Final Project - 3 Themed Objects

For our final project, we designed three themed objects made entirely out of paper. The objects were designed with three different themes in mind.  The three themes I chose included: the concept of pieces, Japanese bamboo blinds, and lastly floral/plant design.  Three separate blinds where crafted. One with its own Japanese-style scenery.

Each set of blinds revolved around the Japanese theme. One included cherry blossoms, the other koi fish, and the last one bamboo. All blinds had a 2d turning into 3d element hidden within them. Mainly it was the floral designs that are moving into the 3rd dimension.

Close-ups on detail:

And here's the final project hanging up in the classroom:

3 Themes

These are the 3 themes for the our final project, the Three Themed Objects project.

The themes are
1) pieces (the concept of pieces)
2) Japanese bamboo blinds
and...
3) floral/plant design

Response to Touch by Diane Ackerman

The article Touch discusses the significant and critical role sensory touch plays in child development. The sources in the article completed several studies on the effects of touch on babies, and found infants stroked three times a day for 15 minute intervals had weight gain improvement, better tempers, and had a closer relationship with their parents. "They [the babies] are better able to calm and console themselves," is what one study found of babies who were messaged daily.

The following are my observations and extended thoughts on the article.

Touch has been documented to play a pivotal role in a child's life, as children known to be deprived of physical contact develop less quickly.  Touch stimulates the nervous system which provides many benefits for good health.  Right from birth, infants desire and need to be held and caressed by their mothers.  Often times when a baby is crying, a mother will pick up the child and caress it in order for it to stop crying.  For touch seems to have a calming effect on babies, as well as people in general.

Physical touch is known to represent and create a sense of closeness between individuals of familial and interpersonal relationships.  For one would not touch a stranger, or distant acquaintance.  To touch a close friend, family member, or significant other would be more likely and also more culturally accepted.  This is because touch is a universal symbol for closeness and intimacy.

Oxytocin, also known as "the love chemical" is a bonding chemical that when released, creates a chemical bond between people.  Any form of physical touch triggers the release of this chemical in the brain.  The first time a human is exposed to this chemical is when they are an infant being breastfed.  The physical proximity of the baby and his mother produces a strong rush of oxytocin. This chemical creates closeness, trust, and intimacy with a baby and his mother, and strengthens the mother-infant relationship.    

All humans need a degree of physical touch as it is an important part of human connection.  Many health concerns are cured with natural touch.  Cuddling and caressing your significant other literally kills depression.  Holding your child's hand strengthens the bond between parent and child.  Petting your pet causes blood pressure to drop among people with mood swings.  Hugging you friend can make you feel happier and healthier.  Overall, touch is the one sensory tactic humans are born with and desire right from birth.  Before one learns to walk, speak, or put words into sentences, the person desires to touch without knowing why.  Sensory touch is used to read pain, pleasure, temperature, comfort, and texture throughout life.  Without the ability to read though one's finger tips, connection to the outside world would be rendered impossible.  Perhaps this is why the phrase "out of touch" is used when someone steps away from reality.  For not being able to touch the surrounding world would cause the inability to experience.      

3D to 2D assignment

For this exercise, I included my architecture relief sculpture of the claw and placed it in a hidden treasure scene.  The paper diamond originally being held by the claw was replaced with a ruby.

Response to Inventory / The Tokens by Christopher Turner

Christopher Turner narrates about the tragic scenario of unwanted babies being dropped off at a hospital in London without substantial medical care.  Turner documented how hundreds of mothers would line outside the London hospital waiting to drop their children off, some with identifiable token signatures attached to them.  There were so many children that a lottery had to be put in place to ensure at least one third of the children were welcomed. Many of the unwanted children were eventually given to tradesmen and often taken into domestic service.  With each child given to the hospital, a unique 3d token or "memento" was presented with the child.

This story is in relation to our current memento project, where we create a memento based on a life event we have encountered.  Although, the mementos mentioned in the story are quite different in the sense that they represent an actual person. The mementos we create remind us of a life experience rather than a person, and for this might not have as deep of meaning resonating within them.  For a memento reminding one of a missed person is far more sentimental.  One can always go back and visit the place of the memory they want to return to, but people are irreplaceable.  As Turner said when referring to the mothers giving their children away, "the tokens remain missing pieces of a larger puzzle: an embroidered heart."

3D Momento

For our next project, we designed a self-made "souvenir" based on a special memory.

When I was 15 years old my grandparents and cousin traveled to the Grand Canyon in Arizona.  My cousin, being a dedicated high school athlete decided to take up the challenge of running the Grand Canyon from rim to rim.  And he succeeded. All 38 miles down and up again.  Me being my overly-ambious teenage self decided to attempt running at least a mile up and down the canyon.  I managed running half a mile down before I had enough and ran the last half mile upward.

