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Qìn
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Qìn
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Content
QIN
By
Kaidi Mao
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSKI SCHOOL OF ART AND DESIGN
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirement for the Degree
Master of Fine Arts
May 2020
Copyright 2020 Kaidi Mao
ii
Table of Contents
List of Figures _______________________________________________________________ iii
Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ iv
SECTION I: INTRODUCTION ____________________________________________________ 1
Project One Summary _______________________________________________________ 1
Project Two Summary _______________________________________________________ 2
SECTION II: “Ink” Landscapes __________________________________________________ 4
SECTION III: THE DAO ________________________________________________________ 8
Bamboo __________________________________________________________________ 10
Mountains and Valleys _____________________________________________________ 10
Yin and Yang _____________________________________________________________ 13
Forest ___________________________________________________________________ 17
SECTION IV: CONCLUSION ____________________________________________________ 23
REFERENCES _______________________________________________________________ 23
iii
List of Figures
Figure 1: Bamboo Trees, Mountains, Ice-covered Rivers and Streams __________________ 9
Figure 2: Mysterious Mountains with a Thick Fog _________________________________ 12
Figure 3: Sun, Day, Light and Hot Air ____________________________________________ 15
Figure 4: Moon, Night, Darkness and Haze _______________________________________ 16
Figure 5: Fog Clearing at the Foothill ____________________________________________ 20
Figure 6: Snowy mountain, Lake and Moonlight ___________________________________ 21
Figure 7: Mountain Sides, Thick Fog over Water, Crying Sky _________________________ 22
iv
Abstract
As a designer from China living in the United States, I have sought to integrate my
training in contemporary design with my personal and cultural identity. This has come
through an examination of different media and technological approaches, including
explorations of bio-science marketing and life-style branding that engaged with the
relationship of humans to nature. This process has led me to a series of digitally produced
design pieces that examine my own (Chinese) pictorial tradition. These works have also
allowed me an alternative approach to understanding “the natural” within my practice.
My examination of the aesthetic and intellectual tradition of Chinese landscape
painting has enabled me to understand the connection between classical Chinese painters
and their natural environments. These painters pay little or no attention to human activities,
which are considered insignificant and accidental. To explore such painting’s relationship to
nature in a contemporary context, I have used today’s technology to produce digital images
inspired by the traditions of China. Landscapes of monochrome “ink,” created using tools
like Photoshop, Cinema 4D and Procreate, investigate themes from the Six Dynasties era
(220–589 CE) that subtly reflect on the natural environment, the embodiment of the soul,
and moods of loneliness, vulnerability, perfectionism, and obsession.
1
SECTION I: INTRODUCTION
As a designer from China living in the United States, I have sought to integrate my
training in contemporary design with my personal and cultural identity. This has come
through an examination of different media and technological approaches, including
explorations of bio-science marketing and life-style branding that engaged with the
relationship of humans to nature. This process has led me to a series of digitally produced
design pieces that examine my own (Chinese) pictorial tradition. These works have also
allowed me an alternative approach to understanding “the natural” within my practice. In
the following pages I will briefly describe earlier projects that I continue to pursue—a bio-
sciences marketing campaign and a life-style branding project—both of which were
fundamental in the development of my digital image-making project.
Project One Summary
The title for my first project—a bio-sciences marketing campaign, is Cultured Meat,
Meet Our Culture. The goal for this project is to expose new ideas of Cultured Meat (or Lab-
Grown Meat) and to explore future products that will impact our food sources and supplies.
The format of this campaign project is a zine style book, expected to run 100 full-color pages
consisting of photography, illustration, and typed and hand-written text. The content of the
book is personal stories, scientific research, interviews with industry leaders and scientists,
and recipes. This project, based on in-depth research, data collection, first-hand experiences,
2
and design practices, explores the feasibility and affordability of sustainable food sources,
solutions and future alternatives. It also gives exposure to businesses and industries who are
currently collaborating with scientists and entrepreneurs to advocate for a sustainable food
industry ecosystem.
