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Tsai-Sin Fong, Ph.D.

College of Art

Professor

Department of Applied Arts

Personal Website


The Persuasive Power of Visual Thinking and Design in Digital Media

     The research by Professor Tsai-Shin Fong is of industries and study in relation to digital content, such as multimedia, animation, game design, design strategy of commercial website and other relevant fields as visual creativity and communication. When pursuing her doctorate degree in the United States, her research achievements had been awarded with outstanding merit and accomplishment by "Who’s Who among Students in American University & College," considered to be a very prestigious honor in American higher education. In fact, professor Fong has been focusing on digital creation for a long time, and is the first female artist in Taiwan to be invited to hold a solo exhibition of digital creation at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMOFA). In view of her achievements, she is reckoned as one of the representatives for digital media creation in Taiwan and also one of the few women who focuses on art and technology in the early days. In view of her background, her achievements on digital art have thus been included in the professional literature of "History of (Contemporary) Taiwan Women Artists," whereas related digital works have also been exhibited and reported in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, and mainland China. Besides, Professor Fong worked with a German publisher to release her personal English monograph as "The Persuasive Power of Rhetorical Website Design: Marketing Loyalty in the E-Commerce Environment" in the United States and Europe. Currently, she is acting the director and dean of the Graduate Institute and Department of Applied Arts at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan (Since August 2016)

 

  The research of Professor Tsai-Shin Fong is of industries and study in relation to digital content, such as multimedia, animation, game design, design strategy of commercial website and other relevant fields to visual creativity and communication. In the States, she completed two master degrees (digital art and design, interactive art and design) and a doctorate degree, thus she is considered as one of the pioneering scholars who specializes in computer art and multimedia in the field of design in Taiwan before she was admitted to the faculty of learning institute for higher education. During her studies in the United States, her academic performances were decorated with many recognitions. In addition to receiving scholarships for excellent American students every semester, she was much distinguished with many awards, such as the US "Arts Scholarship for Excellent Academic Achievements" and "The Academic Outstanding Performance as a Graduate Student," and also honored by Kappa Delta Pi organization for outstanding achievement and involvement as well as by the US Federal Government with academic award of Ph.D. scholars and so on. Most of all, she was even decorated with the "Who's Who among Students in American University & College" for her outstanding merit and achievement, reckoned as the highest honor for American higher education students. In fact, Tsai-Shin Fong worked three years in North America after graduation, mainly in the fields of digital media in the US and Canada during this period of time, this working experience in North America has strengthened her international work vision and cross-disciplinary cooperation ability. As such, when she returned to Taiwan, these experiences have rendered much impact and influence as she devotes herself onto industrial work and research related to design.

 

  After returning to Taiwan, Tsai-Shin Fong had a full-time job at the trade. On one hand, she taught about related courses on digital media and animation design in many schools, so that she not only brought together many of the latest concepts in the trade into teaching, she was also invited by magazines and publishing houses to compose articles and publish books to promote ideas and concepts of digital design and art in Taiwan. During the period working in the trade, quite a few projects were carried out in cooperation within the field, such as 100 million Seed-Fund of CD development project by Acer, five-year software cooperation project of export sales and development by the Institute of Information Industry (III), education CD design and development project for expanding domestic demands in Taiwan, CD cooperation and development project into European and US market, website content planning for mayor election campaign of Taipei, and planning with the Palace Museum for the proposal of multimedia CD and so on. Besides, related books on digital design by professor Fong, the earliest well-known designer from Taiwan introduced into the mainland, have exerted much influence on their digital design concepts. As a matter of fact, the reason Tsai-Shin Fong continues to publish related books on digital design for years because she hopes to use books to convey concepts of diversified digital design to affect the new generation and furnish international integration. Up to the moment, she has already released about 18 professional literatures. One of publication was composed upon the invitation by a German publisher, and completed with great efforts across the borders. At present, all of her personal English publications on sale in the United States and many European countries have been designated for purchase by many universities as library collections. For related information about "The Persuasive Power of Website Design: Marketing Loyalty in the E-Commerce Environment," one can have found it on Amazon.com and other online bookstores. Of the above-mentioned contents, they have indicated that the efforts and contributions made by Tsai-Shin Fong in the field of digital media education in Taiwan during its infancy and development.

 

