From the class Integrative Studio 2 · Spring 2020
This project contained many layers of preparation and research. The first thing I did was interview my partner Simon Zhang. We discussed many things such as where he was from, where he sees himself now and where he wants to end up. Next, I transcribed this interview which was recorded using my laptop and the voice recorder application. The interview lasted about thirteen minutes and two thousand five hundred twelve words. The interview was the most helpful part of my research. Next, I did a little bit of internet sleuthing to find out more about Simon and the things he spoke about during the interview. After this, as a class, we went to The New School Archives and reviewed artist books. One, in particular, caught my eye. It was called “Girls I Have Known”.
While interviewing Simon and him interviewing me many access points arose. The four access points that I believe may have the best archival material would be
The medium that I think I want to work with would be 3D modeling since I have not yet really used that medium at my time at Parsons. I used to work with it a lot more, almost daily and over the past year, I have stopped. I don’t want to lose this skill so I want to flex those creative muscles again. I think I want my final piece to be a sort of visual 3D collage of all things Simon, emphasizing the parts he is proud of. I think I may look for would probably include certain places he has traveled to and theaters he has played at or origins of the instruments he plays.
Interview Transcription
All right. So how are you doing? I am doing great. Fantastic. Um, okay, so let’s start off the thing where you start off. Give me a rundown of your top basic surface level. So, okay. So I’m from California. What part of California? I’m from like San Francisco Bay area. People usually don’t know when I say three months or like I generally give them, it’s like near San Francisco, like an hour, um, from a Chinese family. So second gen, we, my parents were actually from China. They immigrated like 20 years ago. And um, yeah, I um, I went to a high school that’s genuinely more academic based, so like, uh, people generally don’t think, like when I, when I’m at Parsons, everyone’s like, Oh, you’re like him for all right? I’m like, well, I’m here for art. But also I didn’t really have like much of an art background. It’s mostly like, um, science and math and STEM, English, things like that.
Uh, and yeah, I was, I was supposed to really major in music because I’ve, I played violin for most of my life, but, uh, yeah, I kind of realized that wasn’t in my thing. So, and I’d say characteristics of our me generally I’m more introverted, but like I can call the conversation, I feel like if I really want to. Um, yeah. And um, I don’t really like hanging out with friends and um, music is pretty big thing for me. Like not just violin. I like play guitar and sometimes sing for fun. Um, and yeah, I also do play games whenever I’m bored. That’s pretty vague because whenever like I take a break, if I decide that like I’m too tired to like hang out with friends or like I’m too tired to do homework, I just like open my computer and like play whatever game comes from.
Yeah. Um, what is your favorite instrument? Instruments. Okay. This is hard because um, guitar is actually like one of my favorite, like one of my favorite, I’d say. But my favorite C wouldn’t probably be cello because I just love the way like the cello sound. It’s really, it’s like a bigger, better version of all of my went. Not gonna lie they have, um, it’s like a really deep song, but like it can also go really high if it wants. And I just loved shuttle. Come on. Have you ever played the Cho? I tried like, um, since I was an orchestra a lot, whenever I like one of my best friends is a cellist so whenever I like I tried to borrow the instrument and like, you know, violin like play, like holding up. Right? Like tell like you play sitting down and like I tried to like, no, I just like that.
Um, so you said you like hanging out with your friends when you can’t hang out with your friends, you play games. What’s, what’s your ideal hanging out situation with your friends? All right, so this is also a little complicated because generally I’m the type of person that’s like pretty indecisive. Like whenever people say, look, I just go, what do you want to do? And be like, I don’t know, but do you want to do, so generally what we end up doing is we have like lunch or dinner that’s like, that’s like a necessity. We have to like eat because that’s always a part good part of a hangout. And um, we really depends though. Like most of the time we either go bowling, we just drive around, we go karaoke sometimes. Um, I dunno, we visit, like we, we do a lot of visiting. Like one time we, uh, went to, like when we came back from break, we visited our high school and saw some teachers and um, yeah, a lot of times we just go to someone’s house and just watch movies to whatever.
Okay. Um, what is your favorite games game? Okay. Uh, I’d say probably this league of legends. I don’t know. That’s pretty popular. Um, I’m like, I don’t want to say addicted, but like whenever I’m not hanging out with friends, doing homework, uh, just talking pretty much negate, unless I’m just like taking a break from everything. So, yeah. Cool. Why do you think you’re drawn to? Um, okay. This is like multiple aspects, uh, recently I’ve like, felt like I wasn’t getting like that interested. And I think one of the main reasons is because, uh, like this is, it’s like a rate system, right? There’s like, of course you can play for fun, they would just call normal. But like rank, there’s always like a, you want to get to the next level. And like I think that’s what compels me. I kinda want to like always be the best.
