11/17/21 Crystal Jow (IN PERSON)
Crystal Jow
Introduction by Shon Xiao. Q&A by Aloha (Haekyung) Lee
Crystal Jow is a Los Angeles-based experiential media designer and movement instructor that specializes in audience-driven immersive installations and meditative experiences that explore motion and media. She's worked with clients such as Oculus VR, Warner Brothers, DoorDash, and has created installations at the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Palo Verdes Art Center, 20th Century Fox Studios, DGA Theater Complex, Richmond Dance Festival, and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, as well as having taught workshops internationally.
Crystal believes her art practice provides audiences with the opportunity for self-reflection and the ability to investigate relationships between the planet, self-healing, and the subconscious. She is currently developing new immersive experiences by cross-pollinating her practices of yoga instruction & meditation with media, and interactive technology. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in experimental animation from the California Institute of Arts and a Master of Fine Arts degree in animation and digital arts from the University of Southern California.
Thanks Crystal for sharing her work and experience. Installation work always leaves a large space physically and mentally for audiences to play and think by themselves. For me, it’s always fun to see installation work in a gallery, especially the work we can interact with. It always made me immerse in it and unforgettable.
ReplyDeleteCrystal also inspired me about organizing and planning. She keeps a good habit of concluding from experience. Although the charts she drew look complicated for me, it must be very helpful for the future, especially when the works are diverse and short-term. Besides, having a clear mind daily about what you want to do is also a good habit. Sometimes I feel I do have preferences but not as strong as her. Two of the most difficult things of working as a freelancer/an artist are keeping organized daily and being motivated mainly by her/his own preferences within art instead of deadline or money. I think Crystal has done these really well.
---Xiaoqian (Xiaoqiaz@usc.edu)
Shengwei Zhou (szhou894@usc.edu):
ReplyDeleteCrystal's work has strong interdisciplinary characteristics, which gave me a lot of inspiration on how to combine art and science.
Crystal's projection works combine visual art and psychotherapy. This interdisciplinary creative method can greatly extend the boundaries of the art work itself, allowing the audience not only to enjoy the beauty, but also to get a psychological cure. This also reminds me of The Journey created by alumni in USC Game Division, a game that cures autistic patients. Game developers are also trying to use games based on social media to alleviate the social barriers of autistic patients.
I think this interdisciplinary creative approach has also penetrated into her lifestyle. I can see that her most enjoyable work and life style is to devote herself to freelance and artist-in-residence programs, leading her life with different art projects. Just as her title says: go with the flow. It is precisely because this kind of lifestyle has great tolerance to accept new things and diverse concepts, she can reflect such strong interdisciplinary characteristics in her works, and can also integrate art and social issues, environmental issues, and science.
Delaney McCallum (jmccallu@usc.edu)
ReplyDeleteThank you to Crystal for coming and talking with us! I found her work very inspiring, as someone who likes to combine a lot of various disciplines. I loved the physicality of her work, and how much it was inspired by the environment. I've always loved installations, and Crystal inspired me a lot in terms of organization and planning. Every decision in her works has such strong intentions behind it. I definitely feel lost in the middle of a project right now, and I'm going to use her advice when it comes to planning. I love how her art expands the traditional boundaries of animation. Interactivity is so playful, and it's inspiring to see an artist who really has charted a path to create personal work that she enjoys. I really appreciate her master list of residency programs and other artist resources. You have to have this level of determination and organizational skills to succeed on your own uncharted path. Now, I'm starting to think that this might be a more possible future for me!
Kacey Layson (klayson@usc.edu)
ReplyDeleteThank you Crystal for sharing your work and experiences with us for the animation seminar this past week! I was very impressed with Crystal's audience-driven and immersive installations, her inspirations for her work, and her self-discipline and workflow in her art as well as her day-to-day lifestyle. Her work can be described as tactile, exploring the relationship between healing and the movement of the body. Her process can be described as very purposeful and mindful.
I was inspired by her presentation of her value chart- Crystal shared with us, a chart of career oriented factors that ranged from things she enjoyed, tolerated, and factors she did not like. These ranged from enjoying exhibits, art studio practices, working from home- to not enjoying unsustainable, toxic work environments, and walk cycles to name a few. I thought this practice was great for understanding yourself as an artist and person. To highlight the specific things you enjoy about your work and the things you can do without, would help in the direction of choosing your focus and career path.