The momento consisted of wood carved and cut to look like a mini canyon. The red paint covering
the wood represents the harsh color of the red rocks of the Grand Canyon.  An ink trail, with varying widths was drawn from side to side of the inner wood surface.  Next, a shorter ink trail was drawn back and forth from the tip of one side.  The longer ink trail represents the distance my cousin ran across the Grand Canyon, while the shorter ink trail that is quickly drawn back and forth represents the small distance I ran.

Themes for Final Project

The following are the three themes for the final project. The unintentional central theme of this project turned out to be sections and pieces.

1) Floral design
2) Puzzel pieces
and...
3) Bambo

Response Sentences

1) The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale.

Back in third grade I was taught specific measurements to use based on the lengths and widths of certain body proportions. One inch is roughly equal to the midsection of your finger. The arm from wrist to elbow is approximately one full foot.  When looking through an animal book or a dinosaur book images would surface often comparing the size of the particular dinosaur in relation to a human. When sculpting a 3d figure of some sort the elementary art teacher would critique the structure by saying it is "in or out of proportion." In proportion based on what standard? The body, of course.  

2) Capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experiences.

Only encountering a live scene first hand can attribute to the authentic experience. Simply by holding or touching certain objects and artifact will not bring back the full experience. Real experiences can only come from those who have encountered the experience for themselves.  My aunt would often tell me about the time she broke her high school track record for the 400 meter in front of her entire school. She pulled out a piece of the old track which was plowed over the following year to show me. I could touch the piece of old high school track but with the object solely, I was not able to feel the breeze, see the complete red track, or hear the crowds cheering as my aunt ran across the finish line.  The object itself could never account for the real experience of accomplishment my aunt felt that day.

3) The souvenir reduces the public, the monument, and the 3 demential into the miniature, that which can be enveloped by the body.

Historically and archeologically, artifacts have brought a piece of the past to the present literally in the hands of people.  When architects find pieces from the past they serve as material witnesses to the time, place and culture at a particular point in history. Geocatching is an activity that I participated in back in middle school. It involved locating and digging up objects in a box that someone placed 2, 5, 10 years ago.  The items in the box tell a story.  A story not of full experience but one of a window to a different world based on a physical product.      

4) Nostalgia can not be sustained without loss.

Nostalgia refers to the longing of past experiences. Experiences that can no longer be reached and are gone. Longing for an event or a person who once was living are the most common forms of nostalgia. Memories are events which are no longer present, therefore refer to a loss. As a teenager I would often long for the times when my grandmother was living. Memories of seeing her smiling and laughing are still in my mind until this day. However I will never be able to re-experience those times. Only the pain remains. This is the definition of nostalgia: pain from past loss.  

5) To have a souvenir of the exotic is to process a specimen and a trophy.  

Upon returning from Arizona I purchased a scorpion skeleton in a glass globe. This souvenir has been  a slice from the Arizona desert. A place that is foreign yet exotic in its own way. This scorpion skeleton also serves as a trophy in a way as it as it is something unique and something that can be displayed. It is a unique item of which people can awe after.

Additive/ Subtractive Changes to Soap Carving

Recorded are 4 additive changes to the soap carving of the ram along with 4 subtractive mutations to the ram as well.

Additive Changes:

First Change: Soap shavings
Yellow soap shavings from a different bar of soap were shaved and sprinkled on the ram soap carving.

Second Change: Sattle
A toy sattle was strapped to the back of the ram.

Third Change: Little toys

Toy mushrooms and a sown butterfly were pasted on the ram sculpture.  The butterfly was placed to the forehead of the ram.

Forth Change: Flower petals

Dark pink flower petals were removed from a garden flower. They were then sprinkled onto and around the soap carving.

Subtractive Changes:

Fifth Change: Flowers removed
The pink flower petals were torn apart and removed from the sculpture. As well as the butterfly.

Sixth Change: Legs removed

With a butter knife, all four legs were cut short from the ram carving.

Seventh Change: Severed body

Using the same butter knife the body of the ram was split in two.  The head was separated from the body.  Three toothpicks were then used to subtly reattach the two pieces of the body.   

Eighth change: Subtle cuts

Using a pin subtle cuts were drawn over the back and head of the ram.

Ninth change: Painting

Green lines were painted on the sculpture to look like vines.

Final Project with the wooden base: 

The wooden base has two parts to make the separation of the ram soap carving stand out more. 

Soap Carving

Two carvings of a chosen animal (in this case a ram) where sculpted to look like the ram. Process pictures include the process of the sculpting along with a comparison between the two sculpted versions and the actual ram toy.

Final Images: