Paper Manipulation

For this paper manipulation assignment, my intention was to explore creating something out of the material of paper that could function as storage space.  I imagined a sort of suspending hanger device.  My exploration phase consisted of multiple techniques of slicing, folding, and insertion.  I used a few different types of paper, including metro-poster paper, bristol paper, and cardboard.  I created 4 different models, going from a rounded sleeve like shelving to a flat file shelving.

Enhanced Object

In order to enhance my object, I chose to focus on improving the efficiency of its function.  To make the epi-pen trainer more efficient in its education purpose, the shroud piece could be made of partially or fully transparent plastic.  For the prototype I disassembled and reassembled the original trainer, and wrapped its internal parts in an outer covering consisting of clear PVC plastic.  The text sticker would be redesigned and reconfigured, with the steps being depicted on the area of the pen which they are most relevant to in terms of placement and function.  This is represented on the prototype by the yellow stickers, with the numbers indicating which corresponding step would be depicted in the relevant area.  These two enhancements to the original epi-pen trainer’s construction will encourage the user to become more familiar with the product, bolstering the root intention to develop a level of comfort between the user and the use.

While the goal of my project was not to focus on sustainability, in a hypothetical scenario in which sustainability was considered, the model could be created with the science of biodegradable plastic derived from chicken feathers.

 

 

Journal Entries

curiousity journal-1frhepg

  1. There’s a sort of frailty and femininity in the thing of a flower, of a bloom, of a blossom, comparable to that in form of the female bosom.  Flower by Kenzo was the first fine perfume I dabbled in on my journey towards womanhood, and its light floral scent is representative of the purity, the innocence, the naiveness of that phase.  I would later move on to something more musky, smelling of overtones of sandalwood and maturity, with my intrigue in Burberry Body.  And then I would grow to be even more sexy with my eternal infatuation with Yves Saint Laurent’s Black Opium.  But it all derived from a flower, a red poppy which was once suitable to describe my being, that overtime morphed into an opium poppy which would embody my matured love of lust.  That frailty and femininity disappeared.  Yet I admire it still today, the simpler times of relating to a single red poppy, the days when one could stop and smell the roses, a depiction of purity and youth not yet tainted by the greed of the world beyond its fields.
  2. Within the topic of art as a response to the AIDS crisis, Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s Untitled (Portrait of Ross) conceptual installation is one of the most renowned works known to society today.  A large pile of colorfully wrapped sweet candy constitutes the installation.  The pile is intended to weigh 175 lbs to be exact, Ross Laycock’s/ Torres’s late partner’s ideal body weight.  As viewers interact with the installation, they are welcome to take away candy from the pile, witnessing the same diminishment in size that Torres witnesses of Laycock’s ill-stricken physical body.  The installation has been an famous museum after famous museum, and discussed in the art world at large, even hitting my small-town Art History Class of five other students.  However, it was not until I visited Foundation Louis Vuitton and the temporary Moma curated exhibition they had that I saw the work for myself.  I could not help myself from taking some candy and shoving it hurriedly into my handbag, and this singular piece made it to the pages of my sketchbook.  It is pieces like this, works like Torres’s that embody the farthest capabilities of art as a medium- not just in originality and uniqueness of components and construction, but also as power and exemplary authority in making statements.
  3. My most recent struggle has been understanding my own independence.  As a statement of feminism and effort of self love I bought myself these three rings from Swarovski.  Each one was purchased after a significant development in my life, as sort of celebratory mile-markers for myself.  The first one, the gold one on the right, was purchased in the summer in New York, after I’d decided officially to complete my studies with Parsons Paris.  It had always been my dream to study with Parsons, and more recently it became an inevitable desire of mine to return to the French lifestyle.  This ring represented a sort of promising future for myself, one that I could make on my own as I’d done to get to the moment of victory I was relishing in then.  The second ring, the one on the left, I’d bought after leaving a toxic relationship.  Materialistically, it was a bit of a man-replacer, but it also represented this sort of cultural assimilation which had occurred that made it impossible for me to be with the person I was with before.  The last ring, the rose-gold band in the middle, I bought before I left for Christmas break.  When being faced with the fact that I was going to be uprooted after finally getting accommodated to this new life I’d made for myself in Paris, I realized that I had grown into a further sense of independence; in the sense, that I had a life outside of what I used to know.
  4. The statistics they’ll give you are that a condom is 98% effective in preventing pregnancy.  But those statistics are all based on numbers, mathematical hypotheses, in accounting for human error.  The real statistic that should be used, the true percentage of the efficace of a condom, is 85%.  Note the 10% drop from what you’re told to what is reality.  You’ll find out condoms break, and when the boughs of your sexual ship break, you can always turn to Plan B.  If you take Plan B, or the day after pill, within the first 72 hours of unprotected sex it is about 89% effective within preventing pregnancy- if you take it within 24 hours it will reduce your chance of pregnancy by 95%.  Timing is everything in this case.  Some girls are lucky, being on a birth control pill.  Although not substantial as a sole form of anti-contraception, birth control can be 99.9% effective when taken in the correct manner.  You may turn to these numbers as you gain life experience and go through sexual growth.  Unless you’re a guy, in which case, you don’t care because there is a 0% chance of you getting pregnant.
  5. Work is everything to me.  Being raised in a capitalistic society I’ve been taught I’m no more than my career accomplishments.  There are certain things in one’s lifestyle that symbolize such success.  For example, stationary is always a professional matter.  Whether you are being formal in writing thank you cards, or using a daily planner, nothing reads success like a good set of stationary.  And what do you write with?  The cheap plastic pens your school gave you?  The one you picked up from the bank?  What you walked away with from your doctor’s appointment?  For me, buying this pack of metal, gold-accented pens, read prosperity for me, and their smooth bodies and aesthetically pleasing designs could represent the satisfaction of my career.  Unfortunately, purchasing these pens was a bit premature seeing as I was just turned down for the most-perfect internship, and I just feel like a loser with two nice pens and nothing real to write about.
  6. Lá Ballerine Aux Gros Seins is a novel written by Veronique Sels.  The book traces the life of a young girl who dreams of nothing but being a ballerina, but is turned down many an oppuritunity because she has big breasts.  A ballerina should not have big breasts, as it does not work with the movement of the choreography.  So, she goes through life hating her appearance like every other girl.  Her breasts draw her to suicide when a huge dance oppuritunity passes her by, of course because of her breasts.  Her breasts bring her love, her first boyfriend, who oh, only likes her for her breasts.  Her breasts will make her an art installation in the contemporary dance scene of New York though, where she’ll meet a great flame and have a baby with him.  This baby, she’ll nourish with her breasts.  The best part about this novel is it’s originality in the writing and it’s style.  A clever tale, in which every other chapter is narrated from the viewpoint of the breasts.
  7. As a girl who grew up surrounded by deciduous forests and wildlife galore, the move to an urban environment has its downfalls. Of course there are the benefits that come with living in a city, such as exponential increases in the available life oppuritunity around me, but along with that there has also been an exponential increase in the people in my personal space, the problematics of getting from Point A to Point B on public transportation, and the levels of my stress. It has been my personal experience that growing baby succulents in my apartment has relieved me of some of that stress. As in my case, the effectiveness of horticultural therapy and the upkeep of a sort of therapeutic garden demonstrates benefits such as lower stress levels and heightened mental and emotional stability. In the 1940s and 1950s horticultural therapy was used in an effort to rehabilitate war veterans by strengthening cognitive skills. It is proven that the simple task of watering these plants, and then watching them prosper can also lead to the prosperity of their caretakers.

