Tag Archives: art

The One With The Bracket & Solenoid

Yesterday I bought some brackets to try to fix it with the solenoid.
Today I managed to complete the task.

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I tried 2 different spot on the helmet to secure my solenoid to, at the top and at the back.sol-3

The top one is fine but it is difficult to mount the bracket as there is not even surface as shown. Hence it was hard to get it straight and thus I failed to make it straight.
However, placing it at the back was so much easier and it actually is better because I plan to hang the helmet anyway. I also decided to drill a hole in order to let the wire run inside of the helmet.

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I fastened the solenoid to the bracket with 2 small black cable ties. It worked really well actually.

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As you can see on the inside of the helmet, the wires are inside and this will make the installation look cleaner. sol-5

9 Helmets to go!sol-6

The One With The 10 Ideas

Let’s push myself to the limits. I am going to come up with 10 different projects for the first phase.

  1. The Perfect Modern Chair
    To design an everyday office chair which adjust according to different people’s back shape. A perfect ergonomics chair which consists of combining the idea of a bean bag and a office chair. In this project I would need a partner for this as we need to research on the ergonomics of a chair and also executing the design.
    This is a design innovation as combining the materials of bean bag which takes the shape of your body and applying it to an office chair, white collar workers will no longer have backaches while working.
    This project might take a long time as it will be a research intensive project I foresee.
  2. The iPhone Film Scanner
    Shooting photograph on a vintage SLR is very traditional and brings back nostalgic moments. It also teaches you the basic of photography as we would require to think before spamming the shutter button like we would do in a digital camera. After processing the films at a local shop, those people who wants to scan their images have trouble finding a good scanner and also have to bear the cost. This application on the smartphone would be able to do the scanning of negatives and convert it to a jpeg file.
    Definitely need 2 other partners to work on the engineering part and also the programming part as well.
    This application would be one of a kind in the market, a big market for film photography enthusiasts! This project would be a real challenge to make it into a reality and it could be very expensive to make.
  3. The Run
    The run is an interactive Virtual Reality game that promotes exercise with gaming. With different scenario being selected, gamers are transport to a city where they are require to run away from the enemy. This game would require many platforms such as the xbox and the VR application. This game would probably need a budget of $5000 for research and programming. I would need a team of 3 for this as it will require many different stages of processes.
    This game would promote real exercise and attract gaming addicts. A real innovation in making a virtual world into a physical space.
    It might be boring after a while, too stagnant.
  4. The Museum of Contemporary Art Tanjong Pagar (MCATP)
    The current Tanjong Pagar Railway Station is now being emptied after they moved out and relocate to the Woodlands Causeway Centre. The historical building could be renovated and turn into a contemporary space for art and design. This renovation will take about 4 years to complete and once completed, it will attract many art lovers into Singapore from the region. High budget for this one maybe around 20-30 million dollars. I would need a large team for this project.
    This project will be ground breaking and be an attraction for Singapore. Audience guaranteed.
    Could be expensive and could become a fad.
  5. The Sound of Light
    To come up with an audiovisual installation that explores the uses of solenoid and light. It will be a soundscape experience for people to experience the sound of machinery, based on data and statistics. A solo project by me that could cost about $500 to develop within a year. A possible FYP project. It will be in a grand scale where people will experience something very different. Even though a novelty project but it explores the boundaries and definition of art. It could be too experimental for some people and finding a location and space suitable could be a challenge.
  6. The Book Of Wires
    This is a project to publish a book about wires & cables. With beautiful visuals and concise information and instructions, everyone will have no problem identifying the different kind of wires & cables for different uses anymore! Think of a dictionary, of colourful wires & cables!
    I would need 2 more partners, to design the layout of the book and another one in charge of photographing the visuals. Budget possibly around $500 for a small amount of copies.
    This is a very useful and informative book for those who wants to learn about IT and Engineering as well! Plus its an artsy book!
    Challenges faced could expensive and time consuming as publishing a book is not an easy process.
  7. The Body
    The Body is an experimental short film that explores the activities inside of a human body that make us function on a daily basis. Using slow motion techniques and different props, different visuals will represent an activity a body does, for example Breathing. This film will explore the use of everyday items to recreate the science behind our anatomy.
    This project requires a team of 5 where each person would need to wear different hats such as cinematographer, cameraman, gaffer and other film related job. This would need a budget about 1 thousand as we need to get good props and cameras.
    This film will break the boundary of cinematography and open up a new genre of films, definitely will attract art students. This could be a novelty kind of project and people might not be able to understand the experimental aspect of this project.
  8. The Rest Of The World In Singapore
    This is a photo documentation project to find and photograph people of different nationality living in Singapore. In other words, to photograph at least 1 people from different countries whose living in Singapore. As Singapore opens up its door to expats and foreigners to come to Singapore, it is possible that at least one people from all the 196 countries is living in Singapore.
    This would be a solo project and budget of $500 would be sufficient to complete this project, mainly spending on transportation.
    This would be an impossible feat to do but if completed, it will definitely receive a lot of recognition.
    This project could be time consuming and might take longer than 1 year to complete.
  9. The Hive
    The Hive is the newest building to be added in NTU located at the South Spine. It’s architecture is very unique and what better way than to take advantage of the building by using projection mapping onto the facade. This projection mapping would project graphics and videos to tell the story of NTU and its history.
    I would need 2 more people to help with the content creation and of course the technical aspect of this project. This project would cost an estimation of $3000 as the bulk of the money would definitely spend on loaning at least 6 powerful projectors.
    This would be a sight not to be miss as this will be the first time a projection mapping is being done onto the Hive.
  10. The Dome: The Heaven/Hell Project
    Using the dome system, this project would combine all the interactive aspect that I have learnt in class and integrate it into the dome. By using sensors, motors and lights, this site specific dome would create an experience of Heaven or Hell. These 2 ideal places have been describe through history of times and it would be my turn to interpret the experience inside the dome.
    A solo project which could be a potential for FYP. Budget would cost about $400.
    This would be a crowd pleaser and many people would be eager to try out this experience themselves.
    Project could be expensive and integrating many systems into one could be a challenge.

