CCW Film Programme

After seeing the CCW movie series, I’ve chosen to write about the first movie: Slacker. The reason of this choice is because this movie has had a greater impact on me than the others.

I think that Slacker is a very strong title and it incorporates well the main message of this movie: “We do not have to live our lives in any way that might impact on other peoples and most days of most lives do not and need not include landmark events or big moments whatsoever. It is possible to just live.”[1] In fact, ‘Slacker’ means a person who evades his duty of work[2]. Therefore, I think that Linklater chose ‘Slacker’ as the title to show to the audience that it’s ok for us not to do great things in our daily life, and it won’t be recognized as laziness. But this message is perceived by the audience only at the end of the movie, and the audience need to take a break and think about it because my experience was: when I first read the title I thought Linklater wanted to show the laziness of people, but only after the movie I understood the real message. However, the idea of laziness is always at the back of my mind. Because for the most part of the movie I thought that nowadays most people are going nowhere and they can’t put plans into action, just useless.

I find the structure of Slacker very interesting and confusing at the same time because it was made of around twenty scenes and 97 actors and it just kept moving from one scene to the next, coming and going into one another's lives, without spending more than 5 minutes on each of the characters, it felt very random and what the actors said didn’t really make sense. Thus by watching it I was thinking that everyday we meet so many people and so many things happen in our lives that we can’t keep count of all of them, in fact, we remember only very few of them. Therefore this remind me once again of how insignificant we might be for some people and we won’t change their lives by meeting them and they will soon forget about meeting us and vice versa. In spite of this, people want to be different, significant and remembered, maybe that’s why nowadays people try so hard to distinguish themselves. But this only makes their lives more complicated, but somehow we can’t help it, we just can’t live with a simple life because the society define that as ‘laziness’.

For example, artists and designer they always try to be different, to distinguish themselves form the others. I think one good example is the Turner prize, where the displayed artworks are very different from what we are used to see, and often shocking. However, it is a art competition that people talk about and they remember about it even if it doesn’t have the best artworks, because it is out of the ordinary. Critic Jonathan Jones, "Turner Prize art is based on a formula where something looks startling at first and then turns out to be expressing some kind of banal idea."[3]

In the movie, the idea of parallel universe is presented as well, everyday we face so many decisions and each of them take us into different directions, by choosing one over another we miss the possibility to live a different reality. I found this idea very fascinating, but I am not sure how it links with the rest of the movie, maybe to the structure of it, that it moves from one actor to the next without hesitation, and each peak into these lives is a view on different universes.

In conclusion, I really liked the movie because of its unusual structure and non-plot. I had to really focus and follow what was happening in the movie and even so, I still couldn’t follow completely and it all got very confusing. It was a movie that made me think afterwards, therefore in my opinion a good movie, since it had an impact on me.

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[1] CCW Film Notes.

[2] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/slacker

[3] Jones, Jonathan. "Blake's Heaven", The Guardian, 25 April 2005. Retrieved 14 May 2008.

DNA, Molecular, Dispersal

The last project of 3D interior / spatial before the Final Major Project.


I started the project by doing research in the Natural history museum. I found the 'earth treasury' part of the museum the most inspiring. It is incredible how nature shapes the stones, Mother Nature is the Greatest Architect and Designer on Earth!


This picture is the one that inspired my final model. The intersection on this stone is just amazing!


For the research, I visited also a scientific research centre. This place had a very interesting interior, but unfortunately, it didn't really inspired me for the project, however it was an interesting trip.


After the first hand research, I looked at some designers works as well, and the one that I found the most interesting was the seed pavilion in Shanghai by Thomas Heatherwich.  (image on the right)

I've visited also the Wellcome Trust Centre, a exhibition about the use of drugs, which was interesting but not inspiring. The Heatherwich installation at this centre 'Bleigiessen' was inspiring on the other hand. It is made of 150 000 specially processed glass spheres, suspended on almost one million metres of fine stainless steel wire, the sculpture glows with a constantly shifting rainbow of colours. 

After the research process, I developed some drawings and sketch models, which then lead me to my final model. It happened all very fast because I had very limited time for this project because I had to work on my university Portfolio at the same time, however I managed to do it and I think the result is good. 

 It is a structure, but I didn't think about it use. I mainly used it to experiment with shadows and the interesting pattern that I could create!

Urban Platform - Union Street

Urban Platform – Union Street's Temporary Art Space is a project about the disused site opposite the Jerwood Space. We had to create a structure that has to accommodate:  a gallery, a performance space, a cinema/ projection space, a viewing platform, café and toilets. 

It was a 3 weeks project and research was fundamental in the initial stages. I started the research by mapping the area all around the site and this helped me to understand what was around the site and what was missing and needed. After that  I did some research on what the site was previously used for (Urban Orchid). Then, I did a detailed research of the colors and patterns around the site and I found out that it was actually very monotonous! Therefore, already from that, I wanted to create something eye catching and interesting as the final model, in order to improve the looking of the place and to attract more people to visit this part of the city. 

Throughout the research process I didn't collect only visual information, I also developed them through solids - voids (positive and negative space), I worked with city silhouettes and skylines, scales and measurements and many others. This process helped me to come up with various interesting shapes that I transformed into 3D models later on. 

