Joyce Yu-Jean Lee Talk Event (11/15)
Tonight, I attended artist Joyce Yu-Jean Lee's talk about her artwork, sponsored by the Fine Arts Department. Lee's is based in New York City and her work focuses on video, installation and performance. Her technology based artwork represents culture issues and topics that are current in the world. Her work has been recognized by the New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post and more. After listening to Lee talk about her aspirations for her artwork and all that she as accomplished, I was inspired by her work and the meanings behind them.
One specific artwork of Lee's that captured my attention was "Firewall: Internet Cafe." This social and engaging art project focused on what the Internet depicts of certain words when searched in the United States or in China. In this project, Lee's goal was to investigate online censorship between two different search engine, Google (used in the United States) and Baidu (used in China). Lee was interested in discovering the process of visual culture in each of these major countries. She set up these Firewall Cafe's in multiply cities, one of them being New York. People were invited to come in and search a word on Google and Baidu's search engines and evaluate the differences in what information comes up. Specifically, the focus was on the difference in pictures. In the back of the cafe, the locations also served coffee and treats.
I found this to be an interesting project because it is something that I would never of thought of and something so simple has this has major differences. I never would of thought of the information provided by these search engine in these counties and how they could be different. I also was interested in how Lee came up with the idea of the project. She said her assistant, who was gay and from China, committed suicide. He always had dreams of moving to America because of their views and beliefs; however he took his life before he could get there. This upset Lee very much; however, she decided to use this platform to create a project where ideas are compared amongst these two countries. Although it is sad, I liked how Lee states that she usually has great ideas after a devastating event happens in society. I think this is because she tries to turn that negativity into something positive and allow others to have an outlook on the issue.
Overall, I enjoyed the lecture and found Lee's work and experiences very interesting and inspiring.
One specific artwork of Lee's that captured my attention was "Firewall: Internet Cafe." This social and engaging art project focused on what the Internet depicts of certain words when searched in the United States or in China. In this project, Lee's goal was to investigate online censorship between two different search engine, Google (used in the United States) and Baidu (used in China). Lee was interested in discovering the process of visual culture in each of these major countries. She set up these Firewall Cafe's in multiply cities, one of them being New York. People were invited to come in and search a word on Google and Baidu's search engines and evaluate the differences in what information comes up. Specifically, the focus was on the difference in pictures. In the back of the cafe, the locations also served coffee and treats.
I found this to be an interesting project because it is something that I would never of thought of and something so simple has this has major differences. I never would of thought of the information provided by these search engine in these counties and how they could be different. I also was interested in how Lee came up with the idea of the project. She said her assistant, who was gay and from China, committed suicide. He always had dreams of moving to America because of their views and beliefs; however he took his life before he could get there. This upset Lee very much; however, she decided to use this platform to create a project where ideas are compared amongst these two countries. Although it is sad, I liked how Lee states that she usually has great ideas after a devastating event happens in society. I think this is because she tries to turn that negativity into something positive and allow others to have an outlook on the issue.
Overall, I enjoyed the lecture and found Lee's work and experiences very interesting and inspiring.
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