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1. Description of Our Community
Walking around the Shimen reservoir, people surrounded by mountains and rivers would feel like in the fairyland. Since Ching Dynasty, wooden articles have been famous in Taoyuan County. Wooden furniture business has gestated commercial pursuits and humanism connotation for over one hundred years in Taoyuan. Therefore, crafts have been rooting and growing in Taoyuan.
There are three advantages about wooden articles of Taoyuan County. First, driftwood provides higher quality source material. Second, the climate is moist. Third, the handicraft was followed by China masters. The upriver of Dahan River in Fushing Township in Taoyuan in which abounds with high quality wood such as Taiwan Incense Cedar, Juniper Wood, Black-heart Stone Wood, Camphorwood and Elm Wood. Although their driftwood looks useless, they are still the best material for woodcarving. So the carving turns driftwood into useful magic works New Eastern Esthetics—woodcarving Master Jheng-sing Jian In recent years, it has been impacting on traditional woodcarving business that factory owners established factories abroad, employed cheaper workers and had consistent works. The woodcarving workers always create works by themselves, but they still have strong volition to keep creating.
Many traditional businesses face bottlenecks and decline, but there are still more and more successful examples. On the basis of natural diversity and humanism environment in Taiwan, woodcarving designs are unique, copious and totally different from Occident.
We deeply believe that woodcarving artists in Taoyuan will create new Eastern esthetics by means of developing carving originality, developing towards visual art and creating new subject matters.
2. Summary of Our Project
Master Jeng-Shing Jian, the woodcarving artist, born in Dasi Township in Taoyuan County, has devoted himself to woodcarving for 30 years, studied carving all gestures of lotus leaves for 10 years and gotten many awards. In 2003, he got a Golden Award of Council of Drift Wood Sculpture Competition held by Agriculture Executive Yuan Forestry Bureau, and got many awards from arts exhibition in Taiwan and Da Dun fine arts exhibition. Just like many woodcarving workers, Master Jeng-Shing Jian started on wooden furniture, altars of Buddhist image. In few years, however, traditional wooden furniture declined, Master Jian turned his traditional sculptures into combining mechanics and esthetics. From curving realistic to abstract and deepening the image works, he gave his sculptures different lives. Carving the human feature by capricious lotus leaves to interpret the Buddha’s conception of “no appearance of a self” and “no appearance of others”. The carving of the face is shown with the hollow cutting skill to leave more imagination. All of these create new esthetics for Eastern woodcarving artist. Moreover, he got Taiwan Craft Family obtained by just few artists. We plan to interview Master Jeng-Shing Jian. We will study his growing process, craft learning progress and creation conception with the interview. We gather materials by interview and on-the-spot inspection. In the process of personal participation, we learn how to appreciate woodcarving creation of ‘showing image in shape’. We set an interactive website, so we can share materials and discuss on-line; moreover, we draw cards of woodcarving works carved by woodcarving artists. We want to tell the public the mood and the point of view to appreciate and preserve Taiwan woodcarving. Let people appreciate new Eastern esthetics and push carving in Taoyuan towards international stages.
3. Our Computer and Internet Access
A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6
E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):
Set an Interactive Website
We set a personalized interactive website that is called ‘Burins Battle against Wood’, share materials and photos instantly and leave messages and discuss online. Network Environment at School
There are 2 computer classrooms at our school and 70 computers for students to use. All computers are online, which is easy for us to discuss, search materials and print documents at school. In addition, one computer in each class has satisfied every teacher and student. Multimedia Environment of Our School
At our school, there are lots of computer software and hardware, including digital cameras, digital videos, scanners, sound recoding equipments, and the software of editing and rearranging images, films and sound effects. Network Environment in all Members’ Home
There are computers in every members’ home and connect with ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line). After school, we go on the study with e-mail, network hard discs and interactive website.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
Collecting the Ancient Photos and Data Is Quite Difficult: Since Master Jian has involved in the woodcarving for over 30 years, many reports can’t be found on the net.? Fortunately, he reserves the papers so that we can adopt those for our research.? We also scan all these precious data for reservation through this research. To Be Inexperienced in Interview and Research Skills: At the beginning of the interview, we were so timid that our voice was not loud enough.? Then we changed the way to group interview and got improved.? After finished the interview, we supposed that we also met many terms that we could not understand.? Fortunately we had the support of the teachers and students so that we could finish all the interview contents.
