WEEK 1

MINDMAP

WEEK 2

GOAL EXERCISE

what I have done last week.

Did research on thesis show and thesis paper.
Did research on poems that i'm interested in.

what I plan to do this week.

Decide which poem to explore.
Find more precedents about poetic installation online.
Start think about building prototype.

My goal for this semester

Build a poetic projects.
Improve my visual design abilities.
Expand my knowledge about game.(might not related to my thesis project, it is for career preparation)

Specific tasks

Write about the poem that I am interested in
Add more projects in <reference>
Brainstorming

Specific tasks

See more. Have deep thoughts.
Weekly exercise in photoshop/illustrator
Write weekly report on a new game experience
Read the book <Games,Design and Play>

what I have done this week.

Add more inspiration in Pinterest board.
Choose the poem.
Brainstorming prototype.

WEEK 3

AUDIENCE WORKSHEET

Who is my audience? What knowledge about the subject does my audience already have?

Since I want my project to be museum set, so I think my audience should be people aged 18+ in all nation.
They have all read poems before in their life

What does my audience think, believe, or understand about this topic before they encounter my work?

They might regard the poem translation as word translation- from language they don't know to their mother language

What do I want my audience to think, believe, or understand about this topic after they encounter my work?

They can know what landscape this installation is about; they think the installation is beautiful and get interested to the poem; they can feel the emotion behind the poem.

How do I want my audience to think of me? What role do I want to play in addressing my audience?

A person who tries to introduce Chinese poems to the wild world
I am the poem translator

What is the worst audience for me?

They can even not recognize what the landscape is.

1st presentation

COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

What is this?
- Your support network
Who is related to your work?
Who is impacted by your work?
Why is this important?
- Affects tone, content, organization
- Even a good project can falter if it is not adapted to its audience
- Good practice for future profession

GOAL OF THIS WEEK

Search for landscape poems written in English and try to analyze the poems in Chinese way and compare if different culture have different techniques in writing poems.

Poem translator：

Jae-my classmate in game design class; MingDi- famous Chinese-English translator;

Faculties in creative writing department:

Val Vinokur- Associate Professor of Literary Studies and also the founding editor of Poets & Traitors Press ;

John Reed-Associate Professor of Writing Across Media who loves poem

Mark Bibbins-He is a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in poetry and taught courses like poetry workshop;

writing tutors in learning center

Generate a questionnaire to investigate people in my community list.

“Daffodils” by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Meaning of the Poem

Through the narrator’s chance encounter with a field of daffodils by the water, we are presented with the power and beauty of the natural world. It sounds simple enough, but there are several factors that contribute to this poem’s greatness. First, the poem comes at a time when the Western world is industrializing and man feels spiritually lonely in the face of an increasingly godless worldview. This feeling is perfectly harnessed by the depiction of wandering through the wilderness “lonely as a cloud” and by the ending scene of the narrator sadly lying on his couch “in vacant or in pensive mood” and finding happiness in solitude. The daffodils then become more than nature; they become a companion and a source of personal joy. Second, the very simplicity itself of enjoying nature—flowers, trees, the sea, the sky, the mountains etc.—is perfectly manifested by the simplicity of the poem: the four stanzas simply begin with daffodils, describe daffodils, compare daffodils to something else, and end on daffodils, respectively. Any common reader can easily get this poem, as easily as her or she might enjoy a walk around a lake.

Third, Wordsworth has subtly put forward more than just an ode to nature here. Every stanza mentions dancing and the third stanza even calls the daffodils “a show.” At this time in England, one might have paid money to see an opera or other performance of high artistic quality. Here, Wordsworth is putting forward the idea that nature can offer similar joys and even give you “wealth” instead of taking it from you, undoing the idea that beauty is attached to earthly money and social status. This, coupled with the language and topic of the poem, which are both relatively accessible to the common man, make for a great poem that demonstrates the all-encompassing and accessible nature of beauty and its associates, truth and bliss.

