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The dance i chose for this Act I (Yellow) of Triadisches Ballett (Triadic Ballet). The overall feeling it gave me was weird, playful, quirky, slightly restricted and geometric.

Repetition and Restriction

The first characteristic displayed by the dance is repetition. In the dance, there were many repetitive dance moves like the dancers spinning, doing the same hand movements, switching directions in a pattern. I thought that the best way to represent repetition is through lines of the same length and direction displayed neatly in rows. At the same time, I wanted to represent a geometric restriction. In the dance, the dance moves are very subtle and small, it is almost as if something is restricting the dancer preventing the dancer from making big movements like those of the dancer in AMA. In the end, I decided that the most effective way of presenting a restrictive geometric shape is through a cube which forms the outer shell to contain the strings. With the characteristic of restriction and repetition, I came up with the following design.

 

Lightness

In the dance, there were a lot of tip toeing and jumping in the dance which made the overall dance look very light and airy. This motif adds on to my idea of using strings to show the repetitive lines. From one angle, the stings can be seen to show repetition. From another angle, the lines form straight rows with gaps at every interval. From the angle seen below, the inside of the cube looks almost empty which signifies lightness.

For this project, we are required to have a curved plane. I decided to have spheres sticking out of the cube to contrast with the straight lines of the cube and to add on to the quirkiness and weirdness of the sculpture to fit the dance concept. I started experimenting with ways to put the styrofoam balls with the cube. I also experimented with the size and number of balls used.

I came up with several designs to see which colour combination would be most suitable to convey my idea.

In the end, I decided to go with a black frame, multi-coloured strings and spotted balls which looks like Yoshi eggs from Mario. The black frame makes the restrictive characteristic of the cube more obvious than a white frame. I used primary colours as the colours of the strings because I wanted the sculpture to convey playfulness due to the bright colours used and also the quirkiness because all primary colours are used. Also, the coloured strings when looked from one angle have similar coloured strings lined together, forming rows of individual colours. This adds on to the idea of repetition. I chose for the balls to be in white and spotted colour(primary colours). The polka dots adds on the quirky look. The white base of the balls contrast nicely with the black cube frame and the colours used is to relate back to the colours used for the strings.

Process

Final

The final sculpture conveys the idea of quirky, playfulness, weird, lightness and restriction. The various elements in the sculpture above helps to bring out the characteristics shown in the dance piece. Even though the piece is meant to look weird and out of place, the recurring colours and contrasting colours help to balance out each element, allowing the whole sculpture to come together to look as a whole and not just some cube with messy colours and random balls stuck to it.

 

Part 1

For part one of this project, I chose to work with the SEM image of a fly’s eye. Seen up close, the eye is made up for many spikes and bead like circles.

For the first part, I decided to use toothpicks and soybean as the base materials.

The beans were glued onto a round piece of styrofoam and the toothpicks were broken into half then stuck into the from. The overall look has a curved and spiky plane.

 

Part 2

For the second part which is the wearable cooling device, I took inspiration from the story and part 1 to create something that shows strength and can also double as protection. In the end I chose to go with shoulder pads because it is one part of the body that move the least and is closer to the neck, enhancing its function as a cooling device since we sweat from our necks a lot. I looked into some designs of shoulder pads and breast plates to connect the shoulder pads together as seen above.

I came up with a few designs to see which one will suit my idea the best. In the end, I decided to go with a design which will showcase the highlight of this wearable which are the shoulder pads. The shoulder pads will have toothpicks coated with silver paint and pony beads coated in gold and silver to give visual variation. The connecting breast plate will be a simple white piece made from plastic straws melted together so as to not take attention away from the shoulder pads.

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The shoulder pad would be created as shown in the test draft above. Pony beads are used instead of beans because the pony beads can enable an increase of surface area which help to dissipate heat from the body away into the atmosphere at a faster rate. Metal can also help to transfer heat quickly, speeding up the process of loosing heat.

The porous design of the chest piece can also increase surface area to help spread the heat away. White is a good reflector light, which reflects heat in the process, hence I chose white.

The overall concept of the design is to loose heat through increase in surface area of the wearable in contact with the skin to help facilitate heat being lost to the atmosphere.

Process:

Final look:

 

 

Linear Model (1st Model)

For my linear model, I chose the octahedral shape.

 

Planar Model (2nd Model)

My initial idea for the planar model was to keep the design basic and simple so that the octahedral shape can be best represented. So my first prototype had a very simple and symmetrical design.

The planar model is created by sliding 4 triangular pieces of cardboard into a square piece of cardboard. Slits were created in each piece so that they can interlock with each other. The size of the square piece is made smaller such that the ends of each triangle sticks out to give the planar model a more interesting look.

However, while making the third and final model, I decided to use the above design as the base for the sculpture. I did not want the base of the final model to be the same as the planar model, and in consideration that the original planar model might look too simple, I changed the design of the planar model to add more dynamism, creating the final planar model as shown below in various angles.

 

Combination of Linear and Planar Model (3rd Model)

For the 3rd model, I decided to go with the idea of the planar model exploding. Rather than making an exploding octahedral, I decided to make a sculpture which shows the process of the octahedral exploding to show more movement. I created a series of prototypes with the idea of the octahedral being stretched, released and finally exploding.

Original Octahedral:

Elongation (Stretching):

Compression (Releasing):

Exploding:

Final Prototype look:

Based off the prototype, I proceeded to make the final model. The following is the process:

From the prototype, it can be seen that the nature of the sculpture is that it hangs at the tip and sprouts outwards. The heavy weight at the top of the sculpture is too much to bear and the sculpture is unable to stand upright on its own, having to use tape to hold the sculpture up. I did not use supports for the top part as I did not want the supports to look like they are part of the sculpture. Hence, I had to scale down the final sculpture to make it lighter overall. I used cardboard and adopted the original planar model as the base to give the base weight which will help to weigh down the entire sculpture. I completed the stretching and releasing parts with skewers because they are lighter and the lines formed places emphasis on the movement. The strings on the stretching part gives the idea of elongation. The exploding part is made with cardboard and wire because the wire is flexible for free-form explosion and the cardboard links back to the original planar model. The overall sculpture is modelled to look higher and straighter forming less of an arch as compared to the prototype to put less weight at the tip of the sculpture so that the sculpture can stand on its own. However, as seen in the process pictures, the sculpture was still unable to stand on its own. Hence, I decided to add extra weight to the base.

Final Look:

Presentation Boards: