HUMAN FORM

i was so excited when i saw the assignment description for creating a piece that would interact with the human form. As a concept I had originally thought of making furniture that would need the body for structural support, however upon talking to Arlando and hearing his idea of making bags i thought it would be interesting to synthesize those two thoughts. The result was a concept for a bag that would unfold into a chair/ rest for busy people on the go ( avid travelers in airports!). Then i began to think of rebozos and how they are completely streamlined and simple vessels that interact with two bodies, they need the weight of the baby to pull on the mother to create a friction that will keep the baby inside and distribute his weight. I loved this idea and felt that using that as a point of reference for the chairbag was a good idea. However, I really had a difficult time trying to communicate with Arlando, and similarly he had a difficult time trying to communicate with me. I felt that what was important to me for this assignment, and that what had driven me to want to take the class, was my initial impression that this class selected it's members with the idea in mind of gathering people from different disciplines so that IDEAS could hold as much importance as the PROCESS. However it seemed to me that i was more about the idea, the concept the symbolic while Arlando wanted to start building right away- to explore materials to get ideas. I think our styles of learning in terms of this project were criss-crossed. However, he was extremely patient and ultimately we found that we could best communicate using video and image references than by directly talking. I think I have begun to learn new ways to communicate ideas, but I am still unsure about how much Ideas are a part of this class. I like philosophy, I like poetry, I like anthropology, I thought we would have had more of a discussion about these things and how they could relate to the projects more than we currently do. However i think i may have misinterpreted the emphasis of the class.

SKILLS

photoshop ::3

corel painter ::4.75

imovie::5

final cut::2

word::0

pages::5

FURNITURE ( concept)

oh, power tools! this project was quite a challenge in that the material was very unfamiliar to me and it took me until just about the end of the build to learn how to properly screw wood together ( pilot holes are important!) however, I really liked my concept of a moving bookcase and think that the iteration was a step in a good direction. It was also a process where i learned a lot as i went along and was able to really explore things that i had not originally intended to explore. I was however frustrated by the prospect of having an unfinished, unrefined piece but i was relieved to find that a good concept and a willingness to experiment and maybe fail a little bit is okay. I really admire the technical ability of the BILT guys and even of people like guillome who were able to build things that, well, work. haha however i am hopeful that skill will come with practice!

FOILED AGAIN

this was my first collaboration and i must say, i really enjoyed working with elijah. we were able to communicate well and brainstormed/ worked just about every day of the week the project was assigned. we both had similar aesthetic goals ( clean, simple) so that really helped us narrow down what we wanted to do. ( no crumpled foil!) . the end result was very satisfying despite the critique that it didnt have enough concept behind it. I felt that the assignment was to transform foil into non foil, and so i thought that the elegance of our piece was a fair fulfillment of that goal.

CHAPTER THREE: listen to the foil

i tried to make molds from it, but the hollow space in the middle was just asking to be squished into a small ball. when i made small balls of rolled up shine, they kept asking to become even smaller under the pressure of my palms.

i kept trying.

then i stopped, and just looked at the serene roll of aluminum foil still cozy in it's undisturbed box. I borrowed a little bit of it from it's box home. and folded it over, crisply, the way it liked to be kept smooth. I cut the folds at varying lengths and then tried to figure out how to create curves on the foil. wrapping it around tubes didn't do much. However, i remembered the way ribbon is curled- by some steady pressure of a scissor/knife on the ribbon and a sharp pull of the ribbon itself. I tried the same thing using the steady pressure of an unsharpened pencil. it worked to make the foil curved, an imitation of it's original form in the box..

INTERLUDE: PLAYING

CHAPTER TWO: SUBSET TWO. bread part duex and a new charcter, mr.foil

well, i liked the way the things i made baked, mostly because they looked very similar to what was put into the oven. Since i had made the decision to let the dough be dough, and did not stretch it out it held it's globular shape well.

however, i felt that there was one piece in particular that really managed to control the dough even as it baked. someone put pins on a glob of dough and when it baked the dough had solidified into a shape that looked as if it was being pulled! it was so alive, even though it could no longer be changed since it was already baked. i loved the movement in the piece and decided to use pins in my next bread piece.

as i was experimenting pulling dough with pins i no

ticed that i liked the long strips i was forming and the way they draped on whatever surface they were placed on.

once painted the strips became almost bandage-like, coverings for wooden blocks.

new character: FOIL

this one is tough. but i have some ideas!

i really like the idea of impressions on the foil to draw out tiny patterns onto its pristine surface, to make very calculated, very decisive marks on its flawless form.

then i have these ideas including the one above:

CHAPTER TWO: BREAD EXERCISE

preface: stretch one two three knead four five six throw! pull! add some glass. mmm? bread.

DOUGH IS NOT A MATERIAL I USUALLY(ever) WORK WITH.

that being said, i really liked having the opportunity to play around with it!

SYNOPSIS: well, once i was able to think of dough as a media in which to make NON-EDIBLE objects and as a substance with which to experiment with i began to have fun using it. To me the dough was a base for the dye, glass and rock-salt. I knew immediately that i wanted to use a colorful palate when playing with the dough and worked on dying the rock-salt as well as the dough.. BUT FIRST, i had begun with making "beads" with the dough and dip dying them and putting them on a string - like a garland . however once the rock-salt was brought to my attention i jumped at the idea of changing the texture of the pieces i was making using the dough as a base for the other materials. Most of what i ended up making used the dough as a surface to put stuff on top of. I did try changing the dough itself into different textures by rolling it as flat as possible without ripping and by pressing chains on it to create patterns, however i doubted that the pressed patterns would hold up in the oven.

I really liked the set-up of our workspace because I got a lot of ideas ( about 50%) from observing what other people were doing/ what materials they were using to change the dough.

my pieces were intended to be sculptural jewelry pieces. i suppose only time will tell if they look like anything wearable.

CHAPTER ONE: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT

SYNOPSIS: this is the chapter in which water is boiled, and poured and people share their thoughts whilst steam rises from a kettle.

WATER: something of biological necessity turning into something of cultural value. I am unfamiliar with the kitchen. I do not very often find myself cooking. When this assignment was distributed to the class, I immediately began to think about the project as an art project as opposed to just a dish for people to consume. Hearing that this class would result in a lot of collaboration, I began to think of what ingredients were the bases for most other things. I came up with water. Water could also be enjoyed by everyone in the class - it's i

mpossible to be allergic to it. Communities have historically been built around water, mesopotamia/fertile crescent.. And since this class is to become a community I thought it was fitting.

However, water seemed a bit dull, and in the context of the university, a brimming with students on their way to thayer's many tea shops, i thought it would be nice to make my own blend of tea. Making tea is also an activity my roommate and

I do for eachother, and our friends and our room is the "tea room" so in this way it is representative of my identity.

I painted the tea bags with food coloring for aesthetic (and fun!) purposes. the tea label was sewn on for a little added whimsy on a cold day.

If i were to do this again I would like to experiment with more blends of tea. i would also like to try to work on the packaging, and improve some design flaws: the label kept slipping off on some of the tea bags. I really liked the idea of adding food-coloring to the tea bags ( more people should do this its so rewarding to see the colors explode out when you add water!). I think it might be interesting to do special edition tea bags with landscapes painted on to the bag using food coloring. the possibilities areee endlessssssss. or little greetings on the tea bags. personalized notes.

I was glad that people made FOOD for the project, but expected more symbolism behind the ingredients they chose. I also think had circumstances been different presentation of the dishes could have been expanded upon. I really liked the material possibilities if Ashton's candy and felt that it was a good sweetener for the tea.