Lacking for the Pre-Knowledge of the Woodcarving: Since the woodcarving course is studied from junior high school, for us 5th grade elementary school students are too unfamiliar.? As for the abstract woodcarving theme is also quite hard to understand, we do the research of the woodcarving before the interview so that we can understand it more and interview more smoothly, just like what Ru-hsuan, one of our members, said, “Although we can’t understand what the artist wants to express at the first sight, after knowing the meaning, we can realize his emotion in the artworks.”
The Difficulty of Making the Website: We are lack of the experience of making the website and flash, but under the support of Ms. Hong who is the website expert, we solve the problem smoothly.
Inexperienced in Using the Media Equipments: The digital camera is used for the record. At first, our equipments are quite old, maybe because our parents worry that they may be ruined. After the training of photography class of Ms. Hong and the experience of taking photos for 3 to 4 months, now we all use the new type digital camera and the photos are not blur
5. Our Project Sound Bite
WAN-TING Master Jian creates his artwork with driftwood to protect the environment, and we see the everlasting of the nature.
JIA-CUN I gain much from the research, and I think that I can apply the research skills that I’ve learned to record everything happened in this land. DE-RONG Master Jian created a huge sculpture “To be full of goodwill towards one another” to reveal the spirit of challenging.? He also said that we should be together and united, so we knew his concern to the country.
MENG -JIE To carve with the heart and thought will make a meaningful artwork. ??Master Jian’s work is just full of humane concern and I realize the importance of cherishing the life from it. JIA- CI If there’s no woodcarving master to pass down the woodcarving skills, the eastern fine art will be failed forever.? So the insistence of Master Jian is so great and touching. WEI-JEI Master Jian mentioned that in the process of the woodcarving, he’s quite solitary.? Although it’s such a lonely process, he still insists the woodcarving creation and impresses me a lot. YAN-SI The most impressing to me is Master Jian’s spirit to woodcarving.? Since he contacted the woodcarving from junior high school, he’s trying to develop various new carving skills to lead woodcarving art to a new direction.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
Our special study plan's research and the activity relate well with the curriculum.
1.The Integration with “Social Studies Field”? (1)Human V.S. Space To understand the formative background and the importance of woodcarving custom in Dasi. To illustrate the interactive relations with regions. (2)Human V.S. Time To know the important woodcarving artists in Taoyuan.
To explore the culture of woodcarving in Taoyuan and to appreciate its connotation. We explored the culture of woodcarving in Taoyuan. 2.The Integration with “Language Field”? (1)Knowledge Goal To understand the essential feature of the literacy style and the main way of inquiry.
(2)Skill Goal
To grasp the interview inquiry art. To reorganize?integrate and analyze the interview content in order to promote reading ability. To raise the personal reading thinking mode.
(3)Emotion Goal
To understand the life value and the spirit of the Age, and raise responsible and realistic attitudes of science. We proceed with the interview skill and the language training. 3.The Integration with “Art and Humanities Field”? (1)The Feelings towards the Hometown-Talk the Hometown;Picture the Hometown.
To explore the woodcarving artist’s theme and material of creation in Taiwan. To understand the woodcarving artist’s creation environment in Taiwan. To discuss the humanity background and the esthetic sense from Taiwan woodcarving artist’s work. To use the books and the Internet to search the data of the woodcarving artists in Taiwan. To know brillant records of the woodcarving artist, Master Jheng-sing Jian, in Taoyuan. To appreciate the sculptures and characteristics of the woodcarving artist, Master Jheng-sing Jian, in Taoyuan. (2)The Soils of the Hometown Are Fragrant
To discover the woodworks in our life. To discover the aesthetic feelings of the three-dimensional performance in sculptures. To exploration the woodcarving characteristics and the performance ways.
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