A new year means a new project. January brought the interesting project title of “Body support”. Such a broad topic needed a lot of thorough thinking. To start this process, I engaged in a group discussion where many people, all with different ways of thinking and specialities, this meant that new directions and possibilities were exposed to me. I always find that working with new people can evolve your thinking towards topics.
After the group discussion I started curating my initial inspirations and themes that I wish to carry forward and capture in my final outcome, but also the foundation to my research. The strong themes featured in my work include negative space, contrast, shadow, and scale. I knew at this stage that I wanted to take a more psychological approach to the project and decided to start looking at the work of Tim Noble and Sue Webster. Their chaotic yet refined pieces, for me, summed up what I wanted to achieve with my project. Even though their work may have a more sinister effect than I plan to have, their cleverly placed items really inspired me to try to create a similar effect in my work.
Research is an integral part to this project and how it will affect my journey. My initial research though broad started to narrow down towards the work of Noble and Webster. Though after discussion the names of Cornelia Parker, Tord Boontje, Tom Dixon and more were introduced to me.
After looking at their work I considered how I could alter my designs to make it more functional. As I was playing with how shadow and lighting could be used, it only seemed logical that I could use my design as a base for a lamp. My original design was to create a full human figure however, I then thought about just creating a hand; it acts as a support for a bulb.
As a result of my new direction with this project, i started compiling hand studies that would help me to design and later make my final outcome. it was also during this time that we went on our trip to Amsterdam, i used this time to explore the museums and galleries in a new way of immersing myself in 3D design. I also kept a small sketchbook with me and made small observational drawings of hand formations that i saw on the trams and in cafes. overall i would say that although the hand drawings helped in the planning stage of my work, they didn't help too much when it came to getting the correct measurements and positioning when trying to solder all the various components together.
The next point of this project leads me to starting to design and rationalise what i was going to do. Below are the design pieces that I took into the workshop to work from and to show others where I intended to take this project. At this point I thought I knew which items I would need to make the structure, although as I started to discuss how the piece was going to come together the technical demonstrators pointed out to me that more support may need to be added as the weight and size of the frame increased.
The beginning of the week means a new group critique. During this time I started to relay to my tutor how my plans had changed. Different techniques were bought to my attention as well as new problems that I might face.
