My Statement of Intent for Exhibition

This is my statement of intent of what I will be doing for my final project for the first five months of the new year in terms of research, context and craft.

My Idea

My idea is to create an exhibition displaying my 3D printed, Hand-crafted dioramas (with the pieces suspended on rods on a board of wood) based on my Leonardo Da Vinci style schematics of Movie props and common everyday appliances, each piece will be displayed on its own with its own description and final sketch in the style of Da Vinci’s work.

The Items I have chosen so far are:

A light saber (Star Wars)
The Flux Capacitor (Back to The Future)
A Pin hole camera
Desk Lamp
Type writer

E.D.G.E

Ethical– My project will involve CAD design, 3D printing and model making, all of these would make good practice in development in CAD and potentially starting my own commision business in selling 3D models to anyone who requests them, these models could be inventions, appliances, toys or models, so I believe that this project will be my guide into more of an understanding into the world of model making and business.

Digital– During the bowl and secondary artefact portion of the project, I was given the opportunity to expand more on my CAD skills and begin building bigger projects, this form of CAD is a step up from just placing small cubes into a pattern like my last major CAD project.

Global– During the months of first term, a few of my classmates have requested me to personally 3D print a model for their project (and some I’ve even offered), a very good idea to get the word out is by sending out a post on Facebook and Instagram, letting people know that I’m available to 3D print model for them at a price, not as much as commissions, but more as a 3D printer for hire, since I’ll request them to create the files themselves, due to me not having enough experience.

Entrepreneurial– With owning my own 3D printer and learning basic CAD skills, this style of craft opens up a lot of business opportunities, including starting up a commision business that involves creating and printing CAD files or even printing out CAD files created by my customers who request them, for example I’ve already had a few of my classmates request me to print for them for a small price.

Timeline

Each month will break down into a strategy that will start with research and practice and will slowly build up to my final model and design for my degree show.

January

Research in CAD- This will involve me doing extensive research about CAD design and quick tricks I could learn and how to operate professional industry standard (and possibly complex) CAD programs

Context- For this, I will be sketching many ideas for Da Vinci style ideas and writing about their functions
Reading and research on Da Vinci’s inventions as well as other forms of craft.

Reading Material:

Leonardo Da Vinci: Extraordinary Machines
Things Come apart 2.0: A teardown manual for modern living

February

CAD Development- learning to use more professional CAD software and continuously applying what I know and what I will learn
Incorporating designs into digital construction to learn the limitations of both the CAD software and what can be possible to put together.

March

I will be printing many prototypes of a variety of main and alternate designs for the project
Testing the prototypes for quality and possibly assembling and functionality

April

I will begin CAD work, printing and decorating the final models and writing up their descriptions
I will visualise and plan out where my exhibition will be and what the layout will be

May

Last finishing touches
Setting up my exhibition

My Evaluative Statement

Evaluation of the Bowl project

When I started planning out my bowl project, I knew instantly how I was going to do it, for my bowl, I wanted to give it a unique feature (seeing as how the theme for my project was collaboration). So I thought about using magnets again just like in my last project, so I came up with the idea of creating a bowl that could split in half, this would act as a visual representation of two of my Gesamt kunstwerk ideas and concepts coming together as one. During this first project I experimented with a variety of design ideas including a four piece split and using a 3D pen to create 3D elements.

After printing out a total of five prototypes, I settled on using one simple design of making a bowl that split into two magnetic parts that could also be used as shelves for fridges as well as other magnetic surfaces.

As for the decorative design, I would paint each piece in their own unique design based on which two Pecha Kucha designs, I decided to combine together. For this one, I did a pixelated portrait of myself and New York landmarks. When the pieces connect together it forms another painting on the inside of the bowl of a pixelated statue of Liberty as a visual way of two worlds coming together.

Evaluation of the Secondary artefact

For my Secondary artefact, I still wanted to keep the theme of collaboration going, so I decided to bring in a design I drew back when I made my Pecha Kucha, my design was a Leonardo Da vinci style schematic I drew showing the design of a lightsaber, (and one showing the flux capacitor, both sketches can be found on my sketches blog post) so I wanted to take this idea a step further by adapting the sketch as a 3D diorama showing all the pieces laid out and stylized in a steampunk look, This would give it a Da Vinci style appearance using the limited amount of resources he had given the time period. The context behind this is to create a fantasy collection of Da Vinci themed dioramas paying tribute to pop culture.