With nature in mind, my hope for this campaign is to raise awareness, start
conversations on animal cruelty, examine the effects of human demands on the food
industry, and demonstrate how climate change and sustainability effect meat production on
a personal level. This project takes a “future” look into the sustainability of our food system
to support the growing population and limited natural agricultural resources. At the same
time, through micro narrative and social media, the campaign provides a platform for
building and engaging an audience around these themes – using my design practice as a
method to educate and engage in a call to actions and cultural and behavioral changes.
Through this project I learned much about contemporary connections between bio-
sciences, design, and communications. I also felt that concentrating on scientific and
engineering responses to human and environmental needs did not fully satisfy my desire for
my practice. I wanted to explore cultural aspects of food and the daily lives of Americans
living in cities who I encountered every day. Out of this need a second project developed: Qin.
Project Two Summary
The second project, Qin (the same name as my thesis project), is a life-style brand
inspired by traditions and Chinese ideology, Qin provides a platform for the American
3
Market to experience the taste and effects of Herbs and traditional medicines. Qin,
pronounced “kin”, even has the similar meaning as “kin”. It expresses the connection
between us the brand creators and the roots of our culture, as well as the connection between
human and the gift from nature. My goal for creating this brand is to build a line of products
around Chinese Herbology, and a community that genuinely enjoys and benefits from my
creations. The goal for our customer, will be discovering a newfound healthy lifestyle,
learning the relevance between us and nature, and contributing to a more sustainable future.
Other than the branding, I want to position Qin beyond a so called “lifestyle brand”.
From my research and personal experiences, Americans get their medical help from either
modern medicine or homeopathy. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. The
disadvantage of homeopathy is that, to be honest, it does not work, whereas modern
medicine fully depends on science and technology. But what modern medicine lacks, is the
personal attention to the people who have already been on a pilgrimage from doctor to
doctor. This lack of attention and empathy can make a huge difference to peoples’ well-
being. Compare your regular visit to the doctor’s office, which is often a lot of waiting and
less diagnostic time, the first consultation with a homeopath can take hours and is very
personal. Modern medicine is efficient. It saves millions of lives each year. But due to its
nature, consultations, diagnosis and treatment need to be fast, which can leave people
feeling invisible, scared and left behind. But as important as empathy is, it’s not a substitute
for actual treatment. My brand will be based on the science and ideology of traditional
Chinese medicine, which can both provide empathy and be scientifically supported.
4
SECTION II: “INK” LANDSCAPES
As interesting and challenging as these two projects are, they in some way require
intermediate knowledge of other disciplines, like Bio-Science and Entrepreneurship, and
they cannot fully satisfy my creative process as a designer/artist. Therefore, I transitioned
my project into the examination of the aesthetic and intellectual tradition of Chinese
landscape painting that enabled me to understand the connection between classical Chinese
painters and their natural environments. To explore such painting’s relationship to nature
in a contemporary context, I have used today’s technology to produce digital images inspired
by the traditions of China.
Landscapes of monochrome “ink,” created using tools like Photoshop, Cinema 4D and
Procreate, investigate themes from the Six Dynasties era (220–589 CE). Beginning with
existing landscape photography, I have developed a method through which I digitally
produce what I call “ink” landscapes. Each image starts as a composite of more than one
photograph of real places (nature). Within each composition, I often repeat and transform
elements used as abstracted markers of “nature,” like mountains and valleys. I then remove
all color and exaggerate black and white contrast. These images become the base on which I
digitally paint areas of black “ink”.
5
沁
(Qìn)
This thesis is a pictorial reinterpretation of Chinese painters’ use of nature to
communicate the Daoist notion that the whole planet is permeated by invisible Dao, “the
Way of the cosmos, which is evident in nature."
