Cardboard Chair Final Product

First round of pictures of my cardboard chair

Total Construction time: 16.5 hours

Cardboard Chair Process

Our second project this semester was to build a cardboard chair that illustrates the idea of duality in a particular relationship. My chair was about a complex relationship with a long history and a sturdy, deeply rooted foundation. I also included both geometric and curving shapes that allude to the nature of the relationship. The structural geometric shapes represent the strong foundation of friendship that this relationship is based upon. The curving shapes of the chair both contrast and compliment the geometric ones and represent the romantic part of this relationship.

The first part of the project was to build a chair from a 4x4 sheet of cardboard without using any adhesives or removing any cardboard. I started the process by creating models from bristol board.

After model making I continued to build the box chair.

This chair was a good experiment because it helped me grasp the structural principles of working with cardboard as well as the cutting techniques that would become useful later on in the process.

Next I began sketching and designing my final "duality" chair. 

                     

More model building...

Construction begins...

Valentines.

Color Theory Study in BDS.

Made a card for my friend Jake.

Displays Bezold effect/color assimilation,  color vibration/vibrating boundaries, and simultaneous contrast.

Website Reactions

Kendall Buster's website was absolutely fascinating. His projects are complex, immersive, and beautiful. Buster seems to like to take structures, often metal skeletons, and encase them in a membrane to create interesting shapes and patterns. Many of his works are all white. Some have color but all are monochromatic and create a sense of unity. Buster also works on a very large scale and his projects interact with the area they are in as well as the viewer and their vantage point. Although his work does not appear to be particularly functional it is very interactive and beautiful.

Martin Puryear's MoMA site was far less impressive. Puryear works on a much smaller scale, creating sculptural objects with little purpose. Some are extremely complex and woven together or carefully crafted but most are very simple. The thing I found most interesting about Puryear's work was the materials and techniques he uses to create the objects. I have little interest in the final objects or even Puryear's intentions in creating them, but I would be very interested to learn more about his process and his techniques. The only work of Puryears that I responded to was the crooked ladder. I found both its size and its meandering path to be quite intriguing. I felt it stood out because it had less to do with the craft and the materials and more to do with the visual impact.

Bright Minds, Beautiful Ideas Essay

The Universal Designer

                Design is a complex and abstract idea. Design has no concrete definition. Design is constantly being reevaluated, restructured, and reinvented. However, design does have some fundamental characteristics and processes that can be applied to almost any design problem. Ed Annink and Ineke Schwartz’s book, Bright Minds, Beautiful Ideas, explores some of these universal characteristics by analyzing the life and works of four influential designers from different times and places. Personally, I identified most with the last two designers mentioned in this book.

All of these designers share a common compulsion to explore and analyze the world they live in. Through this analysis they seek insight into the inner workings of our world and in so doing strive to make it a better place. All four of these designers draw their inspiration from a wide range of sources. Through cross-disciplinary thinking and collaboration these designers are able to connect dots and fix problems that were considered unsolvable.  The level on which these designers think and operate is a lofty one. Most of their projects and studies involve very abstract and highly conceptual ideas. More often than not, it seems that their work’s goal is not necessarily an attempt to create something useful, but instead to illustrate a new way of thinking about and approaching a problem. A way of thinking that can be applied to other scenarios in a very useful way. Through the exploration of their respective works and their answers to similar interviews we can see how these certain fundamental principles are universally tied to “good design.”

The first designer discussed in this book was Bruno Munari (1907-1998), a designer from Italy. Munari focuses on fantasy and the exploration of the unexpected. He takes things we already have and know about and transforms them into imaginary and useful new objects and inventions. The work of Bruno Munari varied greatly, covering a wide spectrum of fields. In the text Munari is described as being “the first critic to see design as a coherent whole of demand, process, and thinking, with which it became totally separate from the product.” This separation from the product is an interesting idea. Design is a universal concept. It does not apply to a specific product or object. Munari’s philosophy defines design as something that can be applied to any situation and any object. It is not about the problem it is about the way that problem is approached, thought about, and solved. One thing that is tossed around a lot by all of the designers is the issue of fashion or trend. Munari believed that fashionable items were derived from what the “original” or “real product. He alleged that in order to avoid something that would be a fad and fade away as the years went by, an object must be designed to fill a new purpose or produce a new solution to a pressing problem. Munari believed in making truly timeless products.

