My Artifact

In our studio class, we presented the artifacts that we designed inspired by assigned Grimm's fairy tale. My ring, based on Hansel and Gretel, is pictured below.

Pat's Furniture

For our first drafting project, we were asked to design a multifunctional piece of furniture for Pat, a poor twenty something who could only afford one 4 by 8 foot sheet of MDF. Pat could also only utilize right angles. I used chipboard to stimulate the MDF and did a scale model of my planar design at a 1 1/2" : 1'. My bench/sever/ storage for Pat's bags is pictured below on a 10' by 10' floor plane marked off into a 1" grid.

Front

Right Side

Back

Left Side

5 Blogging Artists

The following 5 links will take you to the blogs of my top 5 favorite blogging artists. I have become a follower of each of these blogs for daily inspiration in my drawing class.
suzannebuchanan.blogspot.com
www.wagonized.typepad.com/
meridthgimbel.blogspot.com/
andreajoseph24.blogspot.com
chrysti.wordpress.com/

Pen & Ink Vignettes

In drawing we have been workign on drawing minni scenes, or vignettes. Pictured above is an area of my desk with 2 water colour kits and crumpled paper towels. Below are scenes of my two favorite subjects, my boyfriend and my dog. They both seem to be doing a lot of sleeping while I am working.

Communicate is to Design as Tell is to Story / OPUS Entry 1

We can think of the process of communicating a design as being analogous to telling a story.

The term “story” is used to describe a sequence of interrelated events. When one “tells” a story, one uses language, writing, acting, dance or some other medium to express those events or occurrences and their relation to each other. When used as a noun, “Design” refers to an intention or conception. When one communicates a design one uses a medium (e.g. wood, pencil, concrete, plastic etc.) to express their intention or conception, a whole made-up of various parts. The noted Renaissance era architect, Andrea Palladio wrote, “The Beauty will result from the form and the correspondence of the whole, with respect to the several parts, of the parts with regard to each other, and of these again to the whole; that the structure may appear an entire and complete body, wherein each member agrees with the other, and all necessary to compose what you intend to form.”[i]

In essence, design is both the process and product of translating ideas into form. This week I received practice in this process when I was assigned to create an inspiration board from the well know fairytale Hansel and Gretel. My translation is pictured below.

In the above design, I interpreted and explained what I saw as the underlying ideas in the story. In doing so I have drawn heavily on my background in studying psychology. This serves to enhance my design. According to the ancient roman architect Marcus Vitruvius, to be a good designer one must be widely educated in the arts and sciences.[ii]

My design is inherently representative of my viewpoint, one informed not only by my knowledge of psychology but also by the society that I live in and my place within it. Christian Norberg-Schulz, a Norwegian architect and theorist, felt that the design of a building should be analyzed on the basis of four variables: physical control, functional frame, social milieu, and cultural symbolism.[iii] Each viewpoint is as valid as the others. My individual viewpoint as a designer encompasses a multiview perspective, just like the perspectives of those who interpret my designs. Like the stories within the story of William Shakespeare’s a Midsummer Night’s Dream (a translation of which we watched in class) each is a separate entity, yet each is related, and when combined together they make-up the whole.

Furthermore, when we design we create artifacts, objects for an intended use, concrete expressions of multiple views both of ourselves and our culture. Below is pictured the trademark that I designed to use in marking my drafting projects:

In designing this trademark, I choose to integrate the first letter of my name. This choice references that one’s name is a common way of indicating ownership. It also reflects the informal first name basis of the design world. Thus, my design reflects my culture. My choice to use a common cultural reference also says something about me as an individual. I cannot avoid such referencing. It is there to be seen, but in the words of Leonardo Da Vinci, “There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.”[i] Thus, all of us can benefit from studying design, it shows us not only how to create but also how to see.

There is unanimous agreement among those who study design on the existence of cycles of style through out time. There are is also an individual cycle of creativity, one that gradually builds until peaking before tapering off and returning to earlier levels in later life. We also experience cycles of creativity on a weekly, daily, and hourly basis. The early psychologist Eric Fromm wrote, “Conditions for creativity are to be puzzled; to concentrate; to accept conflict and tension; to be born everyday; to feel a sense of self.”[v] It is no doubt impossible to consistently maintain such a state.

In summary, design is the story of our conceptions, and thoughts. This story is translated through multiple views into the creation of artifacts. The expression and interpretation of such artifacts goes through cycles both on the individual and societal level. It is with these ideas that I start my second semester of studying interior design.

