Terrible Toilet

Imagine you had to urgently take a giant dump. You race over to the restroom and, without looking, you sit down, laying a fat poo simultaneously. As your skin touches the porcelain you realize that the seat had been wet and that the water that had splashed upward due to the force of your feces had already been occupied. FML.

This is an exaggerated story, but I am sure this, if not something close to this, has happened to you the reader or someone you know. I have never personally experienced such an event, but I have walked into a restroom stall only to find it occupied by urine on the toilet seat and/or crap inside the toilet (this happened many times in CIELO freshman year... shout out to my lil cieloers this year.. YEE YEE) I am then forced to hold my "junk" until I find a cleaner restroom, or if urgent, forced to clean and flush myself.

THIS MAKES ME ANGRY! Honestly, how hard is it for you to aim inside the toilet? Unless you have a dragon in your pants or are fighting a bear inside the stall, it shouldn't be too hard to hit a giant target from inches away (if "piss on toilets" is happening because people are practicing their long range shooting... -__-x just pray I will not find you). Also, how lazy do you have to be to not want to flush your own toilet?!

In order to stop this madness, I have created stickers to remind people to aim inside the toilet when doing the number 1 and to flush as you leave.

"AIM BEFORE YOU FIRE" should be placed behind the toilet as you walk into the stall. That way when people walk in, it will be in their faces (ladies, unless you girls pee facing the toilet standing up, this shouldn't be a problem).

The "DONT RUSH, PLEASE FLUSH" is meant to be placed behind the stall door, so that when someone sits down on the seat they will see the sticker on the door for as long as they are doing their business.

You may copy and paste the above images onto whatever program will allow you to print onto paper. I used packaging stickers and printed the images onto those. Once you have created the stickers, place them in any restroom you please. TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Know Your Roots.

Background:
For my intervention project, I decided to expand from my collections project and use the tree made of aluminum wire. My purpose in doing so was to relate the attributes of a tree to a quote that I have always followed by - "Know Your Roots". I decided to expand on this quote and add a little bit more to make it my own by adding onto the second half of the quote - "For humility is the seed to success". I decided to use a deeper and more meaningful message rather than a witty or sarcastic one. I'm a big believer in humility and being humble, so I wanted to emphasize this through my art.
My purpose in making this statement is that I have encountered many people who are talented and have been very successful in their hobbies or occupations. It truly is a shame to see that such a talented person can be so cocky and boast about their skills rather than being humble. For a lack of better words, it's a turn off and is very unappealing. With this quote, I want to reinstate the idea that everyone should appreciate their background and their roots.

Process -
Expanding on the wire tree from my collection assignment, I decided to make forty smaller wire trees and attach a note to each of them. Attached to each tree is the quote:

"Know your roots, for humility is the seed to success."

Take pride in your background, and remember how hard you have worked or what you have done to be where you are now. Acknowledge it. Embrace it. Otherwise, your ignorance will lead to your downfall.

I placed my wire trees in the eight following places (I wanted to place it in areas that I know people will see it):
1) Mesa Court
2) University Town Center (Focus Dance Center)
3) The UCI Bookstore
4) UCI Student Center by the ATMS
5) Cyber A
6) Near the Dance Department office
7) Bren Events Center (Hopefully it's still there for commencement)
8) By the Theater on the Student Media Newspaper stand

How-To

Materials needed:
1) Aluminum wire
2) Wire cutters
3) Paper
4) Printer
4) Tape

To complete a similar intervention, first cut out ten pieces of aluminum wire of roughly the same length. Group together the wires and pull out a few strands on the bottom (used later to mold roots/branches). Take another piece of wire and securely tie together the ten sticks of wire. Once secure, prop out the bottom of the bundle to mold the roots; to ensure that it will stand, make sure there are at least 3-4 roots. Begin to create the branches to your liking. Once you have completed the tree, attach a note (can be of any type - funny, sad, hopeful - and of any font [I used Copperplate Light]) to the trunk of the tree. Place your wire tree in an area in which many people can encounter your intervention.

Add/Drop Education

Thoughts:

So for my intervention project I wanted to critique the educational system here at UCI. I wanted to get to students that their education is exactly that “their education”. Students take classes sometimes merely for the fact that they need a course with expectation that it is easy. Students need to realize they need to take the class to learn something. Unfortunately in our society education is not free and students pay a premium to receive it and yet many students do not treat it as so. I believe the UC system has also forgotten the fact its purpose is to teach. By raising tuition and making education inaccessible to individuals who are willing to learn our society suffers. We all suffer by our lack of knowledge and responsibility. Through my work I hope people can find these and take a little time to reflect on education and what it stands for to them.

Process:

The process for which I intended to intervene was by taking add/drop cards from the main office and writing witty statements to make students second think what they are about to do. Whether it is adding a class or dropping one we all need to stop and think. Are the classes we taking important to us or are we just taking them to fulfill a requirement, do we want to genuinely learn or simply pass, do we have control of our education or are we being sold what take. I made my message through filling out the information side of the card and attempted to make them plausible in terms of filling them out.

How-To

To replicate this intervention one needs to get any formal forms that are used at their school such as add/drop cards. Look at what information is required to fill the form and come up with clever and amusing ways to complete it while critiquing the institutions they are focused on. Be creative. Be direct.

Note:

Due to bad timing and the coming of the digital age Add/Drop cards were removed from the office as most course corrections will be done online from now on. I no longer was able to place my work in the designated boxes but instead left them around campus in hopes people would read them and still have the same effect.