Crystal was very inspiring to me as an artist in how she approaches her craft- she is consistent, does the hard work to make sure she is in the right place at the right time in looking for opportunities, and does not limit herself in the jobs she takes either. Thank you Crystal for sharing your artistic journey as well as a look into your process as an artist!
Stefie Gan (stefiega@usc.edu)
ReplyDeleteCrystal's presentation was inspiring and made me want to do some installation and movement art. She calls it experiential art, and I like that she combines her love for yoga and movement with art. I'm conflicted when I ask my audience to sit in a chair and watch films. I think people are already too sedentary and don't think they should be watching more films. However, seeing people interacting with experiential art, stretching, dancing, moving, and their curiosity spiking as they interact with the art, makes it rewarding to see people in their natural element.
Since I'm asking people to sit and watch something, at least I want to make my films worthwhile and meaningful. It would be great to combine nature conservation with experiential art. When Crystal mentioned often times people go to these installations to take a nice photo for Instagram and the experience itself isn't that great. I know what she means. I may prefer more traditional mediums where people can view or interact directly with the art or nature rather than it being a digital simulation or lightshow.
I also appreciated Crystals focus on self-care and personal development in a artist's journey. I also have been continually checking in with myself and my schedule to see how I'm doing. I find exercise, time with nature, and social interactions with loved ones to be refreshing and necessary to sustain my artistic practice. I hope more people realize that life is a marathon or self discovery and not a race.
Balance and finding your tribe were my key takeaways from the talk. It was great to hear how Crystal's work has enabled her to travel around the globe and work on interactive installations. That is something I want to do too. Self-care is vital and I really appreciate her pushing that point while she was talking, because I know quite a lot of friends who neglected their mental and physical health while being in school and now have to actively correct certain habits which unfortunately becomes even more stress inducing. You got to have time for yourself be it reading, writing or biking it really helps the brain stay focused and creative. Her Evernote was great! I really like how it goes all the way back to her school days. I am quite the same, and I am glad I am not alone. Even though I use Notion to plan my weeks. It really helps you keep a track of what is due when and how much you have accomplished on any given day. Animation definitely gets overwhelming with all the deadlines.
ReplyDelete(a side note)During her talk when she showed photo's of Formula 1, I totally lost my marbles! I am a big fan!
Vicky Xie
DeleteIt is a pleasure to see Crystal's work. I was amazed by how wide the variety the animation could be. It does not always have to be something like Disney character animation, it could be anywhere and about anything including sending good message to the society. The fact that she is able to put her own life experience in her art work also impress me, because that required such strong mental to overcome her own pain in the life and process that in to the artwork. Another thing that I remember the most is the advice she gave us, which is "get used to the rejection". The rejection from job hunting is so common that many students didn't expect. It's very nice of her to give us this reminder that it's not always our problem to not able to find a job right after graduation so we can be prepared.
lol Vicky why did you write your comment as a reply on Gunjan's comment 😂😂
DeleteThat's okay- I can note both of them :)
Delete-Sheila
For me, I guess the biggest takeaway from Crystal's seminar is about boundaries, balance, and lifestyle. Going with the flow is something I find particularly hard doing when it comes to career/future plans. I am still trying to have courage and embrace the uncertainty of life. Perhaps this might be something one seeks to figure out through a lifetime. Not caring ahead and just acting in the present is like a show without a rehearsal. And I hate the adrenaline-ish, heart-pounding feeling of it. And this habit of value gets firmer and even narrower as I age. So a lifestyle like Crystal's is something I have kind of 74% given up to expect. Trying to have boundaries and balancing health, work and personal life itself is already too much. The today I am living in is already too much. Maybe because I suck at time management and multitasking. I do feel that I should train my capacity to be way bigger than it is now. (I kind of feel like I am word-vomiting right now; interestingly I've begun to speak/think like this ever since I let go of linear narrative and allowed myself to experiment with non-linear montage projects for the finals.) But all in all, I do want to be looser in terms of my art life. Like the character 'Nina' from Darren Aronofsky's 'Blackswan'. What I think I need right now to do so is stronger legs to stand on. Because right now, I feel like a newborn giraffe on a tight rope. And this insecurity comes from not having my own finished film; at least that's what I assume now. I hope I can be proud of my work, so I can be proud of myself, so I can trust that I can allow myself to be more bold and spontaneous. Although a lot of our guest speakers so far preached the importance of compartmentalizing and disconnecting one's art(how it is evaluated outside) and oneself. I will have to see how it goes: as this is my first step of going with the flow for my future.
