Stroke by Stroke: Calligraphic Imagination in Contemporary Chinese Art and Emergent Media
Lead Research Organisation:
School of Oriental and African Studies
Department Name: Sch of Arts
Abstract
The AHRC research project, titled 'Stroke by Stroke: Calligraphic Imagination in Contemporary Chinese Art and Emergent Media', aims to make sense of the perplexing permutations and ramifications of a distinct pattern of imagination: Chinese calligraphy in the transmedia context. In this project, Chinese calligraphy is reimagined in contemporary art, cinema, computer fonts, iPhone apps, virtual reality (VR) and cyberspace. Placing art historical writings on Chinese calligraphy in conversation with film history, media archaeology, platform studies, and digital humanities, this research sheds light on how cultural heritage is reinvented at moments of historical ruptures. More significantly, it questions what it means to conduct arts and humanities research in the digital world, taking into fullest consideration the ways in which both the history of art and the process of conducting arts and humanities research are increasingly mediated by media technologies.
Chinese calligraphy is image and text at once. The image-and-text relation at the core of this research is pertinent to all scholars and museum professionals working with the visual arts. The project shows that the oscillations between image and text give birth to some of the most exciting experiments in the film industry, in the world of contemporary art, and in the realm of industrial design. At the point of convergence between image and text, the calligraphic imagination of this research inspires future creativity in different parts of the world.
While calligraphy has always had a place in the historiography of Chinese art, it remains a marginalised, at times intimidating, subject within the English-language art historical scholarship. Most existing scholarship on Chinese calligraphy is narrated as a style history of celebrated masters of seal, clerical, regular, running, and cursive scripts, categorized and marked according to China's dynastic and political time. Transcending the 'masters and masterpieces' narrative and the tendency to privilege the premodern that dominates the studies of the history of Chinese calligraphy, this research charts an unwritten history in the modern and contemporary context in which the now-forgotten profession of calligraphers who wrote intertitles for Chinese silent films comes into view, and calligraphy re-emerges in the most unexpected hybrid forms in contemporary art. Situating Chinese calligraphy within the wider mediascape, this research questions how long-exposure photography, VR and cyber technologies transform our understanding of Chinese calligraphy today. It shifts attention to exhibition spaces, functions, and spectators/users, all of which an established style history of Chinese calligraphy has assiduously neglected. In doing so, it makes visible the minor, the marginalised, and the underrepresented in arts and humanities discourses. It also compels the arts and humanities field to update itself more to significant movements in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
This original and cutting-edge research demands digital expression, methods, and presentation beyond traditional print publication. The Semantic Annotation Tool - a new, practical application comprising a set of digital tools - is used in this research to create samples of time-based annotations for specific areas of the motion picture frames, with a focus on calligraphy on-screen. Combining rigorous research with development and engagement activities (seasonal calligraphy practice sessions, public film screenings, art exhibitions, interactive websites, etc.), it offers a model for thinking about the methods, toolkits, and skills needed for doing digital art history and for disseminating findings to the general public. The research project will result in a monograph, a video essay, and onsite and virtual exhibitions that together testify to the potential and limitations of new hybrid publishing formats.
Chinese calligraphy is image and text at once. The image-and-text relation at the core of this research is pertinent to all scholars and museum professionals working with the visual arts. The project shows that the oscillations between image and text give birth to some of the most exciting experiments in the film industry, in the world of contemporary art, and in the realm of industrial design. At the point of convergence between image and text, the calligraphic imagination of this research inspires future creativity in different parts of the world.
While calligraphy has always had a place in the historiography of Chinese art, it remains a marginalised, at times intimidating, subject within the English-language art historical scholarship. Most existing scholarship on Chinese calligraphy is narrated as a style history of celebrated masters of seal, clerical, regular, running, and cursive scripts, categorized and marked according to China's dynastic and political time. Transcending the 'masters and masterpieces' narrative and the tendency to privilege the premodern that dominates the studies of the history of Chinese calligraphy, this research charts an unwritten history in the modern and contemporary context in which the now-forgotten profession of calligraphers who wrote intertitles for Chinese silent films comes into view, and calligraphy re-emerges in the most unexpected hybrid forms in contemporary art. Situating Chinese calligraphy within the wider mediascape, this research questions how long-exposure photography, VR and cyber technologies transform our understanding of Chinese calligraphy today. It shifts attention to exhibition spaces, functions, and spectators/users, all of which an established style history of Chinese calligraphy has assiduously neglected. In doing so, it makes visible the minor, the marginalised, and the underrepresented in arts and humanities discourses. It also compels the arts and humanities field to update itself more to significant movements in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
This original and cutting-edge research demands digital expression, methods, and presentation beyond traditional print publication. The Semantic Annotation Tool - a new, practical application comprising a set of digital tools - is used in this research to create samples of time-based annotations for specific areas of the motion picture frames, with a focus on calligraphy on-screen. Combining rigorous research with development and engagement activities (seasonal calligraphy practice sessions, public film screenings, art exhibitions, interactive websites, etc.), it offers a model for thinking about the methods, toolkits, and skills needed for doing digital art history and for disseminating findings to the general public. The research project will result in a monograph, a video essay, and onsite and virtual exhibitions that together testify to the potential and limitations of new hybrid publishing formats.
