K.D.Q.G

finish?

What have we could have done more: OR Fix for exhibition

Paint - because we only decided to change the idea (paint it) the night before the submission, the spray painting job was rushed so we didn't have time to polish it.

UV Lighting - I had a suggestion to mount two small spotlight lamps on the side to get more lighting inside, but Krisma didn't agree on it because she didn't want to buy more things and wanted to rely on the UV lighting material that Kim provided. The spotlight that Kim provided, I thought it was too bright, and I thought it just didn't feel right into it. They gave us the spotlight about 2 - or an hour before the deadline, and I was in Kmart ready to buy the small spotlight lamp (I already got one, which I tested mounting it on the sculpture) so I didn't see the full thing in person, and they said it was fine enough, and trusted them for that statement.

We needed to buy two screw-on UV light bulbs (Kim’s one didnt fit in the spotlight) and just one spotlight since I already got one.

Bigger rings - way too late for bookings. if we decided to only have one row, then we could have made bigger rings.

Secure the stand more - more material and not enough time.

Sound - We were planning to put rice inside the stand and connect a contact mic into the stand, so whenever someone interacts with it, it would make swishing sound, creating a more surreal experience.

during the UV light testing, I realized that COL is not just a sacred belief but it also has spiritual element into it. It created a much more surreal and stimulating experience,. It was a very useful prototype as it did gave us where it's gonna be based at and a specific direction for this project, which will be festivals such as Wanderlust, Summerland Spirit Festivals and other spiritual Music and/or Art festivals. It can still also be placed in Auckland Art Gallery.

Ripple Effect prototype

We placed some pins in just 10 rings to test what it would look like since I wanted to get that fixed pattern in. The pins would lock in the next ring so it would start spinning in a synchronized timing and get a fixed pattern. I was also aiming to get the spiral effect.

8 mm threaded rod from bunnings bent when all the rings where placed, so I went to Steel south (Hayden’s suggestion) and get an 8mm steel rod and ask them to sand it a little bit since it didn't fit, which cost me.

UPDATE::

WEEK 11

we were planning to paint neon colours to the ring to represent human neural stem cells( our technology and intelligence - also part of the circle) and have UV lights on them so they would light up in the dark, but it was really hard to only paint a specific area of the ring, and it ended up being too bright and it just didn't go with the concept's aesthetic and context. Even though I thought this would definitely, make our project level up more since I do think that it is a little too simple.

WEEK 10

First 10 rings cut off, which lasted for the whole booking (ALmost an hour) and it was soooo hard booking since it was super busy.

This is where we realized that by this time, it might be impossible to laser cut another row of 50 rings. So we decided to drop the idea. No manual drive and the other row. As more rings getting printed off, we learned that more people can actually help spin the rings, not just one person, compare to a manual drive. I also noticed how the whole piece turned into a playful and therapeutic sculpture (similar to fidget spinners), I mostly focused on the moving image to create that calming/therapeutic feeling, but it turned out, even the interaction part can be a little therapeutic.

Week 9

After long discussions and prototyping, we came to a conclusion that we can’t use a motor to power the sculpture. These are the reasons why:

We all lack electrical/wiring skills since we expect that it’ll be simple, (we cant figure out how to slow down any motors, since its too fast to see the pattern) like connecting it with battery but it turns out that you have to think and calculate the torques and speed of the motor. Lots and lots of testing and trialing, which leads....

Not enough time and...

we have to buy more gears and materials (including gear worms, etc)

But more importantly...

It will fit in with our concept better as people have to interact with the sculpture in order to experience the moving image, instead of just looking at it.

It will also feel more natural.

This means we moved on to plan B - MANUAL DRIVE handle

Putting a manual drive directly attached to the rod will be a big problem since the focal point of this piece is the moving image created by the rings, which will only be seen on the side. 

After going around the room, asking for advice. Julia suggested including another row of rings on the bottom that will power up the upper row. The manual drive is fixed on the bottom row, and the bottom row will then push the upper row using friction. I think this is a pretty good idea. I imagine when the two row push each other it should create a pretty cool effect, which reminds me of Jennifer Townsley’ Asinas, but it’s in theory... so we have to wait n test it.