ReplyDeleteAloha (Haekyung) Lee / haekyung@usc.edu
DeleteCrystal Jow was a great speaker to end on for this semester. It was wonderful to hear from a recent USC graduate and get a more updated, accurate account of what entering the animation industry is like. I think Crystal did an amazing job at giving us the core lessons of her story, including finding a “tribe”, doing research on ourselves and the jobs available, defining our own boundaries, etc. Her pitch on using spreadsheets to stay organized also resonated with me, as I am obsessed with spreadsheets. I realize that not everyone operates their work like this, so it does not work for everyone, but the principle of having some sort of record system to keep track of applications and jobs is very helpful.
ReplyDeleteI think something Crystal contributed a lot to our class is the exposure to a freelance animator rather than a corporate animator. Honestly speaking, “freelance” as a word frightens me. Having been raised with financial stability as an emphasized goal, freelancing always seemed out of bounds. Even now I’m sure that my mother would not approve of me going down a freelance route in my career. However, Crystal destigmatized the word for me by showing all of the amazing projects and experiences she’s gone through. All the wonderful people that she was able to meet through freelancing makes me consider that perhaps freelancing is an option. Of course, I will still have to be realistic, as I’m sure freelancing can be worrisome when one cannot find work to do. But Crystal’s confidence and obvious enjoyment of her work has dismantled the image I once had of the starving freelance artist that struggles to find any well-paying work.
Shon Xiao
Crystal was a charming speaker. Crystal's artwork is a beautiful combination of visual art and psychotherapy. Her sharing of her work and experience is full of inspiration. She compared the likeness and unacceptable facts between finding a so-called regular studio job and work as a freelance artist. The value chart Crystal shared with us made me think deeply about the measurement dimension of what kind of job position I will look for after graduation. I admire her for practicing yoga, physical training, and focusing on self-care after work and artistic creation. I think that most of my classmates and I are immersed in assignments and producing our animations, often neglecting the management of our physical and mental health.
ReplyDeleteShengluo Zhang
shengluo@usc.edu
Georgina Gonsalves
ReplyDeleteggonsalv@usc.edu
I was very impressed by how much Crystal has achieved after finishing our program, its so inspiring. I really appreciated how she broke down her presentation into pieces of advice for every experience she's had, advice like being consistent, being curious, going with the flow and to constantly evolve as the industry does. She definitely helped me feel more optimistic about life after graduation which has kind of been a scary thought for me. I loved hearing how much she has grown in opportunities where others saw potential in her growth before she did, it can be easy to feel like an imposter but she did such a great job rising to every job offered to her and growing even more with every experience. I am nothing short of extremely inspired by Crystal. Fun fact, she had my MFA cube before me!
Thank you Crystal! You're amazing!
Vicky Gu (xingyugu@usc.edu)
ReplyDeleteIt's always super refreshing to have an alumni come talk to us and Crystal Jow has given us a really interesting presentation on what she has been doing in the past few years. Her works are really cool and I wish she could have brought one of them to show in person; it would have been really amazing, but I understand the fact that they are site-specific. It was also very interesting to hear her share her experiences with artist's residencies because it is something that I am considering in the future. Her being a yoga teacher and her advice on mindfulness were also useful because as animators we sometimes don't take care of our physical health as much as we should. Another thing to take away from her talk was that we need to make connections as much as we can, because often times our friends and connections in the industry will lead us to further works. It was a pleasure having Crystal back at USC and I can't wait for the alumni panel next week!
Crystal Joe had a really nice personality as she was bubbly and funny. Her work was very interesting as her direction in animation is similar to the direction I want to take.
ReplyDeleteMost of her work is experimental which is interesting as each of her pieces itself has a story to to tell . What I found most interesting about her work is that her work is mainly used for projections. Which Is where my work has currently taken me as most of my work is made to be projected on screens for live events.
I never thought of submitting my work to get used at festivals to be projected. In other words I had no idea there was a community or even festivals of projection based artwork. It was super inspiring especially when she showed us her work that was projected on a castle. I know that must have been a huge confidence boost on her end. There is no better felling that seeing a projection based artwork projected on massive screen for the world to see, I can’t describe it.
I defiantly see myself taking a similar route creating experimental animation for live events or nfts.
