Thursday, November 13, 2008

social design 3.0

mold links:
http://www.globalsugarart.com/product.php?id=21480
http://www.amazon.com/FRED-Cool-Jewels-Cube-Tray/dp/B00112E5NE

Friday, October 31, 2008

cradle to cradle

fast company has this story on william mcdonough and the cradle to cradle concept. designboom had this blog post a few days ago as well linking to the fast company story.

Monday, October 27, 2008

bits

just found out that shapeways is now available state-side! yes, i'll totally be making use of this...
shapeways 3d printing

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

happiness...


... is a dog to keep me company in the studio. He came with an adoption of a mexican grey wolf, therefore his name is Tequila. This was a most awesome surprise for my Tuesday and totally made me grin like a fool.
Now every time I look at him I will remember to breathe, and that I can do this, and I can make it through mid-term, and I will make good work.... and I will smile and remember all the things that matter.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

weekly photos

This is my space this week... I think I need to remember to get a picture when it's really a disaster as opposed to minor disturbance....


Refined the bust for my wearables project this week, and got all of the wax bones that will act as the (there is no way to avoid puns here) ribs for the corset made, along with creating the vellum pattern that I'll be using to sew from.


And the bust is also doubling as a knife stand. At least I took them out of the chest...

social design project 2 in progress

Been working on refining my idea and prototyping. I was trying to figure out a way to tie in the idea of trash into the overall form of the bracelet (starting there, will expand out), and I hit on the idea of using a plastic bag as the form. I did a quick prototype out of a bag from a roll of vellum.



Overall, I think it conveys the idea, but I want a more crinkly look- like you get from the cheap grocery bags. Those were too wide, but I found a couple bags that I thought would work. I decided to fill them with alginate so that they would hold the right volume and form for when I mold them.
Here are the 2 bags I used all alginated up.

Not sure which one will work better yet, but I'm planning to do the silicone mold Monday and go from there. Potential Casting materials so far are: slipcasting plastic (translucent), a flexible rubber, I'd also like something that is totally green. The plastic references the actual bags, the rubber would be sanitary and easy to clean, so I'd like something that is completely biodegradable as well- I'm thinking maybe corn starch?

Monday, October 6, 2008

apropos to this morning's grad discussion- frogdesign's blog post on experiental design- and how designing experiences is important. (from designmind)

I thought these were beautiful- I like the line quality- it reminds me of charcoal or photgraphs somehow.... Debbie Smyth (via designboom)
Helping you be "Less Bad" (via Deisgnboom)

On Social Design (via Core77)

pictures....

So this is my space as of last week:


The bust I've carved for my wearables project- pink foam!:


Playing with photsensitive paper and last semester's work- I'm hopingto get more of an X-ray look- or maybe draw on top of these...:


From today- finished piercing out the first brooch for the Anatomy IS, and I like it. I also really like the masking tape that I used to sandblast on. Maybe I can use contact paper to get a similar effect? or the latex sheeting?:


The pendants for Social Design Project 1.2 in flat form:

social design project 2

For my second social design project, I'm going to pursue the bracelet idea I had talked about earlier. I'm thinking to expand the scope out from just a bracelet to a series of pieces. (original post)
I want to make these pieces something that can be mass-produced and marketed. So that to me means smart design- is there a recycled plastic I can use? I'm currently planning to RP these- what are my material options. Would it be better to fabricate them? Possibly Smile Plastics?
Considerations: ease of use, appearance, material choices.
Possibilities: bracelet, belt buckle, clip-on attachment for purse, pendant, keychain fob?
It doesn't seem that there has been much of anything done to tackle this from a wearbles persective.
Potential issues: Will people use them? What to do with the trash after it has been picked up- display/portability?

project 1.1 post-report

Project purpose: Raise awareness of consumption of food and the choices we make regarding nutrition.

What worked: I think that the packaging of the rice in the vellum was sucessful. The placement in the food cases also worked well to get the point across.