The Eameses were the next designers that Ed Annink and Ineke Schwartz focused on in this book. Charles and Ray Eames (1907-1978 and 1912-1988) are an extremely influential, American, design super-couple. The Eameses worked largely in product design that related to furniture. The Eames’ philosophy towards was design was that it should “improve the world.” On fundamental characteristic of design that pervades throughout this book is that design is a problem solving reaction to the world and environment. In the case of the Eameses this is particularly true. A designer must keep in mind the demand of the time in order to create a product that will be successful. The Eameses worked through the Depression and World War Two. Both of these periods greatly affected their careers. During the depression designers were expected to help support consumerism and try to bolster the economy. When the Second World War started, Charles Eames was hired to design plywood apparatuses such as leg splints for the war effort. This response to a demand is what allows designers to be versatile and successful. I found the Eames idea of “democratized” design very interesting. Often times design is considered to be elitist and for only those who can afford such a “luxury.” The Eameses believed in making design affordable and helpful to everyone, an idea that is still relevant and important today. I also appreciated Eames’ question of “who says pleasure is not useful?” I value entertainment and so does our culture. It is a useful and important part of our world and it is nice to hear such a prodigious designer agree.

The third person “designer” this book discusses does not classify himself as a designer, or even an artist. Martí Guixé ( considers himself an “ex-designer.” He felt his work was outside the conventions of both art and design fields. In order to rectify this, he de-labeled himself. I identified with Martí Guixé more than the first two designers because he is a more contemporary figure whose work I can relate to better. I particularly liked his illustrations and his quirky sense of humor and playful nature. I also admire his decision to disassociate himself with a specific field scene whether it be art or design. I find the squabbling amongst artists and designers about what is what to be very pointless. Part of being cross disciplinary and subjective means that things shouldn’t have to have a label. Although I might not be able to directly relate, I understand and respect Martí Guixé’s philosophy of designing systems and ideas instead of designing products. The systems and ideas that are behind everything are where the true genius lies. Although I do agree with some of his points, I don’t share his complete dislike of products. He seems very anti-society and anti-consumerism. I particularly like some of his design work. I think that the ruler and subway map tattoos are an ingenious reinvention of a common part of our world. I also found his branded advertising food idea to be amazing. Coming up with a win-win design scenario is rare. I hope that sponsored food actually finds a place in our world. I enjoyed perusing his sketches and designs. The Plant-Me Pet were simple and playful but innovative. I feel that I could apply many of the ideas that Martí Guixé uses when I work on my assorted design projects this semester. Using humor and more out of the box thinking could open my eyes to new ideas and directions. I need to evaluate problems with an open mind and a variety of different perspectives in order to see as many solutions as possible.

The final designer of Bright Minds, Beautiful Ideas is a man named Jergen Bey (1965). I found Bey to be the most relatable of the four designers in this book.  Bey comes across as a much more down to earth individual than the others. I dislike hoity-toity designers/artists who speak in an over the top and overly abstract manner. Jergen Bey is humble and admits that even he has his own limitations. I relate well to his outlook of design as a re-creation or reevaluation of existing conventions. He considers “wanting to think or create something new [as] bizarre, for every… solution we can possibly dream of… already exist in the world around us.” He humbly accepts that the solutions to all of our problems already exist, waiting to be found and implemented. While Jergen Bey was being interviewed by Ineke Schwartz he was asked about beauty and its relationship with design. He asked the interviewer what is beauty? I liked this question because personally I have always believed that beauty is relative. Something that is ugly may be beautiful in its design and purpose if not its looks. One idea that Bey makes is that design is a response to something, because of this design should fit that which it is responding to. The circumstances and environment that a project is being made for must be kept in mind at all times. If a design does not meet the demands and parameters of its situation then it cannot be successful. This mindfulness of the context in which Bey designs is recognizable in his work. I admittedly don’t relate to Bey’s work as much as Martí Guixé’s but I prefer his personality, approach, and philosophy concerning design. His work reflects the idea of taking found objects and turning them into something new and useful. Bey forces the viewer to look at objects in a new light. Some of these processes can be applied to projects this semester, particularly my current chair project. The “Healing” series of furniture made me reconsider the way I am approaching my chair designing process. Seeing a functional part, like the leg of the chair, being used for a different purpose, really opens up my eyes.

Through exploring the life and works of these four designers has helped me concretely define the fundamental characteristics of design-oriented thinking. By combining open-minded and cross-disciplinary thinking with a questioning and creative outlook I will be able to solve new problems. Martí Guixé and Jergen Bey have both offered me inspiration and insight that I will be able to apply to the rest of my semester in Thinking and Making.