1
I have titled my project Qin. Qìn, comes
from the Chinese word 沁, which means “to permeate”, “to seep into”. My project allows
different cultures, concepts and methods to seep together. The character 沁 consists of two
parts: 氵 (water), and 心 (the heart). Heart represents the depth of one’s feelings, and when
combined with water, expresses something that comes from one’s innermost being. This
thesis explores the aesthetic depth with which Chinese culture responds to, reveres, and
honors the natural environment by reexamining pictorial traditions using contemporary
digital image production. It also serves as an expression of the connection felt by a producer
of such imagery with the underlying concept of Dao
2
that inexpressibly permeates universal
being in the Chinese tradition.
Recently, philosophers and scholars of culture and art history have been keen on
1
Britannica Academic, s.v. "Tian," accessed March 3, 2020, https://academic-eb-
com.libproxy1.usc.edu/levels/collegiate/article/tian/72417.
2
Chung-Yuan, C. (1963). Creativity and Taoism: A study of Chinese philosophy, art, and
poetry.
6
Chinese aesthetics—monochromatic ink landscape painting in particular—that depict the
natural environment unaffected by human activities. Accurate understanding of these
traditional ink paintings frequently requires investigation into the artists’ biographies,
socio-cultural, and historical setting. Rowley (1947)
3
gives insightful reflection on the
treatment of nature in his analysis of the surrounding environment and how the painter
injects various opposing concepts, such as spirit-material, tradition-innovation, et cetera,
and ultimately attains harmony. Gao (1996)
4
shows how the painter’s contemplation of the
surrounding environment moves him from the daily world, practical necessities, and
consumption to expressive art creation. Meanwhile, popular Li (1994
5
, 2010)
6
texts illustrate
the environment’s practical effect in terms of Chinese art and the everyday life of reality and
social order. However, regardless of stresses on the various aspects of painters’ relationship
with the natural world, researchers almost come to a consensus that these painters are
prone to reflect the innermost, invisible and subjective elements of the natural environment
surrounding them. Their aspirations are to get away from the external visible world, devisive
issues, and in turn attain a sense of the invisible Dao. This analysis was already explored in
the ancient Chinese texts on aesthetics and often authored by the painters or calligraphers
3
Rowley, G. (1947). Principles of Chinese Painting: With Illustrations from the Du Bois
Schanck Morris Collection (Vol. 24). Princeton University Press.
4
Gao, J. (1996). The expressive act in Chinese art: from calligraphy to painting. Acta
Universitatis Upsaliensis.
5
Li, Z. (1994). The Path of Beauty, translated by Song Lizeng.
6
Li, Z. (2010). The Chinese aesthetic tradition. University of Hawaii Press.
7
themselves. Old sources of painting are far ahead of modern interpretations because they
display painters’ worldview in these eras.
This thesis mainly argues that traditional Chinese landscape painting reveals subtle
reflections about the natural environment and unveils how Chinese held the natural
environment in great esteem. This is a phenomenological investigation of Chinese landscape
painting that does not impose Western cultural assumptions. I attempt to explore what
these traditional paintings of landscapes can offer a contemporary society in which
emotional and physical stresses are common.
Early Chinese painters of the Six Dynasty Era (220-589 CE), also wrote aesthetic
treatises which survive though their paintings did not. Their theoretical essays were used to
reconstruct abstract reflections on the terms of ancient landscape depictions. The abstract
reflections became the basis for future scholars and artists. Six rules of painting were put
together to address the traditional Chinese landscape painting. Others preferred artistic
creation with the Dao essence to the rules. Either way, there was authenticity and beauty of
artwork in both groups. Six dynasties show the transformative ink painting from the
external world to the “mind landscape” of the artist’s heart and mind. My “Ink Landscapes”
made using modern digital tools, show the inner spirit and not the realism of the actual
surrounding environment. The mountains, the rivers and lakes, the forests, the valleys are
reflections of the harmony of nature and its magnificence. As an updated retooling of Six
Dynasty painting principles, my work asks the viewer to cast a contemplative eye on these
8
iconographic elements and find emotional resolution through the balance of nature
elements represented in the image.