Pedro Chinchilla
Pedrochi@usc.edu
I enjoyed getting to hear from Crystal Jow as an immersive installation artist, because this is not an area of animation that I know much about. I was fascinated by Crystal’s career and the various opportunities that she has pursued. I especially enjoyed hearing about her experiences abroad, like her artist residency, where she used data and elements of the environment to inform her digital work.
ReplyDeleteI felt that Crystal Jow had many great words of wisdom which she shared with the class. I think that it is interesting that wellness is such a significant part of her work. I have not seen this blend between wellness practices and new media before. I took some notes on her self-care tips. I am happy that she took the time to go into detail in describing these ideas. Although I imagine it would take a lot of practice to utilize her four recommended practices of rituals, boundaries, self activities, and time management on a daily basis, I do believe that they would go a long way in maintaining your mental well-being as an artist. I admire Crystal’s organization habits and implementation of these practices.
Victoria Cruell (cruell@usc.edu)
Crystal Jow gave an informative talk about her experience as a freelancer and experimental artist. It was nice to hear her career journey all the way from USC to her current work. One thing that was interesting was her discussion about the importance of your comfort zones. While it is great to know what things you can do or cannot do, you must challenge yourself to grow as an artist. Mental health is important for creative sustainability and consequently, one should be mindful of one's capacity to improve. I appreciate her sense of dedication to her research and reaching out to organizations about opportunities. Evernote is a really great note-taking software.
ReplyDeleteJarrod Chatham (jchatham@usc.edu)
Crystal Jow provided a good discussion regarding her career path in design, teaching, and yoga instruction. I appreciated hearing her advice on finding one's tribe, going with the flow, and valuing one's mental health. In my work, I push myself to the limits at the expense of my mental health and physical well-being. I think there's a balance between going easy on oneself and challenging oneself to grow as an artist and storyteller. For me, I like challenging my comfort zone and pushing the quality of my work. Additionally, I liked hearing about her various experiences using touch designer. It looks like an intuitive software for developing visual art. I appreciated hearing her speak and look forward to next week's final seminar.
ReplyDeleteParker Chatham (pchatham@usc.edu)
DeleteClara Chou
ReplyDeleteyuncheng@usc.edu
Crystal Jow gave such an informative and inspiring presentation last week. I enjoyed her talk so much, I was so impressed with how she takes on the influence from life, how she brings those inspirations to her projects, her super nice personality as well as her laughter. She talks a lot about how important it is to go with the flow and find your tribe. It’s also essential to find out our boundaries and what you want as well as what you do not want. Knowing your boundaries help with understanding yourself, with either self care or choosing the right career path. I am really grateful for her sharing her personal experiences on this helpful information and I really learned a lot from the talk.
Thanks Crystal for coming to speak to us! I love how her pieces combine various interests of hers, and many of them also invite the viewer to be a participant. She bridges the digital and physical worlds which is an extremely interesting and contemporary way to work with animation.
ReplyDeleteAs a USC alum she had a lot of really valuable advice. I was impressed by her professionalism, self confidence, and down to earth philosophy. Her diagram of what she loves to do, will tolerate, and will not tolerate was particularly interesting to me. Animation is such a broad industry that there is a niche for everyone’s interests, and she has found hers. I think this is a great mindset to have in life to avoid becoming a slave to your work or colleagues: shooting for what you love, accepting the things you’ll have to tolerate alongside it, and refusing to sell out on your values to the things you really hate doing or being around.
Additionally, her professional organization blew me away and was an excellent pro-tip for us up and comers. The spreadsheets she made of what kind of studios are hiring, when their applications are, etc. is the definition of making finding a job your full time job. This kind of organization makes the process less stressful and I will definitely try to do this kind of research/organization for myself in the future.
-Nina Ceklic
Thanks to Crystal for coming last week! Her presentation was really interesting, not just for her work but also her advice on keeping a balanced work ethic mixed in with self-care. I also liked the way she breaks down her values and process. I hope to reach her level of organization some day, not just in my work but at the level of chasing out all the companies with all of their job postings. Her work, though, was also pretty interesting; I’m always interested in new ways of subverting the experience of watching a film, especially if it’s not just for an Instagram background like she mentioned.