My Analysis

The techniques of writing poems that similar with Chinese poems are Using Metaphor to describe poet's emotion; Describing the nature to express poet's feeling and points out the social context. Hence, unique landscape can provoke poets' emotion and thoughts in all nationality.

I have also looked into poems : "Waterfall" by Seamus Heaney; "Relic of Memory" by Seamus Heaney;“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost;“The Tiger” by William Blake;“Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare

Questionnaire

What is the value of reading poems for you?
Why poems are important to learn by people in other countries?
what's your tricks of analyzing poems?
How people can understand the unspoken emotion in landscape poems?
Can you introduce some special things about landscape poems?
What is the most difficult thing for foreigners to understand a poem written by person from another country?
How to evaluate whether the translation is good or bad?
What is the process of translating a poem?
Which part took you most time? Why?
What is the biggest difference between Chinese poems and American poems?(writing techniques, ways to translate)
Robert Frost said "Poetry is what gets lost in translation", what's your thought about this quote?
Do you think it would improve understanding if people have been to the place where poets described in landscape poems?
Have you seen other projects using advanced technology to "translate" a poem? What do you think about it?

WEEK 4

Interview

Val Vinokur - Associate Professor of Literary Studies and also the founding editor of Poets & Traitors Press ;

INTERVIEW DISCUSSION：

Losing is what translation is about. Poems are not about fact, the translation process is not word-by-word , it is about generating personal interpretation. I feel finished of my translation until I spoke the poem to my audience.

there are many connection between American poems and Chinese poems regarding to the writing techniques of embody emotions through the description of landscape.

It may be difficult to translate landscape poems in one way because the emotion is hidden deeper

IMPORTANT TAKEAWAYS：

Previously, I always have the question about how to ensure the equality between the original poem and the translated poem, however from Val's point of view, translating a poem sometimes means creation. It conveys translator's own interpretation, which makes it become a new poem. The value of it remains the same and it can still bring influence on audience. It inspired me that do I really need the original poem to show along with my installation? Or my installation is a poem itself? What is poem indeed?

WEEK 5

Prototype

1. Typography project：

Use a creative way to design the typography of the poem and print it to show the audience.

how the visual poem can help in improving understanding of the poem.
the purpose of the prototypes: interaction test
what is it: a printed poem with different typography design

I decided to choose a poem named “ Written on the Wall of West Forest Temple 题西林壁” by a famous Chinese historical figure called "Su Shi 苏轼".
Su Shi wrote his feelings after he visited Lushan Mountain. He didn’t portray any specific scenery; instead, he wrote about his general impressions of the mountain. The poem aims not at depicting scenery or expressing the poet’s feelings;rather, it attempts to enlighten people with a philosophy on life through describing the mountain– since people come from different backgrounds , it is inevitable that they see things from different viewpoints; therefore, their opinions are often one-sided and subjective. If we want to see things as they are, we should get rid of parochial opinions so that our judgments are untainted by personal prejudices. This is an edifying and thought-provoking poem, which leaves the reader with a lasting impression.

2. Draw the poem Experiment：

I Invite 2 non-Chinese students, give them 2 different printed poem, and ask them draw the poem using pens and papers. then, ask them to show the sketch to each other , and guess what the sketch is about.

research questions: how well can people understand a poem only by words? how can they interpret and remake a new project which shows their understanding of the poem. how can the new project be understood by other people?
the purpose of the prototypes: a simple test to see how well the word-image translation can do
what is it - sketches that can shows how people understand the poem in visual language

This picture was drew by Lauren, she used different color to cover up the mountains to show "no two parts alike". the mountain that are not covered color in the middle is a different angle when people view it from the end. The whole picture contains two viewing angles at the mountain.

