I've changed my idea for my final culture project for CFC II, we've had 1.5 months to work on it, and I change my idea 5 days before it's due. I was never really to happy with my old project idea, the Norman Rockwell print appropriation one, and having wanted to work with iconic brands at first but never figuring out a good way to do that, I had stuck with Rockwell.
Well, it hit me like ton of ACME bricks yesterday (I'm ok since nothing made by ACME really does any damage). I was interested in the creation of brand cultures and how they get started, and in thinking about not getting to see my little cousins at Christmas this year, I thought of how we start kids young on brands. Gerber, Toys R' Us, Mattel, Barbie. Giving them a subconscious idea of what is good in the market, and what is good thus for them. My grand inspiration was simple puzzles for babies and todlers. The ones with trucks and dogs on them.
Baby Puzzle
I've decided to do this with iconic "grown up" brands. That's iconic in the sense of most Americans would recognize the logo quickly. I made a list of iconic brands.
Nike
McDonalds NBC Coca-Cola
Best Buy
Apple
I'm using their logos as puzzle pieces. Does anyone else find it funny that I labeled these 'iconic' brands? Do they really need labels?
Screen Shot of Logo Layout
Shouldn't be to terribly tough to make, wood, jigsaw, sandpaper and woodglue for the pieces and maybe screen printing for the logos. Course, I've said that before. Could be tough. Especially since I have a exam on Monday and won't be around this weekend to work on it. hmmm. Wish me luck!
For TMP III we are working with our hands now, which is a nice change. I've really quite enjoyed the video, audio and website work this semester, but I love making things with my hands.
We are creating musical instruments of sorts. Some people are remaking real instruments out of materials not normally used for musical instruments, while others are making up entirely new instruments.
I fall under the remake with new materials category. I'm making a harp, using stretched balloons for the strings. It's going to be pretty sweet, I've prepared the frame, made out of varnished wood and I'm stringing/ballooning it today. It's not going to be a real instrument, not even close, but it should be cool!
I'm also working on a final piece for my CFC II culture class, it's going to appropriate a Norman Rockwell print from the Saturday Evening Post covers. I'm dealing with idolization of the American way and contentment versus desire. Should be interesting.
There is little I dislike more than writing research papers. I am researching for one currently. Something or another on race and civil rights relating three different pieces.
So over the course of the second half of my semester I've been working on a sculpture in one of the classes I'm taking that I rarely mention here. TMP I Construction (the other being the super boring, waste of time A(rt)D(esign)P(erspectives) I The Creators). I've not oft mentioned it because while I really enjoy working with my hands, I've found sculpture not to be my favorite hands on activity. Especially when we've been working with clay and plaster the entire semester (o.k. a tiny bit of cardboard was in there too).
The sections are also supposed to have a wood project. Other sections of the course have made some really cool bench's that I was really jealous they got to do. My prof likes clay, allot. So we've done it, allot. I hate how dry it makes my hands, takes a solid day of moisturizer to get them not feeling like cotton balls. But that is besides the point.
I've made the Michelin Tire Man! I decided to do him because then I wouldn't have to do muscles or clothing! It took while to make him, but it was ultimately not that hard, just time consuming (like everything else in art school). He's pretty cool.
Our next step is to ruin the clay model. We're casting them out of plaster, by covering them in plaster. Not sure how that is going to work, but OK.
First we've added our shim walls made from aluminum (Arizona Juice) cans. These give us section splits to take the plaster molds off in. I did the Michelin Mans head first and it looked like he had a halo.
Next we covered the suckers in plaster. Something was wrong with one of the layers of plaster I put on the top half of his back. Not good. Not good at all. I've made it work through extensive patching with more good plaster over it to give it strength, but oh boy do I handle it gingerly. I've got that section off here and was working on the bottom half of his backside. All the coils I used for his tires came off with the mold.
The bottom half removed. All the coils were cut by the aluminum shim walls so it's interesting to see the core of his leg surrounded like that.
The mold for the lower section of his back, i.e. legs and the base.
It was actually quite fun to pull that stupid clay Michelin Man apart. I spent so much time on him, it was like sweet revenge. As you can see, he had a foam and wire armature that we put clay over for initial forming, which of course, stay in. Until this of course.
The front half of the mold was one large piece as we didn't have to worry about the armature pipe. This is pretty cool looking I think, but I may just know how many stinking hours it took me to get here!
We had a quick project for CFC II Culture recently, dealing with the global culture and exchange.
I had heard about forced child labor in Africa and parts of Asia in the textiles and food products, and after some research through Stop The Traffik, I found out about the worlds chocolates origins. Chiefly, the worlds chocolate comes from West Africa, 80 % from the area, and 46% from the Ivory Coast alone. West Africa has a history of forced child labor, especially when cocoa prices drop and manufactures try to cut costs.
