3D Design Diary!

12. Viral Intervention: Final Artifact

For our final artifact the objects my group and I decided to display, were our 8 Moon face “phases”, covered in the Mica powder rubbing drawings, done by the public in our project. Initially, we had planned to hang the moons in a circular formation from the ceiling but due to time restraints and technical difficulties we had to change our plan. We then decided to display our moons in a circle on the wall, similar to the astrological diagrams of the moon's phases we had seen in our research. We did so, in the order of the emotions we had listed from “stillness”, to roaming anxiety. At the very top is the “still” emotion and at the bottom is the anxious emotion, concluding the “Emotional Eclipse” cycle. The purpose of displaying our project as a circle is because, it represents a repeated cycle of changing emotions from when one rapidly switches from calm to anxious. It was very interesting to display this piece because we were essentially displaying the interactions with our work from people not present in the space. Our project encapsulates the emotions and artwork of people who are unknown to the rest of the class. To me it hints at the topic of not knowing what another person is feeling at a particluar time. Though the faces on our moons represent a concrete emotion, the mica powder rubbings are uncontrolled and unleash a different reality of what the persons perception of that emotion is.

We conducted our final project outside a Target shopping center during a busy hour with people walking in and out. We presented our 8 cardboard-painted, “phases”, to the public with assigned mica powder colors for each face, for the audience to "draw". We then left them out for the public and analyzed their interaction with the artwork. While conducting the experiment we noticed that many people viewed the project as an installation, glancing and complimenting the work, but not interacting with the mica powders. After a few hours of people passing by we took it upon ourselves to create a sign to draw attention to the audience for them to interact. Fortunately, after telling people about our project, we had some people interact with the work, drawing squiggles and smiley faces unto the emotions. Others decided to color the entire surface of the moon with the mica powder. We noticed demographically that people our age were more drawn to participating in the artwork. Overall we received interesting reactions/interactions from the public whether that was a funny glance or the audience drawing on the cardboard. I think this project allowed the audience to engage physically with a medium, as the mica powder finger drawings are made by dipping their hands into the pigment. I think this stimulates a nostalgia perhaps for the audience going back to childhood activities such as finger painting. In that way, it makes the experience more personal physically, and also emotionally because the audience is told to express their emotions. Lastly, if I were to change this project I would make larger moons for the audience to draw on and a more distinct way to get the audience to interact. For example, a sign telling them to draw on the moons, or maybe larger bins filled with the mica powder as a bigger indicator.

Viral Interventions: Process

Viral Interventions: Research

For our Final Proposal, using our phase “ Emotional Eclipse changes stillness into roaming anxiety”, we will be creating 8 different moons, with different faces, as a play on words with the moon “phases”. The faces will start from a still emotion and slowly change into anxiety. For example the emotions will go from still, to happy, to excited, to scared, to worried, etc. We will assign each emotion to a color and lay them out accordingly for our presentation to the public. In our presentation we will present the 8 cardboard painted, “phases”, to the public with mica powders assigned by colors for the audience to essentially “draw” on them. We will then leave them out for the public and analyze their interaction with the artwork. The goal is to see how the audience interacts with each drawing based on its emotion according to what they draw, or express onto that emotion's “canvas”. Our purpose for using mica powder instead of traditional paint was because Mica powder is naturally mined and creates a powdery surface onto the cardboard, similar to dust on the moon.

For our Final Proposal, using our phrase “ Emotional Eclipse changes stillness into roaming anxiety”, we will be creating 8 different moons, with different faces, as a play on words of the moon “phases”. The faces will start from a still emotion and slowly change into anxiety. For example the emotions will go from still, to happy, to excited, to scared, to worried, etc. We will assign each emotion to a color and lay them out accordingly for our presentation to the public. In our presentation we will present the 8 cardboard painted, “phases”, to the public with mica powders assigned by colors for the audience to essentially “draw” on them. We will then leave them out for the public and analyze their interaction with the artwork. The goal is to see how the audience interacts with each drawing based on its emotion according to what they draw, or express onto that emotion's “canvas”. Our purpose for using mica powder instead of traditional paint was because Mica powder is naturally mined and creates a powdery surface onto the cardboard, similar to dust on the moon.

Viral Interventions: Budget

Viral Interventions: Timeline

Viral Interventions: Production Task List

The idea for the third proposal is to represent the “Emotional” eclipse, or anxiety,  as an obstacle towards stillness and peace. The sketch shows an eclipse from a different angle where the moon casts a shadow on a person trying to reach peace and stillness on the other side of a mountain. This shadow causes a cloud of anxiety and blinds the person from seeing their goals beyond the mountain. This artwork would represent the uncertainty, confusion, and doubt that anxiety causes when a person strives for better. This artwork would consist of a naturally made sculpture, that would cast a shadow from the sun onto the subject showcasing a literal “shadow” of anxiety appearing.

Our second proposal is to create an interactive sculpture depicting an anxious moon slowly overtaking the sun. This sculpture will contain visuals, and sounds, and allow the audience to walk around to have an interactive experience. Another idea is to have the audience sit in rows and watch as we create this sculpture, almost like a performance art. Then we would ask the audience for their interpretation of what they think this sculpture conveys in an emotional and literal sense, as well as how they felt watching the making of it, and how they felt interacting with the artwork.

For this proposal, we decided to make an abstract painting. We incorporated drawings of the eclipse surrounded by white light and different moon phases of the eclipse. We drew this to represent the words “changing perspective” from the sentence describing the various stages. To define the words “roaming” and “anxiety,” we decided to incorporate shapes and loops to depict movement in the word “roaming”. For the word “anxiety,” we ,decided to color the shapes in vibrant and cool colors, for example, red, green, and blue to give a sense of chaos and convey the intensity of anxiety. Over the colors, shapes and white lines, we are considering adding glow in the dark paint. The background is painted black to represent space.

In this collaborative project my group combined the words: roaming, anxiety, change, and eclipse into the phrase: "Emotional eclipse changes stillness into roaming anxiety". We presented our phrase to the public by creating a poster that included the 7 different moon phases with different facial expressions to show the "stillness" of emotions morphing into roaming anxiety. We stood outside of the Astro Science Center because it related to our phrase as well as the relevance of the eclipse that day and drew the attention to the public.

Viral Interventions: Compose ( memes)

Viral Interventions: Identify

Viral Interventions: Scource