final - SMORGASBORD! loud things and bright screens

part one, marclay and tinguely walk into a bar... 

 

Rough Concept Sketch

     When presented with the assignment, I knew there were two considerations I had to personally abide by: the incorporation of kinetics and the idea of fragmentation. In order to carry out the kinetics, I recruited the assistance of a Lego NXT to control the speed and number of rotations for the record, as well as control the needle point so that it is not fixated on a single location of the record. Fragmentation found its way into the aesthetics of the work, where all of the forms were of the most basic of shapes—triangles and squares.

 Left Profile of 3D Modeled Bust

     Aside from the general triangles that encompassed the base of the work, a paper individual carried the aesthetic and support of the work. Both the character's bust and hand were created in Blender and were later produced as paper models.

 3D Modeled Hand (Designed to Hold the Needle/Horn in place)

      Unfortunately, a majority of the intentions that had been set forth in this assignment had to be eliminated due to time or consequence of an action. The rotation that was intended to maneuver the needle closer to the center of the record as it progressed was eliminated due to time, whereas a majority of the aesthetics were obliterated due to the weather. With the amount of time remaining, I did not have an adequate time frame to restore the features that had been lost, but rather try to the best of my ability to repurpose what was before me so that it would function for the show. Although a mock up was available of the figure, it stood at 1/3 of the scale and did not possess the same presence that the former character had possessed. The paper that covers the exterior surface of the work was utilized as a method to unify the work, as there was a great deal of variation present from the colors present, to the materials the triangles were created from.

Presentation of Work, 4/12/13

     In the manner of Tinguely, my piece had a theatrical element in the sense that it "exploded," ...but it just chose the wrong time to do so. The show had to go on and the above image is the work that was presented during SMORGASBORD! Alongside a wintermester class, I'm planning on revisiting this work, but I'll have to develop a new method for it's activation as the Lego NXT that I had been utilizing must return to it's rightful owner.

part two, BYOB holiday party

The Twelve Terrors of Christmas by John Updike (Author) and Edward Gorey (Illustrator)

     When considering the holidays and the nature of the assignment, I was interested in transforming a physical book into an animation. Ironically, the first tale to come to mind was The Twelve Terrors of Christmas, a short text that carries a reader through an anti-Christmas narrative and sheds light on the less pleasant aspects of the holiday season. Some of these considerations are the unsettling idea of Santa, to the fear of giving too little. The pages were treated individually so that the images and text would fade in and out in a timely manner, meanwhile maintaining a consistent aesthetic throughout. The audio that accompanies the work is Uncle Charlie by Clint Mansell, an eerie and hypnotic instrumental track.

part three, homage to marclay: record manipulation

      When prompted with the task to manipulate a preexisting record, I was fascinated by the idea of forcing the needle to maneuver in a non-traditional manner as opposed to deconstructing the record itself. With this notion set forth, I created a spiral guide for the needle in AutoCAD and printed it in ABS plastic. All of the points were specified at 0, 90, 180, and 270 degrees in correspondence to the dimensions of the record and were referenced during the creation of the 3D drawing. The guide stands at 0.02 inches tall and is permanently adhered to the record.