Formless forms

• Main Author: Low, Charmaine Kit Kay
• Other Authors: Wang I-Hsuan Cindy
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Visual arts and music::Visual arts
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/139747
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Meditation dates back 5,000 to 3,500 BCE and is a practice present in multiple religions. It can be practiced in many ways, such as, walking, cleaning, gardening, painting or the conventional sitting. Meditation gets the mind to concentrate and become reflective, calm and imaginative; while the spirit gradually realises emptiness, the ideology where everything is dependent, correlated and acknowledges the elements thereby removing preconceived judgement and creating potential. It is an exercise of the mind where the answer of the question is not the key but the process of focusing and concentration. Mediation is no longer an exercise; it is an art of life; it is the pursuit to fully understand the purpose of life and its meaning, however the answers are not told but gradually realised through a two-way flow of knowledge from a master/mantra to the meditator. Through the study about meditation, a correlation with abstract art was found. Abstract art, refers to art works that are not figurative and do not try to replicate reality. An abstract artist looks inward with a spiritual focus, reflecting and imagining, to find the visualisation equivalent of his/her mood. Abstract art goes back to the beauty of shapes and forms, back to its elements, hence requires an open mind without prejudice to be able to see its potential through the ambiguity of the work. The power of abstraction lies in how the work is not referenced from and brings in the viewer’s opinions to form a conclusion, yet this is also not the end of it; it aims at questioning and contemplating the meaning of things, and not the answers. The five main similarities between the two topics, meditation and abstract art include: Reflection, Deconstruction, Process, Two-way flow of information, Potential through ambiguity. These similarities form the main concept of this project titled, Formless Forms; a guided art meditation journal that utilizes the drawing of geometric shapes as a form of meditation. Geometric forms in this project become a goal for users to trace, connect and create in this book to attain intense concentration and achieve a meditative state. The main outcome of the project is an activity book. The other deliverables include, a website, A4 printables, posters, and an interactive booth design. The website acts as a e-booth to replace the cancelled Graduation Show. This project aims to become an introductory step into meditation. Using drawing to create intense concentration, the book removes the need for the user to forcefully concentrate on sitting still, this way, it acts as simpler version of the conventional meditation. Ultimately, this project provides users a different practice of meditation.