This picture was drew by Emily, she used an abstract way to show the continues and various of the mountain. There is two faces inside the mountain, people may recognize one face at first glance, which shows a person is inside of the mountain. On its right, there is another face, which are more invisible and abstract. From Emily's interpretation, is that a face or not? May be it's a mountain which looks like a face, or may be the person is looking at himself.

Interview List

Lauren- Classmate in Transdisplinary Design
Emily-Classmate in Transdisplinary Design
Jae-Classmate in Game Design who worked as translator.
Val Vinokur- Associate Professor of Literary Studies and also the founding editor of Poets & Traitors Press ;
John Reed-Associate Professor of Writing Across Media who loves poem
Mark Bibbins-He is a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in poetry and taught courses like poetry workshop;
Huaqian Pan- a friend major in Western Literature in UCL
Shuang Cao- DT Alumni whose thesis is very similar to me
Yin Hu-DT Alumni whose thesis is very similar to me
Simon Li- ITP student whose thesis is very similar to me
Xiaohua Sun- Professor teaching classic Chinese
Ming Di-Chinese Poem Translator
SAGMEISTER & WALSH- they did many creative visual poems-info@sagmeisterwalsh.com
Yuqing Shi- a friend who worked for Team Lab
Isabel Paez-ITP student whose thesis is very similar to me

Refelection

Take a “bird’s eye” look at your domains, research collected, and prototypes developed. Are there any gaps you can identify? What are they and what questions do you have about these?

How the form I choose can address my idea as well as provoke audience's thought

Describe the key challenges you have identified for your intended project thesis concept. Are they do-able in a few months work, with the resources and skills you currently have?

I haven‘t decided the final form and which technology I want to use, I don't have a perfect and concrete idea yet. The initial idea is making a 3D model of a mountain and audience can use the handle to make the mountain rotate so that they can view it in different angle. However, this idea doesn't use any technology behind.Now, I'm thinking an idea that when they rotate the mountain , some changes happen in the mountain. I might use projection mapping or the whole mountain can be a hologram.

What remains your “Achilles Heel ”, your weak spot? Think of things your body and spirit need: a non-anxious mind, time to focus, quality sustenance, consistent rest, healthy movement, a supportive community. Where might you make changes to better support yourself for the long haul

I am always anxious about the uncertainty of my final form of the project, i need to start making stuff earlier.

Start Stop Continue Worksheet

Stop

What activities or practices will I doing that are keeping me from getting the results I want?

1. Thinking alone aimlessly without writing/making things or talking to others

2. Browsing Pinterest board or others' project aimlessly

3. Lying on my bed to do work

Continue

What activities am I doing that are bringing me good results, and that I want to continue doing? List 3 to 5.

1. Post reflection the investigation/activity that I did

2. Talking to experts in the field. (3)

3. Browsing precedents online when I'm lacking inspiration

4. Write down logic flow to help me develop ideas

Start

What things do I want to start doing to get better results?

1. List out the goal of every action (do it before I start to work)

2. Building prototypes for testing out a question

3. Post reflection of every articles or paper that I read/ museum that I went to

WEEK 6

Interview

John Reed - Associate Professor of Writing Across Media

INTERVIEW DISCUSSION：

1. It is very difficult to translate because of meter, there are many different syllables and syntax so it is very hard to carry with meter. Good translators have to bring it to the language new. The other side of poetry, which distinguished from poem is meter and the use of metaphors. Although for metaphors, they may mean different meanings when you look at the same thing, but that seems to be infinite translatable.

2. Difference of attitudes of literature- American-New/Discovery/Breaking to new ground; Chinese-Historical Context/Heavier/Has a certainty to it.

3. A good translation can be literal or performative. But he does want the original literal translation as well.

IMPORTANT TAKEAWAYS：

Since the professor mentioned a good translation can be performative as well, I think my thesis of using new media technology to translate poetry is also a good try. He also thinks the poem "Written on the Wall of West Forest Temple" is quite understandable in western culture.