ReplyDelete-Jackson Roberts (jpr02403@usc.edu)
Crystal Jow’s talk was so much fun, I really enjoyed watching her reel and listening to her stories. What I liked about her work, is the variety of projects she worked on with different materials and how open she is to try different things. I resonate with her large-scale installations as I’ve done some work with VR installations and immersive environments with large datasets. I respect her advice about spreading your time on projects and being consistent and to finish all your projects with the same effort across. Crystal’s work is very inspiring and creative, I like that she is brave to experiment with materials such as plants and she continues to explore new tools and spaces and she knows her boundaries and what she wants, and I appreciate her planning methods. One other thing that she talked about that I thought was important is to think about the pay and to ask for what we think is right. I admire her personality and her work; she opened my eyes to things I wasn’t aware of. Thank you, Crystal, for talking to us and giving us this inspirational talk.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. Can you please let me know who this is so that I can give you credit for your post?
Delete-Sheila
Crystal Jow's talk is so inspiring! She gave such an honest speech about her career, telling us her personal experiences in artist residencies and especially social networking, and gave us some useful pointers about being a freelance artist. I was impressed by how organized she is. She showed us her lists of artist residencies and various programs she was aiming to apply, including deadlines, locations and comprehensive research about each program, which shows a great deal of professionalism. She also traced back all of her connections, telling us with her experience that there can be opportunities everywhere, you just have to be ready for it. I'm also very impressed by her work. She doesn't constraint herself to materials, but instead is always open to try different things and learn new programs. Thank you Crystal for giving us such an inspiring speech.
ReplyDeleteRuoyu Chen(chenruoy@usc.edu)
I really appreciated Crystal Jow for coming in person and giving us such an impressive presentation. It was good to have her here and tell us the journey of her creative experience. The most remarkable part of Crystal was not only her charming arts. She has logical thinking and excellent organizing skills. These abilities help her to understand herself correctly and effectively improve her work efficiency. She can plan her abilities and career needs well through rational forms and plans. These work skills are all I have never heard of before. Thank you Crystal for bringing these valuable tips for us. And I’m very grateful to her for honestly telling us that it’s good to know what you are and not okay with. Be the master of your life and creation.
ReplyDeleteNaicheng Liu
Thanks so much to Crystal Jow for the informative presentation! Crystal’s immersive installations are interesting and impressive. Although she uses some of the most advanced technologies in the creative industry, she keeps her dedication and hard work down-to-earth. Many of her tips and pieces of advice apply to us now and forever. Be curious; Don’t get stuck with the tools; Clarify my values (know what I like and don’t like); Self-care is important, etc. These pieces of advice are practical and specific, so they can be helpful to any of us at some point in our career paths, if not always. Thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteCherry Guo (guomengy@usc.edu)
Jessica Wu
ReplyDeletewujessic@usc.edu
Crystal's presentation was very inspiring. She is such a productive person. For the lecture, sje shared her journey throughout her career. It was interesting to listen to someone who also studied at USC talk about their path after graduating. She also shared her process of creating work. Crystal talked about the importance of establishing a schedule. And how to improve the efficiency of working. Everyone has their own way of working, but by listening to her talking about her schedules and looking at the spreadsheets she created, it made me feel like I could be more organized in general. Thank you Crystal for the detailed and informative talk!
I was very much inspired by Crystal's vibrant energy into her work, and felt so motivated by her advice as to how to be productive at work. She mentioned about time management, and I think that is a huge aspect in professional animation production that I have been much overlooking. Also she talked about taking care of your life in general, and I really appreciated she brought this up because we do need to be more responsible as to how we run our life and plan our futures. Thank you Crystal for the talk!
ReplyDeleteCharlene Xu
Thank you to Crystal for coming and sharing her works with us!
ReplyDeleteShe mentioned that we need to understand what our work is, how to sell our work, and of course also like our work, so we must respect those who are really attracted. And keep in touch with the professors and students of the same major in your school.It is very helpful to me, these things these people can make you have a clearer goal and direction for the future. When working on a project, I will inspire inspiration and maybe find a future direction.
I especially like the Doordash mosaic and I like their ideas. There is also the drift at the back, which can be interactive, which is particularly interesting. I feel that the interactive device can easily immerse people in the content that the author wants to express. Montefiore-Einstein's COVID-19 Remembrance Ceremony is also very exciting. There are many light shows like this in China. Some are for urban construction, and some are what the artist wants to express. Each is wonderful.
shiqihu （shiqihu@usc.edu）
It is such a great pleasure to have Cristal Jow as our guest. She definitely has broaden my way of thinking animation. Her works are so inspiring and creative. She combines art and technology in a very unique way. I was really impressed by her projection works. I really appreciate how she is experimenting animation media and the visual art as a way to convey her thoughts. Animation can not only be feature films but can also be different art works that can cure people’s hearts. It is really hard for me to imaging hoe she starts her creative career with all such unique ideas. The way she use technology to make art works is being a trend now. The installation art she made is really peaceful. Sometimes, the visual art itself can be very different.