---

[i] Andrea, Palladio. The Four Books on Architecture. Trans. Tavernor, Robert and Shofield, Richard. Boston: MIT Press, 2002.

[ii] Vitruvius, Ingrid. Vitruvius: Ten Books on Architecture. Trans. Rowland and Howe. Boston: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

[iii] Norberg-Schulz, Christian. New World Architecture Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1988.

[iv] Da Vinci, Leonardo. Leonardo’s Notebooks. Ed. Suh, Anna H. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2005.

[v] Fromm, Eric. The Art of Being. New York: Continuum, 1994.

TimeLine Project

TimeLine Project 800 BC & 800 AD

Institutions, Governance, Technology, Commerce

800 BC

Institutions:

Greek city-states begin to demolish rule by monarchy and institute oligarchy, or rule by a few, most often rule by the wealthy members of the city state.

Technology:

Skin grafts were being utilised for reconstructive surgical work in India.

In Scotland iron was discovered as an effective replacement for bronze in the manufacture of tools and weapons.

Governance

Death of Pedubastis I, pharaoh

The Celts rule central Europe

Beginning of period of composition of the Upanishades.

Olmecs unite Mesoamerica.

Invasion of Palestine by Egypt.

Italy inhabited by Hellenic and Etruscan people.

India experiences the 5th Aryan invasion

Thespieus, King of Athens, dies after a reign of 27 years and is succeeded by his son Agamestor.

Ardysus I becomes king of Lydia.

Hadad-nirari IV of Assyria conquers Damascus.

Commerce:

Athens and Sparta become the wealthiest and most prominent cities in archaic Greecce.

Hesiod's Theogony, a narrative that tells about the origin of the cosmos and about the gods that shaped cosmos is composed.

Homer creates the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Ornate and elaborate jewlrey and cloth is made in Kalhu (modern Nimrud, Iraq) and the area of modern day Iran.

Sources

http://wsu.edu/~dee/GREECE/ARCHAIC.HTM

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8797/AMAZON/augustus.htm

http://www.prlog.org/10097489-cosmetic-surgery-short-history-from-800-bc-to-1920s-hollywood-listers.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/costi-londra/2223029372/

http://din-timelines.com/bce1099-0800_timeline.shtml

http://www.eastlothian.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=865

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8th_century_BC

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedi

800 AD



Institutions

1. A house of knowledge was first proposed in Baghdad. (After it’s establishment 20 years later the great Greek and Roman works of antiquity were translated into Arabic.)

2. Mayan Culture reaches it’s peak and institututes centers for learning science and centers for training in physical combact.

Technology

1. Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan isolates numerous acids, including
hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, citric acid, acetic acid, tartaric acid, and aqua regia



Governance

1. Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the West by Pope Leo III on December 25th -- Christmas Day -- in St. Peters Church.

3. The Angor Period began in 802, when Jayavarman II established his capital at Angor. Jayavarman united all of Cambodia, and achieved independence from Java

4. Vikings repeatedly raid Pillage and burn the island of Ireland

5. The Community of Iona (in modern day Scotland), is slain by Vikings


Commerce
1. 'Félire Óengusso', a martyrology in Old Irish verse, by Óengus mac Óengobann 'the Culdee'; Stowe Missal written.

2. Myan economy peaks.

3. The city El Tajín in the area of Veracruz became a center of trade.


Sources

http://www.historycentral.com/dates/800ad.html
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com
http://www.ambrosevideo.com/resources/documents/Timeline%20for%20Core%20Chemistry.pdf
http://www.humanities-interactive.org/splendors/timeline.htm

Iulluminated Objects

This drawing was done in my sketchbook for drawing class. Each of these objects is very important to my daily life!

Illuminated Objects

In drawing class I drew 5 objects of great importance to me in my daily life (and learned that colored pencil does not scan very well).

Drafting Trademark

In our Drafting class we were asked to develop a trademark. Mine is pictured below.

Inspired By Grimms

For our first study project, we were each assigned a brothers Grimm fairy tale. Mine is Hansel and Grethel. Based on the essence of this story ("Evil and good, around and within, as we go forward and back again"), I created an inspiration board/collage.

The black and white color scheme was chosen to represent the duality of good vs. evil. This is likewise represented in the contrasting textures of the white feathers and black gems. The images were positioned to represent a series of circular journeys and interior and exterior ills and virtues.

ABC & 123, my second semester begins

I'm starting my second semester in UNCG's department of interior architecture (or as I fondly refer to it "design school"). My first assignment involved practicing my architectural lettering.