SEEING THE LIGHT

Our assignment was to make a luminaire based off of the "light phenomenon" photo we took previously. Who knew it would be such an undertaking?!

My phenomenon was of the sun setting behind mini blinds. You could see just a peek of the sun between the blinds. I wanted to capture this peeking of light in my light fixture.

While looking up ideas I stumbled upon the work of Vicente Garcia Jimenez. His use of layering laquered materials and varying the amount of light shown inspired me.

I first made a little sketch model of what i was kind of thinking of doing with mylar. Then i made a prototype out of cardboard.

When I went to make my final piece I discovered that plastic sheeting wasn't as easy to glue as cardboard was. Because it's clear I had to be very careful with my glue choice. I decided to score the sides and use much bigger pieces just for ease.

After playing around with different ways of gluing/attaching pieces I came to the conclusion that if I could paint glue on evenly and apply lots of pressure it would be nearly invisible. I sanded the sides to make them less transparent and glued everything together. The glue took FOREVER to dry so I spent plenty of time at the middle table waiting.

After everything was dry I made a smaller box to cover the bulb because it was still pretty bright. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the box before attaching that piece (also scored) onto the box. I then put the socket through and glued it to the hole. I made little standing pieces to insert in the bottom so that the box was raised and wasn't sitting right on the cord.

with inner box

without inner box

from top

I experimented  with putting mylar between sheets of plexiglass 

I almost used wire but it was too bulky

I almost used brads but they, too, were just bulky

We then had to do technical drawings of our piece along with an expressive drawing. The technical ones weren't hard to draw at half scale but my one regret is that I didn't look closely at my light effect in a dark room before drawing it. I think it would have been much more successful had I done that.

I had some serious challenges with this project (expensive materials, FRAGILE MATERIALS, materials that required much patience, etc) but I really think it turned out well. 

A PEEK AT THE FUTURE?

This week I went to one of the second year critiques. Their assignment (or what they could interpret from Jonathon's long project statement!) was to take a piece of paper and make rules for how it should be folded...this crease should always go here, the folds should be this size...etc. They took their paper designs and blew them up on the computer and turned them into full scale pieces. Some versions ended up in parks, others in urban spaces.

Jasmine shared with us her concept of weaving paper strips together to make something instead of folding it. She focused on weaving and tension folding. She used aluminum mesh since it was already woven and used fishing wire to sew it into the form that she wanted. She used points from her hand to give the model directional tension, something she learned from an earlier assignment about the human body. She shared with us that 3D modeling was definitely harder than expected!

Justin and his group told us about their concept of biomimicry and how they wanted to capture the look of wind and dune formations. To recreate their paper model they used the laser cutter on acrylic and then baked the model in the oven and had to check on it and shape it periodically. They wanted their piece to be placed in an urban setting and were inspired by the light effects it would produce/that would be produced through it in that type of setting.





What did the students have to say about their projects and challenges? They said that even though some of the assignments will be hard to understand, you have to take your interpretation and "keep moving forward!" They also quoted Tommy saying to "always have a beginner's mind." Later that day one of the second years was walking around looking at our studio. He told a few of us that he stopped in at a few of our previous critiques and that the work we've done was much different/even a little better than theirs last year. I'm not sure how true that really is but it's exciting to think about moving forward and creating things like these. Things aren't going to get any easier but they're definitely going to get more interesting!

LUMINAIRES

Our project now (due at the end of November) is to make a luminaire based on our light phenomenon from the earlier project. This is the picture I'll be basing my luminaire off of. 

I looked around on Google for light fixture ideas and I found some of Vicente Garcia Jimenez's work.

I'm thinking about using the layering of strips technique he uses and making a table lamp. I want to leave gaps so that you can still get a peek of the light (like you can still see the sun through the blinds) but I don't want to leave too much space so its blinding either. We'll see what comes of this...