ReplyDeleteAlso I really appreciate her attitude towards her life. She is such a energetic and enthusiastic person. I can feel her love of her career whenever she talks about it. It seems life is continuously giving her ideas and inspirations and her art works make her life continuously better and interesting. I still remembered when I was in college, when I cannot think of any new idea to make art works, my professor told me just follow my own heart. I have seen this on Crystal. She really follows her heart to make everything she is proud of. Thanks again to bring her to the class!
Siqi Fu
siqifu@usc.edu
Tyler Krantz, tkrantz@usc.edu
ReplyDeleteIt was wonderful to hear from Crystal Joe last week. Learning about her experience as a freelance artist and educator was informative, and I enjoyed Crystal’s discussion of setting professional boundaries along with career expectations. It’s been a theme brought up in many of the seminars this semester, but Crystal’s advice on finding a work/life balance was incredibly reassuring (though her schedule of waking up at 6:30 to do yoga may be personally unreplicable). Although I don’t want to go the route of an artist residency, I enjoyed hearing about Crystal’s experience in Spain. It’s very cool that Crystal has worked as both a fine artist, and on the commercial side.
Anna Wang, awang206@usc.edu
ReplyDeleteIt was such a pleasure listening to Crystal Joe's experience last week. Her work widened my understanding of animation (once again). The most valuable lesson I learned from her is the importance of connections in the animation industry, and the quality of being humble and nice to the people you work with. She is also very organized with her working schedules and making these connections. Her work originates from life and her work is always challenging herself to the next level. I hope I can reach her level eventually.
Jiamu Tao (jiamutao@usc.edu)
ReplyDeleteIt was great hearing from Crystal Jow. She shared with us her career in detail and it was eye-opening to see what it’s like to work with immersive art and installation.
It was very interesting to see Crystal’s routine and habit in work and lifestyle. I was amazed when she pulled up the page where she listed all of the connections she made that led her to where she is right now. That page alone showed how organized she is with her life. Stepping into the career, I’m realizing more and more it’s not only your skill and ability at what you do that makes or breaks a deal, but also your work ethics and methods. Crystal has made it clear that an organized way of work helps a lot along the way.
Thanks to Crystal for bringing an amazing talk to us. Crystal is an experimental media designer as well as a very mindful artist. I really impressed with how do she get her motivations and inspirations from daily lives. She records, finds the connection within objects and make arts out of it. Her installation art is beautiful, immersive and meanwhile purposeful. Her artworks are not just something to see but also something to feel and learn. Some of her arts are combined with art and psychotherapy, or art and nature, or art and subconscious. Crystal is good at effectively combining different disciplines with art. While appreciating the beauty of the artwork, feeling the connection with the meaning behind it and learning it. Her art is beautiful, meaningful and inspiring. As a freelance artist, Crystal has taught us a lot, about the lifestyles, ethics as well as time managements. This talk that Crystal gave to us is incredibly useful.
ReplyDeleteJiayi Tang
Tangjiay@usc.edu
Wow the idea of residency is growing more and more appealing. It was an absolute pleasure to have Crystal visit the class and tell her story. I loved getting to. Learn about how she made a name for herself through navigating a lot of unfamiliar situations in a relatable way and truly shows how being open-minded and willing to connect can help you get to where you want to go. I was a big fan of her anecdotes about living in different countries and what it was like to partake in the residency experience as it definitely seems like something I would consider!
ReplyDeleteCrystal’s organization and seamless marriage of the creative right brain and methodic left was really satisfying to see in the ways she handled things such as spreadsheets and research of her favorite art topics. In terms of her work, it was very immersive and highlighted the importance of collaboration which I enjoyed and all in all she was a wonderful example (especially with the web diagram) of the importance of formulating and maintaining relationships/connections in the industry as you never know where one will lead to! Thanks again for having her in class!
Adriel Meka
Ameka@usc.edu
I really enjoyed Crystal Jow's talk this week! She's got a great energy towards her career and a passion for life. I very much appreciated that she has been very honest and open about sharing her path as an artist and she brought in a lots of new perspectives of how important to know your art works and how to sell them. She's very bold in terms of incorporating new technology and different media together. I'm a fan of installation art and interaction media. So I think she's a great addition to this seminar!
