Month: March 2018

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Research Critique 3: Glitch & The Art of Destruction (Micro-Project 5)

In the ‘art of destruction’ project, we had to incorporate bits of elements from glitch art and the idea of destruction – both as an act to portray the artistic expression.

Our group (Fizah, Naomi, Azizah and me), did a stop-motion video of a living flower “decaying” by having us each destroying it.  We took pictures of the whole process and compile them in a video. First, we plucked the flower out from the other plants. Then we cut the flower petals, tried to burn it, stabbed it with a penknife and stepping on it. We further emphasised the idea of ‘deteriorating one’s life’ by coming up with a poem with words of aggravation towards the flower, (what you heard in the video) to go alongside the process of it.

The fact that it is a living thing, it just emphasises on the “decaying” and deteriorating in it’s original quality which here is, the quality of it’s life (that itself is an art form of nature). And that destruction process in the video, is a new quality of an artwork. Similarly for the ending, where the quality of it is it’s death.

But during the process of destroying it, the problem we faced was to actually make it look like it decayed. Due to the fact that the destruction process seemed forced as we gave ourselves instructions on what to do to it, some parts was a failure because

1) we couldn’t get the flower to burn no matter how many times we tried due to the wind blowing the other direction

2) stabbing it with a penknife was quite stupid considering there’s not really much effect seen from that act of destruction.

Yet we still put in whatever pictures we had into the video, which was what made the artwork inconsistent – we had different process pictures of destruction that did not add up with the nice flow of our poem spoken. Also, we did not have the time to clear out the background noises when we were citing the poem. However, instead of editing the background noises out, we let it be the way it was. Even with the inconsistency of the other things, we embraced it and let it be part of our artwork.

The mess in the process is like a glitch, parallel to the process of the destruction of the flower. Everything in this is what I call an ‘Art of Destruction’. Both literally (what we did to the flower) and not literally (the mess in the process).

In Randall Packer’s  interview with Chip Lord, by “examining the impact of mass media in American culture”  Ant Farm stages an explosive collision of two of America’s most potent cultural symbols: the automobile and television. This artwork (performance) called Media Burn embraces the idea of destruction as well to portray their criticism towards the American’s obsession with media.

In Randall Packer’s conversation with Jon Gates “Hyperallergic”, Gates said that “But from a dirty new media perspective, what you might want to be doing is “rebugging,”…..instead of debugging and refining those errors and glitches and noise…. “and pushing different aspects of the machine worlds to see their thresholds, and experiment, and play”. This is what we are trying to do: we experiment and now it is time to leave that ‘noise’ in our work be, instead of taking it out like we usually do in our process towards a ‘good artwork’ and instead allow it to be part of our artwork itself – an art of destruction.

 

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Micro-Project 5: Art of Destruction

Group members: Fizah, Azizah, Naomi, me

Medium: Video/stop-motion

Idea: Destroying the original quality of a living thing – seeing it’s life deteriorate. Aside from using physical sharp objects, we also used words of aggravation towards the flower, as a way to slowly kill it’s ‘soul’. But also seeing the mess in the video process (the background noise in our recording, the pictures in the end that don’t fit to the flow of the poem constructed) as an error embraced, part of the whole art of destruction.

 

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Form and Visualisation: Sketches & Model-Making of Assignment 1

For this assignment, our task was to create a mobile phone dock where the product can not only fit the phone into it but could also function as 2 things:

a speaker, a charging port.

Below are some sketches on the initial ideas I had before choosing which one of it I want to create. My processes into designing the model are below these sketches as well.

Brainstorming ideas: 

For my first idea, it could function as stated above but I didn’t think of making the phone screen obvious for the user to check their phones once in a while when they have to. So I didn’t really like my first idea as it was not a good product design. Hence moving onto the 2nd idea below.

The design above was inspired by my spectacle box.

Instead of keeping spectacles inside, it will be the phone kept in there, especially when needed to charge. Hence the charging port will be inside the box. The speaker is designed in the outer portion of the box. It can serve as an open and close box, for safe-keeping of your phone as well!

But I wanted more of a minimalistic, unique design. A different kind of geometric form, such as an octagon.

I was excited about this idea so I tried executing it. But the first time I did it, I did it without the right measurements so it ended up bad like this:

It did not even have a proper geometric shape hence an unsuccessful attempt. So I did another attempt, using a bigger foam to form an octagon model.

However I didn’t like it that much due to the fact that it has more of a cube form than an octagon.

So I decided to swerve my thought into another idea: a Diamond form. Still a geometric form but uniquely different because of how it will end up to be.

Like the picture above, I wanted to take two pyramids from last semester’s pyramid form I made to create a diamond when attached together.

My pyramid from last year’s Foundation 3D class

It looks perfect and all but i needed to make it in a bigger size to fit my iPhone 7 Plus phone into it. This is where the real challenge starts: I forgot how to create a pyramid form.

So of course my first attempt into creating it becomes this:

Yet again, unsuccessful.

But with my friend’s help and the right measurements and learning again how to cut the cube to a pyramid by slanting the wire from the machine foam cutter, I managed to create the right ones (after 2 hours of cutting and getting it right) and form it into my diamond:

I created the slit to put my phone in it BEFORE i pasted the 2 pyramids together. Hence, i needed to really cut and follow through the right measurements of my phone to let it fit in.
Inspired by superhero movies like Guardians Of Galaxy or Black Panther to come up with the shape and colour.

And here it is, my final model for the mobile phone dock 🙂

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Form and Visualisation: Research for Assignment 1

Research 

For this project, we needed a model structure where it could function as two things: a speaker and as a phone holder where the phone could charge as well. I researched on the form and structure – how I imagined it too look like first.

Initially I wanted it flat, something that could be put into a carved out book cover:

Or when the phone could be charged on the palm of a hand, literally:

But I didn’t want it too simple like the book idea, and I was more attracted into the minimal designs that are of both organic and geometrical, and unique like the ones below:

So I decided to cut out the styrofoam into the measurement and styles I wanted as close to above, such as an Octagon form or a Diamond form which could also hold my phone well. (You can see this on my “Sketch and Model-Making” post!)

I also searched up on the usage of speakers and the kinds of structure they come in.