THE COLORADO DRAGON BOAT FILM FESTIVAL
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Picture

Presents:

Virtual Mandala | USA, 2015 (7 min)
J. Cecilia Wu

​Saturday, March 2
​1:15pm

Picture
Stay after the showcase for our Filmmaker Q&A!
Synopsis
​The word Mandala comes from Sanskrit, meaning "circle." It represents wholeness and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself. In Tibet, as part of a spiritual practice, monks create mandalas with colored sand. The creation of a sand mandala may require days or weeks to complete. When finished, the monks gather in a colorful ceremony, chanting in deep tones (Tibetan throat singing) as they sweep their Mandala sand spirally back into nature. This symbolizes the impermanence of life and the world. Mandala is a multimedia audio-visual piece that explores the use of body movement and virtual imaging to enrich musical expression. This project combines an interactive 3D bimanual interface with a computer imaging application designed to graphically render and physically simulate the interactive construction and deconstruction of the ancient Tibetan Buddhist sand arts. Mandala, an agent of ancient arts and philosophy, uses technology to lure the next generation into traditional cultural practices, disrupting the boundaries between ancient arts and leading-edge interactive imaging technologies.  
​
From the Director
Human beings are deeply expressive. We use body language, and speech to communicate our thoughts and feelings to other individuals. During musical performances, audiences often connect to the performer and mentally model thoughts and feelings in the performers mind, in what is called emotional contagion (Hatfield et al., 1993). In addition, humans are highly skilled at reading bodies, and voices; this ability begins at infancy and is refined to an art by adulthood (Darwin, 1872). Body motion and gestures are natural artistic expression forms worthy of further study and implementation in live performance. The aspiration of the Mandala project is to capture the natural forms of human expression and embody them artistically in realtime by bringing an ancient art form of Tibetan Buddhism to the digital world.
​
About
​Originally from Beijing, Jiayue Cecilia Wu is a scholar, composer, multimedia artist, and audio engineer. She is currently an assistant professor at University of Colorado Denver's College of Arts and Media. Cecilia earned her Bachelors of Science degree in Design and Engineering in 2000. Upon winning the MTV Asian Beat contest, Universal Music Group identified her talent and hired her as a music producer in Hong Kong. She then worked as a professional musician for ten years. In 2010, Cecilia produced her original album of spiritual electronic music, Clean Your Heart. In 2013, Cecilia obtained her Master’s degree in Music at Stanford University, where she focused on computer-assisted composition and audio engineering. In 2018, Cecilia obtained her Ph.D. in Media Arts and Technology from the University of California Santa Barbara. As an audio engineer, she received a grant award from Audio Engineering Society. As a musician, she received an award from the California State Assembly for being a positive role model in sharing Chinese culture. As a multimedia artist, she received the “Young Alumni Arts Project Grant Award” from Stanford University. As a scholar, she has been awarded a UC Central Campus Diversity Fellowship, a UC Central Campus Humanities Research Fellowship, as well as a National Academy of Sciences Sackler Student Fellowship. Cecilia's research interest focuses on the healing power of music and how music technology can augment this powerful force. Her music has been performed in China, Southeastern Asia, the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Europe.

Contact Us

  • Home
  • About / Contact
  • 2021 Raffle Prizes & Tickets
  • 2021 Program
    • 2021 Short Film Showcase >
      • #AsianAMCovidStories
      • Duo Pandemia
      • Mastery I & II
      • Ib Tsug 13 Hnub
      • Ntuj Tsim Txom
      • Mechamorphosis
      • The 3 Day Nun
      • The Loyal Betrayal
      • Voices
    • 2021 Emerging Artists Showcase >
      • Check Box: Other
      • I Put the Bi in Bitter >
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter S2
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter S1
      • Safe
      • In the Spotlight
  • Sponsors / Donors
  • Submit Your Film
  • Previous Programs
    • 2020 Program >
      • Digital Program Book
      • 2020 Creative Conversations >
        • 2/21 - Best Tasting Wild Foods of Colorado​
        • 2/22 - Health & Mental Health
        • 2/22 - Mushroom Foraging 101
      • 2020 Asian American Documentaries >
        • Palliative
        • Love Boat: Taiwan
      • 2020 Colorado Showcase >
        • The Rock Within
        • Ma
        • For Tashi
        • people (of water)
        • Not Pictured
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter
      • Ang Larawan (The Portrait)
      • Asian American Artist Showcase
    • 2019 Program >
      • 2019 Film Shorts >
        • Runner
        • Tears of the Sky
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter
        • My Escape
      • 2019 CU Denver Showcase >
        • Three Worlds One Stage
        • Virtual Mandala
      • 2019 Festival Talkbacks >
        • Creative Leadership Talkback
        • CU Filmmaker Q&A
        • Film Industry Talkback
    • 2018 Program
    • 2017 Program >
      • Taipei Story
      • The Last Princess
      • Mid-Length Films Block
      • Ten Years
      • What's in the Darkness
      • Millennium Actress
      • The Future Perfect
      • Youth of the Beast
      • Being Good
      • Heart Attack
      • Bloody Dairy
      • Bruce Takes Dragon Town
      • Cowboy and Indian
      • Dancing Through Life: The Dorothy Toy Story
      • Ho Chi Minh Kim Chi
      • Mango Sticky Rice
      • Night-Fly
      • Sumo Road - The Musical
      • Threads - The Art and Life of Surayia Rahman
      • Twenty Years
    • 2016 Program >
      • Wolf Children
      • Uzumasa Limelight
      • Changing Season
      • Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
      • Awesome Asian Bad Guys
      • Off the Menu: Asian America
      • Winning Girl