Introduction
This essay will roughly talk about the Critical Research Paper. The theme of my project refers to New perception to present Chinese traditional painting (by digital media), which is divided into three parts in my research. Firstly, Chinese traditional painting means the traditional ink painting (especially the black ink painting) in current researches. The second part is digital media, during which my interesting and initial point is presented, i.e., how to present traditional subject (or concept) by using digital media. My interest lies in the new digital media technology and the media used in my experiments is photography. Then filmmaking will be discussed in next stage. The last part is new perception whose definition in this essay does not involve the difference of perceptions between the West and the East, for which is not my interesting and initial part. However, in this essay, I will concentrates on how to find a new perception or direction of appreciating and using traditional things. Additionally, I aim at finding a contemporary technique of expression to present traditional thing.
The first section of this paper will identify two key texts, one of which is Chinese traditional painting & digital media (Digital media mentioned here not only relates to the new technology but also the media theory). The article Media Hot and Cold from the book Understanding Media written by Marshall McLuhan in 1964 presents the following the points:
the media is human extensions
the medium is the message
the distinction between hot media and cold media
In my opinion, the point the author discussed depends on the definition in images and audience involvement and Chinese painting is a very cold media. For the audience, it is of low definition but high participation or completion. On the contrary, photography and film are hot and digital media in this chapter. In addition, in the chapter Comics of the book Mad Vestibule to TV, the author claimed how comics impacted culture as a cold media and how it became the content inherited by the invention of TV, photography and film. The reason why this text is chosen is that the topic of Chinese art and painting is so broad that people can be confused easily. Thus, it is necessary for me to think about my initial idea, develop my own theory in digital media and try to apply Chinese traditional painting. This book is a good instruction for researches. My initial idea is derived from a traditional painting presented by a big digital scroll in the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics, and it is interesting for me to figure out how cold media can transfer into hot media.
The second key text is new perception & narrative. Chinese traditional painting is a historical treasure that we inherit from our culture. Although it was nearly lost, now it is revived by design and application. The definition of new perception means the author tries to find out a new visual perception or experience to present Chinese traditional painting. This project can explore both my Chinese aesthetics and cultural translation by translating European views. On the one hand, I centers on the atmosphere created by authors and the landscape in painting, which includes the weather and nature of landscapes which connect to the aesthetics quality. On the other hand, I explore how pictures in art do in the aspect of atmosphere. Narrative means the content of my work, the message I want to convey as well as the development of the new perception. My current research pays attention to what practical issue I can use to present my perception by referring to the book Narrtives in Popular Culture, Media and Everyday Life, which talks about the definition of narratives and reasons why it is so important. The reason why I chosen this book is that it adopts the theory of Hot and Cold media to discuss the importance of narrative.
congsangblog 