Theme:
play and stillness
Context:
Matt gave a presentation on 'play and stillness' last week, and the one that caught my attention the most was the work of Jenova Chen. In fact, his game Journey is one of my favorites, although mostly I don't like this kind of game. But Journey gave me an experience I had never had before. Like a real journey, it allowed me to experience something beyond gameplay, a bit like what Eastern philosophy or religion promotes - an inner stillness. So I spent a week looking for inspiration and I was hoping to find something similar. In the end, I chose a Buddha statue by the sea. It stood motionless by the sea, and time seemed to freeze for it. I wanted to simulate what the Buddha saw and heard, so I stood in its place and recorded some sounds and images. Including how the cloud and mist in front of the Buddha statue slowly dissipated.
Method:
Record sound and images, edit video
Reflection: Since I didn't have much time, the final outcome was a bit silly. Perhaps using digital technology to simulate what the Buddha saw and heard would be more in line with this theme. In fact, I really want to try to use other means to express the charm of traditional Chinese painting and the spiritual connotation of Buddhism and Taoism contained in it, because inner stillness has always been a proposition that ancient Chinese literati have been keen on for thousands of years.
By Liming Gu
Email Liming Gu
Published On: 01/06/2022