Direction Chosen

I created a larger version of the "My Side of the Room" collage Wednesday night. I had decided on a grid pattern for the display which I think will separate the objects enough to take away any feeling of clutter. I began thinking about what I wanted to convey with the structure of the photos. Ultimately, I decided that I wanted to entice people to look closer at the objects pictured and consider their importance. How better to bring people closer to my piece than to make it interactive?

I drew my inspiration from this structure found on nearly every playground.

 I intend to create a 41" x 51" wooden frame, inside which is slotted 8 vertical pvc pipes. Suspended in a grid form along each pipe will be ten triangular prisms which will rotate (like each piece of the tic tac toe) to reveal a new photo on each side 0 each photo comprising a larger, cluttered room. The center 6 photos will contain photos that make up the people in each picture instead of images of their possessions.

 

 I spoke with Garrett in the shop and he told me that it is most definitely doable and should be fairly easy to construct. I will create 80 total prisms with 240 photos overall.

In lieu of the large amount of work it will be to put this together before Thursday I made the decision to put my other idea on the back burner (although it is still something I definitely want to create at some point) and focus all of my energies on constructing this.

New Project Idea

Last year I took a Journalism 500: Special Topics class from National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson. 

  The class focused on the many ways in which photographers are really employed visual storytellers. From this concept was born this project: "My Half of the Room" is a series of portraits of college students living in a dorm room. Students who have moved away from home for the first time, who are given a very small one half of a room without so much as a sink in it, and who are surrounded by all of their worldly possessions. These portraits are meant to be a commentary on the college life and how important and defining possessions become when they are whittled down to the most essential. I ended up displaying the project in a large accordion book but was not happy with the final result. I believe that if I go back and work with these photos again (this time in the context of Project #3 for BDS102) I would be able to combine them in a new way so as to show the similarities and differences in all of my subjects.

Project #3: 4 Ideas

     There is this adorable old couple that lives in this house and their garden is beautiful. I would like to take a progression of portraits of them  in the middle of their garden as spring begins to take their dead looking plants into bloom all around them.

    This is the idea I'm most excited about so bear with me: My roommate and her best friend are hardcore stoners and every Saturday night the best friend comes to visit and they smoke and smoke and smoke all night long. Our living room always starts out pristine and by the morning it is absolutely trashed and the both of them are passed out on the floor or couch somewhere. I'd like to capture this progression from clean to disastrous throughout the night, focusing on the window behind them and the silhouettes it creates as well as the view of the sun setting and subsequently rising.

     This is a view of Clinton Lake through the window my my van. I'd like to create a 3D model of the car door somehow and then reconstruct the Clinton Lake panorama in the larger window while leaving the side mirror intact to show the difference between what actually exists and what I created.

     This fourth idea is kind of throw away for me, but all it is essentially is showing the progression of a wilting bouquet of flowers.

Project Summary

Althought the majority of this project was an unmitigated disaster on my end, it was not completely without its merits. A great deal of BDS for me as a Photomedia student who has never touched an art class before has been subjecting myself to completely unknown situations. The triumph being that at the end of all the frustation and humilation I have conquered one more thing I thought I could not do. Woodworking was not an exception to this. I completely mangled and destroyed $24 worth of beautiful walnut. It was frustrating and I hated it, but what I’m left with, a new skill (and a lovely wooden box), is very much worth it.
I wish, of course, that I had been able to follow through with my original design. Somehow despite the confidence I felt practicing on scrap wood and cardboard, I just could not make the semi circle design work the way it needed to when I finally got to working with the walnut. Even though it did not work out, I was left feeling very appreciative of the support and advice Cotter and Garret were able to give me. If I went back to work on this project again I would make practice half-circle after practce half-cirlce until I absolutely knew that I could do it. The problem with art forms that don’t require Photoshop is that there is no “undo” button. I think that if I had not tried to rush into my final piece it might have gone better in the long run
That being said, I am very happy with the box I ended up with. It was challenging to make and it is by no means perfect but I was able to work from a design I had sketched out early on in the process and make it fit the
requirements of the project by the time I was finished. The “spice jar” shape of the final box plays on the typesof imaginary things I would do as a child as I collected what are now the contents of the box. Aditionally, the heriarchy of the different shades of wood fit together nicely and seem to complemet eachother.
I can’t exactly say whether I am exciting to begin a new woodworking project anytime soon but as a result of this project I have been left very curious about what other things I could create in the Common Shop given the time and resources.

