Project-MOONSHOT ACADEMY

Family Memoirs: Recording the individual stories of ordinary families in the big time

Disciplines/Subjects: History, Chinese, Media, Design Key Themes: Nonfiction Writing, Modern Chinese History, Microhistory “What can a small individual or a small family tell us? How much can it aid our understanding of Chinese history? We believe that the experiences of ordinary people can reflect the changes of an entire era, and we can genuinely feel the turning points of significant times through the vivid, detailed small histories. Without a micro perspective, our history would be unbalanced and incomplete.”—History does not float in the air; it is all around us, in the daily meals and routines of every family. Each family is a book, and if we can salvage and collect these memories, they too can be the magnificent voice of the times. In this project, learners explore modern Chinese history by tracing family stories and ultimately complete a “family memoir.” The project integrates multiple disciplines such as history, language arts, media, and design, aiming to document the individual stories of ordinary families against the backdrop of significant historical periods.

Via

"Where is your hometown?" Is it the address on the Household Register, or the place of birth, permanent residence, or the place of origin. Hometown is not defined in black and white compared to the Chinese household registration system, it is too vague for us. People will pass through small and large corners in their life, leaving their own traces. Some traces will disappear with the footsteps of the way, some traces will be burned in the heart for life. After searching, there is always a place that belongs to one's hometown, the hometown of the soul. To me it is home, a place where people are loved. The Way is a series of works, including an art film and an art book. It revolves around "I" and discusses the meaning of the existence of hometown in such a society with a complex structure of Household registration system.

Invisible Pain

Invisible pain refers to the somatization symptoms experienced by people with mental illness. Experiencing mental illness myself, I find that it brings physical pain almost as much as the mental symptoms, and even more overwhelming sometimes. However, usually people's perception of mental disorders does not include these physical symptoms that cause patients to suﬀer. I want to visualize this phenomenon while making mental illness known in a comprehensive way.

Perfect or Imperfect

Every time before I have to make art, write a paper, etc., I always need to spend an extraordinary amount of time thinking about what I'm going to do. That's all right, but I've always hesitated to take action because I've been thinking about a plan. Moreover, the process of thinking about "what to do" brings me a lot of pain and agony. After many similar situations, I slowly realized that this kind of "thinking procrastination" comes from my excessive pursuit of perfectionism and the fear of "not having a perfect solution". I feared it would end badly if I started without a "perfect" solution. I worry about not being perfect, being less than others, about what others think, and being unable to get my work past myself. Therefore, in this work about myself, I want to further understand and break through this state of mine. To break out of this state, I think I can do the opposite: to make some "imperfect" works, not to let myself spend time thinking about the plan, and to create with a "blank paper" state; thus came this work with a little bit of performance art nature. It is based on randomly selected ready-made works. It is a time-limited creation based on randomly selected photos from a ready-made cell phone album; by randomly selecting pictures, repeating them, creating for a limited time, and randomly choosing the medium of creation when necessary, I want to abandon my creative merits and subjectivity, in order to achieve the goal of breaking through my excessive pursuit of perfection. "Pause" means to stop overthinking and over-striving for perfection, and "accelerate" means to start acting quickly.

Project

Real-world projects creating positive impacts for self, others, communities, and the planet.

Family Memoirs: Recording the individual stories of ordinary families in the big time

Via

Invisible Pain

Perfect or Imperfect

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