Life innovating art: DKU media and arts students on creating inspiration

Students majoring in media and arts at Duke Kunshan have the opportunity to explore a wide variety of interests, from writing screenplays and animating movies to sculpting fine art and curating art exhibitions. Student Media Center fellow Alicia Yang ’22 talked with three media and arts students about their learning and creation experiences at Duke Kunshan.

Trusting her passion, filmmaker cuts own path

Carly Zhu ’22 is a huge fan of museums. After declaring her major in media and arts, she initially focused on curating traditional exhibitions of historical artifacts. However, Jung Choi, assistant professor of arts history and visual studies, inspired her to explore how technology can bring artifacts to life.

‘Professor Choi showed me her work for an exhibition on Korean history, which applied lots of new media and digital technologies,’ Zhu said. ‘She told me that traditional methods aren’t always the best way to display history. One alternative approach is to combine multimedia and history to create culturally rich artworks.’

Zhu said the concept sounded wonderful, but she struggled to make it work in reality.

In a filmmaking class taught by Kaley Clements, assistant professor of media and arts, she experienced a series of setbacks that showed her that passion is just as important as precision when it comes to creative projects.

‘As professor Clements is such an experienced documentary filmmaker, I was afraid of making mistakes in his class,’ she said. ‘So instead of concentrating on my preferred history topics, which I felt required more skill and expertise, I decided to shoot a short story for my class project. I put in so much effort, but I still received a poor grade.’

On reflection, Zhu said she feels the project betrayed her lack of interest in the subject matter. So, she decided to get back on track. For her next class project, she visited Shanghai’s Jing’an Temple, which dates back more than 780 years, to make a short film about Buddhism. ‘I’m fascinated by the religious culture behind the temple, and I wanted more people to understand its charm,’ she said.

The project earned her a much higher grade. Since then, Zhu has chosen to follow her own path in the hope of developing a unique style.


Shooting star turns lens on history

In media and arts classes, students are constantly encouraged to try new things. Some will choose to learn about using light and shadow in photography; others will focus on creating graphics using various software. Students who want to learn about filmmaking tend to experiment with a different style each week.

Not Rachel Darius ’22. In her first week, she choose to shoot a vlog for her class assignment. Then again in her second week, her third, fourth, and so on.

For Darius, each week presented a new opportunity to dive deeper into the format, to hone her skills, and take a step closer to technical proficiency. ‘Learning’s more than just a cursory understanding; it’s about in-depth exploration and reflection,’ she said.

Darius began working with professors Kaley Clements and Seth Henderson, both experienced documentary filmmakers, and fellow students on an independent film project. From the summer of 2019 to spring 2020, Darius dedicated almost all her time and energy to shooting and editing ‘Water Town,’ which examines how Kunshan’s rapid economic development has changed the lives of residents in Bacheng, one of the city’s ancient water towns.

‘During the project, professor Henderson coached me on how to conduct interviews and how to improve shooting skills, and professor Clements gave me suggestions with each round of editing,’ she said. ‘They also recommended a list of documentaries to watch, which helped expand my knowledge about documentary production.’

Go behind the scenes of ‘Water Town’


Learning to explore, exploring to learn

Some students hesitate over what major to declare, but Zhuoran Ma ’22 never had a doubt. She began dabbling in art at a young age, enjoying painting and handicrafts among other forms of expression, and always knew that she wanted to focus on media and arts at university.

The purpose of her courses at Duke Kunshan, she said, is to build a framework of understanding and discuss in-depth topics like anthropological thinking in films or how approaching marginalization in society through art.

‘Professors give us an outline, and we need to work out the fine details,’ she said. ‘For example, we will learn the foundations of the Adobe Premiere software, but to take our editing skills to the next level we need to explore on our own. It’s greatly enhanced my learning ability.’

In 2020, Ma worked with classmates to create an online digital art exhibition that looked at various addictions, such as to mobile phones and shopping. Ma focused on smoking, creating audio and visual artworks that reflected associated symptoms, namely a lack of concentration, uncontrolled anger, and sleeplessness.

After graduation, she plans to study information design in Japan to learn how to combine subtle information and design to create art and cultural works.

Find out more about Duke Kunshan’s interdisciplinary majors.

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Media Contact

Senior Editor/Writer

Gareth McPherson

Email: gareth.mcpherson@dukekunshan.edu.cn

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