Much of this project has been a lesson in limitations and learning to accomplish something given the time allotted and the resources i have.

at first i was thinking of going in the direction that i had previously been foraying upon: namely working with felt and weave approach.

but as i started to explore materials, the more i became convinced that it needed to have a more rigid structure but something that was still light enough that could be moved by a small motor.  I started researching a lot of examples of paper architecture but they were all too static to be formed into a unit that could fold up and down like a blind.  eventually i continued to experiment until i formed a modular structure that is formed from four pieces of square paper and are folded incrementally until they look like the piece below which are than sewn together into strips.

next, i needed to build a frame with which to attach the blind and motors.

yikes. looks like i’ve got a lot of folding to do if i want to fill up that frame!  to the right side of the picture is my stepper motor.

i realized that unless i wanted to have some big ugly armature sticking out of my servo motors in order to pull up the blind all the way up the length of the frame, i needed a motor that could turn more than 180 degrees as well as have the ability to know where it was in the turn (hence why i forewent the DC motor).  The stepper motor also happens to have a stronger torque than both the DC and servo.  The only catch is however the stepper motor seems to have a more complicated circuit than either of the other motors.  Looks like I’ll be getting friendly with an H Bridge this week!  Soon i’m sure I’ll be dreaming of steppers and blinds in no time.

these are demanding times.  these are inspirational times.

someone recently handed me a card at a party.  but rather than the usual jargon, it simply read this:  a study conducted in 100 countries found that regardless of race, age, gender, or status, people who set definable, measurable goals with a timeline, and a deadline are 10 times more likely to achieve them.

and so i draw upon my friend’s talents and generosity to get me through.

thank you neda, foster, nahana, laura and heidi.  femme fatale five. and to charley. a true professional.

I am working towards creating a piece called Window Vision, which will act as a window covering that  highlights the changes in the outside environment by shifting its components in response to light and dark.

Previous weeks I had been struggling with creating something that would effectively work in a modular pattern as the basis of my structure.

from there, I started looking at structural patterns in nature and seeing the similarities.

but what if i flipped it? instead of thinking of mobilizing solid pieces of the pattern, what about the joint structure in between?

however this also catapulted me on a track to start considering weaving techniques as a structure.  i began looking to the work of sheila hicks, annie albers and gunta stolzl as inspiration.

gunta stolzl

annie albers

in conjunction to exploring the visual concept of the piece, i was also examining the inherent properties of vision and light.  the “bandwidth of consciousness” article reminded me of how our eyes take in so much information but yet how little our consciousness registers.   from here i stepped into the world of neuroscience to form a link between the piece as a reflection on how we as humans will perceive this “window to the outside world” as well as the mechanics behind our vision.

Much of this is enabled through the structural properties of your retina which is the part of your eye that responds to light.   within the retina there are two photoreceptor cell types: rods and cones.  rods are the cells that are the most sensitive to changes in light and dark, shape and movement and only have one light-sensitive pigment.  however because of this, they are not extremely sensitive to color.  in a dim environment however, we mainly use our rods to see (quickly moving from a light to dark area however usually takes our rods 7-10 min. to take over).  cones however, work only in bright light, and are sensitive to one of three colors (RGB).  these cones translate signals to our brain which than perceives it as a color. incidentally, color blindness occurs when the retina is lacking in cones or are irregular.

the challenge now of course is to translate all of this information and to funnel it into a piece that adequately addresses a cellular/modular structural pattern, something that incorporates sensitivity to changes in light, and differentiating functions in terms of light and color.

Photocells will sense the changing light levels of the area outside your window and initialize the servo motors mounted to the frame which are connected to the “cones” that will activate and push the “rods” aside with increasing amounts of light.

iterations

and i thought i had some issues with paranoia.  self control’s freak olivier otten’s pieces are hilarious.  just use your cursor to play.

fall always tends to bring out the insane in me.  it makes me want to drink 5 cups of winter-spiced/spiked coffee, listen to music with harpsichords and glockenspiels, and buy a puppy and dress it in tartan so i can walk it down 5th avenue.  luckily for you and me, i forewent the puppy idea and stuck to drinking 5 cups of espresso a day, probably accounting for the fact that i couldn’t sleep last night.  at the very least, it got me up and at ‘em at the break of dawn, taking a stroll down to the brooklyn museum on a lovely fall morning to see the gilbert and george exhibit.

talk about a british invasion.

gilbert and george met at central st. martins over 40 years ago and have been together ever since making extraordinary things.  most of their art deals with scenes/images/issues that are not more than a few mile-radius from their home in east london.

when they first started out, they were using traditional photography media but from early on, used the grid-format as the structural framework.  they often use themselves as subjects, calling themselves “living sculptures” and are usually seen in their suits-and-ties, or work outfits as they call them.

they now have progressed to digital media, and actually have one of the most powerful graphic work stations in the UK in order to process their huge works of art. whoo! technology…

and this video by danish artist jesper just.

Hustlers, Philip-Lorca diCorcia

It might be said that twilight is a muddled form of clarity.  The warm glow that suffuses the ‘golden hour’ in Los Angeles acts to filter the grim realities, the outright lies, the self-deceptions, which allow Hollywood, and by extension, America to flourish.  ‘Twilight’ provides the rose-coloured glasses that make it possible to see out but not see in.’ - Philip-Lorca diCorcia

Jayoung, EJ, and Asli came together to come up with this storyboard for our forthcoming video about the struggles of one loooooong night.

been thinking lately about Robert Longo’s 1980 series of lithographs, Men in the Cities. something about the stripped down nature of the drawings along with the odd contradiction of their sharply dressed but grossly contorted figures.

for my pcomp final i was interested in building something that was more architectural in nature.   i’ve always been interested in layering textures and patterns in multiple ways to create something else entirely whether it be structural or more graphic in nature.  in contrast, the process of subtraction rather than multiplication is the process of removal from the existing to create new relationships.  within this dichotomy i hope to discover something new.

been thinking about modular patterns found in real life.