Hua-Chu Yen
Teachers College, Columbia University
Students Artworks
Denise Gray
To, Too, Two... from Denise Gray on Vimeo.
Petra Anders
Untitled from Petra Anders on Vimeo.
Reflection of the process
SungMi Hong
SungMi Hong's Dreams from Hua Chu on Vimeo.
Teaching
Teaching philosophy
Digital Storytelling
- A strong commitment to blending art studio practice with theory through collaborative learning and interdisciplinary inquiry that connects among the humanities, arts, social sciences and natural sciences.
- To draw upon our affects, intuition, memory and sensations in addition to one's reasoning and analytical skills.
- Situate art in broader social, economic, political and social contexts that deal with the issues of gender, race and identity.
- Stress the capacity of art in engaging with a whole person, one's connection with one another and with one's surroundings.
- To encompass a diverse methodology of research, such as narrative, analytical, descriptive and reflective inquiry, which would ultimately contribute in students' creative endeavors and in cultivating critical thinking.
Research
Research statement
Research interest
Digital media has not only changed how we access information and communicate with one another, but also how we experience 'reality.' In a world increasingly dominated by the hegemony of a virtual time/space space created with digital technology, art still finds ways to disrupt linear temporality and to mediate immersive environments. Combining practice and theory across art forms and disciplines, my research illuminates the importance of art and design as essential critical lenses through which to regard our digital environment. As technology continues to evolve, it is crucial to assemble learning and teaching models to engage the aesthetics of technology, disrupt the rigid temporality of digital media, and allow for individuals to actively create meaning. Being both a practitioner and theorist of digital technology, I plan to continue this quest and expect to make meaningful contribution to the diverse practices in art, design and education.
The blurring boundaries of media-based art and design
The locus of art education, art history, media study and film theory provides me with theoretical framework to investigate contemporary art and design practices. This broader context allows for greater understanding of digital technology, while the convergence of art forms broadens the discourse specific to digital technology. I will use this framework to create a curriculum and a research program that bridges traditional art practices and digital media. In particular, I will focus on non-linear narrative in time-based media, and address possible applications for emerging technologies in art, design, and education.
The locus of art education, art history, media study and film theory provides me with theoretical framework to investigate contemporary art and design practices. This broader context allows for greater understanding of digital technology, while the convergence of art forms broadens the discourse specific to digital technology. I will use this framework to create a curriculum and a research program that bridges traditional art practices and digital media. In particular, I will focus on non-linear narrative in time-based media, and address possible applications for emerging technologies in art, design, and education.
The aesthetics of digital technologies
The temporal displacement inherent in digital technology can call upon our past and anticipate what is to come at the very moment when our present purview fuses with our intuition, memory and sensation. I will incorporate this idea from previous research to examine our perceptions and aesthetic experiences as they oscillate between the actual and the virtual and between the sense of temporal immersion and time's progression. In exploring how the interactivity of digital media offers a potential for art and ways of knowing, I am particularly interested in interrogating how the use of interactive media contributes to the decentralization of knowledge and the experience of mimesis.
The temporal displacement inherent in digital technology can call upon our past and anticipate what is to come at the very moment when our present purview fuses with our intuition, memory and sensation. I will incorporate this idea from previous research to examine our perceptions and aesthetic experiences as they oscillate between the actual and the virtual and between the sense of temporal immersion and time's progression. In exploring how the interactivity of digital media offers a potential for art and ways of knowing, I am particularly interested in interrogating how the use of interactive media contributes to the decentralization of knowledge and the experience of mimesis.
Art and Pedagogy
How art, specifically digital art, impacts and transforms the educational experience is another avenue of my research. My previous work has tangentially explored how active creation influences learning and how learning occurs in time in an endless process of folding and unfolding. I plan to study how art orchestrates a site for learning, and how creative acts can be used to challenge the tyranny of conventional thinking. By encouraging students to create collaborative projects that blend disciplines and art forms, the goal of this research is to examine the effectiveness of learning beyond the confines of classroom as it spills into public space and virtual domain.
How art, specifically digital art, impacts and transforms the educational experience is another avenue of my research. My previous work has tangentially explored how active creation influences learning and how learning occurs in time in an endless process of folding and unfolding. I plan to study how art orchestrates a site for learning, and how creative acts can be used to challenge the tyranny of conventional thinking. By encouraging students to create collaborative projects that blend disciplines and art forms, the goal of this research is to examine the effectiveness of learning beyond the confines of classroom as it spills into public space and virtual domain.
The study of 'the present'
Drawing upon lessons from my collaboration with the Mindfulness Study Group, which uses contemplative methods in research, teaching and learning, I plan to conduct a study of 'the present' in response to the instantaneity of communication media. By juxtaposing the mindfulness approach to contemplative education with the dynamic aesthetics and temporal uncertainty of digital media, I will explore the evolving contradictions and tensions in our notion of 'now' as it impacts art and design.
