We were told to create three letter Ds which each reflected a different emotion. To make the letters we only had materials that we had found in or around the university. At first I was quite doubtful that we would be able to make anything out of these materials but I was pleasantly surprised by my results.
The first D I made reflects the feeling of confusion.
The second D is based off of feeling frustrated.
And finally the third D is reflecting the feelings of strength and determination.
In groups we were set the task of building a bridge out of cardboard, elastic bands and bamboo sticks, which a remote control car would have to cross and a “boat” would have to go underneath.
We decided to use the cardboard as a base and have bamboo sticks underneath as supports. One issue we had was that the bridge would not stay high enough for for the boat to pass underneath, to fix this we added some suspension using elastic bands.
We had to make a structure that would be able to hold 3 balls and they couldn’t be touching. To do this we had dry spaghetti and a glue gun. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be as the spaghetti kept snapping and things wouldn’t necessarily stay the way you wanted them.
We then photographed our structures with the balls on and in different ways.
Then we were told to make a protective cover for our structures and for this we just had paper and an arms length of masking tape. I covered the whole surface in paper and then made a big cone shape for the top as I think that’s the best shape to deflect any force.
A basket ball was then dropped on each of our structures, I think mine withstood the force very well and managed to survive for the most part.
We were instructed to write down all the birthday presents we had ever had on a big piece of paper. At first I found this really difficult as it was hard to think of presents you got so long ago but once you started it became easier as different things triggered your memory and came back to you.
After we had written all the presents we could remember down we were told to cut out all of the white paper leaving only a stream of words. This was quite difficult as the words still all had to be attached together. But once you had done it you got a really nice 3D piece.
We hung and put our pieces in different places to take pictures of them. We then all hung our pieces in front of the projector which created a really beautiful shadow installation. We also cut some objects out of paper and put them on the floor. I think it turned out really well and it looked like a kind of explosion.
We made props for the person sitting opposite us then drew them with continuous line as well as not looking.
We also did it listening to music changing our pen or mark making tool to match the beat of the music.
I liked doing this however I found it difficult to not look at the paper.
I experimented with different things I could make for my final piece. I decided to make a kind of vest garment using my zig zag shapes.
I don’t think the mock up looks very good but for the final piece I’ll make it neater and sew all the shapes together.
I really enjoyed our life drawing session. I liked how we started off with quick thirty second drawings just trying to capture the shape of the body and then we gradually built up the time and began to focus more on proportion.
I feel like my drawings got a lot better the more we did and I think it was really effective when we started adding colour.
We placed our samples on the mannequin in different ways and photographed it, looking at what looked most effective.
I liked the way the shoe mould looked and worked with the body.
I also liked how bold and strong the zigzag shape looked, it made a big impact on the body.
The first sample we made was a mould of our shoe, to do this we wrapped masking tape around half the shoe, layering it up until it was thick enough to peel off and keep its shape. We then took a picture from one section of our research, mine was Art Deco, and picked out a simple shape from it and drew that on to the shoe. I liked the shape that I got from the sample over all
The second sample was also taken from a shape from one of our pictures, it was made just from white paper. The third sample followed the same concept but was made up of masking tape and white paper.
The lift was a short documentary film based solely in a lift of a block of flats, with the camera man asking the residents questions. It relates to the theme of descent in multiple ways, firstly the lift itself is descending, I really like the shots of the lift shaft as the structure you can see is not something you normally would. It also relates to the theme of descent as many of the residents talk about their daily descents in life, you can also see their walls descend as they become more comfortable talking to the camera man.