IS1 Museum Visit

The chosen work is an installation, sculptural piece titled Mes Morts, by Sophie Calle.  It depicts the artist costumed likeness laying among various taxidermy. The setup is inclusive of a giraffe, a zebra, a peacock among many others.  In the summary of the work displayed on the wall, Calle explains her rationality in her choosing of each animal, and the names she has attributed personally to each.  The essence of the exhibition is a reflection of the temporal, on death in relation to life.  Calle draws from the recent death of her father.  A museum dedicated to the substance of the untimely demise of organisms is suitable for Calle to focus on such a theme.  Where there is life there is death, and in this exhibition where there is death we are also presented with a construed sense of life.

Studio Reflection Back Post

Highlight 1

The Derive:  La Flânerie

As the first project I chose to visually depict the red flowers on the window boxes of Parisian buildings.  I was inspired by my spontaneous walk down Avenue Montaigne, where I was confronted with a plethora of flower-box setups with red flowers.  I created a sequential piece, enlivening the flower in a visual sense.

Highlight 2

Retrofuturism:  Futuristic Burial Structures

For the first group project, upon our visit to cemetery Pere Lachaise, it became clear that traditional burial methods are wasteful in land, space, and materials.  Our initiative was to find an architectural, more eco-friendly design, alternative method to burial sites.  We created a set of eight prototypes, for a test layout, consisting of acrylic boxes, burlap fabric, soil, succulents, and wood plating.  Hypothetically, the dead person’s ashes would be planted inside these garden boxes, and they could be arranged in either a vertical garden setup or a horizontal landscape area.

Futuristic Burial Structures Market Pitch-uj70vm

 

Highlight 3

Remake:  Remake of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss

Making a remake of Gustav Klimt proved to be a challenge.  Remake was a difficult term to define conceptually.  Once we found the direction we wanted to go in, the group proved to be highly cooperative and collaborative.  We decided to remake The Kiss representing an idealized relationship more relevant to this time, the relationship one has with himself.  We all worked together, each bringing our individual assets, to create a masterpiece of our own, one that still resembles Klimt’s.  The process was very time-consuming, with many different adhesive techniques and collaging parts, and I could have never completed it on my own.  Moving it as well from Boulevard Haussmann, down Rue Faubourg Saint Honore, all the way to Parsons Paris was an arduous process.  It is that fact which represents how collaborative this project truly was, and how successful the piece turned out to be.  

The most interesting component of Studio was the environment and aesthetic of the class.  The creative process, production, and critiques prevalent in the course closely mimicked that of my high school AP Studio class.  I learned, yet even more, that I enjoy and thrive in a Studio occupation environment.  I also learned what role I play in a group work context, whether it be a leader in a group of less hard-working students, or just a hard-worker in a group of equally motivated students.  This course closely bridged with seminar, and I would like to further explore a personal direction and articulation in a studio position.

Project 4

Remake – studio project 4-2l8tyly

Making a remake of Gustav Klimt proved to be a challenge.  Remake was a difficult term to define conceptually.  Once we found the direction we wanted to go in, the group proved to be highly cooperative and collaborative.  We decided to remake The Kiss representing an idealized relationship more relevant to this time, the relationship one has with himself.  We all worked together, each bringing our individual assets, to create a masterpiece of our own, one that still resembles Klimt’s.  The process was very time-consuming, with many different adhesive techniques and collaging parts, and I could have never completed it on my own.  It is that fact which represents how collaborative this project truly was, and how successful the piece turned out to be.