Crossroads II - Decision!!!

Crossroads II

In these first eight weeks in Chelsea foundation I had the chance to work in different fields of art and design, starting with 3D spatial design, fashion textile, fine art and visual communication. This experience has been incredibly useful in helping me to choose the specialism pathway I want to go into, which is 3D spatial design.

The reason of this choice is mainly based on my interest in this area and because I enjoyed a lot the rotation, in which we were encouraged to look and work with the space around us in a different way by mapping it with strings. I’ve found it very inspiring because I never did anything like that before.  Besides to the observing, mapping and drawing space, during the rotation I also liked working with quick sketch models. I found out that by working quickly and developing many sketch models was very useful for me to process my ideas and come up with a final outcome for the ‘week 2’ project. 

I am especially interested in interior and spatial design, but by looking at my final 3D spatial works I am not sure whether I am good enough to do it.  I like the final outcomes of the 3D spatial design, but I think they fit in more into 3D product design. Then, some tutors have told me that my 3D models were more about the surface than the structure itself. Therefore, I am still quite confused on which area of the 3D spatial design I am good at, but I am sure that 3D is the right choice.

Looking back now, 3D rotation was definitely the most intense one, with a lot of work to do but I feel that it is the right choice for me because I feel confident and enthusiastic when I am working with 3D models. Plus I’ve visited many design festivals and I am always fascinated by other designers works and I can’t stop myself thinking that I might become one of those designers in the future.

Fashion and textile was my second rotation. I found very hard to complete the projects I was given because this rotation was particularly confusing for me. I had a brief but at the same time I wasn’t given a specific target to work towards and I just found myself completely lost in the process of completing the ‘compress and expand’ project, because I didn’t know what was I supposed to be doing and what the tutors wanted. However, even if I struggled during this rotation, the experience was useful for me because it helped me to understand the way I work the best, which is by having a brief that tells me exactly my target, as the one I had for 3D spatial rotation.

The next rotation was fine art. I enjoyed it a lot because we were given the freedom to do anything we wanted to do and it wasn’t “half way” as fashion textile. My final piece was a 3D model of how I see the modern society, I liked it a lot but my peers told me that it was too symbolic and that I should concentrate more on the structure itself.  I think this problem comes form the fact I did IB Visual Arts so my way of thinking is still very tied to that programme and it will take more time to work as a proper artist/designer. 

The last rotation I had was visual communication. The rotation was very challenging because we had to produce loads of ideas in a very short amount of time but this is the reason why I enjoyed it so much because I had to work very fast and I found myself generating ideas that I didn’t even know I was capable of. By the end of the two weeks I did many final pieces that links together to create a unique message: we are incompatible. Since I had a short amount of time I developed many ideas but I didn’t had the time to fully expand each of them, therefore I think I like this rotation but its not for me to work and leave ideas unfinished, because I am a perfectionist and I have to have everything done and finished. In addition, you can see that side of me when you look at my sketchbooks: they are all perfectly organized. I don’t really like that because it sets boundaries to my creativity, I restrict myself when I should be taking risks and developing more interesting ideas by using the sketchbook in a more creative way. Therefore I think this is also a point I need to work on in order to improve myself.

Vis Com

Vis Com has been a very intense rotation. I was asked to produce a wide range of work in a very short amount of time.

The first week we had to develop a sequence / storyboard by collage and drawing. It was a bit hard because I wasn't particularly good with collage and combining drawing with collage...! but at least I attempted and the final result of it is ok, but I think if I had more time I could improve it because after the first few of them I was becoming better...but I just didn't had enough time to do more of them. Some examples are below. 

 

 

During the second week we had to do a project called the 'unspoken message'. We had to think of a sender, a receiver and a message, plus we had to come up with a clever and inventive way to deliver this message over a period of time. 

I brainstormed many ideas for this project, all of them deeply related to my personal experience, so personal messages. I think that was what the tutors wanted us to do, because in this way we were able to develop the message fully. My messages were about my ex boyfriend, my best friend which is now far away from me and so on.

However, my final idea is about my ex boyfriend and my message is : we are incompatible. Some of the work is below. I am not gonna explain it because it's vis com...the pictures are supposed to be saying something to the audience...see what u can get out from this!

Fine Art

In the first week of fine art rotation we did mostly drawings on the 4 installations in the studio. Following that we did drawings for animation, but unfortunately I didn't had enough time to develop the project and actually make an animation out of the drawings (because there were too few of them).

After that, we had a project called "carnival of the street", so we had to do quick drawings of a busy and a natural area and take pictures of them. I found this a bit hard because I had very little amount of time to do a large amount of drawings, so I ended up with only 10 drawings instead of 20; but I did many pictures in order to support the project.

Then, we were asked to combine the two projects together, which was really fun because by doing that I found out loads of interesting new images!

  

From the images we had to develop our final idea. But we were given the freedom to do anything we wanted and felt inspired by, so it was a really challenging and interesting project. 

My final piece is a model to represent the modern society. The top black structure is supposed to mean that the society is a impenetrable structure and you can't see through it. The writings on top of represent all the influence we get from the society. 

This structure is then linked to a 'brain' by blood wires, symbolizing that the society is poisoning our minds (which is pure --white).

Designs of the Year 2010

Today I visited the exhibition 'Designs of the year 2010' at Design Museum.
These are the designs I found interesting:

Panda Eyes (interactive). Produced to interact with the viewer and urging them to consider their impact on the environment. 

Hope Chandelier. I love the magic light pattern this chandelier creates.

Sugru. The orange material can be modeled, you can change everyday objects the way you like.

Typographic tree.

Money. I find it a very powerful way of communicating a message. It really makes you think about the value of money in Zimbabwean. 

My favorite. L-E-D-LED-L-ED. It consists of hundreds of red diodes. The viewer can slid them back and forth and create personal patterns. 

Fashion & Textile

The project title was "Compress Expand". For compress, we had to think about pressing things together or to reduce in volume. The tutors gave us words such as : squash, make smaller, decrease, crush.  For expand, we had to think about laying things out, to open up; and the useful words were: stretch, enlarge and inflate.

In the first week we worked mainly on breaking away from the 'normal' concept of fashion. So we had to draw some very random drawings. I found it quite confusing because I didn't know why I was doing all those drawings. One of the examples is below.

 

After these drawings, we continued working with 3D models. Some examples are below.

Some 3D models made with different types of papers. We didn't have a specific purpose in creating these shapes, it was more about what we can do with them after we've created them. For example, we could play with scale and transform these models into jewelery or clothing.

 

There wasn't a final product for this project, therefore I was very confused all the way through the project because I didn't had a target to work towards... therefore, I don't like the result of this project.