Methods
"Personal boundaries operate in two directions, affecting both the incoming and outgoing interactions between people". In my work, I use the notion of the "relationship bottle" to enact relationships and memories, containers representing the individual。 As well as the notion of "clear water in a bottle" to show the importance of each relationship in people's minds.
My project is to further the understanding of relationships by collecting the stories of different people. My work expresses a process of recollecting and reflecting on the relationships around me and conveying the message, making "relationship bottles" from stories and memories and displaying them in public spaces and online platforms, supporting interaction and messages, and realizing the process of conveying the message.
The first stage of the process of collecting and analyzing stories in RELATIONSHIP LAB is very important. The first step is to explain to you what exactly this project is. Is it interesting? Does it make sense? Also, thanks to COVID 19, street interviews become difficult in these offline ways, while online interviews will always have some distance. I asked questions on some of the Q&A platforms, such as: who do you feel has influenced you the most in your life? Which one impressed you and why? Who do you think is important to you? With these leading questions, I want them to think about their relationships in order to get answers.
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Draft
After collecting some stories, I began to categorize them. They were divided into: family, friends, lovers and strangers. The stories were then reduced to 50-100 words, more concise to be used in the work and for quick reading and understanding.
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Materials
My initial thoughts on materials and presentation were much different from the hand-drawn manuscript than they are now. To visualise one person's relationship with another. Materials should be able to be linked together and exist independently, and there must be objects that can contain them relatively well. In my opinion, the performance of water and oil is the best expression of the relationship between people. The relationship between oil and water allows us to understand how individuals in relationships can be close but also independent of each other.
However, clear Hydrogenated oils are not easy to access and are not environmentally friendly. Considering the access to materials and environmental protection, after the experiment I got a simpler solution. And a better form of presentation.
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Draft 2
I used water, sample bottles, small objects and created a "relationship bottle. I placed them neatly in public spaces and on the website, giving the impression of laboratory samples. I made it look formal and small, as if these memories are both important and small in people's minds (meaning we have so many memories in our lifetime).
By creating tiny names and story tags, tiny objects I want the viewer to come closer and look more closely at the story and understand the relationship.
To create relationship bottles using sample bottles, water, pictures or words or small objects that represent each person and the people who are related to them. And bring these bottles together to form a small sample-like laboratory to explore the differences in relationships.
Creating the appearance of a sample lab bottle using name labels, story labels, and "formal bottles" as a visual metaphor for recalling a specific relationship, evoking a memory and the importance of a particular person.
To reflect the impact of the relationship on the owner of the bottle, using the volume of water in the container and the position of the water in the bottle as a reference.
To represent objects associated with personal memories using tiny pictures and text placed in the bottle to represent objects that are small enough to draw the viewer to read and speculate more closely and carefully.
To influence the viewer's thinking about their relationship to self using the sample bottle which is a device for investigating emotionality, pictures, notes, object placement, scale and sound. Most of the culled stories are positive and heartwarming memories that hopefully pass on the warm parts of human nature.
I am content to have inconsistencies and imprecisions in my work. The memories that are important to them are different for each age group. Younger people are more likely to choose loved ones and friends, older ones will remember family and children. But it's not a conclusion, most people's memories tend to be positive and family related.
Relationships can be interpreted. At the same time, I hope that these bottles can heal people's hearts and bring warmth, like medicine, and that it will be passed on.