Improvements: More packets. Better seal on the packets as they leaked a bit. Getting the packets distributed to a wider audience and being able to leave them in situ. Also, I think that in addition to the cartons and the packets, mimicking other styles of food packaging would be useful- the plastic clamshell containers, foil chip packets.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Social Design Project 1

For the first project in Social Design, we were supposed to work with a DIY/ Guerrilla art tactic. I decided to do my project on consumption. We consume a lot in our daily lives, lots of it is unnecessary and quickly thrown away. I narrowed the focus down to consumption of food and specifically raising awareness of how much choice we have regarding nutrition in America, and the choices that people make regarding food. In most of the world, rice is a staple if not the staple of diets. You can live on rice, it certainly isn't the healthiest choice, but it is an abundant grain and many people depend on it. I found a great site- FreeRice that donates rice, and has some great information on what you need. According to them, 400 grams of rice will give you 2 meals a day. They of course recommend adding other ingredients to get more balanced nutrition. I took that number and measured it out- about 2.25 C of uncooked rice. 




My project had 2 parts. One is takeout containers that are filled with the rice and have a slip of paper that says "This is enough food to feed you for one day. How much do you consume?". I sealed these containers with "free food" stickers and both put them in the food cases at the cafe (then photographed) and then left them just before lunch stacked underneath the microwave in the art building. Hopefully people will take them and think about their choices. As of an hour later, 2 of the containers are gone, the other 2 have been opened.




The second part was packaging the rice in vellum envelopes such as those you see food packaged in at cafes, and printing on the envelopes- This is all the food you need for a day. I put these into the food displays at the Art Cafe (Thanks to the wonderful ladies there and Liz (my partner in crime for this)!) and photographed them among all the muffins, donuts, and chips.




Sunday, September 21, 2008

London Design Festival- 100% Design

Some of the awesome things from 100% Design...

Susan Bradley Design's Oscar (outdoor carpets)

noodle's digitally printed roller blinds and wallpaper (these remind me of x-rays somehow...)

Vitamin's Urban Creatures, Urban Gnomes, and Hoodies


Thorunn Arnadottir's Blush radiator (there seems to be several reimagined radiators... are they making a comeback somewhere?

Smarin's LivingStones (I can so see Liz having these....)

Ulrika Jarl's Stardish and pendant lamp


Freedom of Creation's Trabecula tray
Ok, so I thought that this tray was pretty sweet. So I chcked out their website, and this group also did several other things I thought were great when I saw them- the RP chainmail pieces, and they have a trabecula table which Doug showed us in CAD last semester....



U+'s Wobble Chess Set and Shatter Cup and Saucer- didn't realize Umbra had gone awesome.




what I could do without: the crazy amount of Tord Boontje clones... and the deer fetish (wtf?)

Thomas Friedman!

Thomas Friedman is coming to DC to give a talk about his new book. The talk is Tuesday at 7pm at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue (600 I St. NW, Washington, DC). His new book is "Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution- and How It Can Renew America". The talk is $12.....

wonder if I can make it in time after class..... talk about timely!

stuff to go see

From Village to Vogue: the Jewelry of Art Smith
Brooklyn Museum of Art- through May 2009
Oceans, Rivers, and Skies: Ansel Adams, Robert Adams, Alfred Steiglitz
Nat'l Gallery- Oct 12- March 2009
Gothic Fashion
FIT- through Feb 2009
Seduction in Fashion
FIT- begins December 2008
Elegant Armor: The Art of Jewelry
Museum of Art+Design
Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power
Corcoran- through January 2009
Jim Henson's Fantastic World
Smithsonian's Internat'l Gallery- through Oct 5
O'Keefe and Adams
Renwick- starting Sept 26
Frank Gohlke photos
Renwick- starting Dec 5
Reality Check: Truth and Illusion in Contemp. Photog.
Met
pretty much everything at MOMA
MOMA- always...
Tim Burton exhibit!!
MOMA- starting in December 2009

Friday, September 19, 2008

Project 1

So for our first project in Social Design, we are focusing on DIY/Guerilla Art tactics. This is not my strong suit by any stretch, so I'm going to throw out what I am thinking and go from there. In addition to the Guerilla part, I'm also going to be making both the locket and the bracelet that I was talking about earlier. In 2 weeks.... we'll see how that goes- and there goes my not making things overly complicated for this semester....

