My thoughts and annotation would be in this font

The articles I read would be in this font

I think what makes humans different from other animals is that we use language.
We record and pass on to the next generation and that's what animals don't do.
I think the most effection way for humans to record and pass on knowledge is LANGUAGE.
So I decided to find more about the origin of language and how other artists who interested in this area execute the work. 

the origin of language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language

I started my research on Wikipedia to have a brief understanding of the origin of language.

"The origin of language and its evolutionary emergence in the human species have been subjects of speculation for several centuries...must draw inferences from other kinds of evidence such as the fossil record, archaeological evidence, contemporary language diversity, studies of language acquisition, and comparisons between human language and systems of communication existing among animals (particularly other primates). Many argue that the origins of language probably relate closely to the origins of modern human behavior, but there is little agreement about the implications and directionality of this connection.

One can sub-divide approaches to the origin of language according to some underlying assumptions:^[6]

• "Continuity theories" built on the idea that language exhibits so much complexity that one cannot imagine it simply appearing from nothing in its final form; therefore it must have evolved from earlier pre-linguistic systems among our primate ancestors.
• "Discontinuity theories" take the opposite approach—that language, as a unique trait which cannot be compared to anything found among non-humans, must have appeared fairly suddenly during the course of human evolution.
• Some theories see language mostly as an innate faculty—largely genetically encoded.
• Other theories regard language as a mainly cultural system—learned through social interaction."

"I cannot doubt that language owes its origin to the imitation and modification, aided by signs and gestures, of various natural sounds, the voices of other animals, and man's own instinctive cries.

There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers.

 The main difference between humans and other animals is that we use more effective language to communicate, and we record them down and pass on to the next generation. 

Laura Owens, Untitled, 2012

''In the work Owens brings together several disparate elements and materials. Large outlines of the letters R A O (from the word karaoke) are filled in with silkscreen prints derived from classified adverts from a Bay Area newspaper from the late 1960s......The curved areas are made by ‘drawing’ and ‘erasing’ with a mouse on a computer using a Photoshop painting program. Owens creates a composition on a screen, projects it onto the canvas, marks the outlines with masking tape and then fills in the areas with the impasto paint. At the bottom of the canvas, there is a scattering of glued-on pumice stones.''

During today's lecture, I have a deeper understanding of how artist use technology to execute their artwork and one of the works that really interested me is Untitled by Laura Owens. I think the process of using Photoshop and then paint it out is worth thinking the question WHY. The detail of the shadow she painted really confuse me whether it is a painting or not. I think many people, including me, sometimes give assumption before seeing the actual art work. It went back to the topic of painting and photograph...is it a painting? or is it made from Photoshop? Does it matter? Is it from reality? Or just imagination?

Oil painting by Pedro Campos

The previous artwork let me think of all the Hyper Realistic works. They are exactly like photographs and this also let me understand how easily can human eyes can be fooled. 

''When you look at an object, the light from it enters your eye through the pupil. The iris changes the size of the pupil, depending on how bright the light is. The lens focuses the light onto the back of the eye: the retina.''

''...wavelengths of reflected light determine what color you see. The light waves reflect off the surface of the object and hit the light-sensitive retina at the back of your eye.''

I discovered that light is the key element of how human see things. Is it possible that how we see things is actually blocking us to see the REAL side of the world? For example how we see an apple and how dogs see an apple are different. How do we know which one is the REAL one?

Lilah Fowler, nth nature, 2018

"the land becomes landscape becomes map"

"Lilah Fowler’s work examines the common, mutable languages that inform how we interpret our surroundings. Sculptures, images and other elements draw on sources that include the planning of natural and urban environments and their architectural design values, combining into responsive and intricate installations. The aesthetics and reinterpretations of modern architecture, highway-side infrastructure, the iconography and syntax of road travel and the politics of contemporary society’s increasing proliferation of ‘non-places’ are brought into consideration. These non-places can be viewed as ambiguous, but productive and critical, gaps within contemporary society, and as a deliberate contrast to the pervasive accessibility and certainty of an increasingly digitised society."

__from https://www.lilahfowler.com/text/

"Fowler’s current show at Assembly Point seeks to explore how globalisation and digital technology structure the landscape, challenging romanticised ideas of secluded natural wilderness. For Fowler, nth nature describes a network of potentially infinitely connected geographies, infinitely layered natures. With sculpture, weaving, photography, video and sound work, stones, plant clippings and other materials produced and collected over a number of years and various research projects, spanning the south-west US, the Lake District in the UK and also Hong Kong, the sprawling exhibition forms a vibrant and varied ecology."

