DoubleWesterns

Our clear acrylic and acrylic mirror was delivered today by Dama! 

 The mirror is really reflective and the acrylic is indeed clear.

// Candy 

Went to the workshop to shave a curve, drill holes and finish building our form (finally!) 

Alfred suggested that we cut off half of our bottom piece for allowance so that the viewer has some space to bend forward when sitting down. It will feel less restrictive and make the viewer feel as if the space is tailored specially for him or her. We decided to make our bottom curve inwards in a semi circle shape as our interior is meant to feel safe and less angular, compared to our exterior. A curve would also go well with our round bulbs and dots animation.

Faced some difficulty drawing the semi circle curve as we did not have any curve tools. A nice accurate curve was eventually drawn by us using a long thin piece of scrap wood to bend into a curve. Never tried cutting through 3 pieces thick wood before with the jig saw but it went really well. The shaved curve was smooth and pleasing to feel and look at. 

Learning how to use the cordless driller machine sure was fun. We were told by Sam to drill a hole as a guide but we were unsure of whether to drill the hole at the center of the circle or the side on the outline. We initially thought we could drill several holes closely along the outline and push the circle out later. Definitely didn't work though because the wood was thick and the holes were not close enough. While waiting for Sam, I practised drilling holes by making some illustrations while Jia Le marked out the positions that the bottom piece would be attached to. 

With help from Sam, we drilled the large holes from the drill hole machine. As our led mirror frame require drilled holes that the bulbs has to fit in nicely, I switched the drill of the handheld drill machine to a bigger one and drilled holes with 5cm intervals on a scrap wood for Jia Le to test fit the bulbs. 

Afterwards, we spent the rest of the time nailing all our pieces together. When we were hammering the nails into the short 1cm width, the nails would occasionally come out of the wood from the back. It was kinda frustrating as we had to continuously knock out the nails and re-nail them, making sure that they get properly hammered straight into the wood. 

When we were finally done, we felt a great sense of achievement. It was hard work from cutting, filing and sanding every single piece, to hammering and attaching them one by one, not to forget wearing stuffy masks and breathing in all the dust and sand from the workshop. To see them all fit perfectly makes me feel that all our effort was worth it. We are especially grateful for Alfred's advice in telling us to leave some allowance at the front for the viewer. The extra space was definitely necessary, making it more comfortable to bend forward and really gave us a sense of 'tailored' feel. 

The last challenge for the day was to transport the whole piece back to class. So huge and heavy, we can't even place it on the chair to push back. The only way was to carry it by hand. With both our combined strength, it was manageable carrying it along the way but still a struggle when we reached the lift. The lift was small so we had to put our structure upright inside the lift. Haven't even lift it upright, the lift door started closing on our structure. Im just glad that the lift door was not the type that would continue to forcibly close on you even if stand there and block, not it might really have crush our work. Later when we exited, we just faster pushed our structure out while continuously spamming the lift door (not that it would listen much if it desperately wanted to close). 

Back at the studio, our work gets tugged at a safe corner. I shall end things off with this rhyming quote that me and Jia Le came up with aftermath.

“ Successfully back in class  Almost got crushed ”

// Jiale 

We had a hard time getting the accurate measurements for the original form and required a lot of calculations to get it right. With the new format confirmed, it makes life easier for us. However, to achieve what we want, I had to approach my dad for help - he’s a carpenter. Mum works in the building industry too. 

My dad taught me to draw the exact size on 6 pieces of A3 paper, and then to check my measurements, get my measurements for the materials needed. 

This is called technical drawing which I did not get to learn during secondary school’s Design and Technical class. It is more for interior design students to learn that too. Now I get it why I always see them with mahjong paper to get things done the way they want. 

// Candy

Back to the workshop to continue building on our structure. We spent the day preparing the parts that we need to form the exterior form. The bottom of the box and compartments will come later.

Taking into consideration the depth of the wood (1cm), I updated our measurements.

