Can Yang

0:00 [Applause]

0:07 hi my name is Can Yang I'm an educator I'm a researcher and a freelance graphic designer currently working across different multiple disciplines in industry and also in education so today I would also like to demonstrate my research and my research model Newbridge through many of the pedagogical methodologies for example collaborative activities workshops and also open-ended conversations so since last year I've been teaching across different schools Royal College of Art Kingston School of Art for ma graphic design program and also UL Chelsea College of Arts graduate diploma program here you can see a really brief summary of my practice model where would I situate my practice as is based mostly on post-med post-modern philosophy and New Media theory in speculating new ways of Art and Design practice so inspired very much by Marshall mcluhan will influencer and Roland bars my entry point to experimental communication research really deeply in the language and media so during my study at Royal College of Art I expanded my interest on image study from multidisim culinary approach and try to draw appropriately from multiple different disciplines to redefine the problems outside of the normal boundaries and trying to reach the solutions based on a new understanding of very complex situations that surround us so extending my interest on daily ritual and also cultural symbols many of these Works always come back to the idea of observing sort of daily routine and grassroot design in our life since the first session of this talk I will be talking about how do I get Inspirations about layouts in different cultures I thought including some of my interest points would be really helpful so this is one of the places that I often visit in London is a vinyl shop in Fulham and I got a lot of vibes from these posters and flyers and prints relate to music Rave and pumps and culture throughout the years a fundamental playground for me is designing these posters flyers for club and oil Club is one of my main clients so through these really quick but like experimental design I have started to build an artistic approach to kind of commercial design using design not only as a tool to carry message but also Advocate the designer's own ideas and Concepts using sort of like a non-conventional grid system for all layout that could make every information still legible but also still leave enough space for the pattern the form and the color to grow organically in the sort of two-dimensional space and these are the monthly event posters they're all based on the feeling of the Season nature or like the special themes that provided by the club and I think what I try to achieve is visualizing an inclusive and mutual environment for this very special community in China as the club culture is still not the mainstream industry for the for the music events and these flyers can be sort of like a digital invitation for the audience who are not too familiar with the idea.

3:41 But they can enjoy the sort of safe and inclusive community just a few more slides oops just three more slides on these posters I think that was supposed to be animated but anyway we're gonna continue because of the time and the second session I'll be talking about the use of different textures in my work the project photo fully titled us for the odd time ongoing is like a collection of my type design experiments inspired by daily photographs that I took using a film camera and the two videos on the left they were recorded during a workshop at RCA when we experimented with drawing and sewing and collaging on 16 millimeter film and the top video shows the sort of projection when the experimental film has been played this is like an experiment for me to play with the form and material as well as the medium of publishing it was printed on the photo paper and it was pre-presented in the photo album that I bought and in this project I want to evoke sort of a nostalgic feeling of film and old photo meanwhile presenting different ways of showcasing type design inspired by the moments that we have in life it's very interesting for me to think about how this type design enforce empathy through the expression of form and visual stimuli like the color the saturation sharpness and texture just few more slides on the posters that I did for the clubs as you can see it's also like an application of different textures and sort of like digital manipulation of these patterns and forms yeah this one has the music on it.

5:35 So I'm not going to talk through yeah.