SECTION III: THE DAO
My reflections come out of Daoist, Confucian and Buddhist opinions that deny
skeptical or opinionated perceptions of nature. This Chinese worldview had landscape
painters deprive their images of swamps, trash-polluted nature or any human activity.
Unlike contemporary works of Western painters, Chinese painters regarded Dao as one
“living reality” destitute of nasty things (Rowley, 1947)
7
. The natural environment is used to
show splendid nobility and a sense of awe. This romanticized vision of Chinese fine art is
debatable. Nevertheless, this technique was advantageous for an exploration of a nature
seeped into by Great Dao while considering separate parts as insignificant and contingent.
Standing beyond language, only a visual representation in the form of a painting could
adequately express Dao. Like other creators of monochromatic landscapes, I seek to grasp
eternal origins through “ ink paintings” produced by contemporary technologies (Figure 1-7).
They attempt to describe the invisible, undefined Dao by specifically focusing on wild nature,
such as mountains, trees, rivers, and valleys.
7
Rowley, G. (1947). Principles of Chinese Painting: With Illustrations from the Du Bois
Schanck Morris Collection (Vol. 24). Princeton University Press.
9
Figure 1: Bamboo Trees, Mountains, Ice-covered Rivers and Streams
The wild, the uncultivated, and the natural environment were attractive to most
Chinese painters, as they are to me, as a producer of images. The environment when put into
a landscape painting embedded in the centrality of Daoist ideas, turns nature into beautiful
scenery without human artifice. I demonstrated how my digital Chinese landscapes signify
10
the wild nature in terms of iconographic aspects such as mountains, trees, thick fog, rivers
and valleys.
Bamboo
Of these iconographic elements, the trees of bamboo, traditionally associated with
courage, discloses the painter’s view of nature. Bamboo trees are emblems of shelter
whereby an individual forgets his troubles and turns to contemplation of eternal wisdom. I
admire how the bamboo hungrily reaches up toward the sun to enjoy the fragile happy
moment frozen in time and leaves exposed to the wind. This image resonates with the my
state of vulnerability. In my childhood, I had found techniques to hide from vulnerability by
using thoughts, emotions or mannerisms as armory to hide. In Bamboo Trees, Mountains, Ice-
covered Rivers and Streams (Figure 1) I used thick fog to cover a group bamboo trees and faintly
show them to represent this concept of “disappearance.” But as we will see, in Chinese
landscape to show one aspect is also to reveal its counterpart, thus disappearance demands
visibility. Just as one group of trees is covered in other parts of the composition we see
bamboo trees courageously towering above the thick fog to be “visible” to the sun. Thus, we
can read in these bamboo trees an emotional content that describes the courage needed to
show up with self-empathy and self-compassion to achieve one's needs in adult life.
Mountains and Valleys
Notwithstanding the significance of the bamboo, fundamental aspects of Chinese
11
landscape painting include mountains and bodies of water. Landscapes are often made up of
mysterious mountains whose peaks disappeared in clouds with their base masked by thick
fog. At the foothill of a mountain there is a possibility of a lake or stream or river. The
Chinese language coined the word “landscape” (山水) which means “Mountain and water” (山
+ 水). Mysterious Mountains with a Thick Fog (Figure 2) shows mysterious mountains whose
bottom have a thick fog. The peaks have not disappeared into the clouds. However, the
mountains have a river or stream of admirable nature. Ivanhoe & Van Norden (2001)
8
would
say that these rivers and streams gush from some spring and the flow is eternal. The water is
one emblem for Dao’s eternity; mountains symbolize heaven and water earth (Sze, 1959)
9
.
Mountain-water motives signify opposites with harmonious tension that complete the whole
image and therefore idea. Mountain and valleys, yang (阳) and yin (阴), represents the same
thing.
8
Ivanhoe, P. J., & Van Norden, B. W. (Eds.). (2001). Readings in classical Chinese philosophy.
Hackett Publishing.
9
Sze, M. M. (1959). The Way of Chinese Painting, Its Ideas and Technique: With Selections
from the Seventeenth Century Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting (Vol. 166). Random House.