LIGHT: the natural agent that makes things visible...a source of illumination (Webster)

Using flashlights and torches to create amazing "Lightmarks" Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke bring a new definition to light photography. They create these "Lightmarks" in different places in nature, almost contributing to the landscape itself. I know that they experiment with different apertures and camera settings (details are hard to find...on their website they only include a picture of a camera and its settings under the "making of" tab) but what I find to be the most fascinating and intriguing part of their works is the simplistic beauty that they create. The "Lightmarks" don't take away from the beauty of their environments, they only enhance them and add a new element to them. The pairs work can be compared to that of Taylor Pemberton, Lapp Pro, Toby Keller, and even Pablo Picasso. 

website: www.lightmark.de

Pemberton

Pro

Keller

Picasso

WHAT TO DO WITH A 2x4?

The next part of our final project was to familiarize ourselves with the wood shop. We were given a 18 inch long 2x4 piece of wood and were told to cut it at least 5 times in the shop and then reattach the pieces without glue or nails. This caused us to think about joinery and how we'd connect our pieces. After finishing this project, I feel like I could build something way more important. Watch out world, Anna Hambly knows how to use a table saw.

This was my first attempt...a puzzle-like, linear system. The pieces could be rearranged in different ways to make the piece look different.

The different heights and lengths were really interesting to me.

I liked the fact that one could rearrange the entire piece...but it was my first attempt and I really wanted to get the craft right. 

So I made the wood thinner and cleaner-looking. 

The new piece can be tilted in different directions but the pieces aren't able to be rearranged like the first one...mostly due to the different widths that resulted from cutting. I kind of like it better that way, though. Different widths contribute to the different sizes, heights, and arrangements of all the pieces and they really come together to make up one big piece.

Originally I arranged the piece to look this way but I liked the fact that it was able to stand up on its own as well. It's more attention-grabbing that way. I think I plan to put it on a wall somewhere...

SOLAR PHENOMENON

For project 3 we were told to observe and capture a solar phenomenon. This could be anything from the sun shining through trees to light reflected off of a puddle. I took lots of options and on my way to plug my camera into the charger I came across the sunset peeking through mini blinds. I thought it was interesting and knew my camera was pretty good at capturing the whole moment...the sun, the blinds, the dust, the detail of the strings...etc. The picture turned out pretty well.











Then we had to do a drawing of the moment as well as a diagrammatic model of it. I drew a simplified graphite version of the blinds and used color pencil to show how the sunlight took them over. I also researched finding the placement of the sun at a certain date, time, and place. Measuring the two different angles (azimuth and altitude) one can find exactly where the sun was at a certain time. I included this on my board. For my model I made my own mini blinds using reflective paper and string and i found a small one-watt bulb to poke through the board to make my own sun.

If I had the chance to do it again, I'd make the picture and the model the main focuses. The blinds would be longer and the picture would be bigger, commanding more attention. I wouldn't have a title-the picture speaks for itself. The diagram and the drawing would be placed elsewhere...The whole composition would just look better. However I'm not upset with how it turned out.

PROJECT 2

For project #2 we were instructed to "make a container for 12 twigs". This made me really think about the word "container" and all of its synonyms. I wanted to create something that was mainly geometric to "contain" the twigs but also to let them keep their shape and be shown off. I chose to leave the paper white so that the different shades and textures of my different twigs would really be showcased. The boxes are basically one big, interesting frame for the twigs to be displayed in.

First Attempt
I really just wanted to get the shape down before I used better paper. This prototype is made out of Bristol Board which, obviously, is pretty flimsy.

We were told to focus on a certain part of our prototype and to make a "sketch model" of it. 

This is my sketch model. It's made out of Bristol as well but the craftsmanship started to get better...

For my final product I used a cold-press drawing board. I forget the technical name for it. I built the boxes around the sticks (which took a long time and many broken sticks). 

It's not perfect, but it's what I wanted to achieve. 

Front view.

Here's a close-up of the twigs I used. I love the contrast in their textures, colors, and sizes.