Aram's Softness

Week 9:

2007-12-20T09:45:00.000-08:00

Final Project: M-16 Tote Bag!

2007-12-16T23:29:00.000-08:00

Transform:

Early in this semester, I did a series of studies in which I attempted to translate 2D space (sourced from photographs) into 3D paper sculptures.
I was interested in how these flat images attain 'objectness' when they are scored, folded and structured as a sculpture.

In answer to last week's assignment, I made a number of graphic collages using images of parts of an M-16 rifle. In this project, I wanted to create a kind of illusion or 'subliminal' message by displaying images that seem, at a glance, meaningless but on closer inspection reveal that they are constructed from weaponry.

In order to further develop this idea of 'Transformation', I continued this theme of the fragmented rifle and chose a specific part that held the most interest for me - the carrying handle from M-16. It is the one part that I could imagine having multiple uses, some of those non- violent.
I wanted to play with people's expectation by transforming something violent to something ordinary - a fashion item.
Here, I am using it as another 'carrying handle', this time for a women's tote bag.

Week 8: Something Interactive?

2007-11-08T11:45:00.000-08:00

My goal is to make a 'friendly hat' opened to public.

1. Goal: to encourage interactivity when people needs any 'answer.'

2. Action: Tapping the visor which has a switch inside. When the switch is triggered, the hat shows either 'symbols' or 'icons'. Shutting off your iPod, also.

3. Environment: any public area such as subway platform or park.

4. Sensing: this is the part I am confused with 'action'

Week 8: Space (architecture, form, dance)

2007-11-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Space is, I believe, that the most popular subject in sculpture area. It sounds very familiar, even friendly enough to recall what I had been working on the same subject when majoring sculpture while ago.

Back then, limitation of the materials I could utilize almost dictated me to come up with something very traditional such as stone or metal sculpture. Being 'flexible' to choose interesting material was not recommended at that time.

For this project, however, I decided to take courage. I chose to use several photos from my photographer friend who is studying at Brooks institute. A part of his works is about 'space and lighting' - just perfect for this week's project.

What I have done is making series of paper sculpture by using of printed photos. Each photo has already

contained 'space' such as shadowed building, framed scenery and etc.
After printing them on papers, I started crop out the shape I wanted to extract and formed in 3D shape by folding the lines.

This series of comparisons of two different spaces - three dimensional vs. flattened(by camera lens?) represents that the people's perception or educated concepts
about space might be fragile. Three dimension could be decomposed to two dimensional in very deceptive way. The opposite is also possible.

Week7: Body - “Man is the measure of all things” and human centric design

2007-10-28T00:42:00.000-07:00

The night before the class, I was watching my cat dragging a poly bag with his claw. He does that everyday so I always took it for granted, but this time, since I was desperately seeking an idea for ergonomics design, his movement seemed more worthy to notice.
When cat's 'using' his claw, it looks very efficient 'tool'. On the other hand, the claw could be switched as a weapon anytime he needs.

When it comes to 'nail' of human beings, the usefulness has decreased so that not many people could believe it as a lethal weapon except some martial arts performer.

I asked three of my ITP friends for their immediate reaction and there were very interesting opinions from each person.
Sanjay loved the beauty of the thing saying 'a total gangsta', Taylor thought it reminded her of great-great-great grand mother's belonging, and lastly, Jong-min didn't say a thing but spent longest time just to keep staring at it!

It is interesting to experience that designing sometimes brings a totally unexpected reactions even though I desperately hope that the users will
understand my intention.