Prototype 3

To test out an idea of a possible form of my thesis, I made a paper mountain scupture, and play with the light and shadow to look and feel the aesthetic. I think it is really beautiful and poetic considering the outcome.

WEEK 8

Midterm Critics Take-away

Prioritize--what is the most important item (or two items) of feedback?

Figure out the motivation of my thesis

Why my thesis is important to others in this context?

Compare to feedback from earlier in the semester--are there patterns that emerge?

Questions about why- why you choose this specific poem? why is it important to learn for your audience?

Do you have any follow-up questions?

Figure out more powerful answers toward why questions.

Do you know how to respond to the feedback? Write down how you plan to follow up.

Do the why exercise to find the root reasons(I will update in blog later)

POST A SUMMARY OF THIS FEEDBACK REVIEW TO YOUR BLOG.

Try to answer the question I got from critic and Aya's note for midterm.

What does the word "poetic" means to me? I start to think back on projects that I viewed before which I considered as poetic must be projects that are in an abstract form, with soft and quiet power, and be thought-provoking. I think the key is to be abstract, not to be too specific and leave some imaginary space for audience so that their mind be fly between my projects. Besides, the aesthetic should be simple and the interaction should be natural but not confusing.

This question also reminds me of the truth that when we describe an art work, we may use "poetic" a lot. Why people don't use "novelic","movieic"(I am making up those words)? That points out a fact that poetry has close relationship to art works in a way that they share common influence on audience. Poetry can actually inspired many art works. This leads to the reason why poetry is important for people, especially artists to learn about and also why should I continue working on poetry translation so that I can introduce more valuable thoughts and wisdom in Chinese poetry.

Why my work is important in current context?

Chinese children start to learn poetry in very early age, some kids can recite poetry in only 3-year-old, which will be a proud thing for their parents. At school, poetry is a compulsory course to study and it is an important part of Chinese education and culture. Chinese are proud of having those precious resources about these ancient poetry.

From the aspect of history, China do contributes a lot in poetry to the world's literature since China has a very long history of civilized society. However, little people in other countries know how amazing Chinese poetry is. WHY that happens?

From my perspective, since poetry is written purely by words, it is related to the usage of language. Language is an issue of power. Since English is global language, it makes western poetry easier to spread and reach a wider audience, Shakespeare's poetry for example are popular all over the world while there are few Chinese poets enjoy the same reputation. Introducing Chinese poetry in today's context become a responsibility for me to strength Chinese culture output and enable people to know the importance of Chinese poetry in literature world.

If I want to address this issue instead of really introducing a specific poetry, then my project may become a data visualization work, which may show how many Chinese poetry and western poetry are translated into different language and thus sees the differences?

In another aspect for this question, although we learned lots of poetry in our early age(being forced by exam,I don't know other countries, but at least China is), many of us seems like stop studying it after we enter university when there is no more requirements for us to study it. It might because appreciating poetry require some kind of intellectual level, as Aya said before, many people has certain feeling of resistant to it. They may consider poetry as a thing that they could never really understand. This is also related to poetry's gene that words are not just their surface meaning and the emotion is usually hidden. It requires audience has certain aesthetic abilities to truly understand it. It leads me to my thesis that Can I use new media techniques to make poetry more fun and more attractive?

How to make my project be more provoking?

I agree with the idea that sometimes make audience feel uncomfortable is a good technique to make projects be thought provoking.

I recalled my time when I feel a project is thought-provoking is when I saw many speculative design projects. They usually address an issue in an extreme way, between reality and fiction, which leads us to see the possible terrible(in most cases) outcomes of a new technology. These projects will always make me feel thrilling and reminds me of this issue in my life. Some social experiments is also thought-provoking because they are real and through observing of numinous people's behavior makes an idea more powerful.

Maybe I can speculating a future with no Chinese (or other culture's )poetry at all? Only Western poetry. How that world will be?

