» San Jose

Seed Collection : 2008

Sheau — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:17:43 +0000

For the past few months, I have been collecting, sorting and storing seeds. Some are from my garden and some are from my walks in the neighborhood.

When I visited my friend Lissa’s garden couple of weeks ago, she gave me some Mexican Sunflower seeds from her garden. She knows that I have been hunting and gathering for seeds. Then she asked me “How do you keep track of your seeds? Do you photograph them?”

Actually, I have just been collecting seeds and putting them in different small bottles so far. I have been able to identify them without too much trouble. Photographing them seem to be a great and useful way to make sure that I don’t someday get them mixed up. (It is fun to take my Remington Typewriter out to do some typing too.) And hopefully, my little digital library of seeds would be useful to someone else as well.

Thank you Lissa for giving me this great idea to keep track of my seeds. I am looking forward to sowing them next year in my garden.

Click here to view the complete seed collection

Surface – Collaborative

Sheau — Tue, 01 May 2007 05:29:32 +0000

Surface is an interactive video audio installation using a table with a contact microphone, and a video display. Ethan and I collaborated on this project (our first). You can see a short movie of the show above. It is an exploration of surface and location mediated through both video imagery and audio feedback. It consists of a series of macro photos of urban surfaces in downtown San Jose. The location of each surface is cataloged with latitude and longitude data. Organic materials are also collected from the urban environment (rocks, seed pods, branches, etc.) and form an interface into the exploration of place and surface. A platform is installed in the exhibition space where the collected materials are placed. A contact microphone is used to detect vibrations caused by tactile interactions with the organic material. The vibrations are amplified into an audio signal, which is broadcast into the space. Software algorithms detect changes in pitch and amplitude in the signal and use the data for two purposes. Short segments of audio input are recorded and looped, forming a rhythmic history of the interactions with the piece. In addition, the archive of macro photos (mapped with lat/lon data) are navigated and displayed through a video projection.

Image locations on Google Maps: http://tinyurl.com/2dthgt

Images of video projection in different phases of interaction. Please click on each image for larger view.

168

Sheau — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 01:21:41 +0000

Artist Statement:

The concept of 168 is a visual metaphor of the concepts of time, cycle of nature and Yin and Yang. It is also a record of my tea drinking over a period of one hundred and sixty-eight days. The installation consists of a tea book scroll, woven monofilament and scattered loose tea. In this context, the tea scroll represents time/cycle; the woven monofilament represents sky; the loose tea represents earth; and the dark gallery space represents the universe that contains all three elements in one. The tea book scroll was constructed using one hundred and sixty-eight used tea bags that were consumed by me. The tea bags were arranged from light to dark to portray a constant cycle of time from sunrise to sunset or changes of seasons. 168 was chosen based on the total number of years of my age and my parents’ age to further exemplify the concept of time passing from one generation or one cycle to the next. The progression from lightness to darkness also symbolizes the harmony of the Yin and Yang. In Taoist philosophy, Yin and Yang are the two primal forces or modes of creation in the natural world. When each force reaches its extreme it produces a seed of the opposite and thus creates a never ending cycle of growth and change. Yin connotes Darkness, Moon, Night, Female, Autumn, & Winter. Yang connotes Light, Sun, Day, Male, Spring, & Summer. In a nutshell, 168 is a journal of my tea drinking as well as a complex visual contemplation of how time functions in relationship to the physical and metaphysical world. Time can be interpreted in fragments of seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years or something completely beyond our interpretation of a concept of time.

Location: San Jose State University, Black Gallery, Art Building
Exhibition Dates: March 12th – March 16, 2007
Reception: Tuesday, March 13th, 2007, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Gallery Hours: Tuesday & Thursday 12:30 – 6:30 PM

Genepool

Sheau — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 02:02:42 +0000

We took an evening walk in the Guadalupe River Park along Almaden Avenue in Downtown San Jose. This public art – Genepool is at the River Street Historic District right behind Lowry’s Irish Coffee House. It is a pool with stones inscribed with children ’s first names from various cultures that have enriched San Jose. The River Street Historic District is a nice little area with old Victorian houses converted into business. Back in the 1900, the River Street area was once the home of dozens of Italian Immigrants who came to San Jose to work on farms and orchards. Lowry’s is a nice cafe to hang out for brunch and escape from afternoon heat. It is nice to have the option to sit in a local cafe. It brightens the neighbourhood from the shadow of the monster Starbuck’s coffee! :0)