Week 8

Questions we had to answer and test before going into actual building

How can the layers rotate in different ways (one is clockwise, the other is anti-clockwise)? 

two sticks with teeths (see above photo)

Use of gears

Kim suggested - some kind of feet for the sculpture, similar to Jennifer Townsley

- How will it move/ powered by?

Servo motors - How will we reduce its speed?

Gear worms

Bigger size of gears and gear belts/chains

Manual drive - In this case there's more interaction

- How will it stand? will it be steady and able to carry heavy object?

Week 8

Amy thought having 2 layers is too simple and similar to David Roy’s work, which everyone agrees. So we came up with a newly developed concept.

Photoshop Animation design

Symbolising Coexisting, harmonious system, evolution, and growth

Week 7

During the break, we developed our initial idea and started thinking how we can possibly make it. I did some designs and experimentations in photoshop to visualize the pattern the rotation can make. From this point on, it should be ongoing physical production.

As the project proceeds, the gang updates the Project brief in Google Docs. This doc includes information, most research, conceptual ideas, and developments. Link below:

Week 6

Crits this week, Hayden was our crits (yess). His feedback are:

Not blogging enough - We are trying to figure out the concept first so we don't have much time to blog, but this this shouldn't be an excuse :(

Concept sounds good - we are in a good track

Need to start prototyping - yess we will soon

Suggested to just use a motor to have that simple rotation movement, and maybe add some natural element like water, eg maybe have water in the bottom and somehow scoop it up, like a fountain - Sounds overwhelming but we are looking at it

I also had a chat with Julia and she showed me perpetual energy machines/free energy machine and suggested maybe we can also play around with it, I thought this is a great idea since we can possibly use this idea to power up the actual installation instead of a motor, so it’ll be more “natural”. Other than this idea, both Hayden and Julia said that we can go in a lot of ways from this idea, like we can actually play around with lots of more things, like projecting on top of it installation, animations?,motion graphics?, we just need to actually prototype from it.

Week 5

We went to a trip to KareKare (next to Piha), searching for a more developed and solid idea.

We then discussed our individual thoughts, ideas and reflection about this trip.

Krisma thought about making something surreal like; what if the waterfalls is upside down, or the beach is upside down? She thought about this because she thought that every single element goes together, like a beach wouldn't be a beach if it didn't have water or sand, I'm not sure where she was going with it, but at least she had an idea.

On the other hand, I told them that when we were at KareKare beach, I thought about nature somehow having a natural connection to humans, like how branches looked like human veins. We then discussed more about this topic and how we actually connect to nature, like when we are surrounded by natural nature, we are more calm and more open - minded (and also it makes us have deeper thoughts, which is also why we went for a trip),compare to when we are in a city, we feel like there a lot of things in our minds, we are more stressed, etc. So, we all agreed to get back on this topic, but now we actually have some personal connection to the topic, which makes this concept much more stable.

I went back home, and did some research to make this concept much stronger, I then came across to an online article about human connection.

https://www.socialistalternative.org/global-warning/humans-nature/

Quotes I got from it:

The natural world combines elements of both competition and co-operation: one could not exist without the other. - Karl Marx

Many of the people who claim that nature is competitive and aggressive use that to argue for right-wing political ideas. If humans, like all other animals, are naturally aggressive, then the way society is now is natural

humanity is part and parcel of the natural world.

“… we by no means rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like someone standing outside nature – but … we, with flesh, blood and brain, belong to nature, and exist in its midst … all our mastery of it consists in the fact that we have advantage over all other creatures of being able to learn its laws and apply them correctly. And, in fact, with every day that passes we are acquiring a better understanding of these laws and getting to perceive both the more immediate and the more remote consequences of our interference with the traditional course of nature.”(Frederick Engels – from The Part Played by Labor in the Transition from Ape to Man)

What I understood from this?:

From great socialist thinkers from the 19th century like Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, have argued that everything goes together and is part of nature, including humans …”one could not exist without the other”..., this means that everything is a part or a piece of one whole thing and everything is a balance, this is similar with the concept of “Circle of Life” from Lion King,

...” Mufasa: Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope.

