I started this project with the ideas of dynamic repair from the 'tools' lecture combined with the idea of using a tool I use daily, a tuning fork, to fulfil another purpose; to measure space.
After researching architecture such as the Seed Cathedral, UK, I discovered that the building was designed through a multiple of digital processes which the designer, Heatherwick, said would argue 'traditional right angle'. I thought about this term 'traditional right angle' and I concluded that I wanted to explore this idea. Heatherwick pushed materials to this limit through seeking creative and personally tailored solutions... I was beginning to make a link to how I worked; I wanted to push the use of a tuning fork to a completely different use through my personal knowledge of how tuning forks work and how I can alter their purpose.
Japanese architects 'save space' by creating upright buildings. They attract buyers to their homes by using 'engawa' (tricking the unknown) which acts as an attractive element to compete with their western competitors. This theory of engawa has been a huge part of this project and I've recalled on it throughout; through the tuning fork idea of not knowing what the outcome will be, to creating my 3D model from the use of sound to measure space. Engawa has really been valuable and I feel I have greatly explored it.
Lucy McRae developed a 'maybe technology' - the possibility of something not been quite turned on or turned off, perhaps in the form of a semi-physical or non-physical matter. I applied this with the fact that interstice is not a physical state or something you can see. It only exists because of its surrounding walls or lack of surrounding walls. The process of taking an interstice and translating it into sound which I could then use to create a visual recording which illustrates the size of the interstice is where McRae gave me the idea to use sound; a non physical, invisible and semi physical matter.
Up until after this stage, my ideas were pretty fluent and I felt confident with where I was going. It wasn't until I didn't know where to take these visual recordings of interstice where I hit a mental block. I thought about creating moving image, a slow motion video to record an interstice using the tuning fork and UV paint but I felt that would limit me as I still wanted to follow my desire to push a material to its limit. So I decided to leave this idea. I then researched Neil Harbisson, the world's first human cyborg who could hear colour. Relating back to non-physical matter, I had always wanted to see my brain when I had a seizure; perhaps on an MRI scan or in colour but I couldn't further this more than a mere idea so instead of wasting time, I mind mapped some new ideas relating back to dynamic repair. I decided to repair space that already existed continuing with the tuning fork process, I would create a structure that could record an existing interstice.
I then researched Ele Carpenter in a book, 'Power of Making'. Following the industrial revolution, Carpenter developed a theory that people were losing their sense of skilling and knowing how to create and make the things that they needed. I wanted to learn one or more new skills and my final outcomes would be created using those new skills. I decided a modern skill, digital process (Adobe Flash), would be one and a traditional skill, woodwork, would be the other.
I think my research really was vital to my project. Everyone and everything which I have researched, from theory to designer, has been really influential and beneficial to me in some way and because of this, my ideas were constantly being 'updated' and developed into something that reflected who I am and how I think. I particularly was pleased with my new learned skills and how I decided I would do that just because I read a book. I also like how I have challenged some fairly common materials and matters, a tuning fork and spacial surroundings, to recreate something that was already there although I had to problem solve throughout the project, I believe that is a valuable thing to be able to do.
However, up until the making of my 3D outcome, I was really pleased with how my project was turning out and the theories I had behind it. For me, learning wood work within a few remaining weeks that I had left was a risk I took that ended in an outcome I feel has let my project down. The wood work tutor which I went to for a tutorial, I found, was very unwilling to co-operate with my idea and he couldn't understand what I wanted to do. This should have been my first port of call to abort the woodwork idea but still, I persevered and I have come out with an object that does reflect my research and does represent the recordings with what I found. Overall, I have really enjoyed ART 4107 and I have learned new things I will continue to work on.
END OF ART 4107
