Reference: LIANG001
Title: The Dictionary
Date: 2020
Author: XiaoYing Liang
Details: A project for the University of Arts London MA Graphic Communication Design
Media: Animation [3m30s]
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: Inspired by my degree show project, The Dictionary explores Prescriptivism and Descriptivism. Prescriptivism believes that language should be used in a certain way, people should follow instructions and rules written in books / the dictionary. Otherwise communication will eventually cease to exist. Descriptivism argues that the dictionary only describes the language in conjunction with how their speakers used it during a certain time period. This project began by asking students and staff from different countries what 'graphic communication design' is in their own language.

Reference: LIANG002
Title: Research Sketchbook [The Dictionary]
Date: 2020
Author: XiaoYing Liang
Details: Animated sketchbook, documenting the variety of processes used in 'The Dictionary' project.
Media: Animation [10m39s]
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: Inspired by my degree show project, the project idea originates from the experience of being an international student who is constantly lost in translation.

Reference: LIANG007
Title: The Dictionary [Animation Tests]
Date: 2019
Author: XiaoYing Liang
Details: Tests from 'The Dictionary' project.
Media: Image
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: Animation tests used in 'The Dictionary' project.

Reference: LIANG004
Title: The Dictionary [Tests and Experiments]
Date: 2019
Author: XiaoYing Liang
Details: Tests from 'The Dictionary' project.
Media: Image
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: Style image tests and hand rendered tests used in 'The Dictionary' project.

Reference: LIANG008
Title: The Dictionary [Framework and Narrative]
Date: 2019
Author: XiaoYing Liang
Details: Planning for 'The Dictionary' project.
Media: Images
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: Framework and narrative planning for 'The Dictionary' project.

Reference: LIANG003
Title: Multiple Definition Blog
Date: 2019
Author: XiaoYing Liang
Details: tumblr process record
Media: Website
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: I used tumblr to record every step and experiment I took during design practice.

Reference: LIANG009
Title: The Dictionary [Defining Characteristics]
Date: 2019
Author: XiaoYing Liang
Details: Process from 'The Dictionary' project.
Media: Image
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: I decided to start with finding the defining characteristic of orange. I categorised them, and arranged them by different defining characteristic. I started by following the dictionary definition.

orange /ˈɒrɪn(d)ʒ/
noun:
a large round juicy citrus fruit with a tough bright reddish-yellow rind.
the leathery-leaved evergreen tree that bears the orange, native to warm regions of South and SE Asia.
a bright reddish-yellow colour like that of the skin of a ripe orange.
a butterfly with mainly or partly orange wings.

Reference: LIANG012
Title: Categories System
Date: 2018
Author: XiaoYing Liang
Details: Series of post-it process work.
Media: Photographs
Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Description: These post its are the whole development of my project. Yellow is focus, blue is references, case studies and experiments to support or connect with the yellows. Orange is keywords. It helps me find connections between references and experiments. And the yellow page markers are background knowledge on the subject matter.

This could be also seen as a ‘categories system’ which happened to be my subject matter. What connection would I make, and how do I interpret different experiment and references, is entirely up to what I focus ‘at the moment’. I use a post-it note to do this because I am constantly re-defining what I did. So if it is a form like the research paper, I will have to re-write it every time I find a new angle, and it takes too long.

Reference: LIANG010
Title: Image Atlas
Date: NA
Author: Image Atlas
Details: Image Atlas is a Website that lays out the top image results for any given search term by local search engines across 57 countries. This website shows different terms that are popularly interpreted across region and culture.
Media: Website
Credit: imageatlas.org

Description: By juxtaposing the understanding of the same word in different countries, this website actually shows that there can be great differences between people’s understanding. Based on these images, people construct the understanding of the meaning the word represents, which become ‘commonly known’.

Reference: LIANG013
Title: The Oxford English Dictionary
Date: 1884 onward
Author: Oxford University Press
Details: The Oxford English Dictionary is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, it traces the historical development of the English language, providing a comprehensive resource to scholars and academic researchers, as well as describing usage in its many variations throughout the world.
Media: Publication
Credit: wikipedia.org/Oxford_English_Dictionary

Description: My whole work and experiments are based on ‘dictionary’ and definition. I began researching more on the idea of prescriptivism, and descriptivism in linguistic theory is inspired by the whole idea of ‘dictionary’.

Reference: LIANG016
Title: The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences
Date: 1966
Author: Michel Foucault
Details: A text proposing that every historical period has underlying ways of thinking, which determined what is truth and what is acceptable discourse about a subject, by delineating the origins of biology, economics, and linguistics.
Media: Publication
Credit: wikipedia.org/The_Order_of_Things

Description: My work used the medium of moving image to engage with the semiotic theory on the arbitrary relation between visual, verbal representation and the thing it refers to, which is inspired by this book.

Reference: LIANG014
Title: Photoshop
Date:1988
Author: Thomas and John Knoll
Details: Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor, which has become the industry standard not only in raster graphics editing, but in digital art as a whole.
Media: Software
Credit: wikipedia.org/Adobe_Photoshop

Description: I mainly use Photoshop as my tool to make moving images.

Reference: LIANG015
Title: tumblr
Date: 2007
Author: David Karp
Details: tumblr is a microblogging and social networking website allowing users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog.
Media: Website
Credit: wikipedia.org/Tumblr

Description: I used tumblr to record every step and experiment I took during design practice.

Reference: LIANG017
Title: The Treachery of Images
Date: 1926
Author: René Magritte
Details: The painting shows an image of a pipe. Below it, Magritte painted, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe", French for "This is not a pipe".
Media: Painting
Credit: wikipedia.org/The_Treachery_of_Images

Description: This work of art started my research on semiotic theory and inspired me to further research on dictionary, which is the foundation of my work and research.

Reference: LIANG018
Title: One and Three Chairs
Date: 1965
Author: Joseph Kosuth
Details: Piece of conceptual art, consisting of a chair, a photograph of the chair, and an enlarged dictionary definition of the word "chair".
Media: Installation
Credit: wikipedia.org/One_and_Three_Chairs

Description: This installation is my foundation for research, it inspires me to try to deconstruct daily objects.