More context can be found on my secondary artefact post on my blog.

Field Reflection

For this assignment, I will be going over my field reflection to show how I have progressed and what I have learned throughout this past year.

Skill acquisition (Including research, context and making)

Each of my projects has an even balance of a professional and ethical layout, while also allowing me to incorporate my own personal interests. I have made sure that my research is consistent and relevant with my subject matter (whether it would be a making project, a blog post or a major essay). When making, I was able to gain new skills which I applied to each project. Each process was unique in terms of designing and creating, whether it this was sculpting, making moulds, or CAD building.

Ideas and realisation

Figurative Modelling

During the five weeks of figurative modelling, I had the opportunity to exercise my sculpting sketching skills, while also I’d been inducted on new skills such as Slab folding, sewing fabric body parts, sculpting body parts in a step by step process, that involved starting with one shape and building upon it, 2D and 3D slab collage, testing my sketching skills in life drawing with multiple time limits.

Rajasthan

I was tasked with making my own augmented reality book using inspiration from my trip to Rajasthan. The idea I came up with was making a book written in my own hieroglyphic language, that could be translated into English. I first scanned my alphabet into illustrator and had them laser cut into stamps. Once I typed up and printed out the scripts and created the trigger images, I then made the book using red fabric and sewed in a piece of cardboard (to help shape the book). Once the book was finished, it was then folded and held together by a piece of string wrapped around a button.

Discipline-specific knowledge

In both these projects, there were challenges to my skillset; things I enjoyed and things I need to practice at. I exercised sketching, sculpting, slab building, life drawing, sewing, miniature painting and augmented reality skills. Development of skills what the maker course is about; how it specialises into multiple fields of making and how it allows us to find our way. It also allows us to find or exercise our comfort zone, while introducing us to skills we thought we would never have.

Contextual understanding of own practice

The explore projects I participated in had a major impact on my work and creative abilities. In both projects, I was given multiple challenges, such as putting my sculpting skills to the test and writing an honest, reflective learning journal and also by traveling to India. I was able to find a subject matter that was both a practical challenge and was something I had interest in, which made the project more enjoyable.

Evaluation of own learning and Conclusion

This past year has been very different, but productive in terms of research, making and discovery. I created a series of medals dedicated to a misunderstood film maker, put my sculpting skills to the test and travelled to India to be inspired and encouraged by their culture and traditions.

After finishing both explore projects, the ideas I had for designing and making as well as the new skills and knowledge I have acquired, has shown me what I can do. This gives me more insight and confidence in what I might do next.

Personal development profile

For this assignment, I will be going over my strengths and weaknesses during my time in the figurative modelling project.

What happened during the field project?

Each day of this project would go for 2 days for five weeks

Life Drawing

For each life drawing session, we would experiment in doing multiple drawings with multiple time limits (e.g ten of ten-second sketches, ten of twenty-second sketches, five of one-minute sketches, etc)

Sculpting

The main attribute of this whole project was ceramics and during this, we all sculpted multiple body parts including hands, feet, legs, and heads. During this, I learned more skills and processes in sculpting

Stitching

The stitching was part of a collaboration with the plaster projects, for this, we all had to create our own fabric limbs by tracing our limbs on two layers of fabric, then cutting them out and sewing them together, preparing them for the plaster. This part was fascinating and taught me new skills in stitching

Slab Collage

The slab collage was team collaboration where we’d all create a slab piece together, each slab including an aspect from one of our life drawings, the end result was successful and we all worked well together.

Plaster parts

The plasterwork consisted of including our fabric limbs from the stitch workshop, then mixing the right quantities of water and plaster fro each limb, I’d pour the mixture in and wait for the plaster to dry, I really enjoyed this workshop

Teamwork

For most of these projects, I would often work on my own, the only notable ones being the slab collage and our plaster body parts, when I did take part in teamwork, I got along well with everyone I was working with before we’d begin our collaboration, we’d discuss which one of us does which part of the project (whether it would be based on our particular skills or the part we really wanted to do.

Strengths

During this field, I managed to understand and manage the techniques and context of each lesson, and I have to say I did well in all the exercises, even if some of them weren’t my bread and butter, I still gave it my best

Weaknesses

As I said before I managed pretty well during the practical and theoretical work, however, I believe my weakness is when I’m doing the practical work such as sculpting, I tend to rush a little bit and also another thing that would be best is to keep my blog up to date on a daily basis rather than writing about and leaving the rest till last minute.