Even like when I can, like, I’ll just like try and then at one point I’m just like, Oh my gosh, I can’t do this. And then that’s when like the game starts to like slowly again, less, more boring for me. Which living person do you most admire? Living person and you know, sec, which, which person live in person do you second was America’s, I know I’m first, but so first would be second. Um, I would have this like outside family and like friends. I’d probably say, um, it’s probably gonna sound cheesy, but Barack Obama, because I really think that since you grew up, I’m sure, I don’t really know that much about his like background. I’m pretty sure he grew up in like a normal like co household and like high school and things like that. I think that just the fact that he was like, they say the first president of color, which is, um, and like, I just find that really amazing that even though he’s like from like a small and ordinary place, you can like just rise up to like become such an influential figure.
And like people contrast like Barack Obama and like president Trump and like I find like pretty much you don’t realize how good of a president you have until you don’t have it. Cause like, especially like I saw a bunch of means, like not just means though, like facts. Like I’m after like mass shootings, uh, president Obama would be like visiting the household to like people on the consoling up and then after they leave he’d be like inside the classroom. And then like, um, just like morning to himself. You know, and he gets like a flock and then there’d be president Trump who’d be like, after she talks to the parents, he’s like immediately go out and there’s like pictures of him in like the club. I’m like, please, I feel like you really don’t see like how good of a president you have until like he moves it, which is, um, why I like admire.
Um, is that a quality that you see in yourself? Um, I D I will, I did come up from like a relatively small like town. It was like, even though it’s neat in California, near SF, it was like relatively like suburban, not exactly the most urban place. Uh, and I think that like by making it to the school I already like, you know, it’s already like an accomplishment. But, um, I dunno, I haven’t always really thought about, um, like making the big president of the United States become some CEO or like famous designer. I just wanted to like, enjoy what I do and like, you know, make money doing it and yeah, just live my life happily. It’s kinda just about always been my goal. Just to be happy. I’m like whatever. Of course you can’t play games all day unless I’m like a pro gamer. But like of course it has to be like a balance, but as long as I’m happy.
So elaborating on the end goal, elaborate in your endo Oh angle. Um, so getting married and having a stable job and like, like having like a good group of friends. I think those three are the most important. Uh, pursuing what I like for like my job. That’s really important. Um, I’m not exactly sure but I think probably some place relating to business like strategic management, so probably some management position. It’s a work design company, something like that. Um, two would be, I would definitely not marry out of for like money. Like, you know, it’s not like, I don’t want to be like rude. There are people out there who like, they don’t really love like the same areas just because I have money. I’ve definitely not [inaudible].
But yeah, definitely I want to marry from [inaudible] and for three friends. I’ve even though some people are like, if it’s just me and the love of my life has been run away together and like have we live happily ever after we’re back. Nobody there. Like I think for me it’s like a little different. I help out like other people. It can’t just be like, yeah cause it was like pretty much the three. Um, who is the person you most trust now? Trust now. Okay. That’s a dislike a little because um, usually I’d say like, um, some of my closest friends are like my brother or like my parents. But um, since they were like so far away right now, like my parents moved to China after I moved here and um, yeah, my, my brother’s like back in California. So I think like where I trust the most would probably be like some of my close, like closer friends. I can’t say exactly which one, cause I don’t really like have like a best, best friends. I was like, we’re just like my close friend group, you know, I trust them all. Okay. Do you have a motto? Motto? Um, I, the only model that comes to mind is actually like, um, like not to worry because like if you can do something about it then do it, but if you can’t do anything about it then just don’t worry about, yeah. So that’s like, cool. I completely agree. Um Hmm.
Um, what’s your greatest, what do you consider your greatest achievement? Alright. Um, I’d say
probably violet, like, because I’ve just been like so many like places like it’s, it’s not like an achievement. It is an achievement I’d say. But like more of like one of the things I love doing and like, even though like I don’t love it enough to be doing it as like a living, I still think like it’s great that I got to visit all these places and like stand in front of something people and like, it’s just like one of the things that I consider like bag other, one of the best sides of me. Yeah. What is your favorite place that playing to violin has taken you?
