Perception, pattern recognition, visual scanning, attention span, problem solving, language processing, and memory recall—these are all interrelated aspects of our cognitive information processing. While most of us have the luxury of processing the world around us under ordinary life conditions, pilots work at 30,000+ feet in the air traveling at about 500 mph. They are tasked to execute an exceptionally heavy cognitive load. Traditional displays used in aircraft navigation, however, are a source for cognitive overload. I present an innovative human-centered design approach for a primary flight display that provides accurate representation of critical data, affordances for intuitive action-perception, and predictive future-telling information. In design principles, an “affordance” is a property that allows the interaction between a person and the environment. Visual feedback is crucial for effective interaction, and good feedback allows perception to feed directly into action, which is reinterpreted back into perception, as part of the “action-perception feedback loop”. Traditional models fail to access this loop; they employ cognitive functions rather than perceptual cues. I show, using the events of the Air France Flight 447 disaster of 2009, that conceptual models that rely on cognitive models can be too slow, leading to irrecoverable situations. The proposed model uses visual affordances to facilitate direct perception. I draw insights from neuroscience. “The righting reflex,” for example, corrects the body’s orientation when the perceived reference frame does not match the intended outcome. Birds engage this reflex by momentarily dropping mid-air as a way of gaining downward velocity, before reentering their flight path. Humans naturally lack this reflex, and current displays have no cues for prompting mid-air drop. My proof of concept prototype creates a visual perception affordance that prompts pilots to naturally engage in downward velocity.

As a sculptor I work both figuratively and abstractly in a variety of styles ranging from installations to life-size figures and large sculptural vessels. Human anatomy is my starting point for exploration. Clay is the principal material for my work or a primary element of the fabrication process. I bring a diverse background of artistic training to my practice, but working in ceramic sculpture is where I find that my hands, vision, and voice come together with the greatest harmony. There is a one-to-one relationship between my hands and the clay as I manipulate it into the form of a body or organ. In its raw state the clay acts, feels, and even looks much like living tissue. These forms develop from diagrams, drawings, and photos, but most importantly from an intuitive sense of touch and sense memory. As human beings we are flawed and messy, and I strive to instill a sense of that vulnerability in my work. The surfaces and forms evoke a sense of duration, damage, decay, and the tenuousness of life. These themes stem from my interest in working with body imagery in a socio-political context, allowing me as a woman and an artist, to reclaim the female body from a historical position of subjugation and objectification. It is not my desire to limit the viewers’ interpretation. Instead I seek to question how we view the human body, relate to our anatomy, and consider our physical connection to the social structures we create around us. The content of my work originates from a visceral place, translated through a tactile process, and balanced by formal and aesthetic decisions.

Printmaking started it. From the beginning, I have been fascinated with the many ink layers you can apply to a single piece of paper when creating a print. For this piece I worked with multiple layers of Dura-lar, paper, as well as ink. I was able to construct a print, whose materiality hints at three dimensionality, while remaining flat. Using my two degrees in biology and the visual arts, I was able to build an image anyone can relate to.

These images offer a glimpse into my explorations of mark making through two disparate modes of artistic production: printmaking and embroidery. Printmaking is a unique medium; inscrutable and self-determining - it gives to the artistic process almost as much as the artist. One never knows what impressions one is going to get. On the other hand, embroidery on canvas is a largely predictable process where the artist is  in virtually complete control. Until the image is complete. The raised surface, layering of thread on thread gives the image a different dimension, much like printmaking but subtle and assertive. To me, printmaking and embroidery mark the beginning of an interesting conversation and I hope that the combination of given images reflect just that: beginnings. However, there is more to these images than conversations and interactions – they are investigations towards the development of a visual language.The marks themselves are indexical and hold keys to a fixed event, a happening or a phase in time. The referential themes provide starting points for each piece’s journey but do not influence the final visualization. Thus, they become freestanding objects, open to interpretation and much like a Rorschach test, perceived differently by every viewer. Nevertheless, the memories they contain are real, marking time, as memoirs are not to do. The displayed collection got its beginnings with spilt ink.

Using casted aluminum my work explores the relation between the chaos and order that exists within our world. In our world fractal patterns are found pervasively and govern the order of both the inanimate and animate. Fractals are patterns where a basic component is copied repeatedly within itself for an unlimited number of times. Like fractals the underlying elements of my work are simple but put together they start to overwhelm the viewer. What was once easily described shapes becomes a chaotic mass. This mass is then confined to a simplistic form. Though this confinement a sense of order is returned to the viewer.

Growing up in two distinctive cultures, I can well combine the best of both sides, the American culture and the Taiwanese culture, and then express my creative thinking in my art pieces. This unique personal experience lets me possess the ability to manipulate the spirits of two different subjects together into my artworks successfully. Often, these subjects evoke some kinds of emotional linkages, mostly human-to-human or human-to-animal. The ideas and concepts are to emphasize on the relationship (interacting, confronting, etc.) between the two subjects. All in all, the core motivation is to convey the interrelationship between the two cultures that made me who I am today into every piece I create. Glass and clay are the major which I am exploring and learning. Current artworks highlight my intention to figure out the features of glass, clay and metal, and to enhance skills in mixed casting. Several trials are needed to achieve success in most cases. Various unexpected results, eventually, led me onto the right track and into the next stage.The distinctive features of glass fascinate me and arouse my curiosity. My idea is to present the features of life with the characteristics of glass. For example, subjects alive need to breath, and glass responds to this idea because it can capture the air and show the moment of living life. Moreover, it can be liquefied, and then shares similar characters with water, another indication of life. Another material I like is clay. It has great plasticity, and is a good medium for me to make my work more vivid. These exhibits shown not only implicit my motivation in art, but also present the features of glass and clay.