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Futuristic Structures
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InspirationSantiago CalatravaLiving in the city of Milwaukee, which contains one of the most unique and popular pieces of architecture in the country, I decided to make use of it. The Milwaukee Art Museum contains great use of line as well as form to create a functioning building that is also beautiful. I was immediately intrigued by his use of line and his complete aesthetic when creating architectural pieces. His pieces contained many straight lines that when brought together, make up curved edges. The fact that the buildings were symmetrical was appealing to me because generally in humanity, beauty can be defined as symmetrical, but things can still beautiful without exquisite symmetry, which is what I felt like his pieces conveyed from the moment I had set my eyes upon them.
Joel TjintjelaarDue to the final piece needing to be a photo, I decided to look into photography which connected my piece back to fine art. I discovered an artist by the name of Joel Tjintjelaar. He used black and white to depict line in an interesting and intriguing way. The use of line also inspired me because I wanted my piece to be crisp, clean, and lines to guide my piece essentially.
Research
ExperimentationI started to play around with the cardboard pieces that were already cut (which would explain the frayed edges). I grabbed small angular pieces and placed them on the table. I then started to fit them inside of one another and I came up with the result that you see below. After placing them in the way that I desired, I began to photograph the pieces from different angles. I did that because my final piece will be seen from all directions and I wanted to take the photos from different directions to mimic the things that other people would see when looking at my piece.
I liked the circular shapes coming together to form angular forms, it is both intriguing and interesting to the eye. I will probably continue to do this type of style throughout the entire piece (mixture of circular and angular) because I like the dimension that it gives. I also think that light will bounce off the sides of the cardboard which will give the whole thing a different feel. I began to put things inside of the circular forms that I created to sort of encage things that would portray buildings. I used wood scraps that were previously cut NOT according to my wants or my board. I simply began to lay things out different ways and see what worked the best for me, keeping in consideration the light that the wooden block would be on top off. I considered reflection of light and that is where and how I chose to place my materials.
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SketchesIn order to figure out the cuts that were required for my piece, I began to sketch lines with one 90 degree angle. I used a ruler in my sketch book and began to draw lines, I didn't want a particular order to the lines, nor did I want them to be contained by the corners. Due to the things that I wanted along with the things that were required, I used a straight edge and allowed the lines to avoid corners and allow negative space (which was also required).
Materials
I ultimately wanted to use whatever I found that was previously cut, I didn't want any of the pieces on my board to be two of a kind because it would go against the meaning that I was trying to display. I found a cardboard tube, most likely used to hold papers or long objects inside and had someone cut it for me completely at random, allowing different shapes and sizes to come about. When I saw all of the pieces that were cut, I was extremely eager to play with the ways that they worked together. I also found some ways that they worked against one another however. The pieces were a bit heavy so they wouldn't stick the exact way that I wanted them too, and they were also a bit large to fit on the wooden board that I was using. I fell in love with the plastic pieces because they appeared to be glass which was the entire idea that I fell in love with. The wood pieces were mainly used to accentuate the plastic and cardboard pieces which were more of my focus for the entire piece.
Making the PieceTo make this piece, I used a lot cardboard which was cut using a table saw, therefore it had many frayed edges which had to cleanly be sanded. I sanded all of the frayed edges to give the piece crisp and clean lines which was my intention for the piece. I also used thick pieces of plastic that closely resembled glass which excited me due to the way that the light would reflect off of the pieces and through them. Lastly, I used wooden blocks and sanded all of the edges to make them seem softer and also to remove frayed edges from those. The way I placed everything was based on line and movement of the structures, I also kept in mind the entire time the use of light.
ReflectionOverall, I was happy with my piece and I felt that I was successful in using my inspiration to create a totally new piece that was all my own. Something that I struggled with was figuring out which type of glue worked best for which pieces. I used mainly wood glue for the cardboard and the wood blocks of course. For the heavier plastic pieces I decided to use hot glue because it felt more secure on the board and it was quicker. Once I had the glue situation sorted out, it was a matter of placement and making the structures work together. If I could change one thing, I'd change the height up and stagger the structures that I create. Overall though, I was happy with the result.
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