12
Figure 2: Mysterious Mountains with a Thick Fog
As mentioned, Mysterious Mountains with a Thick Fog (Figure 2) describes the
harmonious tension which is eternal, and it hints at the my own desire for perfection
attained at the mountain’s peak. The level of the valleys being lower in the landscape
represents an imperfect level. Because of people’s expectations, we are often afraid to fail,
13
make mistakes or endure criticism. We avoided shame not knowing that it comes out of
potentially damaging perfectionism. Personally, I have found that my perfectionist goals
were literally unachievable. When I abandoned my sense of others expectation, and returned
to internal motivation, I discovered ways to turn the vulnerability and obsession into a
creative process. My internal motivation and newfound creativity are illustrated in Figure 2
by an eternally flowing stream under the mountain. Just like the spring gives a continual
water flow, so my internal motivations would inspire and drive my actions, and no longer
spends worthless time proving myself to others. Like the Dao’s living reality shown by the
continual flowing of the stream, my innermost being becomes increasingly high on spiritual
experiences and so combats the internal emotional challenges, as depicted by the
tremendous heights or the coldness of fog or the sense of desertion when bamboo is absent.
Yin and Yang
My digital paintings, though static, depict change as though animated. It cannot be
ignored that one aspect may take place in a different time and place than another. One
moment could be that of a seemingly dense fog as the monumental hilltops moves out of
view. Another moment could display the high peaks and deep valleys because of a seeming
wind that sweeps off the clouds. The latter moment shows the peaks and valleys in splendor
unimaginable.
From a traditional Chinese perspective, the changes of moments reflect the changes
in human emotions. Additionally, these changes are grounded in Daoist notions of yin and
14
yang which can be understood through multiple oppositions. Yang (阳) can be represented by
four things including sun (日), day, light and hot air. As the sun rises, Yang becomes
extensive and dominates Yin. Yin (阴) can also be symbolized in four things, which are
Yang's opposites: moon (月), night, darkness and cold air. Therefore, the yang over the yin is
what brings about mood changes (Granet, 1968)
10
.
10
Granet, M. (1968). la pensée chinoise, Paris, Albin Michel, 1934. La civilisation chinoise,
Paris, Albin Michel.
15
Figure 3: Sun, Day, Light and Hot Air
16
Figure 4: Moon, Night, Darkness and Haze
Sun, Day, Light and Hot Air (Figure 3) shows the Yang image. The sun is shining its rays
in the sky apparently partly hidden by the clouds. The hot air causes the wind to flow and
move the fog to the mountain sides. It is day and the hilltops and the fog melt clearing up
and becoming visible. On the other hand, Moon, Night, Darkness and Haze (Figure 4) shows the
17
Yin elements. The moon is partly covered by clouds in the sky. It is night and cold air causes
fog to form and fuse on the whole bases of mountains. The fog almost covers the mountain
peaks as well. Only traces of the hilltops can be seen. Together with Sun, Day, Light and Hot
Air (Figure 3), the viewer realizes the seriousness of material obsessions. Similar to the four
things under yin, contemporary society subject itself excesses of medications, shopping,
food items and social media. Like the cold air creating fog on the mountains and fusing into
the mountains during the moonlight of the night, pain surrounds obsessive needs—a self-
contained tornado that results from the effects of coping mechanisms. Numbing the dark
would also imply numbing the light; avoiding the pain and discomfort would mean that
avoidance of the other extreme of joy, love and belonging. Obsession provides the fastest,
and yet most dangerous means of relief.
The images in Sun, Day, Light and Hot Air (Figure 3) shows that self-compassion brings
a clarity of understanding to the numbing mechanics of contemporary life. Voluntarily going
to the edge of discomfort (Yin), even pain, to realize the consequential edge of joy (Yang),
love, belonging that offer value to my works. Discomfort must be endured to recognize the
happiness in life. Again, these images do not depict physical places, rather they are the
product of daily meditation sessions, where I can freely create “mind landscape” through
attention to the conscious mind.
