Monday, August 9, 2010

Trash Can


For the trash can assignment, we were asked to design a 'device' which could dispose of and reintroduce design junk. We came to the conclusion as a group that 'design junk' was disregarded ideas/materials/techniques.

During one of my other lectures, I was doodling in my sketch book - where I was screwing up one of the corners of my page and then carefully going over the creases which formed in doing that. I showed it to my tutors, as the end product actually looked pretty cool! The stark constrast between the one crumpled up corner and the rest of the paper which was perfectly flat, was suprisingly very visually appealing. I decided that that doodle would be my design junk, so pretty much my design was based on a doodle I did during a lecture :D don't you love Architecture?

In a sense, the process I went through (i.e. scrunching up the corner of the page) was how I disposed of my design junk. And the way I reintroduced it was by creating the large landscape out of that one small peice of paper. I wanted to make something big so lots of people could experience it but also to reference back to the readings we did.

We were asked to read sections from this book: http://www.scribd.com/doc/4807540/Robert-Pirsig-Lila-An-Inquiry-Into-Morals and then take influences from the literature and use it in our designs. The main thing I took from the readings was that 'Design junk' is just as, or possibly more, important than any other part of the design process - which also added to my reasoning behind using the doodle as my main influence for my design and making my end product at such a large scale.
We were asked to do 2 A3 pages to explain our designs (shown below). I know they are not perfect, so I will probably touch them up before we have our final hand in - but these are what I handed in for the trash can crit. I did one page showing the surface in it's environment (Albert Park) and I did the other page showing how people would interact with the surface, so sitting on it or walking etc.


I made a plaster model to go with these two pages, so that people could get a sense of how the 'real thing' might feel like and all the different angles/surfaces created by the scrunching.

As well as doing a plaster model, I wanted to do a model which showed more detail. However I left it a bit too late and was unable to 3D print my design. I had 3D scanned my crumpled up paper and I was able to get a part of it which I would have been happy to 3D print. This section (shown below) explained how people would sit on the surface (in red) and showed at a larger scale what the uneven surface itself could be like.

3 comments:

  1. Hey Kate

    I found the concept of your project very interesting, especially the idea of an interactive landscape as the bases for your junk disposal, i think the idea of a constantly changing and developing landscape ties in well with the idea of disposing, changing and redeveloping junk ideas, it acts almost as a metaphor or as the tutors put it "its very poetic".

    What i would have liked to see was a series of models or renderings showing the change from a flat landscape to perhaps an entirely crumpled landscape, just to get an idea of the full transition your landscape can take.

    Your idea also relates well to the medieval carnival theme show and interesting contrast between a flat conformed surface, and the chaotic nature of lots of junk ideas through crumpling that surface, perhaps showing how the medieval carnival is a chaotic gathering of different ideas and opinions over the normal conforming views on medieval life

    overall kate, you have done a very good job on this design, an A in my books, keep up the good work :p

    Josh

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  2. Your idea of turning scrunched up pieces of paper into landscapes was very interesting. I liked how you have decided to locate your device in Albert Park. I must agree it is a great place to think, with all the fresh air. From your presentation, it doesn't seem like you have done a lot of development. Maybe more experimental models next time? But I do like how you used clay to make your model. It showed that you have explored other ways of presenting your idea. It's different and I love the imprint on the clay model. Good job!

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  3. Your process of coming to your idea was great, how you took inspiration from a doodle and scrunched up, and folded paper, so that you literally were using ‘junk’ as your design inspiration. Also how you placed it in a landscape site really helped to establish the size and scale of your model and the function of your design. I liked how people could physically walk on it and interact with it was interesting, so you could expand on that idea by making something that moves with the land/wind or that people could bend it suited to their needs etc? Overall though a unique and interesting design!

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