Most of the time each represents a meaning either of a flower or an object.

Indian Moonwalk

Bollywood style

BALLERINA:
This dance performance falls under modern culture. It incorporates body movement paying high attention to hand and feet gestures. Ballerina-Queen. Its complex and requires a lot of flexibility.

SKETCHES & MINDMAP

PROPOSALS

PROPOSAL 1

IDEATION: Preservation of Movement.

Movement is actions or activities a person, object or animal makes.  It can also be the change in position of an object. Motion/movement has a many branches and I chose to focus on the physical part of motion in human beings. I want to challenge the preservation of body motion by bringing to the spotlight the abilities and strengths humans have to communication with the world without using words. This is a skill we posses but not many put it to good use. This form of motion can fall under the category of Expressionism art and a few examples include the late Charlie Chaplin and Mr. Bean. In our current times the youth are becoming lazy, our physical wellbeing is suffering while we put too much emphasize only on our mental state of mind. The body is like a shield of our souls, a sluggish body can in the long run mean a weak and idle soul. Through this preservation I want to make an impact to the public to awaken and explore motion.

MIND MAP

POSSIBLE MEDIA OUTCOMES:

Webcam Motion Detection

Paper stop motion

• ·       To produce a stop motion animation. This can be using paper or in a form of claymation. I would tell a story that has no speech but making the audience aware of its message. This stop motion would be viewed on LCD monitors. In order to incorporate motion and interactivity the audience would have to trigger a zone which will cause the video to play due to their motion being detected by kinect or zone trigger software.

• ·       To build a spider cobweb using strings. The aim is to let the audience find their way through the cobweb, to use their physical ability to cross through the outside. This will enable joint movement, muscles movement and overall body movement/motion. The strings will be attached with bells so whenever a bell rings the audience would have to start again; this indicates that they have touched the string which is not how to get through it. After the escape goodies await them at the end.

• ·       An installation art piece using digital photography to explore sign language and hand gestures. I intend to visit the deaf community, interact with them and document their day to day dealings. I will build an exhibition booth displaying the digital images of different words in sign language. These words will be combined to make sentences that the audience will be exposed to. From the audience perspective the deaf will be communicating with them to link both parties through communication of movement by hand gestures. Included in the installation will be LED lights of different colors to express the mood of the sentence that the audience will be exposed to at the time, for example “DON’T TALK ABOUT ME BECAUSE IAM DEAF-I READ LIPS TOO.” At this juncture the color code would be red and the images on display would be of different lip movements translating the message.

SKETCHES

PROPOSAL 2

IDEATION: Preservation of Memories

We make memories everyday throughout our daily lives. We share stories, we connect and we grow together through memories. I want to preserve memories through remembrance. We only use 10% of our brains. Our brains have over a hundred million neutrons and each time we try remembering something we trigger them altering the brain physically and the memory. Therefore because of this I want to challenge the limits of the human mind. I want to encourage preservation of memories through intellectual methods to get the public thinking as an exercise for the mind. Just like the body our minds need to be trained occasionally. This can help you improve with remembering names of people after meeting them for the first time, transferring information from short term to the long term memory region and generally have a well stable peace of mind.

MIND MAP

POSSIBLE MEDIA OUTCOMES

• ·        Video art. This will be a video of everyday objects we see, parts of faces of people, animals and nature all compiled into 1. I want to use this to trigger the memories of the audience. Little details from their past or even dreams. I want to display the video from the PC to a TV set. Why TV set? This is 1 of the most influential form of media were we get audio,visuals,poetry and a lot of other types of art.

ARTWORK BY:NAM JUN PAIK

• ·        A memory game challenge. In the exhibition booth they will be a story in a form of a comic strip consisting of many different characters and different locations. Towards the end of the booth the audience will get a chance to play a drag and drop game based on the story. This will be to test how well they remember details of the story.

• ·        Digital photography of people holding images of themselves when they were young. It will be time lapse of an image within an image. The aim of this will be to demonstrate timeline through capturing the past to the present. They will also be a section where each individual will be holding a photo of themselves in their childhood covering their face,but on the present body.
  
  
  
  
  

SKETCHES

BRAINSTORMING SESSION FOR FYP 1

FINAL YEAR PROJECT {1}

PROJECT BRIEF(WEEK 1)

• THEME : Preservation! Students are required to present a proposal for a project/ artwork with  supporting research and development at the end of trimester 1. In trimester 2 we need to materialize the proposed project-put it in action!
• Preservation can be memory, human being,museum artifacts,digital,historical,food or cultural preservation. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!!
• Multimedia output of works can be infographics, interactive installation, interactive system, website or games. Digital art can be digital imagery, digital photography, installation, net art,  public art or video art. OPEN TO EXPLORE ALL OPPORTUNITIES!
• In class today we brainstormed some ideas with our lecturers so that us the students could get familiar with what exactly is required of us. Most the ideas were random but with encouragement they can be developed. Some examples that were given were : beauty preservation(using sculptures to demonstrate), forest preservation(building a tunnel including typography), memory preservation(building a maze to utilise all 5 human senses), using sound to demonstrate preservation by having different pitches of sound output.
• The key is to HAVE A METAPHOR!!