Yo-E Ryou

This workshop course introduces the fundamental theories and methodologies of visual communication that explore relationships between form & content in graphic design, as well as other disciplines.

Before the course begins, participating students will be assigned to read and critique a work of fiction or sound work. Throughout the semester, we will visually translate the literature. Through close reading, analytical thinking, expanding research and iterative making processes, students will begin to develop work processes that involve articulation, visual research, concept- generating, form-making, and craft skills.

The 1st project will focus on one of the chapters of the book and translate the text into abstract compositions, using various mediums and techniques. The purpose of this project is to investigate and understand how visual language works; how content and form come together to create meaning. The project will result in a book.

The 2nd project will research and visually translate one of the characters in the novel, who as an individual defines him/herself as a representative of a culture or collective. The purpose of this project is to learn how research, planning, iteration and intention are essential in shaping and developing visual communications. The project will result in a zine and posters that represent a subculture of their choosing.

The class will introduce rigorous and thoughtful working processes that encourage inquiry, observation, exploration, research and experimentation as necessary steps to increasingly develop refined visual language. We will establish a common vocabulary and shared processes that enable students to begin to articulate what they are making and why. Basic understanding of semiotics—the relationship between meaning and image will be introduced through a variety of examples and references.

Taught at Paju Typography Institute, Korea, State University of New York Purchase College, US

Moving Image Method is a studio course exploring visual language used on screen-based media, extended from printed media. A series of hands-on projects introduces video production techniques, with a focus on accessible approaches over technically complex ones. Screenings from various cinema and video art traditions provide context for these explorations and help guide critique of the students’ own work. Each session, the concept of ‘movement’ will be a starting point in conjunction with another theme to experiment moving image work.

Movement + Time

Movement + Space

Movement + Scale

Movement + Type

Movement + Graphic / Form

Movement + Sound 

Movement + Writing

Me, Myself, Us is a three-part ‘typo-image-therapy’ workshop to explore works of moving image, text, and sound around body image, beauty standards, and social norms through the lens of the K-pop industry.

The first part of the workshop will begin by taking a closer look at the music video, Pretty, from Idol School, a 2017 South Korean reality girl group survival TV show, which aims to train 31 female participants in singing, dancing, and posing for the camera.

In conjunction with this visual research and analysis project, we will also read British filmmaker Laura Mulvey’s essay, Visual Pleasure And Narrative Cinema (1999) and Afterimages: On Cinema, Women and Changing Times (2019) to investigate the various gazes imposed on female-gendered, East Asian bodies. We will question the intention of ‘training ordinary students to become k-pop stars’ and what kind of gazes are embedded in the Korean beauty standards and social norms. Participants will organize their visual research into a one-minute video essay format.

For the second part, we will facilitate image-making, writing, sound, and movement exercises to experiment with capturing one’s own body image from various gazes, perspectives, and angles. Participants will be encouraged to explore their own areas of confidence as well as insecurity when it comes to body image, just as Idol School does, in order to dismantle toxic internalized beauty standards.

For the third part, we will each create a one-minute self-portrait video free from existing beauty norms, based on the research and materials from the first two parts. The workshop will conclude with a collective group-portrait film screening.

This workshop intends to encourage participants to challenge existing beauty standards while expressing oneself through working with a wide variety of image, video, and sound editing techniques. We are interested in what authentic selfhood can look like amidst the rampant noise of social media, and illusory beauty and lifestyle standards. Our goal is to open up this exploration of how to exist as a full expression of oneself, without compromising one’s identity to social pressures.

Sound drawing series is a part of visual language coursework. After closely listening to the experimental sound work, students created a hands-on response to the spoken words and sound. These are some of the samples created as a sequence of gif, in response to Big Science, by Laurie Anderson, and soundtrack album from the movie, Riddles of Sphinx by Laura Mulvey.

With the grants from Brooklyn Arts Council and Queens Arts Council, I co-organized and facilitated the workshop series for the community members on Norman street in Queens, NYC.

Inside Norman Street, is a project I organized with two other artists, Libby Mislan, New York-based poet, and Zoe Rapport, LA-based choreographer in Queens, New York. We recruited 12 neighbors from the same street for 12-week-long creative writing workshop, which included movement exercise and photo project. We then created an anthology of their writings and organized a book release party / reading performance with guest dancers who responded to their readings. Twelve participants didn't know each other at the beginning of the fall, but everyone ended up having a holiday party altogether.