I wanted to specifically highlight this fact and cause people to question, and actually think, about where their chocolate comes from.
I used the iconic Dove Chocolate foil wrappers, the ones with messages on them like "Treat Yourself Today" or something pseudo-philosophical. My messages read "80% of the worlds chocolate comes from West Africa." "A region with a history of forced child labor." "Who made your chocolate?"
I used photoshop and simply reworked images of the wrappers I had taken. Pretty easy really, clone stamp tool to clear up the wrappers initial messages, and simple matching of font and color to insert my own images.
Our latest project for digital studio was a map, well no not really it's not the latest, we did it a few weeks ago, I'm just behind the ball on updating! (I'm trying to get better, really)
We all had to map greater Ann Arbor and get a few specific roads (the main ones pretty much), University Campuses, the Botanical Gardens, the Huron River and such. I came into this project pretty skeptical, I mean, 20 students all mapping the same area? I assumed we were all going to have similar projects. I was wrong. Of course, we all mapped the same areas, but all had very different ways of going about it. Glad I was wrong, the end results were very interesting and varied.
Ann Arbor Map (click map for full view)
London Underground Map I decided to base mine on the London Underground subway system maps. For all the information that they convey, they are deceptively simple, and iconic because of it. I really liked how all they used is color and circles to convey where the tubes go. I decided to borrow/rip off this idea for my Ann Arbor map. At the beginning and end of every road is a colored circle. Each road has it's own color so you can follow it from it's start to end easily with your eyes. The highways surrounding Ann Arbor (M-14, US- 23, I-94) are thicker lines and bolder, two tone roads to give hierarchical importance. The key clearly explains what the colored areas represent along with the text over the specific areas to specify say, which garden is which.The compass is incorporated into the red and blue Underground logo, which now says Ann Arbor of course.
My map is obviously not intended as a replacement for an actual map of Ann Arbor, mine is way to simple and stylized as a graphic to work in that capacity.
I'm pretty happy with the end result, although it could use a bit of reworking layout wise to incorporate the logo and key overall. They seem to float a bit. Otherwise, I'm very happy with my map.
Roughly one month ago I said I was going to update that weekend. That weekend is happening now, it will be glorious.
I've done some work with video this semester for my TMP III (time based media) class. We're using Final Cut and started super simple. Text and still images. We had to tell a story (that's kinda another part of the class, story telling using these mediums).
This was my first video, The Story of The Film (So Far), using text and found images. It moves quickly to heighten the sense of pointlessness of a mid film summing up. It's also an homage to Monty Python's Flying Circus. I also realized I had previously posted about this movie, but it's nice to have all my video work in one post for easy viewing.
My second video is a stop motion type. I took lots of images of myself and sequenced them together (it's like a video flip book, or stop motion if you want to get all technical). It's called Pocketed Words. I made it for my fiancee, Kara Mia.
The third video I've done this year is actually a video, like the real movin' pictures like in Hollywood! It's an expansion on the ideas I explored in Pocketed Words. My professor (Tirtza Even) encouraged me to explore where on my body I took the words from and play around with the deeper meaning of of "i love you". I'll explain a bit after the jump/video (I only wanted to use the term 'after the jump' because I see it all the time on websites now and I wanted to be in vouge too!) This is called, Close To The Vest. Again, for Kara Mia.
I explored the meaning of my pockets and where on my body they were in this by the level of the pockets on my clothing and proximity to my skin. So 'i' started out on my jacket pocket above my left side (above my heart, on purpose), 'love' was one layer down in my vest and 'you' was in my shirt pocket. So as I went deeper into the intensely personal phrase of 'i love you', I literally was moving closer to my heart and bearing it. Tirtza loved it. Kara did too!
I've got lots of digital work and some ceramics work to show you as well in the near future. My current week should be significantly less crazy than the past few! Thanks for reading!
P.S. I'm making a longboard (a long skateboard made for cruising, not tricks) with the U of M chapter of the Industrial Design Society of America. Learning, finally (not thanks to U of M A&D, more on my dissasifaction with my education quality later), to use the laser cutter! Sweetness. But no seriously, this place (U of M Art & Design) has no focus, with no majors everyone is just kind of floating around aimlessly. I'm frustrated and thinking of transfering, see the Chchchanges post before this one.
As I vaguely posted previously, our latest project for CFC II is on camouflage. Part of the assignment description: "...the issue of visibility and invisibility lies at the core of any discussion surrounding camouflage. Understanding camouflage as a process of concealment and acculturation, you are asked to think deeply about these issues on a physical as well as a psychological, social, or cultural level. You are then charged to put your ideas into practice by creating an artistic response to this topic."