Photo Collage Project

Project Brief

For this project we were asked to create a photo collage that illustrates something about a person or place. This photographic portrait collage had to focus on mapping time and space. In concern to space we were expected to explore perspective and the transformation of a 3-D space onto a 2-D image. Both of these concepts had to be explored in one way or another. We were told to learn more about photography, both by studying and participating in it. We were also assigned to read numerous articles and watched several videos that would give us new perspectives on photography.

Project Reflection

Before this project I was never very interested in photography. I took pictures on vacations and used it casually to document events and art projects. After this project, I can honestly say I have a much deeper appreciation for the discipline. The articles we were assigned to read gave me a better understanding of what it was to be a photographer and also about what photographs really mean to us as people. Through the experience of building this collage I was faced with many challenges and processes that I was before unfamiliar with. Overall this project has been a very educational experience. I am by no means about to switch to be a photo media major but I am able to appreciate photography and hopefully integrate it with my future projects and studies

I started the project off thinking that I was going to do something involving pictures of my laptop. I was originally pretty set on this idea but I was soon drawn to a new unanticipated direction that yielded nice results. I combine two of my original ideas involving a spectrum of emotions and a meal with my friend. Using numerous photos taken from different angles and locations I stitched together a collage of my friend conversing around a round table with different “shards” of herself.

The end result was rather rewarding and it was a fun project that had a lot of potential and creative freedom attached. The final product ended up being a lot bigger than I expected. It was quite a task to assemble and fitting all of the pieces together was like putting together a giant complex puzzle.

If I had could go back and do this project again I would take some time to do at least one more photo shoot and test collage before moving onto my final one. The project I took on require a great deal of planning and I defiantly could of done a little more of that. It surprised me how much being an inch over could drastically change your lighting and perspective completely.

One issue I ran into was maintain a balance between creating a visually interesting image and creating something that was easy to understand and look at. After my big test collage I was worried that I wasn’t going to have enough color. As a result, I overcompensated for this in my next, and final, photo shoot. This helped add interest but also introduced a lot of chaos that was hard to knock down. To balance this out I mounted it on white poster board and eliminated some of the objects on the table. As a whole I am very pleased with how this project turned out.

 Final Product:

Response to 'Camera Lucida'

Roland Barthes writes very passionately about photography, claiming that light is not only what makes a photograph works, but also what makes it so special. Barthes says that it was the chemists, not the painters that "invented" photography. He expounds on the wonders of black and white photos and he admits to his disinterest in color.

Personally I found Barthes' paper to be rather fluff filled, but I liked some of his points concerning a photographs direct connection to reality. He talks about how a photograph is the record of light that has literally been touched by its subject. Scientifically speaking he is completely right and I find that concept absolutely fascinating.The idea of capture and image or an experience might not be full understood if you don't think about photography in this way.

Barthes also makes some good points about how a photograph gives concrete proof of the things that have been. He says photography adds a certainty to the past that was not around before its invention. I found this point very interesting as well. Humans are extremely visually oriented. If you here a story you ask to see the proof. There is so much uncertainty about our pre-photography history and even more so about our prehistoric. Photography made similar leaps in cataloging our existence as did the introduction of written history.  The further we progress the more densely thorough our recent visual history will become.

Although this article offered a few interesting ideas I felt that it was the least helpful of our assigned readings or videos. Barthes seemed to talk a lot without saying much of anything useful. I don't believe it added anything to the other articles we have covered during this project.

Response to Susan Sontag's 'On Photography'

  Susan Sontag's article focused mainly on the significance of photographs and their importance within society. She says the photographs shape our views of the world. She talks about the time before photography and reminds us how revolutionary its presence has been within our world. Without photography we would not be able to experience far of places and people. Photography has extended our visual vocabulary and by extension our world view. She describes the photographs of the world as "an anthology of images." By perusing this anthology we can learn a great deal about things we would otherwise never know.

Before reading this article, I had never really given much thought to how much photographs have changed my life and the way I experience my world. It is hard for me to imagine a world without photography, especially now where images are integrated with everything I come in contact with. Now, I don't only better appreciate their importance but I understand the powerful impact they can make upon those who view them. Although these ideas may not relate directly to the project at hand, I now see it is important to develop an understanding and appreciation for this integral part of the modern life. Sontag says that photographs are evidence of certain realities. The truth associated with photographs can be used to our advantage when creating this project. Because of the fact that we are dealing with multiple photographs that document different perspectives and different times we are able to tamper with this reality when we combine these different images. Creating illusions from something that promises reality can create a powerful effect if done correctly. Perhaps something to keep in mind as I work on my own collage...