Onto the ideas.I'm of 2 minds on what to do, and since I'm already doing other pieces this is not a "do both!" scenario.

Idea 1 is focused around the idea of calling attention to the lack of involvement in yourimmediate society- i.e people not caring. It also for me wraps back into the idea of increasing tolerance of other people. This is one of the key issues that I see affecting and creating more social problems. I'm thinking of doing a pay it forward style thing. Maybe buying X cups of coffee at the cafe. I'm thinking of putting stickers on some of the cups, and if you get one of those cups, your coffee is paid for. This way it's random and not all at once. I'd like to make the stickers removable from the cups so that they can be reused and reposted. Not sure what they'll look like yet. Also considering having a (something) that you get if you get free coffee that nudges people to do something nice for someone esle during the day. Maybe a 3"ish size that has suggestions of things to do, also either a page that detaches or another sticker togive to the person you do something nice for.... That way people keep being reminded to keep the chain going. I believe that if I can get this idea started, it will at least enter into the collective mind... and hopefully by being aware that this is going on, people will start acting on it. I'm sure that a decent percentage of people won't do anything on their own, but if I can get people at least thinking and aware of it, maybe it will change something. slowly. maybe.

Idea 2 is to draw attention to how much people consume and discard everyday. I'm thinking of measuring out enough rice to feed a person for a day and contrasting that with how much we have to choose from. I'm not sure if this would be a free standing display or if I could package the rice into packets and put them out in the cafes like the rest of the food they offer....
Another thought is to display all the trash that the arts building accumulates- sorted out into what is actually trash, compostable, recyclable, etc. Still thinking on how to work in the guerrilla aspect in on that though....

DesignThinking and Faberge Eggs

There's a new blog by Tim Brown on Design Thinking, somehow I think this will be a must read.... (via Core77)

also the Instructables website has a Make a Faberge Egg contest! I can't wait to see what people come up with, and maybe I can squeeze in making an egg.... (via Make)

Monday, September 15, 2008

So while running yesterday, I got onto a train of thought about wondering whether good design needs to be the same or overlap with green design. My instinct is that they don't. But I'm having trouble finding examples of that, and I'm not sure if that's because the good design boom hit at pretty much the same time as the eco-design craze or if at this point in time, good design means green design.
I tend to think of good design as anything that communicates or interacts well with its audience. By "well" I mean products that seamlessly fit into their place and purpose. Objects that make tasks easier or simpler, things that really do make a difference in the way people live/use/work. These can be objects that you didn't have a need for beforehand, but now you can't think to do without. So they aren't necessary design, just good design. Or smart design. That may be a better phrase.
I tend to think that while smart design doesn't need to have overlap with green design, eco-awareness is so big right now that it tends to. Should it?
I've been reading Cradle to Cradle and so far it has left me frustrated and annoyed at it, and also just depressed. I've gotten through the first 3 chapters and I hope it gets better because right now it just makes me want to throw up my hands and say forget it. The message that came through to me is that adressing these issues in the framework that the world exists in right now is pretty much worthless. It's the equivalent of sticking a bandaid on a serious injury. The authors are advocating redoing the enitre framework. Maybe I'm too pessimistic, but I don't see that happening. So I'm left thinking that we're either tilting at windmills or screwed. Cheery.
The reason I tie this in is that they do seem to equate good/smart design with both social design and green design. This may be because of their architecture emphasis, but it leaves me questioning the future of our field (the larger object design field) as we make stuff. Most of which isn't needed, or necessary, or for a larger purpose than personal statement. So where do we fit in?