So I was thinking about camouflaging or changing the normal function of an everyday item to do something extra-ordinary or a task not at all associated with that everyday item. I settled on working with kitchen appliances, specifically a blender, because of the interesting connotations that kitchen appliances have. They are a decidedly normal item, we all have microwaves, toasters, blenders, coffee machines populating our counter space but they are more and more associated with chic design. A browsing of Target.com's blender selection shows no less than 5 blenders, adorned with stainless steel and colored plastic, all color coded to go with your kitchen motif. I picked the blender as my everyday item because the smooth lines and singular design motifs common to each one (they all look pretty much the same in form).
To change the blender I mind mapped the various functions it performs and decided to work with liquids as they are always involved in the function of a blender, be it going in to be blended or the product of the blending. I settled on using wine because of it's antithetical qualities to the blender. Where a blender is a normal everyday, middle class item, wine is seen more as high culture and ritzy. A blender often is stored away in a cupboard while a wine collection is proudly displayed.
My Notes on "Why?"
In my debate on how to change the blender in respect to the wine I decided to serve wine as it is not normally served. For the non-wine drinkers, depending on the wine you are drinking, it is either opened hours before drinking and possibly decanted (poured into a specific vase to give it more surface area) to let the wine breath or drank immediately after opened. It is always poured from the decanter or bottle to the glass. Wine is never 'on tap'. So I decided to do exactly this.
In doing this, I was changing the function of the blender (from blending to distributing liquid) and concealing this change so it still looked like a blender from the outside. Also, I'm going to create a reservoir for the wine in the blender pitcher and cover it with grapes. Grapes become wine by being squished and fermented, so it kind of makes sense that they are in a blender (work with me here a bit). Also it conceals/camouflages that there is wine in the pitcher, which would be a giveaway that something was up with that blender.
Rough Preliminary Idea Sketch
Now after all of this, you would think I would have already made my wonderful blender wine tap. Nope. I'm waiting for my hose and faucet (purchased from a home beer brewing store) and am still trying to get the blender I purchased at Ann Arbor's Recycle Center opened to gut the mechanical internals so I can run my line out the back of the blender's base. The base is bolted on with these little 2.5mm allen (hex) bolts which have this tiny little pillar in the middle of them which don't allow a normal solid 2.5 mm allen key to fit in a unscrew them, which means I'm screwed (pun intended). Now I've got to make a hardware store trip to get some hollow allen keys and drop some more cash from my limited supply to get into the dang thing. It's going to feel great to finally break it open!
This evening, my thoughts are pretty organized on why a blender and why wine, but this morning, oh boy...we had a mini-critique halfway through the assignment. I was not prepared on the context of the project (CFC stands for Concept, Form, and Context), I had spent all my time planing how to make my blender into a wine tap and it showed. They ate me alive. A classmate asked, "How does it address culture (as it is a culture class as well) and context?" I looked blankly at her and made a conscious decision to not B.S. on this and said "Hmmm, don't know." It was a slippery slope from there. Needless to say, I did some thinking this afternoon, and with the assistance of my fiancee, Kara, got to where I am now.
Once I actually start making this piece I'll post pictures, in the meantime, thanks for reading!
I've got lots of things coming down the pipe right now (including, hopefully, something having to do with wine!), and not enough time currently to blog about all of it. So I thought I'd post something new for me, a video.
It's for my TMP (themes, materials, and processes) III class, which is a time based media studio. Everything from movies to flipbooks. I've posted our introductory assignment which is just to familiarize us with Final Cut (they actually gave it to us!). It's under one minute and uses only still shots to create a story. I made mine on made up relations between people in different stills. It's also a homage to Monty Python, so what's not to like? Nothing. Oh and we had 2 hours to make it. Trial by fire here at U of M A&D.
The music is "Shark Attack Theme" from the soundtrack to The Life Aquatic.
Thanks for reading, I'll be updating this blog much more regularly now that the semester has started back up.
I had previously posted about an opportunity to design guitars for a new company that one of my co-workers at Terra Trike, Ben, is starting up. The owners of Terra Trike also have this super small side start up guitar company called Etavonni. Ben is the lead guitar tech for them, but naturally wants to have full control of his own ideas and is starting up his own guitar company, Lumen, to take full advantage of his contacts in the guitar industry. The thing with Etavonni is that they cost $7,000, way out of most peoples price range. Ben wants to make a sweet looking, nice sounding, guitars that garage bands can afford.
Well when you need a guitar body designed, who's your favorite art student baby!