5:45 So the volume is only like 30 so actually can't Rave but hopefully if we go to any music venue you'll enjoy them more cool the next session will be my experiments on median so besides my graphic projects most of my current works are multi-disciplinary in different form and media ranging from traditional painting drawing prints moving image conceptual art and also performance and in Mark luhan's median theory he raised the argument for understanding the median as the message itself so he proposed that the content of any medium is always another medium so still images can be part of the indexical sequential images to represent reality and with the invitation of moving image and digital manipulation still images are no longer just the optical extension of human eyes rather illusionary simulation of reality in other research projects I kind of experiment with the materiality both in digital and physical form so these are the sculpture installations which were developed as an assemblage of beings in three-dimensional form of images and signs so its narrative explores sort of Miss science fiction imagination future logical uncertainty and each of these sculpture system reflects a proposition for non-human centered model with no single narrative or single truth back to some commercial projects I did for the clubs I always enjoy playing with the indication of space between like two-dimensional space and three-dimensional space for some other commission projects I've done one example is I think in 2022 for next fifth next 50th Anniversary I designed a series of graphics for the product release at the house of innovation in Shanghai and these are these are the designs focused more on the making process and by using the self-preserved photo photography and also like the symbols as inspiration I wanted to encapsulate the evolution of designs throughout the brand history for most of my design work I always started by using sort of hand-drawn sketches using very simply just a marker or an ink pen including doing the work for including like the type of headliner and also sort of like an image for the story narrative and the Honeydew series is one of the post poster series that I did for lgbtq plus communities events in China and what I try to do is evoke a feeling of DIY on the ground culture when in the 60s and 70s the club Flyers are always scanned and quickly just copied and printed at home for distribution color is also one thing that I pay attention to during the transformation from analog to digital medium and the natural organic color palette sometimes just come from the paints because I used to do a lot of like acrylic paintings and then I scanned them and adjusted them in the digital format to give the most retro feeling as you can see this is like the outcome of the sketches these drawings and these other versions that mimic the style of direct print on paper and also has like a combined color palette for the output so the last slide of the median session shows three images one is my making process on the left you can see there's some calligraphy and the type design that I use just by drawing them down on the paper and the second one is a printed version by crack magazine which is also a non-profit publication about musicians and artists in the industry and the artwork was printed on newsprint which I really like because the outcome gives like a really tangible feeling and the third one is a result pranked published by cursive Studio using a three color ratiography so in the next and last session I will be talking about the importance of form in my practice so taking many of these exercises that I've done in the past they took place in sort of com commission projects daily sketches Workshop spaces is sort of a journey for me it's a process it's a build up archive and it takes from the most simplest method the form making some of these paintings or drawings are initiated by the idea of forming abstract expressionism using visual form just for the basic feeling expression as a possible mean to tell a story or to build a world from these unique hand-drawn forms with print with paints and paintable material to sort of reproducible prints using lithography and etching technique it kind of adapts the temporality by making one unique prank each time and let the ink Fade Away continuously until it disease through the process of printing so in that way the aura Still Remains there are also some experiments on the digital print in the enlarged format so it increases the abstraction in a viewing space different ways of Engagement and the viewing perspective can be carried out by the audience when they work in the space some of these forms are just word block printed or fabric to become wearable art some of them are more typographic and they were embroidered with thread and needle on the fabric and cool and the form can also be part of the live scene when it becomes part of the environment for example in the kg audio Club these laser cut mirrors reflects the light and emerge into the whole soundscape by indicating the theme of I think it was Black Mirror for that event really want to Rave right cool and then when participation of audience starts to become the main thing of my model if you still record the name it's called Neo bridge I start to think how can full making be the journey that depends the understanding of tool and medium well it goes beyond sort of linguistic taxonomy and the solidity of retelling or translation I started this series of online workshops during the pandemic when we don't have access to the physical space and before making form bridging Workshop hosted by me in the past have been also happening both online and offline while asking the participants to bring their own tool for making observations of others for making process so each of the participants will be assigned with another person to observe and to draw or make the form that that person is making so all the makings are happening at the same time.

12:49 So basically you can't predict the final outcome when you started and the concept of phone bridging becomes sort of the foundation of my pedagogical model with an aim to break the Primacy and dominancy of both artists and artwork by seeing the importance of relationship and relative forces as a method to break through the limitations of a narrator into a more sort of reflective space and know why it's leading the way that the outcome should be produced however everyone is contributing to the process and with these briefs and tasks and handouts that I designed for RCA Kingston Chelsea I started to let the participant to think about the possibilities of graphic design it can be really pushed forward to challenge the conventional idea of what design can be to take more risks and also to be more experimental most of these sessions are also focused on the realization that Collective action is necessary and invitable from Individual individuality to autonomy to experimental collectivity and collaboration we are kind of Transforming Our conditions and methods of working through the co-creation.

14:05 And I think that's for me thank you for your listen today and and hopefully we can thank you thank you I have one last sentence to say that is hopefully we can embrace the complexity of different genres and disciplines in order to dissolve the boundaries between our production creative reflection and also everyday life. That's all thank you [Applause]