Mushroom structure that inspired me.

Bottom floor: Gallery. Second floor: Café, Viewing Platform. Third floor: Performance Space, Viewing platform.

However, my final model is a layered multiuse and flexible structure inspired specifically by Rachel Whiteread - Embankment and by a mushroom - like structure I found on the site.

Pop Up Pop Down

For Christmas period I had to research and choose a theme and create a temporary flat pack structure for eating, shopping or celebrating and it has to be site specific.

I started the project by researching in Oxford Circus, one of the most decorated streets in London. It was very useful since there were a lot of Christmas pop up structures to inspire me, plus, this research provided the color and pattern information that I needed for my project.

After that, I started to research about some artists who did pop up structures such as Nils Volker and Hally Theacher. Plus, I started to experiment with some pop up pop down sketch models as well, it was quite difficult because I had to create an interesting structure but at the same time it has to be simple enough to be flat-packed easily. 

I haven't used any of my sketch models for my final model, but they were incredibly useful to understand the idea of flat-pack.
I got my final idea by visiting Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park: 'E Cube'. I saw the structure and I didn't like it much, so I wanted to change it. So my structure functions are 'the replacement' of E-Cube.

Front View

Bar View; Round Chairs

Intersection of Squares

Complete Bar view (Without the round chairs)

My final model is  a pub that can be built up through intersections of squares.  Since Christmas decorations were all around the site, I thought of creating a structure with simple exterior but a comfortable festive looking interior. 
The main problem I encountered during this project is the fragility: it has only the squares to support the whole structure, no glue, tape or strings. Therefore, the whole structure has to be managed with care.

10 X 10 X 10

The second project of the specialism was 10 x 10 x 10. It was a 2 week project and I absolutely loved it!!!

The first week I had to research and come up with ideas related to 10 x 10 x 10. It was quite confusing and thus I researched about random things that came up in  my head such as: triangles, patterns, time and geographic coordinates. This research turned out to be useless because I explored basic things and I didn't go beyond to make it more interesting.

medium scale

Monday I worked on small, medium and large scale research and it was really useful to make me to understand about the importance of scale in 3D and spatial specialism. Plus I've taken some really interesting pictures during this research day.

The material experimentation day was really useful as well, I've understood that by manipulating a material I can make it into something far more interesting.
After that I was asked to explore about the word ' to travel '. 
This first week was very structural and very much about experimentation and understanding of what is important in 3D and spatial design. I've found it a bit confusing since I didn't see any connection between my works.

However, during the second week, the brief linked everything together and I finally understood why I was doing what I did in the first week!
I had to create a 10 x 10 x 10 m space related to the chosen topic I researched during the first week and I had to incorporate also the material and scale research.

My topic was to travel, therefore I wanted to create a space where a person can go through and mind travel, 'to feel different'. I researched a lot about the difference between oriental and western interior design and how that affects the way people perceive and live in a space. Based on that,  I've developed many ideas but none of them seemed to work well enough at the start. Therefore, I've spent a lot of time on this project changing my design ideas.

My final design is very different from my initial ideas but I like it and I think it is an interesting design solution to the brief.
It is a tunnel set in a big open space, a person can walk though it and 'mind travel' thanks to the use of lighting to create a specific atmosphere.

The Turner Prize

Today I visited the Turner Prize at the Tate Britain. I found it very interesting because it was very different from the other art and design exhibitions I've been to.

There were 4 artists competing for the prize, Dexter Dalwood, Angela De La Cruz, Susan Philipsz and The Otolith Group. I liked particularly Susan Philipsz's work, when I entered her exhibition room, I was totally captured by her sound piece and I sat there for a very long time just to let myself be fully immersed into the atmosphere of the room.Therefore, in my opinion she should win the turner prize because her work had the most impact on me, and I could notice that her work had a great impact on other people as well since there were many of them sitting in the room. 
I didn't like The Otolith Group's work at all, I just couldn't understand it and there was too much going on in the exhibition room: information overwhelming. 

I've read articles about this prize and found it absolutely confusing, therefore, I enjoyed the exhibition a lot but not so much reading about it. 

Reuse, Remake, Reinvent

The first 3D and spatial design was Reuse, remake, reinvent.

I started this project by researching on John Pawson's Plan stace exhibition, Martino Gamper's 100 chair project, Future systems, Nacho Carbonell and Tom Dixon. I find research really useful since I can get ideas and inspirations for my own project from it.

When I found the piece of furniture on the road.

The next stage of the project was the documentation of my piece of furniture; I've place it in interesting places and took pictures of it, plus I've explored it through a different variety of drawings. By doing this I was able to explore this piece of furniture outside its normal use and look at it in a different prospective.

Following that there was the breaking process of the furniture, it was quite tricky because I had to be careful not to break important parts of the furniture that might be useful in the rebuilt process. However it was impossible to plan what to rebuilt the furniture into, therefore I ended up cutting it into pieces that I thought were visually interesting.

The design and the rebuilt process was fun because I could make anything I wanted and thus I came up with many ideas. But the one I liked the most was a jewelery stall and therefore I made it! It was also fun to learn new ways of assembling a piece of furniture, even though some part of it was quite difficult.

I really enjoyed this project because it was all about exploration and I liked the idea of transforming a piece of furniture into something completely different!