These are 10 good projects actually that I have come up. Each of them is something that I would want to do honestly.

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Fun fact: When the school bought the new dome, I was one of the team that first erected the dome from scratch. We were taught by the people from Russia who came here just to teach us how to build them. It was a very long process during the workshop. Quite an experience actually!

The One With The Pitching of Ideas

For the pitching of ideas, I have come up with two of them below.

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For a project with a partner, I would like to curate the world’s largest art fair ever. It will consists of one gallery from each country, yes from each country in the world, all 196 countries. This will be a clash of cultures, ideologies, art and many more! Way larger than Art Basel and all the other biennale combine.

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For a project with myself, I would like to come up with an outdoor interactive art installation exploring the issue of construction and progression. It will be a though provoking installation that will question the role of our nation builders.

The One With The Processing Plant

Since this week’s reading is about budget control, i think my questions for Professor Louis-Philippe Demers couldn’t be more relevant.

Does budget ever a problem for you to design and execute your robotics sculptures/artworks?

As I imagined they are very expensive to build as they need very special parts and mechanism, is there a work where you changed some aspect of it to fit in the budget that you have?

Furthermore, do you think budget should ever be a problem for us students? Do working with budget constraints only push our creativity to the maximum?

I would also like to argue that working with budget constraints is a very important issue as we will not be able to make our idea a vision if we have no money to buy materials. So when this happens, our ideas shift towards a different direction to cater to our budget instead. How do we deal with this problems as a student?

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If there is a specific work I have to ask question for, it would be the recent Inferno. How does working alone and working with a partner different? Does a clash of ideas always happen and how did you and bill manage to finalise on an idea?

The One With The Constructland

For now, I do not have any title for this work just yet. But enjoy the photographs. Will be doing a behind the scene video as well! Stay tune!

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The idea behind this installation is to create a conversation on the topic of construction. These hard hats could represent a foreign worker or it could represent a balance between the right amount of nature and architecture in terms of buildings. analog-2

In a summary, this installation speaks about the concept of construction which is relevant in more developing countries and also developed countries as well.  These safety hats are balanced on an acrylic rod which stands on its centre of gravity. This act of balancing represent the challenge government bodies faced on the issue of preserving the nature but at the same time, building infrastructure for the progress for the nation. analog-5

Simple materials were used in this installation. There are only 3 items in fact. Helmets, nails and acrylic rods. The use of nails protruding the top of the helmet symbolises the life of these construction workers where they are nailed down to this choice of employment due to the lack of education.analog-7

This installation is interactive in a way that the helmets will sway left and right where there are winds, hence this installation is site specific.analog-8

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Thank you to Vivian and Cindy for helping me out with the set up! Appreciate it!

The One With The Safety Installation

Over the weekend, I was still thinking of how to improve the current idea of my last post here. I was walking towards Tiong Bahru and i saw this construction site. Then it hit me. Scaffolding. I was thinking on what do I use as a stand for the hard hat to balance. So I went to art friend. I was also thinking, why didn’t i think of putting my installation at the roof of ADM? cause IT MAKE PERFECT SENSE! There is wind and the grass floor is a perfect way to cheat. Furthermore, it emphasise of the concept of construction and nature. Having the right balance of nature and building is a challenged for every government and Singapore has find ways to tackle this. So I imagine this installation to be at the roof of ADM.

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But first, I have to find the helmet’s centre of gravity. So what i did was to balance the helmet with a pole from the inside of the helmet. And I mark it and nailed it.