Letting users define possible functions, even if one could say it's a 'decorative' rather than functional, taught me (to be continued)

Week6 : The Path that I made for Softness

2007-10-18T12:29:00.000-07:00

Looking back past six weeks of classes assignments I have done, now I get to realize that they lack 'consistency.' On a first week, I made a 'thing' in a very last minute putting a short amount of effort. Though I tried not to make this habit a pattern, honestly, I did some more jobs done in the very similar way - building a thing in last minute. This have kept me from continuous thinking about the past works, and made my 'things' to be inconsistent in a way.
However, I did learned valuable lessons in class participation, rather than in process of fabrications. It is great things to notice myself becoming more comfortable with the other's presentation, so that I could understand more and better about their works. Often my peers could make better comment about my work than mine, and that feedback helps to organize fragments of my thoughts. This is how I define, rate, critique, and revise my works. Not always from 'myself', but from the others.(to be continued)

Week5 : Ecology, energy and sustainability

2007-10-11T17:59:00.000-07:00

Assignment 1: What is "energy"? Create a piece that communicates your relationship to energy.

What is energy? What does 'energy' mean to you?
While working on this week's project, I tried to focus on above questions rather than coming up with 'sustainable' design which doesn't seem familiar to me.

Among several readings in class lecture, I was heavily inspired by 'needles and nerves' and immediately came to recall my past experience of studying O-haeng in Korea years ago.

I've got my back hurt severely when I was in the army. After being discharged, I had to look for any possible solution to fix my back.

The 'solution' had to come with no-surgery or any physical modification on my body, this was very important to me.

Luckily, I had known a friend from same university, who was already deeply involved with this new type of therapy - it doesn't require any surgery, unnecessary medicine and best of all, it shows some approaches that can actually change my body and mind to one step further: balanced.

Whole process(I'll call this 'journey.') takes long time so some would say "it usually takes 10 years to change one person's constitution."
Learning O-haeng also requires some static knowledge such as basic anatomy of human body, acupuncture.

I've sort of classified my classmates in O-haeng chart making each to belong any one of six elements. It was interesting to observe that many guys belong Mok as a group(7 people out of 17!!). This, in fact, explains why I've been feeling that most students in this class are very good at presentation as well as giving feedback, asking sharp questions. In O-haeng theory, it says Mok means scholastic, educational ability so people with Mok-qi often are capable of certain extend of presentation.

When it comes to 'energy', however, I should point out that the whole flow of human energy-qi is not well-balanced in Softness of things class. This is just a O-haeng based fact, so there are no solutions for this or not even necessarily should there be any.

Assignment 2: Keep a log of all your "waste" and propose alternatives to your consumption/waste patterns.

-Click the image below to see the actual log-

I've never thought this 'garbage log' would actually help me reconsider some irresponsible patterns that I have kept. Some classmates and professor recommended me not to smoke so that I don't make any cigarette butts garbages, best of all, enhance my health as well. Throwing away too many tissues also can be changed to use handkerchief. All made senses. Only the practice have left.

Week4 : Networks and Flow

2007-10-03T05:34:00.000-07:00

Taylor, Liz, Yasmin and me teamed up for making Networks. On a first-time meeting, we've came up with so many ideas of building networks, and it didn't take too long to decide just one of many - connecting each person's traveling traces.

It was interesting to have three female students who have more than enough experiences traveling throughout all over the world. Obviously, I was the only one with few flights.

We started collecting data by taking notes of all place's name . A few intersections were found.
New York city was most-visited place among many other cities in the world. We t-pinned each city that we have visited or lived.

Some people asked us why we painted the globe white. I also didn't agree with the painting idea, but other three shared the same opinion to make the globe more personal rather than keeping the typical format with actual map on it. Finally I agreed(gave up!).

One thing I regret a bit about this project is that we didn't have a chance to go further with more ideas. These ideas include having more interactions such as audio narration. I was thinking that we tape each person's story about any place and make the t-pin point triggered by conductive thread, so that the audience can listen to the story when the thread is 'connected - networked.'

Week3 : Connectivity & Connections

2007-09-26T23:38:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking of using magnets to create a 'something' rather than using them to put photos on the wall ever since I bought numbers of magnets from Korea about 1 year ago. These magnets have several different shape, size, and strength of magnetism. As it says, 'magnetism' attracts the opposite side. This definition only applies to physical engagement typically known as the attachment of two(or more than two) magnets. In this week's project, I thought about more human and finally came up with 'dollar bill.'

