Studio II: 1700 Years – Final Project

Artist Statement

My piece 1700 Years was created to fantasize what space travel vehicles could look like 1700 years into the future if they were designed using the 7 principles of Zen design philosophy and the samurai sword as their sources of inspiration. Using sketching and marker renderings on paper as the main medium I set out to express my ideation sketches of the forms in which these vehicles could take shape. I chose to visualize space travel vehicles because I am heavily fascinated with the constructs of space, time and vehicle design in everyday life and with this historical opportunity of studying the Samurai Sword it was the perfect starting place for an inspirational assignment on the future of the samurai sword’s design language. The title of the piece was derived from my research into the samurai sword’s engineering and design changes since it’s inception. Over the course of approximately 1700 years in the past from today, the visual curvature of the blade changed ever so slightly enabling it to be built stronger, lighter and sharper. I pondered if one took any object from our current society and watched how it evolved over the next 1700 years, I doubt it would look anything like it did originally or if it still exited at all, being replaced by something more efficient. My approach to the space vehicle design is outlined below as I evaluate how this space vehicle will satisfy the 7 principles of Zen design philosophy through its own design and purpose.

In reflection I am happy with the results that emerged from this creative design process. I also believe that there are thousands of ways in which this project could be approached to attain the needs of the design principles each changing the final design in different measures. I had never attempted a marker rendering on this large of scale before and although not easy to keep the blending of the colors looking natural I feel that it was a valiant effort and I can only progress from here. I chose to render the vehicle in blue for a few reasons, one being that I imagined the vehicle being designed on another planet where and exotic (blue) high strength metal was mined and this made the exterior of the ship. Secondly on earth blue is often observed as a natural color and the ship can also represent aquatic animals though its form and connection to naturalness. Lastly blue is the color of the sky and is a metaphor for going above and beyond, to never stop exploring and to never stop designing because the future is always inevitable.