Friday, September 12, 2008

(De)Light: Liquid Light project from the Royal College of Art
This looks like it could have some great applications for portable lighting and lighting in tough spaces as well as looking really sweet. According to the post, the possibility exists for rechargability- even better! (from Core77)

I love Benjamin Hubert's Yumbrella bowls! (from Designboom)

Also Seizure by Richard Hiorns- chemistry+ art, turning a delapidated flat into a magic cavern....
(from Make) more photos here

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

wearables


So one of my Independent Studies this semester is on wearables. By this I mean the integration of fashion and costume into my work. I'm excited to actually things like pattern-making and better sewing skills than my current DIY version- which while it can get the simple jobs done, not pretty. For the first project I'm looking at making a corset using the bone/vein structures from last semester.


Met with David on Monday, and he gave me a tremendous list of people/sites to check out. Also now have ~a dozen books either in hand or requested from the library to read....
So here's some of the people I've been looking at:
Alexander McQueen- Love,love,love. Have for a long time (like a decade+). His aesthetic is spot-on for me.


Lucy Orta- I love the multi-purpose and urban survival aspect.


Thierry Mugler- again Love. Before McQueen and clearly an influence, and in addition to the aesthetic, I also love the theatrical quality of it all...


Francesca Lanzavecchia- amazing mashup of function+ style and repositioning (total Jan word) medical braces as fashion.
also: Hussein Chayalan, Shinmi Park, Gareth Pugh, Junya Watanabe, Troy Hortubise, Rebecca Horn, and Nancy Grossman

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

social design project

Looking around at social problems, one that I react to pretty strongly is the issue of trash. Especially after having just returned to the "real world" from Burning Man, the differences in the level of the population in the preservation and care of their surroundings is vast. I see the genesis of many of the social issues that bother me split into 2 groups: lack of empathy with those different than yourself, and a lack of personal responsibility for your actions. The first set is harder to solve, so for the moment, I'm focusing on the second set.

For me trash falls into this catagory. At Burning Man you have a created city where nothing stands naturally, and is inhabited by upwards of 50,000 people. The event is a Leave No Trace event, everything that comes in, goes out with you. Trash is referred to as MOOP (Matter Out Of Place), and if you see MOOP on the ground, you pick it up. People are expected to be responsible, and it works. A city of 50,000 people cleans up after themselves. Then I come back, and I see trash everywhere. It seems tht you can't get 50 people to clean up after themselves, much less 50,000. So what's the difference? People care. People feel like a real part of the culture and their surroundings. There is no "they", there is only "us". Your actions determine the future.

On to the project. So I have 2 thoughts on possible projects. One is directed at the larger problem of litter. (on left side of sketch) I see trash, and I would pick it up, but I don't have anything to put it into, and carrying around germy trash bare-handed seems like a bad idea. So a solution is to create a carrying device that would contain bags to use to put the trash into. The inspiration for this came from a friends dog leash. He has a clip-on holder that has a roll of doggie bags, so that when you take the dog for a walk, it's convenient and easy to pick up after them. Initial concept is a bracelet that has several bags. Further thoughts have led to the following considerations: using biodegradable and compostable bags- biobags. Jan has a box of them in the office and these are the perfect solution- I don;t want to create more waste in solving waste.... They have a pet size which should work well. The design should be attractive and lightweight enough to wear. Opening for the bags: should they be elegant? Cheeky? Refilling the bags should be easy and simple. Also, what do you do with the filled bags if there is no trash can nearby? Solution: Have a stylish reusable washable bag as the inside liner of the bracelet that can be removed and the bags can go in there. Possible use of antibacterial liner?