18
Forest
As mentioned before, the forest is also a core element of Chinese landscape painting.
No wonder landscapes have occasional names of “mountains and forests” and “forests and
streams.” Zavadskaya (1975)
11
asserts that the forest is the third most significant aspect of
Chinese landscape art. When situated on the mountain side, the forests symbolize the yin.
The same forests beside the water personify yang. As such, the mountain feature serves to
show the idea that the natural surrounding environment is unfixed and always changing.
Bamboo Trees, Mountains, Ice-covered Rivers and Streams (Figure 1) shows some forest trees
beside the mountain and others beside the water. This painting illustrates the unity of
subjectivity and objectivity. The mountain-forest feature shows the forest as subjective to the
mountain, while the forest-water feature demonstrates the forest as objective to the water.
In the first, the forest is moving toward the top and in the second the forest is at the top and
water flows to it. When viewed from different angles, the import of these iconographic
elements changes. The forest-water feature takes, borrows, and emphasizes a small corner of
nature as I perceive it. From this visual analysis, I see the moment, emotions and objects
moving as one.
The mountain-forest feature has the same explanation as mountain-water/ mountain
valley argument. The forest as my subjective sentiment needs casting and
11
Zavadskaia, E. V. (1975). Esteticheskie problemy zhivopisi starogo Kitaia.
19
reconstruction to attain objective reality. In other words, I have my subjective sentiment
unified in an organic manner. Concurrently, I focus on the sense of the feeling of life as well
as consciousness of aesthetic objects. The aim is to get hold of the true feeling or aesthetic
experience of the source of landscapes and delve into knowledge beyond myself to reach an
ultimate impression of nature. Eventually, I attain “essential intuitiveness” and, in one
sense, emphasizes my personal imagination, and in another sense, my ability to "touch the
scene and create love” or “pass the scene for love expressivity”. The focus is to reach a realm
of a united heaven and man.
20
Figure 5: Fog Clearing at the Foothill
Such is the feeling of mine in Fog Clearing at the Foothill (Figure 5) shows fog clearing
at the foothill exposing a river. This monochromatic landscape displays monumental peaks
that rise and tower into the sky whose end is unseen. The valleys are deep, and the space is
infinite. This image closely resembles the Chinese ink painting of the Tang Dynasty. It shows
aspects of Buddhism and Daoism prominent in that dynasty’s nature poetry. I observe my
21
natural environment with a contemplative eye that penetrates the essence of the invisible. In
the painting, I used digital tools, Photoshop and others, which is an equivalent of a
traditional pen and black ink. These Chinese paintings communicate a natural landscape
with both a traditional and contemporary sentiment.
Figure 6: Snowy mountain, Lake and Moonlight
22
Figure 7: Mountain Sides, Thick Fog over Water, Crying Sky
In my last two monumental landscapes (Figure 6: Snowy mountain, Lake and Moonlight;
Figure 7: Mountain Sides, Thick Fog over Water, Crying Sky), I seek to depict rugged, tall,
massive mountains and a distant panorama of ample open space that dissolves in the cloudy
23
horizon. Snowy mountain, Lake and Moonlight (Figure 6) is snow over rivers and mountains
just as in Mountain Sides, Thick Fog over Water, Crying Sky (Figure 7).
SECTION IV: CONCLUSION
As I have shown, over the course of two years of my studies, I have moved my from
attempts to reconcile my skill as a designer with contemporary industry through interaction
with bio-science. I then worked to integrate my interest in traditional Chinese medicine and
the needs of contemporary American consumers. While this work continues, I feel a need to
more deeply respond to the aesthetic and philosophical traditions that form the foundation
of my identity. I have done this by developing a visual style in digital image making relying
on Chinese landscape traditions that depict nature devoid of human intervention while
metaphorically expressing emotional states understood through a Daoist lens.
