Process
After choosing Roosevelt Island, my group settled to focus on the human impact of transformation on our land. We let the idea marinate for a week and on the train to class, I thought of a concept that would satisfy our topic. My initial idea was to create a structure that exhibited movement to support our concept of transformation. Shaan had told me about a screwdriver gang that had existed on the island years before. Since we had already made the base of our project, I thought that using sticking multiple screwdrivers in the wood (that would turn) would be a cool concept. This needed further development and when I told Shaan about it, he pushed the idea further. We came up with these sketches.
After experimenting with the wood we made an aesthetic choice to work with geometric solids. This decision was also informed given the wood medium. Geometric solids also make up our physical reality. The following picture is our initial choice for assigning each component of the piece to Roosevelt Island.
The pyramid represented the physical space that Roosevelt Island occupies. The cube is being penetrated by a rod represents humanity (the cube) being entirely dependent on government policy (rod). Shaan had a different approach to this structure. He saw the cube as a nucleus that’s being penetrated by a virus (greed/corruption). Both concepts fit and add to the complexity of the artifact.
reflection
There were so many aspects of this project I loved. I really enjoyed establishing a physical structure to a concept. Using a physical space as a focus grounded the entire creative process. I worked mainly with Shaan and we were both immersed in the project. We worked together to fine-tune the physical structure to be in unison with the concept. He. built most of the structure. and I painted and assembled it. However, our group was 5 people and me and Shaan were the only ones committed to making this artifact. Therefore, other group members were in charge of creating the presentation and writing the essay. In hindsight, everyone should have been immersed in each aspect of the project. We would have accomplished more as a group and our presentation would have also been seamless.
This project wrapped up “Time” class very well as it forced me to look at the cycle that the human race is caught in. We can look at ‘now’ as. just this moment or we can expand it to a larger cycle that humans are living. It is apparent with the rampant gentrification of places is a result of society’s need for material comfort. We don’t have enough resources for the developmental changes we are making. The conceptual demand of this piece made me explore the history of human nature. From the beginning of civilized humanity, we have been preoccupied with religious doctrine. As time went by, the human race reached several dead. ends. The motivational force of everyone’s existence changed from finding a higher power and became more preoccupied with comfort. This next chapter in humanity is coming to an end now as the resources that have been given to us might be beyond depletion to support future populations. This piece attempts to paint this dismal possibility. The abstract hands grasping the pure white pyramid references the toxic human touch. This was the final step in completing the piece.