Second concept was inspired by Amy- a place to put cigarette butts when there isn't a trashcan/ashtray nearby (on right in sketch). The idea on this is to do a locket where the butt goes in the top either through a hinged opening or a rubber membrane. The locket has an air filter worked in so that the smell is neutralized. The locket would also open on the bottom to allow for easy emptying of the butts. Considerations: easy to insert cigarette butts, spill proof, no smell, easy to clean

social design

I've been thinking on Social Design (since I'm in the class and all) and for my own personal definition, Social Design is designing for the greater good. Considering not only the aesthetics of the piece, but the method and materials if construction, the place and use in society, and what the message of the piece is. For example, a necklace made of recycled materials that is purely for decoration I wouldn't consider to be social design. Pieces that make a statement about society or offer social commentary, and don't propose or promote change I also wouldn't consider social design. A necklace that is partially made of recycled materials that doubles as an air filter or a trash bag would be social design. Social Design form is design that is aiming to change something about the outer world through existing. The change can be small, and the change might not even be noticable, but the intent is there.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

pics


Here's the latest of what's going on....
The wax pieces from last week are plating away in the electroformer (crosses that off the list of things to learn), and this is one of the new bone pieces!

Friday, April 25, 2008

3form ecoresins

Clicking through links, I found this company- 3form, that sells ecoresin sheets/panels in a variety of sizes.colors, and lots of awesome patterns. And you can order samples! So i did.... lots of them! Toys!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

New pics of my work.... I've been doing more with the bone/aorta structures.
These red and blue piece are wax that will be electtroformed, but right now they look like science illustrations which is pretty cool.

A cuff bracelet


& the bracelet half constructed


what it looks like on....


and brooch


Pile o bones

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

what do you want?

Found through Core77's blog, this essay by David Barringer on Desire and consumption. Great!!!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

what does being a jeweler mean?

So, relating back to things that have been bouncing around in my head, as well as the grad meeting Monday where we talked about how to define the field and where we think we fall in it, I'm feeling a bit at sea about where I stand and what I want to be...
I used to believe very firmly in the stance of I must make my designs. When I first started doing the production work and sent things out to be cast, that was hard for me. I felt like I was betraying some standard or failing some unspoken test. That attitude came from my undergrad education. Hand work was god. The flexshaft (or anything powered) was viewed as lesser- exception being the kilns. The flexshaft was only to be used when you could not do something by hand. And by could not, I mean the tool doesn't exist to get the task done. We never learned to sandblast, polish, or tumble, as those involved machines. So knowing this, it's not a stretch to see how the idea of you personally not being the one to make a piece is abhorrent to that mindset.
From doing production, I still feel/felt like I needed to be the one doing the bulk of the work- otherwise it seemed unfair? to be selling it as my work. However, I did realize that unless I could clone myself, something had to change. So I began to buy some stone setting and findings, as well as send everything out for casting. If I had continued with the shows, I probably would've looked into an intern to help with casting cleanup. But I still clung to certain things- making/injecting my own waxes for one... although I did relax that somewhat in the last couple of years.
Now, where am I? I thought that coming back to school would drive me further towards working on hand-laboured one-of-a-kind work. Reinstate a lot if that old dogma. It hasn't. I'm swinging further in the other direction. I now think I would like to design for some firms- or sell some of my designs to be produced. I'm looking at the new technologies and thinking that I'm perfectly fine with outsourcing that part. I'm thinking that so much of my production work is too labor-intensive for what it is. I need to streamline that. I'm also thinking that returning to the shows is something that I'm not particularly interested in. I don't think it is a viable financial decision. I want to continue to make, but I'm thinking more broadly about that term. I'm much more interested in following the European designer path, than anything I've seen here. In a perfect world, I'd like to work with companies to produce some of my designs, and continue to make others myself. I think what I would keep making would be jewelry....
This is not to say that I don't want to make things. I do. Very much. It is a part of who I am, but I'm not sure that I will be able to call myself a jeweler in a couple years. And I'm unsure how I feel about that. Is there a word I'd prefer? Am I turning my back on a large part of me if I don't use the word jeweler? I don't know. I do know that this is a big change in my outlook of where I'm heading. And I don't feel like I have a road map for this trip.....

Sunday, April 20, 2008

V & A

The V & A museum has an exhibit going on- China Design Now that showcases art and design coming from China currently. The online exhibition is light on objects, and has more photography, architecture, and graphic design.