Simba: But, Dad, don't we eat the antelope?

Mufasa: Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.” ...

—Mufasa and Simba

http://lionking.wikia.com/wiki/Circle_of_Life_(concept)

When, I think about this, and like the article said, it makes some kind of harmonious system, Other useful words to build this concept are:

Balance

Co - exist

Natural

Harmony

Week 4

So far, I think we’re on the right track and we just need to keep going, however I do think that our conceptual idea for this project is still a bit loose, like it needs to be at least stable enough for us to be able to produce the artificial physical installation, I know it can be developed as we prototype and go on with this project, but I still need to at least reflect on our conceptual idea.

So, this concept is interesting to me because I have always been interested at the concept of alternating/challenging people’s sense of reality as well as their perception. We obviously want to stay away from VR and come up with an alternative (creative) way to play with people’s sense of reality/perception, this what made me continue on this project.at the concept of alternating/challenging people’s sense of reality as well as their perception. We obviously want to stay away from VR and come up with an alternative (creative) way to play with people’s sense of reality/perception, this what made me continue on this project.at the concept of alternating/challenging people’s sense of reality as well as their perception. We obviously want to stay away from VR and come up with an alternative (creative) way to play with people’s sense of reality/perception, this what made me continue on this project.at the concept of alternating/challenging people’s sense of reality as well as their perception. We obviously want to stay away from VR and come up with an alternative (creative) way to play with people’s sense of reality/perception, this what made me continue on this project, this what made me continue on this project.at the concept of alternating/challenging people’s sense of reality as well as their perception. We obviously want to stay away from VR and come up with an alternative (creative) way to play with people’s sense of reality/perception, this what made me continue on this project. an alternative (creative) way to play with people’s sense of reality/perception, this what made me continue on this project.at the concept of alternating/challenging people’s sense of reality as well as their perception. We obviously want to stay away from VR and come up with an alternative (creative) way to play with people’s sense of reality/perception, this what made me continue on this project.

But what is the underlying message? Why is it significant? - which is the same feedback Clint gave us - finding the actual element to our project

When i thought about the concept of deconstructing environment using lines, shapes, and colour, I thought about graphic design as it has similar conventions. Graphic design use lines, shapes, typography, and photography to form a visual communication. So this automatically made me think about marketing since graphic design projects are mostly for marketing purposes, which is to send visual messages to consumers/the public. Okay, so when I think about Marketing, it is a way to pretty much change consumer’s perception to buy certain products, this concept links with our installation concept idea. So I thought this can be a possible underlying message, which could be something like “nature of marketing”.i thought about the concept of deconstructing environment using lines, shapes, and colour, I thought about graphic design as it has similar conventions. Graphic design use lines, shapes, typography, and photography to form a visual communication. So this automatically made me think about marketing since graphic design projects are mostly for marketing purposes, which is to send visual messages to consumers/the public. Okey, so when I think about Marketing, it is a way to pretty much change consumer’s perception to buy certain products, this concept links with our installation concept idea. So I thought this can be a possible underlying message, which could be something like “nature of marketing”.

I pitched this idea to the group, and they didn’t seem to be happy, I can't blame them since it's two different things, and I did force myself to find that “underlying message”.

Week 3

We had ideas, but we feel like we are going in circles even if we have some conceptual ideas, but it does feel like our conceptual idea isn’t solid enough, and we're already thinking of the technical aspects and what we are basically going to produce. So, obviously we haven’t finalized/decided on anything just yet, including the brief, so I figured we can keep looking for similar projects and/or ideas, so we can come up with a more solid conceptual idea.

After lots of discussion and brainstorming, Amy came across this video about creatively expressing words using layout, movement, and audio.

So from watching this video, I and Amy came up with an idea about making an artificial world, where instead of using VR to make an artificial, we came to an idea where we would want to create an abstract installation that plays with people's sense of reality and perception. This also means that we would want to create an abstract installation where it's similar to the way the word expression works, by using motions, so we want to explore form, motions, colours, and audio to represent an element. Basically experimentally de - constructing a visual world into a simple physical abstract installation.

E.G - to express ocean, we can have wavy motion