First of all, assembling the top piece onto our chair base. The completed chair was stable to sit but a little shaky on one end so we sanded it even. After that, our chair was finally done!

Next, marking the wood for our top and sides. As we attempted to sand a long piece of wood that we cut last week for the back of our form, it was a torture. Because of the long length, using the spinning machine to sand the sides or trimming the ends with the cutting machine were not an option. We also tried using the chamfer-like handheld machine to sand but it was taking too long. The morning was spent with us vigorously filing the protruding sides, before massaging it smooth with sand paper. It was good exercise for our arms.

Luckily, we discovered a technique that made our sanding process easier, as we were doing the top and sides. With our experience in using the jigsaw, we learnt that when cutting it is best to carefully position the blade as close to the marked line as possible at a low speed. This greatly decreases the amount of residual wood left, which can then be easily removed with slight sanding and filing.

It was good progress as we successfully finished cutting and sanding all the pieces that we need to assemble the outer exterior form.

Week 13 - Wednesday consultation with Huei

Without any further delay from the endless consultations that did not seem to help, we start to act on building our form’s structure so as to have a feel how it is. We spent the whole day from morning till afternoon at the workshop, building the chair first.

//Jiale

I had been to the workshop in the previous semester to do several small woodwork. With my family background who works on similar industry, I had a bit of knowledge how things work. Mainly most uses common sense and to always put safety first. As for Candy, it is her first time there and to try doing the form from scratch. It is something new for her to try out everything hands-on. We had a great time wearing masks and getting our ears semi-deaf with the loud machinery. Thankfully, there is only us that day.

I have purposely planned to do the woodwork first as it is crucial to have everything set before we do the content inside. And also, to avoid the crazy crowded deadlines especially at the workshop. It can get quite havoc.

Through the process of building it, we gained some knowledge of the machinery we can use so as to help speed up the process. Of course, with the help from the technician who is super friendly - Sam. 

We made some errors here and there, thankfully we started from the chair which is not so important. One of the problems that surfaced was the measurements we had was flat and did not take into consideration of the thickness of the wood. 

The other problem would be to make the chair strong and stable for sitting, we had to add another support piece inside the chair so that it would not go whopped once someone sits on it and does funny things. 

With these lessons learnt, we refined out measurements so as to ensure that the main structure will be build with ease. And that can help to reduce a lot of problems such as time delay for rebuilding or even the following procedures that is to happen later on which needed more time.

We had a original timeline that was planned very packed so as to get everything done with 2 weeks of test trail period. However, things did not go the way we wanted to. We only received feedbacks on our installation on the first week of school. Thus, we are kind of delayed by a week of progress.

Every tutors that we consulted had a different view about what we should have or not to, hence we decided that we should do the basic form structure out as well as the animation clip to have a feel of what it is like. We can further refine the proposed concepts/elements from there.

Here is the updated timeline for now as to produce everything within 5 weeks: 

Week 12 - Thursday Consultation with Alfred

Given the latest updates about our form’s issue, especially on the harmonisation of the video and lights. We were thinking whether to put away the pressure sensor and just keep it simple, have the lights and video to “sync”.

Comments given:

With the first flexi sensors tested, it is experimental as it experiment with the code and how people interact with it. However, when it was reduced to pressure sensor on the cushion, experimental level has already cut down by half. Thus, removing the sensors would make it not experimental enough. Because anyone can produce infinity mirror and put it in a box. 

As design students, we often had to spend quite a sum of money on printing and what not. Having to choose Experiment track, we are on tight budget as things may be expensive. Thus, thankfully for the link that Alfred has provided us with to purchase our items in bulk at a cheaper rate than to buy in local shops like Sim Lim Tower.

www.dx.com is a China website with great variety of electronic items that has a cheaper rate than the market. Quality might be slightly compromised, but the rate is good. The great thing is that there is no shipping fee! That would totally save us quite a sum.

Service was good as I can easily get help from the helpline regarding certain money transfer issue. They also kept us updates about our products’ status. Especially when resistors has no stock and money will be refunded.