Intervention project

For my intervention project I took a quote from Jean Baudrillard's The Stucco Angel to create my message. I used the quote," there is no such thing as fashion in a society of cast and rank, since one is assigned a place irrevocably, and so class mobility is non- existent." This article talks about the feudal order during the time of the Renaissance. It talks about how there is no social hierarchy since rank is already taken place when a person is born. It talks about class- mobility as non- existent. It made me think on how everything is already ranked today in society. We are so influenced by our culture that it makes us rank everything. I wanted to create my project in the form of a flier. I made the document through microsoft word. I changed the page set up into landscape. For the image I took the picture vertically and set the camera as Digital macro. It gives off a green tint throughout the image without having to edit anything. After uploading the image, put the picture onto word, taking up only have the page. then go to the tab insert. After selecting it look for an icon Word Art. Select it and choose the eighth style. It should be light blue in Times New Roman font. After selecting it type out the first message "there is no such...." it should be in font size 36. After pushing okay, take away the shadow and make the fill white. So the wording itself completely disappears. Then you drag the text over to the stairs image. Place the wording on the first step. You are going to do these steps for the rest of the message. However, the font gets smaller as the stairs descend. The only part of the message that does get bigger would be the ", and so....". Make sure the spacing of the text is just right so it fits on the steps. Also make sure you rotate around the text so that it doesn't look too awkward on the stair steps.

1B Intervention Project

Intervention Project: Making bookmarks and planting in different libraries.
By: Vida Liu

Why bookmarks?

I love libraries. People who go to libraries are usually quite open-minded, eager to learn. I hope that my project can reach people when they check out a book and find my bookmark in it.

Here is my philosophy:

“As for men, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone. Its place remembers it no more.” Psalm 103:15-16.

Memento Mori, a Latin phrase, means that one day every life must come to an end. I hope to use my art to remind us that we are mortal. People who manage to live life to the fullest and appreciate every moment despite the difficulties life throws at them inspire me.

There are a lot of pessimistic people in my life who always complain, even the smallest obstacle frustrates them and they give up easily, wasting much of their lives thinking of the glass as half empty.

My artistic objective is to demonstrate that each precious moment should be appreciated by each one of us. In response to my inspiration, I wanted to make bookmarks. Originally I wanted them to say: Make a “mark” in this world. But after discussing this with Professor Civin, I realized that the book mark should say: Make a __________ in this __________. This allows the viewer to linger longer, and to participate with my art. They can plug in their own words, and I think that is more meaningful.

Materials and Equipments:

1) Computer software: In Design
2) HP Laser printer
3) HP Laser papers (good quality)
4) Camera for documenting the distributing process

Target libraries to distribute the bookmarks:

I plan to leave 2 bookmarks in each of the following libraries:

1) Santa Monica Public Library, Santa Monica.
2) Donald Kaufman Public Library, Brentwood.
3) UCI Langston Library, Irvine.
4) Marlborough School Library, Hancock Park.


My secret recipe to make the bookmarks using In-Design:

InDesign CS4:

1) File > New > Document
2) Page Size > Letter > Orientation : protrait
3) Select: Rectangle Tool > click within a white space> width :7.5”,
height :2” > Click “OK”
4) Drag the rectangle to the center of the page and arrange it on the upper portion of the page(inside the printing area)
5) Select: Type Tool and select font: Chalkduster, 30pt, regular
6) Type “Make a ______ in this ______.” in the rectangle
7) Highlight all the text
8) Align the text in the center and click “enter” 3 times to place the text in the center of the rectangle
9) Select: Selection Tool
10) Select all texts and the rectangle
11) Press “Alt” and then “Shift” keys to copy and align your original design, and make a new copy under the previous one.
12) Repeat 3 times to obtain 5 copies on one page
13) Select the original design
14) Double clicks: Fill Tool and change RGB to select colors:
Yellow- R:255, G:242, B:0
Blue- R:39, G:224, B:247
Violet- R:255, G:191, B:255
Green- R:25, G:239, B:33
Orange- R:255, G:139, B:0
15) Repeat step 14 every time when you change a color
16) File > Save > Filename
17) File > Print

Last words:

I want to use my art project to remind people that we should make use of our life to make a difference in this world while we are alive. However, the viewers are welcome to plug in different words and change the original meaning as well. I would be interested to know what words they plug in. Please feel free to post a response on this blog or email me at vhliu@uci.edu on what your choice of words are.

Take care and have fun using your own imagination to complete my art piece. It was an honor to be in 1B with all of you. I have learned tons of precious knowledge from Prof. Civin and all of you guys. Thank you all, and have a great summer!


Best regards,
Vida (=

Spreading the Word

I was having a hard time figuring out what to do for my final project. Then while I was washing my hands in the bathroom, I saw someone walk out with out washing theirs'. I thought that was disgusting. So when I went to use the door I made sure to use a paper towel to touch it to try to avoid getting any fecal matter on my hands. So what I want to do is spread the word like that oh so gross fecal matter and tell people to wash their hands, lest they spread poo everywhere.

In order to create awareness, you start out using Word or Photoshop. You center the text in the middle of the page using about size 16 or 18 font, your choice. Then you write "Wash your hands, no one wants fecal matter everywhere." Make sure to keep it relatively centered in the paper. Also do not forget to put "Go to http://springvisualculture1b.blogspot.com/2010/06/spreading-the-word.html to spread the word" lower than the other text in size 8 font. Then print it out. The next step is to cut the paper into the shape of dog poo while keeping the text in the center. You can now put the 'poo' on the inside of a bathroom door using duct or masking tape or whatever tape you have. Enjoy!

Labeled Sense

Click. :)

Pictures will be up by Wednesday.