Mnemosyne’s Scent – Mnemosyne’s Scent Jewelry

Good Scents: Smoke and Hankerchief
Bad Scent: Dead succulent soil and Durians.

When we combined our scents we realized that although we both had different stories, our scents shared similar visuals/concepts. We first brainstormed some concepts and possible designs.

Possible headpieces by Syadza

With the designs chosen, we considered possible materials – some suggested materials were holographic paper, acrylic, felt, straw, plastic, acrylic and tracing paper.

We settled on felt and blue transparent sheet as it showcases smoke easily and was easily bent into shapes. The rough texture and the pins showcased the turmoil and pain in the two bad scents Blue acrylic is comparably much smoother and also the calming blue is reminiscent of home.

We also had to consider light and shadows and how they react to the materials so we chose a translucent material juxtaposted against an opaque one. We realized that our good scents has reminded us of home and the bad scents are more hurtful.

We chose to keep the story and material of our two elements consistent.

This necklace is inspired by the act of intertwining of the two scents, I was intrigued by the way the materials juxtaposed each other and intertwining them created a sense of movement and interaction between the two scents.

It is a simple piece that evokes the idea of fluidity, calmness and interaction between the two scents.

The headpiece  echoes the story of the necklace, it is the center piece of the sculpture and we were intrigued by the way the lights reflected off the blue translucent paper.

Featuring G6’s most fabulous model. 

Collectively the piece tells the story of the two scents surrounding and almost engulfing us in the scent. The texture of the materials acts as a mnemonic device to remind us of the feelings evoked from the roughness of the felt to the sharp painful surface of tacks to the smooth texture of the blue acrylic. The color itself also reminds us of the smells – the black symbolizing the dark, deathly, dreadful memory of durian and dead soil and the blue symbolizing the calmness, peaceful nature of home.

We added the element of implied lines to make the piece feel ‘whole’ and also considered the element of XYZ axis to give the plane a sort of ‘depth’ to it.

Reflection

Overall working with planes was an interesting experience. It was nice to consider not just the length and breadth of the plane but also how the movement, curve and the twisting of the planes add dimention to a humble plane. It was also interesting to work on something as intricate as a piece of jewelry! FUN.

 

Mnemosyne’s Scent – Pet Bottle Sculpture

The two scents I picked were cigarette smoke and durian. One might think, Fendi must like durians, well …

you’d be wrong.

My first order of business was mind-mapping out how each smell had a memory attached to it, and I decided smoke was a pleasant unique to me (though I really am a little 50-50 about positivity in this) and durian was also another unique smell to me (cause apparently everyone loves it). I decided to explore the moment, what imagery comes to mind and what emotions and thoughts I have. Once I have it mapped out, I explored about how to show it visually, but before I do that – I had to understand how plastic reacts to various techniques.

 

I snipped thorns from green colored bottles – sprite and green tea and used a heat gun to distort them into curled spiked ends. It was interesting experiementing with the heat gun and various thickness of plastics to see how they react to heat. The thinner plastics would curl up quickly like mimosa leaves whilst the thicker plastics would become malleable whilst warm.

After understanding and getting the hang of how plastics react to heat, I put it onto a concept.

The bad smell is the smell of durians. The smell of durians repulses me. I abhor it, to many questions of ‘why’ and ‘how could you’s in the background. My body just somehow rejects it – there was once my dad peer/parental pressured me into eating it with a bunch of people – because how can you say you don’t like it if you’ve never tried it. My body somehow… decided to reject it.

I achieved this by collaging the various strips from the green bottles and collaging them into a spikey, dangerous, repulsive shape. On first glance, it looks like a durian, however on closer inspection the curled spikey element represents the stinging and painful smell of durians that radiate from the fruit itself. Green, firstly, is the color of durian, and secondly, it also evokes a sense of grossness and repulsiveness. Also interesting fact, I really don’t like looking at durians because I think it not only smells but looks gross – so it’s reminiscent of medusa, whom no warrior wants to look at. Yeap. 

I like the smell of cigarettes as a non-smoker myself, it’s very strange, but this came to me when my smoker friends came back from smoking and their smell of cigarette smokes reminded me of my dad.

