Methods of Inquiry Blog

[ulrikfs]

The final layout of my mapping project

[ulrikfs]

Mapping Project Reflection.

Throughout this semester my own self expectations have been defied and I have been pushed far beyond the reaches of my comfort zone to discover new interests and skills of which i had no idea I was capable of. Moreso than an artistic experience, this class has helped me begin development of stronger social skills, although with some hiccups along the road. The sequence project was my true wake up call to the importance of team work and strong communication, particularly as this project in fact was all about communicating and sharing ideas, something which I in particular and my partner struggled with as we had to quickly come up with ideas last moment and attempt to discuss them without actually knowing what the other person had in mind. The kinds of interactions paired with short time span of which we could meet and discuss had me place the project lowest on my class priority list and overall I felt highly uncomfortable throughout the entire thing.

Up came the body extension project. Because of my low-end social nature I had assumed once again I would be paired with the last available students within the class or someone who did not wish to work with me on said project and be forced to be the one to take responsibility for every choice the group. However, Right off the bat, I was impressed at the direct and forward Involvement of all four of my teammates, Isaac, Rachel and Grace who were all free to open thinking with plenty of ideas each and a willingness to hear out what everyone had to say. Unlike my previous project, plenty of time was set aside to meet up for group discussion and ideation as well as practice, our final project managed to extract the best ideas from everyone and somehow merge them together. In fact after our performance when we met, we set time aside to take some fun pictures along with the required class materials and the involvement of everyone in everything might have been the single best group experience I have ever had.

Now onto the final project itself:

My final project consists of 5 drawings made in pencil and marker of various objects. I have chosen every object based on the ones that I normally interact with during my daily cycle and made modified each of them to receive some form of organic aspect, whether that be teeth, a face or butterfly wings. Each object is intended to illustrate a certain perspective on various social situations in which the object is involved or used and this is highlighted by the seemingly out of place characteristics which have been given to each drawing, however they are intended to be ambiguous and as such the viewers interpretation may not fall into line with my own to demonstrate a side of their own character. Furthermore they have been an exploration of color and texture to varying degrees of success. Art: Visualization has been a major influence on my experience this semester, however I felt cheated of the rendering experience as we focused far more on ideation and quick thinking which left me burning to use that set of Copic markers I blindly threw far more money at than I care to admit. I decided against adding a description of every object as I felt it would take away from the experience of reaching ones own conclusion, however I have included the scrapped design for the written aspects I had planned to use in this post, which I created by warping an image in Photoshop into an entirely unrecognizable state.

Socially, mentally and physically, this has been my most productive semester yet and I hope to continue to maintain this upward curve throughout my years here at Umich.

[ulrikfs]

Fictitious centipede doorhandle

[ulrikfs]

Butterfly napkin dispenser

[ulrikfs]

Whale outlet

[ulrikfs]

I drew this fictional centipede/snake creature for art visualization and quite like it, so i may use it as the basis for the next drawing in my mapping project.

[ulrikfs]

Headphones colored in

[ulrikfs]

Headphones progress. I plan to color them in tomorrow

[ulrikfs]

Every morning i have a set routine of things I do.

There are certain objects i interact with every day.

Each I have assigned a mental subconscious personality.

My most enjoyable projects this semester overall have centered around the use of markers as well as the body extension project.

I have not had an opportunity to appropriately explore the possibilities of using markers.

I don’t want to simply copy down various objects.I wish to explore ways to modify existing objects without taking away from their core features.

[ulrikfs]

[isaac-a-mangold]

Group Reflection:

Our project consists of four individual body extensions with single functions designed for the transport of a large cardboard disk. When each group member is arranged in a specific direction and order, it achieves the desired result of landing the disk into the box. We were first informed by the interactivity of Alan Bigelow’s poem “This Is Not A Poem,” and its use of impairment as a strength. Creating confusion and limitation were priorities of ours, and we did so by exploring a success/fail scenario in the form of a puzzle.

The sequential, specialized functions within a Rube Goldberg machine also inspired us. We decided to perform specific, predetermined actions to both create complications for the audience and suggest a mechanization of the human body. Our disconnection with the audience was first established by presenting instructions on the wall, and we continued on by acting unresponsive to all but the positioning of our designated signs. Our neglect to interact fostered human connection and collaboration of our peers in contrast. Conversely, our own “mechanization” produced interesting occurrences throughout the presentation in which our “human” side shined through; for example, we would accidentally express emotions of excitement or shock.

During our process we soon learned our best approach was to work backwards, first deciding our end goal, then working out the specifics of our individual body extensions. Trial and error was a big factor as well, within our brainstorming and rehearsing.

We were reliant on audience interaction to inform the outcome of our performance. Our project ultimately became an exploration of “utilitarian empathy,” or developing an understanding of others through necessity. In our early stages of planning, we played the “plumbing” game, blindfolded and directed by our peers, to test the waters regarding audience interaction—specifically simulating the connections that occur between impairment and utilitarian empathy. Within this game they had to empathize by discovering an effective way to direct Ulrik to play. In our final piece, this held up. It really portrayed the classroom dynamic; also, people who don’t normally speak up were contributing their voice. We were pleasantly surprised by the way the class came together in order to solve the problem.

[isaac-a-mangold]

[ulrikfs]

Catapult Hat (worn)     The hat is designed to take into account I was the tallest member of my group for this project and is made to reach the max height another of the extensions in the group could reach. Although the final conclusion was to have me crouch down to make placement of the puck easier, all was not in vain as the added height allowed a second function to take place: throwing the puck onto the following extension to cover a distance previously unreachable by all the other extensions.

    The Catapult Hat features an elegant extension for extra added height, not just for leverage but also simply to emphasize my own personal height which plays a large part of my daily life.

[ulrikfs]

Catapult Hat     The final edition of the Catapult Hat features two indents for two separate manners in which to launch the compatible pug component. The box shape is place on the head and is held back and flipped forward to launch the puck.

    I was quite surprised at the sheer sturdiness of this piece upon completion. Every surface is comprised of 3-4 sheets of cardboard and i found in fact it was sturdy enough to use as a chair for my own weight. The initial plan was to build a standard spoon shaped catapult on top, however i had not considered what a challenge attaching a cylindrical shape that could withstand the resistance of the puck we assembled. The cardboard we had to work with came in sheets and suddenly it occurred to me- why not make two pieces i could attach next to each other on top to serve as the scaffolding with an indent to push the projectile? And so i did. Now that i had all the extra excess pieces, i used those to make a second catapult between the two plates where the puck could be inserted like a coin for a further throw, but still requiring the same motion.

[rachelautumn]

Behind the scenes: trial and error

[ulrikfs]

My group created a disk to use with our body extension project

[ulrikfs]

I completed the basic structure for which my body extension will be built upon.