FINAL ASSESSMENT II - Threading Through Space
REFLECTION STATEMENT (700words)
"The brain is the only thing that named itself".
With my initial concept of the humanityâs tendency to categorise, this quote triggered the evolution of my idea, shifting from categorisation of people towards focusing more on our desire to name things and organise information in a structured way. Why is it that we feel the need to name things, draw mind maps, flow charts? Is it a territorial issue? Is it wired to our way of living? I began to research the reasons and benefits of humanityâs organisational traits as well as the desire to name the information that we obtain, and ended up with three simple reasons.
To create system in informational chaos
To make an object/thing seem more alive
To claim it as our own (information)
And so, through my research, I began to find ways to portray this organisational structure that we use to accumulate information. I began to look at maps and realised its structural quality exists in many forms of our lives. Itâs branched out lines can be seen in conventional land maps, contour maps; even our human veins and tree branches contained this chaotic yet visually stimulating clustering. Continually intrigued by maps I progressed to consider what kind of materials I could explore to express these shapes.
Because I primarily worked with Photoshop for my initial human poster- something that I was adamantly comfortable with, for my final work, I wanted to challenge myself through exploring materials that I was unaccustomed with. I considered unfamiliar mediums such as videography, stop motion, clay making, wood, ink and using textile materials in conjunction with my information categorisation concept. This opened up a whole new world of incorporating 2D and 3D elements, mixing mediums and sculptural forms. I came across a few artists that were able to show me the potential of clay and 3D forms, such as Alexandra Bruel whoâs hybrid clay sculptures integrated pop art and minimalism to create comical yet symbolic works of art (his clay stop motion âRebusâ (2013)). This inspired me to try clay modelling, however after creating some bone sculptures of a human hand (from home-made air-dry clay), and clustering the individual pieces into symbolic shapes, I felt it wasnât really effective in expressing my concept.
Eventually, I gravitated back towards the web and map like structures that reveal our systematic way of viewing the world through categorisation, and so I began to sketch up some vein patterns with stiff lines, curves and branches. An interactive infographic I stumbled upon by PEER1 Hosting which allowed you to zoom into the âweb of the internetâ likewise presented a beautiful web pattern of information and further inspired me to continue to explore the intricate details of web-like systems, slowing moving away from the âbranchingâ form I initially started off with.Â
Revamping the form that I wanted my final piece to take, I decided to move away from my initial 2D experiments into a 3D work of art. Thus, I began to explore ways to model 3D maps. Through artist Emma Johnsonâs 3D map work, it triggered the idea of working with 2D layers to create something 3D. And so I experimented with layers of white card with stencilled shapes and lines for a 3-dimensional effect. It was relatively aesthetically pleasing but I felt something was amiss, especially noting that there was only a limited amount of layers I could put together before it would become too opaque to see anything behind the first few layers.
I became stuck on this issue for a few days while I frantically tried to think of ways to add more layers without losing transparency. After copious amounts of brainstorming and research I recalled an artist I had seen that also worked in layers: Nobuhiro Nakanishi, a Japanese artist who works with transparent, plastic, layered sheets to create mesmerising 3D landscapes. Ultimately, using clear plastic was the perfect solution to my opacity issue, and so through obtaining PVC sheets, I began to experiment with a number of mediums on top of the plastic, such as ink, knife scratching, paint and thread. Because plastic was such a foreign material for me, it was difficult to determine which medium overlay would work best, however after numerous trials, I decided that thread was surprisingly bold and effective in relaying my veiny map-like shapes.
My final work presents a 3D âwebâ in 18 layers of threaded PVC held in place, evenly spaced (3.5cm) on a long polystyrene board. The web gradually transitions from chaotic veins to a structured system through the red to blue thread to represent how we translate information into knowledge by categorising, naming and organising. In a way, it almost seems like we work as robots, processing the things we see, hear, smell everyday into memories, experiences and opinions. A paradox in itself. The transparent layers reveals the intricacy of the web and the progression of our categorising process. I decided to create a red to blue gradient as red is often seen as a colour of tension and chaos, in contrast to a cool and calming aura to blue. Ultimately, experimentation and research of material/practical dominated the evolution of my final major project, contrasting my initial human poster which primarily focused on conceptualism. In this respect, I was able to challenge myself as hoped, in terms of expressing my concept through unfamiliar and thus, more difficult means. Â
Web structure inspiration: http://www.peer1.com/map-of-the-internet-infographic
Nobuhiro Nakanishi - Layered PVC research: http://www.spoon-tamago.com/2012/04/26/layer-drawings-by-nobuhiro-nakanishi/
Why we name things research: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5285531
The naming of names research: http://www.quora.com/Why-do-we-name-things
Francois Robert - âStop the violenceâ Bone symbolism work: http://thedesigninspiration.com/articles/stop-the-violence-bone-art-by-francois-robert/
DIY Air-dry clay recipe video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx0YufAcjcU
Mitch Doueihy - Minimalistic design layouts: http://mitchdoueihy.com/
Alexandra Bruel - Pop art clay sculptures: https://www.behance.net/alexandrabruel
Emma Johnson - layered map art: http://www.marycnasser.com/blog/friday-favorite-emma-johnson
Water Ink - Solidarités International: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq9mw8wR-1Q