Drawing upon lessons from my collaboration with the Mindfulness Study Group, which uses contemplative methods in research, teaching and learning, I plan to conduct a study of 'the present' in response to the instantaneity of communication media. By juxtaposing the mindfulness approach to contemplative education with the dynamic aesthetics and temporal uncertainty of digital media, I will explore the evolving contradictions and tensions in our notion of 'now' as it impacts art and design.
Artworks
Photography
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Digital Spaces
This project explores various spatial experiences in digital spaces. Using 3D modeling and existing photographs, both spaces are created using computer software to stitch together a series of images. Viewers can zoom in and out of the spaces, and navigate through the surroundings.
Light Box
Using Pic chip and C programming, this box records user's input of musical notes. It then plays back, along with flashing LED lights accompanying one's musical notes.
Rhapsody of Lights and Sounds
This sculpture was created with plexiglass,
thin steel wires, and fishing wires. Dried flowers, leaves, and
dried fruits were placed between 2 pieces of plexiglass. The shadows of ths mobile cast against the wall and trigger different musical notes.
Water Notes
Water Notes is a musical instrument that is conducted through water. Made from glass bottles cut into small pieces and attached with wires, this instrument shapes like a fountain and whose musical notes are played when water runs through it.
Designing Experiences
Online Learning
The late Stephen Jay Gould archieve was
incorporated in this online learning model.
Interactive Media Design Review
Managing more than 1000 entries of interactive
media projects, ranging from online applications, interactive installations,
video games, graphics, etc, that were submitted for this annual
competition.
An Art Journal
A summer of strolling the streets of New York was amounted to this art journal. Street signs, public sculptures, wall murals, and street artists are the testimony of the arts in the details.
Travelog
This is an "incredible journey" of three friends and a 1963 Ford convertible named Bobb, who only runs 40 miles per hour.
Bus Shelter Redesign
An elegant lightweight, and transparent shelter providing comfortable seating and all weather protection. The shelter is designed to suit both historic and contemporary environments.
Exhibition Design
Here is a list of exhibitions that I assisted in curating for the MIT Museum. All shows were installed at the Wolk Gallery of MIT School of Architecture + Planning.
Presentations and Exhibitions
Presentations
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (June 2009). Traversing Virtuality in Janet Cardiff's Colors of Sounds in International Symposium: Virtual Reality: Frameworks and Misconceptions, London
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (April 2009). The Practice of Cinematic Experience in Everyday Life in American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Conference, San Diego, CA
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (November 2007). Cinematic Installations and Non-Linear Narrative as a Reordering of Time in Everyday Experiences in Third Annual Graduate Research in Art Education. Penn State University, PA
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (March 2007). Traversing through Moving Images in National Art Education Association (NAEA) 47th Annual Convention, New York, NY
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (March 2006). Public Art in New York in National Art Education Association (NAEA) 46th Annual Convention, Chicago, IL
Group Shows
- Target (Spring 2005) in spring student show. Macy Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY
- Light Box: A sound toy (May 1999) in ITP small scale device show. Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York, NY
- Virtual Calder (February 1999) in ITP student show. Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York, NY
- Water Notes (Dec. 1998) in ITP sound design show. Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York, NY
- Rhapsody of Light and Shadow (May 1998) in ITP physical computing show. Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York, NY
Exhibition Records
- A Sense of Place, a Sense of Time (May 1997). Wolk Gallery MIT Architecture Department, Cambridge, MA
- Ritual Architecture (Nov. 1996). Wolk Gallery MIT Architecture Department, Cambridge, MA
- Breaking the Mold (May 1993). Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA
Publications
REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (2010). Traversing Virtuality in Janet Cardiff's Colors of Sounds in Interactive Discourse, volume 2: Special Issue Virtual Reality: Frameworks and Mis-Conceptions
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (2012). The Control of Screen Images in Michael Haneke's Cache in Cultural Formations
Books and Papers
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (January 2009). Zaha Hadid's Contemporary Art Container in Juming Museum Quarterly. Taiwan: Juming Publishing.
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (September 2008). The New York Waterfalls by Olafur Eliasson in Juming Museum Quarterly. Taiwan: Juming Publishing.
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (June 2008). Between Stillness and Movement: The Art of Cai Qou-Qiang in Juming Museum Quarterly. Taiwan: Juming Publishing.
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (Ed.) (2007). Spaces e-journal. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University. (URL: www.tc.columbia.edu/spaces).
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (2006). Sometimes in New York. Taiwan: Artco Publishing.
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (January 2005). The World of Tom Otterness in Artco. Taiwan: Artco.
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (2004). New York in Art: A Sense of Place, a Sense of Time. Taiwan: Locus Publishing.
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (Nov. 2004). Goldsworthy's Fluid Time and Space in Artco. Taiwan: Artco.
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (Oct. 2004). Janet Cardiff: The Sound of Color in Artco. Taiwan: Artco.
- Yen, Hua-Chu. (Ed.) (2001). The Marcel Duchamp Online Study Journal. New York: Art Science Research Lab (URL: www.toutfait.com).