My dad smokes a decent amount. Every time I hugged him, I’d smell it. When he drives to pick me up, he occasionally smokes in the car while waiting (with the windows open of course) and when I come in I’d smell it. Sometimes when I’m having breakfast, he’d smoke after eating. Somehow I’ve associated cigarette to one of the many smells that reminded me of home.

 

I looked at a friend’s candle for a while to consider how i’d show the idea and appearance of smoke. I used a wire to allow the smoke to hover to create element of levitation and lingering. It also spirals as a metaphor for embracement. Also in using clear plastic, it symbolizes that even though the smell is invisible, the feeling of embrace is there. This is achieved by snipping a clear bottle in a spiral and then using a heat gun to distort the shape into a curvy, wavy, snake-like shape and letting it rest on a metal cable.

All in all, it tells a story about my dad and how smells remind me of him. The overpowering green symbolizes the strong hatred of durians – because in that situation even though my dad smelt vaguely of cigarettes, the smell of durian was overwhelmingly repulsive it drowns out the smell of cigarettes. Yet in a situation of total disgust and regret – there is always a feeling of home from his presence that blossoms out of the situation.

 

 

 

 

Reflection

It was definitely different working much more intimately with plastic and pet bottles. The most exciting element of it was the idea that you will not know how the plastic will react to heat exactly, but you can control the technique. Sometimes there are happy accidents and sometimes there are unfortunate ones. I’m quite satisfied with my concept and all, but this was definitely a struggle to achieve.

That night I took my sculpture out and experimented it against light. This is some of the shadows it casted, I think from the top view it casts super interesting shadows!

This is for you, daddy-o.

Okay bye.

Mnemosyne Scent – Planar Sculptures

Hello World!

A day ago, I told my sister I was working with paper and the world of planes…

So, no pressure.

Once again, I’m introduced into the world of planes.

What are planes, you might ask? Well – imagine a line as a dot that went for a walk, but this time, a plane is a line that went for a walk. There are many ways for a line to go for a walk. Let’s look at some 2D planes!

Putting many planes together makes a fancy, schmancy sculpture too.

But sometimes a we can see planes as three-dimensional!

And when we makes them a sculpture, it looks something like this!

But wait, what if we looked at three-dimensional planes and mix it up with a little Pandora’s Box and Gaia’s Ikebana and consider dominant, sub-dominant and sub-ordinates too? Well, time to get to work cutting up some paper.

If you noticed, yes, I cut paper until it was night time. I may got carrried away with paper cutting.

 

This is Simon the Snake. He likes spaghetti.

For this sculpture, I tried to incorporate the idea of suspension and not just confining the planes to the base. I also played with the idea of piercing the subdominant through a third of the dominant. Varying the directions of the elements creates a sense of movement and the spiral of the subordinate emphasize the fluidity in movement.

corrected:

 

This is Hubert the Hydra, he’s a more penne sorta guy.

For this sculpture, I tried to utilize broken planes, and honestly was not really fond of the way it looks origami-ed in. Perhaps more exploration/research with broken planes are due. However, I ‘extended‘ the dominant in this figure and really like how it twirls around the subdominant in a sort of wave/wind-like manner! Perhaps utilizing long, long planes would build some dynamism in the sculpture!

Reflection

Somehow I really like how clean twisted/curved bends on the paper. Creating broken planes somehow makes the sculpture look crumpled which I personally  do not like the look of. However planes was, to me, a different element as firstly there are two dimensions to consider, length and width of the paper, however creating movement and folding the paper changes the overall length of the plane which makes it look shorter in a way and creates depth by curling in or outwards.

There is an element of discipline involved in ensuring not to get too carried away with the swilring and twirling that the other elements cannot be seen, but I seem to always struggle with finding a place to slot my subordinate.

I’m still unsure about complex/grouped planes, but I hope to get that clarified soon!

But here are some questions.

1. When we consider length of the plane if it’s twisted, curved or broken do we look at the overall length once its bent or do we look at the actual length of the original plane?

2. What is grouped planes? Is Complex planes complex because it travels in two axis?

3. How do we determine the principle axis of a plane?

4. For this assignment, are we limited to rectilinear shapes or can we explore triangles as well?

5. Are we allowed to vary the usage of curved and broken planes in one D/SD/SO or are we limited to only curving or only breaking per plane?

okay bye.