The images presented in this thesis represent on-going experiments with digital
media that are drawn from Song Dynasty era depictions of the divine. Here Dao is expressed
through snowy mountains, ice-covered lakes and rivers, snowfall, and fierce winters. Such
natural elements are also understood to metaphorically describe emotional states like
gloominess, loneliness and vulnerability coupled with perfectionism and obsession. Through
the play of black and white; presence and absence; ink and paper; digital 1s and 0s, creativity
and freedom live in white spaces that make blackness possible, and vice versa. This project
affirms that the ever-firm mountains that suffer for a while in the darkness of night know
that joy comes with the lightness of morning.
24
REFERENCES
Britannica Academic, s.v. "Tian," accessed March 3, 2020, https://academic-eb-
com.libproxy1.usc.edu/levels/collegiate/article/tian/72417.
Chung-Yuan, C. (1963). Creativity and Taoism: A study of Chinese philosophy, art, and
poetry.
Rowley, G. (1947). Principles of Chinese Painting: With Illustrations from the Du Bois Schanck
Morris Collection (Vol. 24). Princeton University Press.
Gao, J. (1996). The expressive act in Chinese art: from calligraphy to painting. Acta Universitatis
Upsaliensis.
Li, Z. (1994). The Path of Beauty, translated by Song Lizeng.
Li, Z. (2010). The Chinese aesthetic tradition. University of Hawaii Press.
Ivanhoe, P. J., & Van Norden, B. W. (Eds.). (2001). Readings in classical Chinese philosophy.
Hackett Publishing.
Sze, M. M. (1959). The Way of Chinese Painting, Its Ideas and Technique: With Selections
from the Seventeenth Century Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting (Vol. 166).
Random House.
Granet, M. (1968). la pensée chinoise, Paris, Albin Michel, 1934. La civilisation chinoise, Paris,
Albin Michel.
Zavadskaia, E. V. (1975). Esteticheskie problemy zhivopisi starogo Kitaia.
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
As a designer from China living in the United States, I have sought to integrate my training in contemporary design with my personal and cultural identity. This has come through an examination of different media and technological approaches, including explorations of bio-science marketing and life-style branding that engaged with the relationship of humans to nature. This process has led me to a series of digitally produced design pieces that examine my own (Chinese) pictorial tradition. These works have also allowed me an alternative approach to understanding “the natural” within my practice. ❧ My examination of the aesthetic and intellectual tradition of Chinese landscape painting has enabled me to understand the connection between classical Chinese painters and their natural environments. These painters pay little or no attention to human activities, which are considered insignificant and accidental. To explore such painting’s relationship to nature in a contemporary context, I have used today’s technology to produce digital images inspired by the traditions of China. Landscapes of monochrome “ink,” created using tools like Photoshop, Cinema 4D and Procreate, investigate themes from the Six Dynasties era (220–589 CE) that subtly reflect on the natural environment, the embodiment of the soul, and moods of loneliness, vulnerability, perfectionism, and obsession.
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Mao, Kaidi
(author)
Core Title
Qìn
School
Roski School of Art and Design
Degree
Master of Fine Arts
Degree Program
Design
Publication Date
04/30/2020
Defense Date
03/01/2020
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
branding,Chinese culture,cultural identity,culture,Dao,Daoism,digital images,digital painting,Emotions,landscape painting,Natural environment,Nature,OAI-PMH Harvest,Tao,Taoism,tradition
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Wojciak, Ewa (
committee chair
), Burruss, Laurie (
committee member
), Greiman, April (
committee member
)
Creator Email
kaidimao@usc.edu,kaidimao1@gmail.com
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-291442
Unique identifier
UC11664012
Identifier
etd-MaoKaidi-8382.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-291442 (legacy record id)
Legacy Identifier
etd-MaoKaidi-8382.pdf
Dmrecord
291442
Document Type
Thesis
Rights
Mao, Kaidi
Type
texts
Source
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...
Repository Name
University of Southern California Digital Library
Repository Location
USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA
Tags
branding
Chinese culture
Dao
Daoism
digital images
digital painting
landscape painting
Tao
tradition