Oh
yeah. This one’s all right because [inaudible]
I’d like to say like Switzerland because the like just visiting that place was like pretty great. Um, but honestly if I had to like choose a place, I’d probably just be at home because like when I play, like it’s, it’s more meaningful to me to play for people that like, I, I like know and like that like I can actually appreciate it not only because of the music, but like, because they know who I am instead of like just playing for like, people that don’t really know me. It’s like I’d say like just back at home in any random theater with like parents or like just like friends watching, you know? It’s like at least people that know me, some people in the crowd that see my name, like, yeah. Um, okay.
Mmm.
In what occasions do you lie?
[inaudible]
why? I think honestly, if I’m going to be like completely honest, I do tell white lies. Like if somebody asked me how much I slept, I generally tell them more than I actually slept because they don’t want them to agree. I tell a lot of like, white life, they’re like, are you like worried about something? No, I’m not worried. Like what I actually, yeah, yeah. So like, but like if I actually need to lie, it’s, um, probably either for like their greater, like they’re good of not knowing or, um,
yeah.
Or if sometimes like in a moment of like, I don’t know, I’m just like being selfish about like something like, um, let’s say hon, I don’t mind to be like to put other people down. It’s more like, uh, uh, like how many people, like let’s say somebody, uh, got left out of like a group project or like didn’t come to like a group hang out because we had like, we went on a trip to great America or to Disneyland and say, and like they were like, Hey, why didn’t I get invited? I’ll be like, Oh, it’s because we have like a maximum number of car seats. Even this, even if it’s just because like our group didn’t want him by, like, I don’t want them to feel bad. So like I’ll like lie to them about that. Um, I have two more questions, I think. Um, if you could have any talent, what would you tell would, Oh man. Um,
I think if I could have like a, like a talent, it’d be to pick things up really quickly because I’m, there’s like a lot of things I would want to do. Like even though like, like let’s say learn a new language or like a, I don’t know, do like, there’s so many things I want to do. Like, I don’t know. I’d love to play basketball perfectly. That’d be so cool. Like even play cello. I love to play tell too, like if I didn’t just learn everything like in human speed, like mentally, that’d be like the best Allen ball basketball experience. Only when I was like middle school and like elementary school loving past that. Okay. Um, now if you had to compare yourself to the company, what would you compare yourself to? Um, to be honest, I wouldn’t say like, this one’s also a hard question. Yeah. Um, because I’m trying to think of a company that’s not like super famous, like Google, like also not like one of those smaller companies that like really try to go for sustainability. Cause like, even though I’m like all about that, it’s not like my entire model. I’m trying to find like a balance between the two. I’m not sure which company, but something along those lines mean.
Yeah.
Um, all right. I think that’s it. Right? And then if anything, we’ll just text you. All right, cool. Okay.
The reason I enjoyed and chose it as a reference is that the book is written from the point of view of a father’s daughter. The book is about her father. Even though he did not write it he in a way interrupts the readings through text in italics as if to correct what the daughter is saying. I wanted to emulate this in a visual way so I compiled all of the words from the interview and created a word cloud from them. The more a word was used by Simon the larger and more often it appears in the word cloud. This is my way of having him “interrupt” in a way and keep the piece true to his own words. The book also features many collage-like pages of girls that the father new and a mock-up dress that they may have worn. I also tried to emulate this collage style in my piece.
There is much representation in my piece such as:
Simon playing the cello, his favorite instrument which ironically he does not actually know how to play.
Obama is the living person Simon most admires.
The bear is the bear from the California flag which is where he moved from and also where his brother currently lives.
The basketball is supposed to represent Simons multiple facets of talent and him not wanting to be limited to any one practice.
Simon playing the guitar once again shows his musical and talent flexibility.
The two pieces of Simon’s art show his breaking away from his previous STEM and musical training and trying something new by coming to Parsons.
Xayah is his favorite character from his favorite game, League of Legends, which represents his extreme competitiveness.
The panda is the national animal of China which is where his parents are from and are currently residing.
I also included Simon’s Highschool logo as another representation of his past.
There is a wedding band on Simon’s finger to represent his future and him wanting to get married and to fall in love.
The lapel pin Simon is wearing is an Edelweiss flower which is the national flower of Switzerland, one of the many places Simon has traveled to play music.
I covered all of the backgrounds with all of Simon’s words from the interview.
Copied from my Learning Portfolio: CONTEXT IS DECISIVE: SIGNS, SYMBOLS, AND SOCIAL NORMS (February 12, 2020).