ReplyDeleteChenxue Lu
chenxuel@usc.edu
I really appreciate Crystal's presentation this week! This is one of the very few times that we had the chance to hear from an experimental artist, so it was really refreshing to hear from an artist who doesn't work a day job in the industry but works more as a freelance artist. Her creative projects are mostly based on the stream of consciousness, which is a field that I loved to explore, By seeing her projects and the use of a combination of technology and traditional media in her projects, I saw more possibilities in working as an experimental artist which is something I have never thought about since I couldn't see the future of being a freelance artist who doesn't work for the mainstream animation industry. I was more than happy to know about her experience and hope to see more of her works in the future!!
ReplyDeleteRui Han (ruihan@usc.edu)
Thank you Crystal for coming to our seminar this week! Crystal is an amazing experimental artist who creates installation art and design experimental media, she is passionate about exploring and developing new forms of media. Her artwork is very immersive, edgy and innovative. I have always enjoyed installation artwork which combines technology, experimental new media and animation, it requires of lot of knowledge in each fields, and Crystal is an all-rounder who is absolutely professional and consistent about what she does. She also gives out very helpful advices on creating a work-life balance in one's career, she is confident and comfortable about the path she chooses and how she approaches them, finding inspirational thoughts in her daily life, and this inspired me a lot! Seeing such beautiful work that is so different from what we usually see from the big companies certainly expands my definition of animation and has broaden my horizon.
ReplyDeleteSydney Chen (pinghsin@usc.edu)
Thank you very much for Crystal Jow sharing her creative process and work experience.
ReplyDeleteI used to think that the creators of experimental animation do not have to do two jobs to support themselves, and the other is to do what they like, like the sand animation artist last time. But Crystal Jow is not the same, she can use her own way to do commercial work and earn money.
I love her idea about explored combinations of analog animation with new technologies and including projection mapping and light painting, and also animation as a “moving painting” non-liner storytelling methods.
Also, during Lisa’s class I have tried multiple techniques to create animation that a lots difference from the way I did animation before, and I love all those techniques. However, Crystal Jow also mentioned that don’t get stuck on tools, you can always exploring techniques and thinking animation in physical world and sapce. That can really explore your mind and make you tell your story in a unique way.
Tianyun lyu
tianyunl@usc.edu
Aisha Jamila Harper // ajharper@usc.ecu // 5377-7371-00
ReplyDeleteOne of the first things that stood out to me about Crystal Jow, was how genuine and lighthearted her laugh was. Everything about her personality was very bright and soothing at the same time. Then, after hearing her talk about her life's journey did I soon realize that it probably wasn't easy at all to maintain such peaceful heart and high spirit while pursuing a career in the art industry. It's very hard to not become jaded after a while. I'm bringing this up, because I wasn't as inspired by her work, but more so by her persona and her stories about how important it was to connect with the people around her. Something that I have found out while being in the MFA program is that things do seem more manageable and even fun when there are people around you that you can connect and grow with. And that it is through those connections that we can soar even higher, bringing those we love with us. I could see that along with her magnificent talent, she also maintained those connections and it is a part of her great success.
Her story feels like poetic justice to me and it made me smile. I know my journey will be different, but I do hope to make the same beautiful connections with those around me.
From Armando:
ReplyDeleteCrystal’s seminar was true masterclass in an area that I need more work in, organization and planning. Seeing how see handles this was inspiring and super helpful. Going forward I definitely plan to implement some of her techniques. Also seeing how she picks her future projects and endeavors was equally helpful to listen to. Her work was also amazing. Her work is so much fun to watch, and I wish I had attended some of her previous installations, particularly her thesis show that she did with Brenda and Anna. But in the future, I’ll defiantly be attending her future installation pieces. It was also great to listen to her own experiences with self care, and she was a great guest artist to listen to.
-Armando Sepulveda Mendoza
This week was very interesting and a bit different from previous seminar classes. Crystal is a very interesting person who is both sensual and rational. Her work is very creative and beautiful, but at the same time, she is a very self-disciplined person in her life. In the speech, she showed how she controlled her life and the project's progress. The way she uses graphs is almost like meditation -- to list things one likes or dislikes helps explore deeply about oneself. And through the tables, one can move towards a genuinely desired career direction.
ReplyDeleteGiulia