  For her teaching, professor Tsai-Shin Fong has been honored with awards. Since professor Fong began her full-time teaching career Fu Jen University in 2007, she has delivered courses at undergrad and post-grad session, placing focus on "keeping abreast of theory and practice," "innovation," "timeliness," and "integration" so that no matter if it is course on animation, game design, multimedia, and film she would apprentice students to think from scratch, and teach them step by step how they deliberate to initiate creative stories, compose text scripts, plan visual scripts, work out planning for man-power time and so as to the completion of project execution. As for contents of courses she offers, they include Visual Art Design, Creative Thinking and Design, Computer Art and Theory, The Strategic planning in 2D & 3D Animation Design, Animation Story Boarding and Layout Design, Filming making, Hypermedia Design and Web Site Design, Customer-Centered Design, Consumer Behavior Research in Digital Marketing, and so forth. All of these courses have focused on cross-disciplinary thinking, for she hopes teamwork can produce such synergy of one plus one as greater than two. All in all, she anticipates that students must be able to analyze problems, plan ahead, and think about the whole through these efforts, so that the students she trains would not only come up with the skills they learn from these courses but also their planning ability, reversing the imagination about art work the external world has on them. Since accepted to teaching faculty at Fu Jen University (from 2020 to 2007), she has used class sessions and spared time after class to coach the work design of students every semester, and provide instruction to under-grad and post-grad and students to participate in competitions on behalf of the Department of Applied Art of Fu Jen University, winning more than 100 awards. Given with these efforts, they have, for many occasions, won recognition from many awards home and abroad, and decorated the university with much honor and accolade. In recent years, the efforts made in teaching innovation by Tsai-Shin Fong can be found on courses as "flip teaching," "digital teaching materials," and "internationalized curriculum of teaching ~ medium of instruction in English," and so on, which have won her occasions of awards for teaching achievement awards from the school. As a whole, the features of professor Fong can be recapitulated as: 1 combination of theory and practice; 2. offer attention to user and consumer psychology; 3. offer attention to the trends and changes of industry market; 4. offer attention to teamwork spirit, placing focus on the cultivation of active learning ability; 5. offer attention to problem-shooting capability; 6. offer attention to the cultivation of personal characteristics of students. It is hoped that more than two kinds of specialties as connection and integration of students can be nurtured through cross-over> connection> innovation in teaching so that brand new ideas can be brought forth in them as they confront the new world.

 

     In terms of creation: Tsai-Shin Fong has, over the years, actively participated in related exhibitions at home and abroad. Until the moment, she held 14 solo exhibitions and was invited to take part in more than 40 joint exhibitions on digital media creation in Taiwan, all of which have received with favorable comments and reviews. Even more, Tsai-Shin Fong is not only the first female artist in the country to hold solo exhibition on digital creation at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, but also one of the representatives using digital media for creation in Taiwan. Most of all, there is most profound historical significance as her digital art works are included in "History of (Contemporary) Taiwan Women Artists." Nonetheless, how one is able to maintain unique independence, standpoint and influence for one's creation? To Tsai-Shin Fong, it is a problem she needs to deliberate constantly when using computer as the medium of creation. As far the contents regarding design and creation for a long period of time to Tsai-Shin Fong, they can be divided into two major areas of themes: one is the works that combine with business, which usually have certain specific purposes of business and connection with the industry (such as illustration, visual planning, pre-production planning, animation production, multimedia, game design, and so forth). As for the other area of theme, they are works of social concern. Actually, most of these works are expressions of personal reflections on civilization as well as interactive care for human life and environment as a whole. Although such works do not render any specific and direct business objectives, their main target remains with the general public, hoping to convey love and perception towards the world to viewers, which is quite in line with the Catholic spirit of Fu Jen University.

 

     Besides, the most obvious difference between Tsai-Shin Fong and the new generation of digital creators is a large amount of traditional media will be used in the combination and mix-up during the process of digital creation, and then digital media are ingenuously used to put them together, thus creating personal digital works of one's special style. For Tsai-Shin Fong, her creation has mostly made use of the concept of "Digital Convergence" which is conducted through 2D image processing, digital painting, 3D modeling technology, and dynamic image production and other steps. Afterwards, sound, video, and data of diverse technologies are integrated, so that creator's imagination is furnished among different hardware and software, finally turning into a single conceptual work. Most of all, the focus is to launch another profound and intensive understanding and experience on the forms of themes.  

 

 

     For research: aside from publication of 18 books, Tsai-Shin Fong has also published about 50 articles on related journals and seminars home and abroad. From 2016 to 2017, three of her English papers were published internationally, two of which were printed in US Journals, and one is SCI journal of the States. Throughout these years, her research papers published are mostly related to digital industry, design of business character, and game design. In recent years, she has also been invited to serve as a journal editor for the National Taiwan Art Education Center, specializing to promote, assist, and curate themes related to digital content and planning. In addition, she has continued to serve as a competition judge to public and private institutions as she contributes to the promotion of design education in Taiwan.

 

  Tsai-Shin Fong completed master and doctoral degree in the United States, and has worked in the multimedia and animation game industry in Taiwan and North America for many years. As such, she is in possession of outstanding work experience and vision, especially in face of persisting challenges from new media of technology. In the early days, when the job-site is pre-dominated by males within the computer environment, Tsai-Shin Fong has often been reckoned as one of the few females in science and technology. As confronted with diverse identities, she has, for a long time, savored both bitter and sweet along the journey. Despite of all, no matter if it is at work or in leisure, it remains her favorite part in her life as she spends time working on digital design, animation, and game-related discussions and creations, whereas all of the motivation is based on the concern and attention towards the aesthetics in relation to digital design works. Most of all, it has always been her hope that she can make it through the discussions of aesthetics on digital arts and their mutual connections to provide for future digital creation and industrial design applications, helping to set down the foundation for art education.

 

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