Questions about the Poetry "Written on the Wall of West Forest Temple"

The title of this poetry is word-by-word translation, and the meaning of it is just its literal meaning that Su Shi wrote this poem on the wall of the temple which is in western part of Lu Shan.

There seems has a trend for ancient poems to name the title in a very obvious and direct way. For example, if there is a poem which wrote for a friend who is about to leave the city, the poet is likely to name it "a farewell to XXX". I don't really know why and I need to check that.

The mountain in this poetry-Lu Shan is a very well-known mountain in Chinese art. Besides Su Shi, Li Bai，Meng Haoran, Bai Juyi, Wang Wei, Zhu Yuanzhang and many other poets including our past president Mao have wrote poems about this mountain. As for painting about this mountain, not only ancient painter- Tang Bohu has a valuable painting about Lu Shan, contemporary artist Zhang Daqian also has work about it. Besides, the first landscape painting in China was painted by Shen Zhou, which is a painting of Lu Shan.

Though there are many poems about this same mountain, Su Shi's poem really stands out because this is not only describing the beauty of the mountain(as most other poets did), this is also a rare-seen theoretical poem which contain critical thoughts and philosophy.

About the sound of poetry is really important. One of the difficulties for translation is that the rhythm is hard to be translated, that's why "poetry lost". For the translation of the poem I choose, it last word does not sound similar when you read out, but the original did. Maybe this translation is not that good in this sense. The sound of popetry is an aspect that I should make some test.

To be Answered:

Who, in history, has tried to introduce Chinese poetry to Western audiences before? Did they struggle? How?

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By Shen Zhou

By Zhang Daqian

By Tang Bohu

WEEK 9

7 in 7 Planning

D1: Play with sound- What Chinese poetry "sounds" like? Will it be different (emotionally) when use other language to perform?

D2: How to make this project to thought-provoking? Try speculative design method to make audience uncomfortable. Imagine a world when there is no poetry exist.

D3: How to make Chinese poetry more fun and eye-catching in today's context? Tech Explore.

D4: How to make Chinese poetry more fun and eye-catching in today's context? Material Explore.

D5: How to improve connection between audience and the topic of this project so that they will be interested to learn?

D6: How to make this project to thought-provoking? Think about the setting of the project.

D7: TBD

7 in 7

WEEK 11

Concept Develop

I decided to develop my last prototype, which I think is more close to the meaning of the original poem based on the feedback. It is the purpose of my thesis- translating poem, so I need to make the installation understandable, not isolated from the poem itself.

I researched how China shows the national image in front of the world in World Expo. I found that although the architecture design are very different, but they still show that "this is China" very well, either using unique architect structure or the bold red color.

When I am thinking about the style of the box, it comes to me that I can actually do some design on the outlook of the box to make it more attractive and more "Chinese".

Inspired by the structure of Movable type, which is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document. The world's first known movable-type system for printing was created in China, so this technique is considered as most wonderful development in Chinese history.

I think I can use this structure to build the box, which can not only have aesthetic value, but also make a more flexible interaction with the audience.

So, I image there is a box frame and 5 sides of the box(except the bottom side) is assembled with these cubes with Chinese vocabulary on it. People can take out one cube and look inside, or they can even take out multiple cubes to have a wider view to look inside. With this structure, audience will not be limited by the precut holes on the box, they can actually decide which angle they want to look inside. And if they want, they can take all cubes out to see the "Whole picture of the Lushan".

WEEK 12

3rd Interview

I showed professor Val from Creative Writing Department about my latest progress on my thesis, and asked him several questions. First is about the sound aspect of reading poems, asking him if he think hearing both Chinese and English together confused him. He suggests that maybe I can use two speakers each playing a different language and place them around the installation, so when people move they will hear either closer to the English, or the Chinese. He does like the idea about playing two sounds together but suggest me choosing male to perform the English because he think male's voice is stronger and easier to hear and distinguish.

When I showed my current prototype to him, he said he liked it very much.