Smithsonian, Renwick.... then Philly

Last Friday, I played hooky and went to go see the Smithsonian show as well as the exhibition at the Renwick. The show had me shrug- I think I'm pretty jaded at this point. The work was nice, it was pretty much the work you would expect to see- a sub-set of ACC Baltimore. There were some new artists, but not really anything *new* happening with the work. Which was disappointing to me. This show is so hard to get into, and yet it seems the same as all of the rest of the shows. Nothing innovative about it. So even with Lauren and I talking to people we knew, it took us an hour to go through the whole thing. I think that the most interesting thing I saw was a ceramics artist who had manipulated the media such that his works looked like wood. Not just kind of, but I needed to touch them to find out that they were clay. Very convincing. Which is more of a technical virtuosity impressed, but it was still the most unusual (in a good way) thing I saw.
The show at the Renwick was great! Since I've been reading so much contemporary jewelry history (while accurate, that phrase doesn't make that much sense...) that it was wonderful to see the pieces in person. I never really get a full sense of the work from the photo. I want to walk around it, see the back and the sides, and take in the piece as an entire object not as a 2d photo. As I expected, I found some work that I was really struck by, others I admired for this or that, and a lot of things that just didn't do anything for me. It was reassuring quite a bit to be able to inspect the craftsmanship and construction of the pieces and realize that these artists were human after all... From the tone of many of the books, it's easy to lose sight of that.
One of the things that I am and have been constantly fascinated by is mechanisms. This is also one of the things that I found most frustrating in production, as I never really found an elegant, easy to use (for customers), and time-efficient solution to neck cables. While I never wear brooches, one of the most alluring elements of them is how they connect to the body. There was some stretching and craning of the neck to peek at the back sides, but we managed to see most of the connections and mechanisms. I was surprised at the amount to commercial or less-than-thought out clasps. A lot of the photographs don't show you the clasps, and I assumed that many of them would follow the (my) ideal of being incorporated into the piece and complimentary of it. Nope. Several of the necklaces simply had bayonet or spring ring clasps thrown on. On the flip side there were several really nice mechanisms as well, and I do need to remember that some of these mechanisms that are commonplace now, were fresher when the pieces were made.
I confirmed that I don't really get or prefer narrative jewelry. I can appreciate the technical excellence and detail (Mawdsley) but it doesn't draw me at all. I think that much of it is too busy for me. I also re-confirmed that I am drawn to Gerd Rothmann's work. Even a piece that I hadn't seem before and is unlike his better-known body print pieces caught my eye.
Seeing Stanley Lechtzin's electroformed early work gave me a much greater appreciation for those pieces, as they are like mini subterranean landscapes. In the photos that dimensionality doesn't come across.
A couple of other thoughts- It was really great to see some of the sketches (and not just Hermann Junger!) alongside of the work. I like seeing how other artists conceive of their work and translate it onto paper. Also the display of several of the neckpieces (Caroline Broadhead's veil and sleeve, Gijs Bakker's Dew Drop, LAM de Wolf's work, etc.) was perfect. By putting the work on simplified white head (or arm) forms, the pieces really stood out. You could see the full intent and impact of the work.
Yesterday we drove up to Philadelphia to check out the Gijs Bakker show at the Phildelphia Art Alliance- totally worth the trip. And I really should remember that Philly isn't far away... and go more often. The exhibit had a very comprehensive selection of his work from the mid-60s onwards. He has explored so many different avenues in his work that seeing collections from each time period helped the work seems much more cohesive. The best example I can cite is a series of mobius strip bracelets and rings from the late 60's-early 70's. Seeing one of them, *shrug*. It's a form that has been used a lot. Seeing the exploration of that shape and the evolution of a series of bracelets from that time (20? or so) gives me a much deeper appreciation for how he works through an idea in iteration. The same with the Shot series of brooches. Seeing one displayed doesn't really show you the exploration of the idea (In this case shooting bullets into a sphere-on the computer-at different angles and then cutting away or slicing the sphere to create the bracelet forms. The holes left by the bullets become the opening for your hand.)
The exhibit has drawing up of some of the pieces, but unfortunately they are all in one room rather than with the pieces they are illustrating. I was also curious as to who did some of the more formal sketches from the 60's work- the stovepipe and neck collar pieces- and I think that the actual drawing may have been by Emmy VanLeersum.
The exhibit has several of his pvc neckpieces, but they are displayed flat rather than on forms which makes me want to pick them up in order to see how they sit (as most of the ones they had were cut in spiral form so that they would drape) on the body, otherwise the exhibit did a very nice job of displaying the work.
So, if you get the chance, both the Renwick show and the Philly show are worth it!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Dubai