Finished Box

The final box includes enough room to house my object(s) as well as enough room to store more if I choose to continue collecting dried clippings from the places I’ve lived. The Common Shop was out of the polyurethane finish but since I intend to keep the box for a long time I will continue to check back for something I can use to properly finish the vessel.

You might notice that the photos of this box are completely different than the sketches, models and experimentations I originally completed. This is because the actual making of the half circle shape was an unmitigated disaster. Unfortunately, I do not have any photos of the wreckage because I was too busy panicking about the box itself to worry about the Process book. After I destroyed two 6” x6” cubes trying to create a rounded bottom and circular shape, I went back to the drawing board and decided to go with the other design I had for the box. It is a simpler shape - perhaps more fitting to my skill level on the bandsaw - and I used tape to hold the four walls together while they dried (top). 

The only major issues I ran into with this box were with the material I chose. Because I ran out of money ruining the first two cubes I used scrap wood for the final box and during the sanding process  it began to chip off. I solved this with a combination wood glue and rubber cement.

Refined Box Ideas

I began turning my sketches into 3D interpretations with the cardboard model we were asked to complete. The model shows the basic shape I wanted to achieve with my design. It was frustrating cutting into the cardboard with the bandsaw because it tore so easily. I feel like I spent more time trying to patch up mistakes on my cardboard model than I did actually making cuts into it. It did, however, help me get a good look at the shape I wanted my box to be as well as the size - my cardboard model was way too large. Unfortunately it began falling apart too terribly before I could complete the box. I did get through the step where I cut the bottom, however, and this is combination with my bandsaw

 experimentation made me feel like I had a good handle on making the trickier cuts.

The top model was where I went after making the initial cardboard block cut. I have to admit that this version was much more helpful in letting me realize the 3D version of my sketches. Seeing how the pieces fit together, especially the top indent I wanted to create, 

The bottom photo is my own version of an orthographic sketch. As I am not very good with a pencil I decided to try and create the orthographic sketch in Photoshop before hand. Playing around with shapes based on my sketches and working off of pictures of real walnuts, I created a design for the top of the box that I was very happy with. And it worked out well in the end because I was able to print off the design in the exact dimensions I needed and rubber cement the paper onto the block of wood I intended to make the box out of.

Chosen Object: Clippings from PA

Project #2: 3 Objects

Object #1: Turquoise Purse Necklace
     The first object I chose holds a special significance to me as my aunt gave it to me as a graduation present three years ago. My first niece had just been born and I was very upset about not being able to meet her (they live in California). Inside the necklace she included two very small pictures of my first niece and nephew. I’ve always kept the necklace in a safe place because the photos inside are only a couple centimeters large and without the photos, the necklace would be pointless. I thought this object could be nice to build a container for because right now I don’t have any set place for its safe-keeping.

Object #2 Dylan Thomas Works:
This object I chose, not because it is small and easily lost but because of its age. This was my mother’s book while she was in college, and she passed it on to me when I first developed an interest in poetry. The book contains a lot of her hand written notes, mostly in pencil, and the cover is beginning to tear, pages beginning to fade. It would be nice to build a solid box for this book to keep it separate from the rest of my library as well as preserve the structural integrity of the binding.  The box, unfortunately would have to be rather large and heavy but I believe that something slim in length could match the shape of the book and provide a unique casing for it.

Object #3 Clippings from Pennsylvania:

Growing up, we moved around a lot. When I was nine we were about to move for the third time from our home in Pennsylvania and I was very anxious about it. I had spent a lot of time playing in that backyard so I went around in the last few days I had and collected clippings from the bushes, nuts that had fallen out of the tree, bits of gravel - anything that I considered to be “of the house.” Until now these clippings have been housed in an old mint tin, but I think that objects of such unique significance to me deserve a special place among my things. It would be nice to have a well-crafted vessel to display and preserve the clippings - I’m sure that without a box I’ve lost some over the years.