I remember reading a novel that tells love story of lovers separated(usually against their will or to avoid certain dangerous, threatening situation). As an indication or symbol to recognize each other when reunion, they tear a bill(not sure how much?) and keep each side in their wallet until they meet again.
When I was younger, I thought it was very romantic that I even wanted to actually try the same.

This kind of sharing idea now becomes more commercial, such as modular wedding rings for couple and etc.

See how my dollar bill 'connects dots' and 'makes ends meet' in action.

One dollar bill glued on a wood piece. At a glance, it looks like a dollar stack. On left corner, there is a wire soldered on a piece of copper mash foam. It was designed to attach on the magnet to see if it conducts electricity. If it's possible, I can expand my imagination to have more interactive things such as glowing LED.

Close view of implanted magnets on each side's profile.

I used crazy -glue to attach a copper mesh piece. The glue was messed up when soldering. Clearly figured that soldering on magnets is too difficult. Now I am thinking of using these magnets only for 'connection' - docking action. If any circuit is required to finish this project,
I'll consider attaching mesh foam on the wood board.

And here are some inspirations from YouTube :

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XliOko5xrr0

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uAO5dTBMDkY

Week2 : Modularity – Configurability - Adaptability

2007-09-26T15:45:00.000-07:00

I remember watching a cartoon (probably it was Jetson.) with so many tacky things that were supposed to be 'futuristic' in the context, such as a little box transforms into a far much bigger thing. That thing could be a house, a spaceship, or even a whole new 'space'.

When brainstorming this project, I was thinking about building a module for many different spaces so that I could actually store them in my closet.
Each space captured in a same modular format which is book. In the center, there are also modular containers displayed in slot-loading type of shelves. Users always add or remove those containers to decorate the 'walls' when the book was open.

The reason that I come up with this modular book is from my work experience as merchandiser. Optimizing and maximizing the limited retail space to effectively display of mass merchandise was big part of merchandiser's responsibility. In addition, retail business requires fast, dynamic change of seasonal merchandise. This became my challenge and in fact, stressed me out many times. Whenever I had to change the whole theme for new display, my frustration grew. "What if there's pre-designed display unit in life-scale and I could actually store each season's display pattern in the stock room?" Back then, it sounded a bit too crazy to myself, one thing is for sure: I was thinking of 'modular' space.

Week1 : Make a 'thing'

2007-09-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

Many gadgets such as iPhone, PDAs, or compact digital cameras require a protection which is commonly named 'pouch', or 'sheild'.It transforms to be a container for my iBook charger. I've noticed that many electronics products share similar dimensions, which means there could be 'one fits for all' solutions when it comes to container(or protective pouch).

DIY pouch that costs almost nothing but 1 or 2 hours of crafting work - this was my initial idea to make a 'useful' thing.

A combination of duct tape and wires. All are supplied from shop at ITP.

By using of a different color duct tape, I decorated the outline with thick stroke. The implanted wires show the structure and pattern inside.
When it's widely open, it reminds me of a diaper.

I am writing this blog because all my past entries in ITP's wordpress have gone for no reason.
It is good to recall what I have done 'before' even though that's only just three weeks ago.
I skipped the very first class because of all hassle for enrolling/waiving classes, then realized I was supposed to create a 'thing' that communicates what I am interested exploring in the class.

Within a very short amount of time, the first thing occurred in my mind was making a something useful and cheap. Cheap should mean almost zero dollar to me. Looking around the place (shop at ITP) I was sitting, it didn't take me too long to come up with the idea of making a thing out of very accessible, common, cheap, and even friendly: a duct tape.

Pros: almost 'zero' cost to make. light weight. soft. doesn't take much space.
Cons: tape pills off. not durable. cannot provide maximum protection.