This slideshow introduces some other "common art" from alcohol inks, synthetic papers, and software. This is a follow-on work to "Alcohol Ink 'Drip Playing'" and "Liquid Incursions" and "Salvaging Inartful..." on SlideShare. These works are all about going to self-expression on new mediums in order to cope with the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 pandemic.

1. Fluidity
(a beginner’s exploratory of liquid inks and digital visual editing)
Shalin Hai-Jew
January 2021

2. 2
On the Rocks

3. 3
Rose Petals

4. 4
Gold Standard

5. 5
Alliances

6. 6
Cathedral and Bazaar

7. 7
Scatter

8. About Fluidity
• Let no one say that the SARS-CoV-2 year and counting as been non-
stressful.
• For me, learning new things and playing with “common art” and self-expressing are
stress reliefs. I could pour and splash and splatter and just see what comes out of it
from chance factors…and from how the ink and paper interact.
• Along the way, I could learn about materials and tools.
• It was freeing to realize that I could always go to digitization and use digital
software manipulations to change up an “inartful” original doodle or
experiment. That way, the “frugal” in me would be glad that I hadn’t
wasted the material or the time.
• I could become more familiar with the software programs that I’ve used for years but
only at journey-person levels.
8

9. About Fluidity(cont.)
• In the past, I have created born-digital digital visuals with light
programs, with various types of data (social networking, others),
drawing tools, diagramming tools, and other ways.
• The ability to go with pure materiality (paper and ink and air) is my
way of pushing against pure techno creations…their synchrony…their
so-called perfection…their predictability…their sense of being
programmed.
• With enough iterations, one can anticipate what is to come with a particular
seed visual and then the digital transform.
• When I come across an unexpected visual result, there is often both surprise
and delight.
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10. About Fluidity(cont.)
• Between the (1) organic and the errorful and the very human vs. the
(2) technological pixel-level perfection and sheen, I prefer the first.
• However, I’m not above going to the latter for some born-digital
works or relying on digitization and digital visual editing to get to
something that I can use.
• In the first sections, the works were simply scanned and the backgrounds
removed (for an alpha channel).
• The ones in the “On digital variants” section have gone through a series of
digital distortions.
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11. About Fluidity(cont.)
• As an instructional designer, I’ve learned a lot about how people
sense, perceive and process signals from the environment and think
and learn. I realized that a lot of the visual arts is about creating an
illusion and an emotion simultaneously. It is about “manipulating” or
speaking to the human visual and thinking systems.
• Such visuals are multi-sensory and multi-dimensional. They
communicate in multi-meaninged ways.
11

12. On translucent synth paper
12

13. 13
Shape Shift

14. On white paper
14

15. 15
Tipsy Peach

16. 16
Sleep

17. 17
Ocular

18. 18
Up for Air

19. 19
A Snowball’s Chance

20. 20
Biomimetic Systems

21. 21
Mood Music

22. 22
Edge Play

23. 23
Cold Fire

24. 24
In Waves

25. 25
Algal

26. 26
Froth and Churn

27. 27
Candy

28. 28
Code

29. 29
Pure

30. 30
Roots

31. 31
Seepage

32. On digital variants
32

33. 33
Feedback

34. 34
Internal States

35. 35
Peach Marmalade

36. 36
Touch

37. 37
Ladder

38. 38
Skyscrapers

39. 39
Cave Art

40. 40
Tree

41. 41
Hazy Future

42. 42
Peppermint Lollipop

43. 43
Liquidity

44. 44
Tempered Glass

45. 45
Two Arches

46. 46
Incubation

47. 47
Soil Strata

48. 48
Rock Formation

49. 49
Up for Air (Ragged)

50. 50
Artifact

51. 51
Ordinary

52. 52
Spill

53. 53
Rack

54. 54
Sensing

55. 55
Snow