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This nail would be the final balancing point that will connect the helmet and the pole. hard-2

Sometimes I have trouble finding the right spot and when that happens, I have to nailed it again. hard-3

For the pole, I chose 2 different materials. Acrylic rod and a wooden one. When I tried both material on site, I was in for a surprise. It turns out when I took a photo, the acrylic rod seems invisible! It is almost an illusion. And I am loving this. The only problem is that I have to find a acrylic rod that is not hollow.hard-4

As you can see, it stays quite nicely. Imagine the whole roof is filled with these helmets. It will be visually pleasing.hard-5

In terms of playing with the height, I also put some thoughts into it. I was thinking of playing with different height for different helmet but I won’t be making that decision now. Below is the video when there is wind.

 

The One With The Balancing Act

The recess week is almost over and I still really have not really think of how my analog installation is going to take shape honestly. Despite the ideas that I shared last week in class, I still feel there is something missing in my work. Until today.

I was walking back to ADM from North Spine for lunch and 2 events I experienced struck me.

Firstly, these white helmets on the back of a bicycle. They were placed there randomly and they were almost balancing on the basket.IMG_8750

Secondly, when I was reaching ADM’s carpark, they were cleaners up climbing to wash the exterior of the building. They were wearing safety helmets incase anything happens.IMG_8751

Then suddenly, an idea struck me. I know I need to add another element to my yellow safety hat so this thought have always lingers in my mind. What if I could let the safety hat balance in motion? Below is an sketch that I did to visualise my idea. I would need a some sort of a stand that is able to take the centre of gravity of the helmet for it to balance.

I also thought about the layout of these balancing helmet. If I have nice helmets spaced out evenly, like option number 2, it would allow people to walk in between them to get a closer look of the installation.

sketch of helmet and layout options

sketch of helmet and layout options

In my opinion, I feel that this additional element in my analog installation would look good. I can imagine all 9 of them in balance and the tiny subtle movement of the hats would make the experience even special. I also feel that with the wind coming in from the side, it will shake the helmet and it will produce a very stunning visual moment in art history.

Furthermore, it speaks about how working in a construction place is actually a balancing act. Figuratively. One needs the right balance to ensure a right balance of work and also play. Working in high element in a construction place also requires a good balance as it is very dangerous and risky working in high places.

I feel the message is quite simple and subtle at the same time. I also thought of different places around ADM that I could install them to make the experience better. Below are the places that I consider. Taking in consideration that these frames that i took are the final frame that i would want to photograph them cinematically.

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Option 1: Outside the lobby. Clean nice background

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Option 2: Outdoor carpark. Spacious empty and windy

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Option 3: Outdoor carpark. Nice background. Appropriate.

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Option 3: Same place but different angle.

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Option 4: Outdoor carpark. Different side of the carpark.

I’m all about the photograph and the final landscape that these helmets will play a part in the space. So i feel that the location is also equally important.

 

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I was googling works of installation art that deals with a balancing act and I feel this is quite accurate to what I have in mind. I’m not too sure where and what this is about though.

I did a quick balance of my safety helmet that I have in class.

It seems i would need to make a small incise cut on to the helmet to make the balance more stable. Below is one example of a balancing toy.

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The One With The Analog Project In Progress

I admit, it is hard to think of a concept and come up with ideas. No I lie, it is not hard to come up with ideas, the hard part is to actually stick with it.

Not trying to sound like a broken record, I am doing on the theme of Construction this whole semester for Interactive Spaces. I feel this direction will allow me to think creatively and also to limit ideas within a smaller frame. Does that make sense?

Below is a mind map that I have construct (pun intended) to allow me to see clearly where can I go with this. I would not have see things clearly if I hadn’t done this mind map actually. What’s interesting is that construction is not always about building things but it could also be tearing down things, like for example, demolishing an old building.

I have an idea of doing a sound installation so I did explore what kind of sound a construction would made and below are some of it which could be more of course. 

What if I could have a space that is able to allow people to experience a soundscape of a construction place. I think that could be cool. But taking inspiration from my previous post on Zul Mahmod’s work, I would like to construct a sound installation based on a data. Making sense of the first assignment where i used the yellow safety helmet, I would continue that series onto the next one. Here’s the one where Zul uses a solenoid motor to make a sound installation.

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So my idea is this; have a helmet in a orderly manner and have these solenoid motor on each one of them to represent the connection between the helmet and a metal, which is a symbolic for construction I feel. Below is the sketches that i made.

The installation would require a little bit of programming as I want the solenoid to hit on interval times according to the data that I wish to tell and one of them is, the number of life is taken in a construction site.

However, after consulting LPD, he say that, the idea would be perfect for the final assignment instead.

So right now, I am going to loan out the Zoom 6 and put underneath the helmet to amplify the echo the helmet made! Be right back.