FYP1 - Critique 1 -Proposal 3 [selected]

Research Topic
Chinese Calligraphy

Background

Chinese Calligraphy is one of the Chinese traditional writing. Over the thousands of years, the style of Chinese calligraphy has evolved continually. About 213 B.C., under the famous Chin Shih Huang Ti, who perpetrated the 'burning of the books', the Prime Minister Li Szu drew up an official index of characters and unified the written form for the use of scholars. This is chuan-shu and contained more than 3,000 characters. From that time to the present, there are five major styles of calligraphy:


|  seal  |  clerical |  cursive |   regular |
(http://www.chinapage.com/callig1.html)


Calligraphy is not only a practical technique for writing Chinese characters, but also a unique Oriental art of expression and a branch of learning or discipline as well. As a branch of learning it is rich in content, including the evolution of writing styles, development and rules of technique, history of calligraphy, calligraphers and their inheritance in art, and evaluation of calligraphy as a work of art. This branch of learning is wide ranging and deep, forming an important part of Chinese culture.

(http://www.chinavoc.com/arts/calligraphy.htm)

The local name for calligraphy is Shūfǎ 書法 in China, literally "the way/method/law of writing"; Shodō 書道 in Japan, literally "the way/principle of writing"; and Seoye (서예) 書藝 in Korea, literally "the skill/criterion of writing". The calligraphy of East Asian characters is an important and appreciated aspect of East Asian culture. East Asian calligraphy is normally regarded as one of the "arts" (Chinese 藝術 pinyin: yìshù, Japanese 芸術 geijutsu) in the countries where it is practiced. But there is actually a debate as to whether East Asian calligraphy is a discipline or an art. Indeed, both may be true.

As a practice
As a discipline calligraphy is, at the basic level, a pursuit －書法 Chinese: shūfǎ, "the rules of writing Han characters"－ focused on writing well. Students aim to obtain the characteristics of the writing of famous calligraphic masters. Elementary school students practice calligraphy in this way, as do elders practicing temporary calligraphy, without aspiring to artistic creation.

As an art
Calligraphy is also considered an art － 艺术 Chinese: yìshù, a relatively recent word meaning "art", where works are appreciated more or only for their aesthetic qualities.
The English word "Calligraphy" refers to that which is "beautiful writing", thus including both aspects.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_calligraphy)


Problem Identification
Many forms of the traditional ways is transforming into digital. Nowadays, the people are hardly remembering about the art of Chinese Calligraphy. They feel that using Chinese Calligraphy is a waste of time on the preparation of materials, and the traditional method of writing make their hand dirty and the smell of the ink is incredible, not everyone of us can accept. Chinese Calligraphy is great invention of writing created by our ancient, we shouldn't let it dies. What we can do is to improve and to do some transformation on the method of writing so do the easier preparation of materials.

Aim and Objectives
To educate people on the proper ways of writing Chinese Calligraphy.
To transform the old story into new media.
To encourage people have more interaction with the culture.


Motivation
Encourage people to learn more about Chinese Calligraphy and the technique of writing. People will be more interesting on this if there is interaction between the devices. Therefore, they can easily remember it all the time.


Ideation or Concept
My idea is to transform the old way of written Chinese Calligraphy into a modern and digital way. By using tablet (a temporary devices, will find another tool to replace it.), people can hold the pen by referring the pen holding technique on the screen, pressing the pen harder to make the stroke thicker or smoothly move the pen to make to stroke lighter.

Review, Analysis and Precedence Studies
Here is some research video of using the tablet to work with the computer. What i have to do is similar with it, writing on the device and it will respond what you have done on the screen. But i fail to upload the video, so here is the link :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5EvhHy7eQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I568NyZLJkY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pYHDQDWRcs

Design Approach
The design will be in more toward chinese style while user can interact between the device and the screen.