"The display is organised around a pair of three-dimensional, broadly triangular, head-high aluminium frames, held together by an irregular network of trusses that resemble something like a 3D road map......The vivid colouring and bold geometric design of the fabrics draw influence from Navajo weaving, which Fowler researched and learned to do while in the US. Yet, they were made on a digital loom and their patterns generated by a custom-built computer program, previously used by the artist for an architectural commission installed in Bristol. While the design and production of these textiles are deeply rooted in south-west US, they seem at once connected to a much wider locale through the global tourist market for Navajo weaving and a digital network that extends across America and the rest of the world."

__from https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/lilah-fowler-nth-nature-review-assembly-point-london

I have not think of using "sculpture, weaving, photography, video and sound work, stones, plant clippings" to execute my work. Maybe I could learn from her and try those things out.

SOME EXAMPLES OF HOW IMAGE CAN BE PRESENT WITH SCULPTURE: 

Abigail Reynolds, Tol, 2016

"Tol’s title is Cornish, and translates as ‘hole’ taken from the Mên-an-Tol (holed stone). The sculpture unites three women for whom Penwith had a strong emotional charge. One Mên-an-Tol image is taken from Daphne du Maurier's book ‘Vanishing Cornwall’ 1967. The photograph was taken by her son. Virginia Woolfe’s novel ‘To the Lighthouse’ lies behind the choice of the image of Godrevy, which mirrors the forms of the Mên-an-Tol. Finally the form of the glass structure is taken directly from Hepworth’s ‘Itea’ print from the Aegean Suite. The sculpture conveys my understanding of the landscape that I travel between my home and my studio. My understanding of this landscape is tinted by the works of these woman."__from http://www.abigailreynolds.com/works/134/tol/#

 


Amy Stephens, Α.Φ.Ρ.Ο.Δ.Ι.Τ.Η.Σ, 2017

Benjamin Cohen, empty in the other, 2019

Considering "painting beyond its frame", I associated the topic with wearing a painting on human body. 
It is also about performance. What you do if you wear it? How do you wear it? 
Wearing a tattoo, an accessory, a garment, does it consider wearing a painting?

Alexis Teplin, Arch (The Politics of Fragmentation), 2016, performance, Sydney Biennale

"Her contemporary practice consists of an energetic mix of theatricality, seduction, abstraction, movement, play, repulsion, absurdity and humour, exploring painting in an ‘expanded sense’. That is, expanding from wall-based works made of a tattered patchwork of canvas, strips of linen and blocks of dreamy colour, outwards into free-standing paintings, painted sculptures, pastiche performances featuring players draped in painted canvas, and video pieces that echo gestures, acts, brushwork and dialogue taken from painting and film."__from https://www.creativetourist.com/event/alexis-teplin/

Alexis Teplin’s practice is routed in abstract painting that extends to include sculpture and performance. I really interested in how she transform 2 dimension painting into performance and sculpture.

Gotye, Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra), 2011

I quickly associate "wearing a painting" with this mv image. Literary wearing a painting. 

From the interview above, I was really inspired by a sentence which said by Hito Steyerl: 

"It's important for myself to try to keep up with the latest consumer technology because it expresses some kind of technological social-political condition or contraction of desires and misunderstandings."

I'd agree with her. It's important to keep up with new technology because technology is what shapes our future. It allows us to see more possibilities of what our future would be like. It's like the same thing it says in Speculative Everything:

"As all design to some extent is future-oriented, we are very interested in positioning design speculation in relation to futurology, speculative culture including literature and cinema, fine art, and radical social science concerned with changing reality rather than simply describing it or maintaining it." 

It seems like all things are starting from imagination. And art is formed by imagination. So I guess it's a job for some artists to speculate the future for all humankind. HOW? by showing the audience what would the future look like? Or think about the problems that humans would face? Cooperating with new technology seems to be an essential factor in order to do that.

She also mentioned a quote by Hannah Arendt: "the most important ability of humankind is the ability to give birth and to create something new. It's the ability to define and create the future, not to let yourself be defined by your past."

The quote by Hannah Arendt from above seems to indicate what artists should do (not just artists, layers, scientists, engineers, writers, musicians...ALL HUMANKIND). It's undeniable that humans pick up the knowledge we learned in the past and move on and always try to create new things. Discover new things. Invent new things. It seems like the reason we born is to BE BETTER. It's to let the whole society to be better. So what should we do? As an artist? should we put our creative purpose to contribute to the progress of human?

I was figuring out how to combine traditional art (drawing and painting for instance) with technology. Then I found this artist who combines them perfectly. I really really like one of her work called "In the Soldier's Head", where she uses video that watercolor dissolves in the water and combine with the animation she draws. 

With the Theather designer, I believe she has a great sense of putting scenes with her films. I saw a gorgeous red room and sumptuous chairs for audiences to sit (The Black Cabinet, 2007). I think she successfully creates an atmosphere where conveys a sense of 19th century. 

This work (Brand Band News, 2005) as well, places the work in a wooden house that lived by the cowboys. It gives a feeling of "quest for identity".