Rongrong Liu: Light

 

Video and Text by Rongrong Liu, Copyright 2019

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LIGHT

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This video art project is all about light. I started thinking of using light as my main subject when I saw the disco ball installation recently at the Institute of Contemporary Art. What’s most interesting about it is that what I am able to see with my eyes is different from what the camera lens can see, which is iridescent.

There isn’t a strict plan for this piece. Starting from the first clip, each clip is what I associated in my mind with the previous one. The blurry night traffic scene ⇒ the micro bokeh light ⇒ disco ball ⇒ glass light ⇒ underwater light ⇒ projector light ⇒ smoke. After this clip are my interactions with the light, playing with the shadow and the time lapse of traffic. Light is everywhere, and it is different depending on the way we look at it (from a macroscopic or a microscopic view), how close we are, how focused we are, etc..

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Portrait of Rongrong Liu by Alexis Masino. Copyright 2019
Portrait of Rongrong Liu by Alexis Masino. Copyright 2019

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About The Author: Rongrong Liu is a Senior enrolled in the College of the University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2019. To access additional articles by Rongrong Liu, click here: http://tonywardstudio.com/blog/rongrong-liu-me/

 

Rebecca Huang: Looking Glass

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Photography, Text and Video Interview by Rebecca Huang, Copyright 2017

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LOOKING GLASS

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Do you actually pay attention to the details in life? Personally, I have to say that I definitely don’t really pay attention to that many details in life, but I wish I did. Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to accomplish something big, that we fail to notice the little things that gives life its magic.

That seems to be a very common thing that happens nowadays, especially when at Penn. Everyone seems to be caught up in such a fast-paced life that small life details become even more minute. Similarly, in this day and age where fashion is also a way of self-expression, the little details are over looked as well.

Fashion consists of both the actual clothing and all the accessories that add more detail and expression to each outfit. However, since all the things combine to form a statement, no one pays attention to each individual part. Each part by itself could be deemed as too simple and not worthy of attention. What needs to be focused on is how they all come together and express something.

But contrary to what those people think, I think that there most definitely is beauty in simplicity. The little details that add up to be a bigger picture are the things that give life its magic, and should be the center of focus. Because of this, I decided to use the small simple accessories that people use in fashion to build a fashion piece in my still life pictures. They represent the little details that we overlook in life, simple and small but important. Small things add up. Then using the magnifying lenses to magnify the details of each object, I wanted to use that to represent the looking glass that we should be using to observe these minute details we too often look over in life. We do not need much to be able to notice the little things. We just need to be able to stop and actually take the time to appreciate the magic and beauty each little thing brings.

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William_Lee_Classmate_Photo_Project_Rebecca_Huang
Photo of Rebecca Huang by William Lee, C. 2017.

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About The Author: Rebecca Huang is a freshmen enrolled in the College of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2020.

Hong Li: Every Cool Kid Will Grow Up

 

Photography, Interview and Text by Hong Li, Copyright 2016

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EVERY COOL KID WILL GROW UP

– What Does Graduate School Give Us?

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Rachael is a sophomore student at Drexel University. She is beautiful, young and energetic.

Nothing will beat her until she gives up, well, at least she thinks so. She hates that when people

looking at her and judge her without getting knowing her; She hates that when people

behavioring fool. She is an activist in many ways.

She loves making up, lipsticks are her true loves. She loves tattoos, smoking, and skateboarding.

She expresses her emotion in a quite simple and straightforward way, however sometimes her

expressions are a little too dramatic, which might sometimes dive people crazy, said her

boyfriend.

In all, she is a cool girl, both in her friends’ views and herself. But she has an academic goal that

seems very contradict with her characteristic, she has been thinking of getting into Upenn since

she was a freshman. What the life would be in graduate school? Especially in a school that

many people speak highly of. Would it make me even cooler? These are her guesses.

Coral is in her second semester of her Master’s study at PennDesign, she has been suffered a

lot from the study. She doesn’t have time for anything other than study. She said she’s been

trapped in the studio since she got here and almost lost her normal life.

Nowadays, she is already used to life in a simple and easy way. There is less argue, less

annoyance in her life, yet more silence and privacy. When she is free she tends to watch a

movie herself instead hanging out with friends, when she needs to relive her stress she would

go for a bubble bath, etc.

She can feel the micro transformation from youth to grown happening slowly in herself every

day. Recently, she prefers to hide her negative feelings under her peace face because she thinks

everybody is being busy and no one would like to see a lady with a sad face; also, because she is

an adult. As she mentioned, she would only show her nervousness, weakness, ecstasy, even

love, to those people that she is familiar with.

Sometimes pieces of old memories will still come back into Coral’s head, that long time ago, she

was also a girl with strong personality, she was always eager for express, she was stubborn, she

hurt the boy she loved badly, she was unique, she was wired, and she was once a cool kid…

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About The Author: Hong Li is a graduate student enrolled in the School of Landscape Architecture, University of Pennsylvania.