Dubai is rapidly rising as an international hub. The pace of development there is insanely fast, and seems poised to keep expanding as quickly as the raw materials and labor can arrive. Metropolis magazine had a feature on Dubai in November of last year. In the article, they laid out some interesting points regarding Dubai's growth and expansion- especially as it relates to design.
One of the things I found most interesting and laudable about Dubai is the commitment to sustainable and green technologies. This is evidenced in the architecture of the city- David Fisher has designed a tower where each floor will rotate. This seems like ostentatious excess to the extreme, however the rotations will all be powered by wind turbines. Dubai is in a great geographical position to make the most of wind and solar power. The Burj al-Taqa will be the first skyscraper to produce 100% of it's energy. Most will produced by roof mounted wind-turbines, and augmented by solar panels. Much of the development in Dubai is centered around energy efficiency. Architects are working with heat reducing materials, solar screens and shields, glass shades, and vacuum glazing to reduce the need for cooling the building in the hot weather.
In addition the tremendous wealth in Dubai is giving designers a chance to realize their ideas in entirety. Designers are basically being given free rein for a lot of the interiors to incorporate new materials and technologies. When money is no object, you can produce some amazing works. The one stumbling point seems to be the insistence on the latest newest thing rather than on objects/designs that have a relation to the setting and the culture. The article in Metropolis sums it up as "the conflict between a global design language and the local vernacular..... people want the newest and become quite taken by.... whatever is on the other side."
So where is Dubai headed and how did they get here? According to Metropolis, Dubai wants to be a major economic hub for the world. To that end, Dubai is focused on sustainability and diversification. As a minor player in oil, Dubai had to grow in other ways. This has led to agressive economic policies which have resulted in one of the fastest grwoing economies on the planet. One aspect that I find very interesting about Dubai, is the reliance on foreign deisgners and managment for its companies and developents. There isn't a lot of home-grown talent in Dubai, so most mid-upper level work is done by foreign workers. And the scal of the money being spent in Dubai means that we are talking outsourcing on a scale that Americans can live quite well on. With all of the uproar over jobs here going to countries that have lower cost of living, why aren't we then marketing ourselves for positions in places like Dubai?
It seems that much of the press previously on Dubai has been focused on the excess and showy qualities that make you think of Vegas on strong steroids. However Dubai seems much more serious underneath that facade.
So I think I have some deeper/better answers to why I'm making what I am this semester, as well as possibly some insight into my work in general.
A couple nights ago I had an aha! moment where I realized that the pieces so far are really about protection. The talon forms sticking outwards from the body, repelling anyone from getting close; the bone/aorta structures forming an exoskelton of sorts.... see where this is going?
Also in reading Mind and Mentality there was a section talking about jewelry that is purposefully uncomfortable to wear. Which got me thinking about these pieces and with some of them latching into the skin, or even having the appearance of doing so also brings up self-destructive (mutilation) issues as well.
So this realization isn't making me particularly thrilled, but I'm looking back on a lot of the forms I work with in general and seeing that protective idea reoccur. Even the pod shapes that deal with enclosure I tend to position so that they aren't totally open to the outside world- the gem or secret is for the wearer.
Not sure what this means or is leading to, but there it is.

work pics




So after my midterm, i started working with some new forms that have a more direct correlation to the body. Here are the bone/aorta pieces on my desk, also tested out the medical adhesive last night and it works well. So also pics of a swirly talon and a bone on the body....



Realized that it is going to take quite a while to get everything glued on properly. Must remember to budget the time for that...