Ben came to me with the head stock picked out and a general idea that he wanted to make it swoopy and kickin. I just got to go to town on the design and have some fun. After a few sketches, this is what Ben settled on as what he wanted.
Yep, my design. Pretty cool huh? Ben has a guy in North Carolina making the body for him, this is the first prototype.
The other super cool thing about the look is not just the body design but where the guitars name sake is coming from. Ben found these super thin sheets of lights (not LCD exactly) which we are working on affixing to the front of the guitar. The sheets light up in a certain color and can do two tones. I'm working on some graphics for the front in lights, I'm a bit limited in size restrictions as the larger the design the more expensive it gets. If this really takes off, we'll look into some of my more intricate, larger designs.
Currently the graphics are just in the sketch form. Keep in mind these are going to be in lights, like say neon green on a gloss black painted guitar. Super cool for your weekend gig!
Thanks for looking, I'll keep you all abreast of happenings with Lumen over the coming year.
Well, schools out. I've been home going on a month already actually. The last semester wrapped up nicely, I was pretty happy with final grades. No surprises, well actually I was expecting an A- in my Humor Class (one of my advanced studio classes), but I got an A. So a good surprise.
I'm actually missing art school allot, I had such a great semester. Met lots of really creative and fun people and made some pretty sweet art. I miss it. I'm working full time (I actually like what I'm doing, more on that in a bit) and making the monies and riding my bike, but there is a lack of artiness for sure. I aught to get on designing my wedding invitations or save the date cards, or start taking my camera with me more.
I'm working for a trike company called WizWheelz, we make the Terra Trike.
A TerraTrike
I do assembly, shipping, R&D, and anything else that needs to be done pretty much. It's a pretty sweet job, but I still miss art school.
Speaking of art school, I have pictures from my final TMP II project that I never uploaded. It was the expanded image piece. Overall, Dennis, my prof (who was great) loved it. I was less happy with the final result. He gave it an A-. I gave it a C-. I think that he liked the amount of time I put into this mother and the fact that I stayed late on the day we had to work on it and finished it at 11pm on a Friday when I still had a week to do it.
It's three of my friends/roommates ascending the stairs of the house I lived in last year at Michigan. I really like the top of the piece and the sides where you can see the banister and the baseboards of the stairs. They were used to give the piece some cohesion. That worked, all three of them are climbing stairs, but I have way to many pictures of them and not stairs up the middle and that mucks it all up.
I made this by taking tons of pictures, printing them glossy 8.5x11 and then cutting each one into roughly 2/3 " strips and gluing them to the foam core to expand them climbing the stairs. The idea was that it would look like several were climbing the stairs at one time and all at the same time.
In retrospect, I'd like to try this again but with only one person and less pictures of them. Don't make is so cluttered and obvious.
the stairs and bannister, I like this part of the piece
Well, I'll post more when I start working on wedding invitations. I've got some ideas and some sketches. We'll see what I can come up with.
Oh other, artistic news. WizWheelz (my summer job) also makes guitars, Etavonni (innovate backwards) under the same ownership. Pretty sweet carbon and aluminum guitars. Pretty sweet $10,000 guitars. While the carbon and aluminum may seem sacrilege to some guitar people, they're all technical and tone chambered up. I guess, I don't actually play. But anyway, Ben and Jeff, who work for both companies are starting up their own guitar company (normal wooden guitars). Ben, who is the Production Manager for WizWheelz and Etavonni and a video game fiend (we play during lunch hour), has asked me to help them design a body for their new guitar. Super Sweet! I'll post what happens!
Oh and another thing, I'm now a published author. Kinda. In a newsletter, The Bent Rim Bugle, for an organization that I belong to, The Michigan Mountain Bikers Association, I was published. I wrote a piece about racing at Mt. Snow, Vermont and submitted it. They really liked it! I'll have to scan it in since there is no web version. But still, cool none the less that I can say I'm published.
The Festifools parade was last weekend here in A2 and my group and I took part with our gypsy fortune teller, Fromalda.
The parade was great fun, taking over two blocks of Main St. We had allot of fun giving kids their fortunes and generally playing around for one and half hours!
Warming up in the back alley.
My ADP II professor, Nick Tobier. We did these puppets for the parade as part of his class. Art school rocks.
Vinny did a hell of a job carrying that thing the whole time.
Team Can Opener
This little girl who was drumming the whole parade had a Dick Cheney mask on. She regaled us with her ability to do the splits, which was hilarious in that mask. I love Ann Arbor.
I'm a Senior at Michigan's school of Art & Design studying Industrial Design. I particularly enjoy designing furniture, home based objects, and transportation products using a blend of digital fabrication and traditional techniques.
Baby Puzzle
NBC
Coca-Cola
Apple
