Final Critique: Third Years

I visited the third years final critique, their presentation was very interesting. When i first arrived monday morning, it looked as though they had created a whole different hallway to display their work. This sectioning tool made the separation between the two third year groups more distinct. 

In the group i was assigned, they were presenting two different projects to be critiqued. The first was the child and adolescent unit of the Central Regional Hospital, out of the twelve or so students my two favorite presentations were Gonzalez and Preston. Gonzalez's idea of an ecosphere was well represented throughout his whole project. I enjoyed how he represented all the elements (earth, wind, water) and incorporated them into one central idea. Preston's "inside out" idea was intriguing because it wasn't like anyone else's theme. Both designers presented well over all and had by my standards well represented presentations, not only were their displays easy to read and follow but we eye coughing but not to busy. It was also interesting to hear that the students had also presented their designs to the hospital and some aspects of some of the students designs were to be used in the remodel. 

The second project was a team effort, groups of two or three designers teamed up to redesign 106 W. Parrish St. of downtown Durham. This building was originally a dilapidated old building which the students visited and were assed to design a two part piece that incorporated a wine bar and resident establishment. This project was obviously more extensive a project for the quality of work was much higher. Although I enjoyed the displays of all of the designs much more than the other project, there were two designers how stood out beyond the rest. Stiles and Preston, "The Lantern" and Dean, Loloci and Smith, "The Horn". The Horn design was far more engaging to the viewers and not only did the designers add more to the presentation but worked more fluidly while presenting and had more of a story to tell rather than reading a project statement. 

One major problem over all was that each of the designers rushed through the critique and didn't leave much room for questions to be asked, most presented generically and had dull presentations. I think this could have been fixed if their presentations, speaking wise, was more engaging and had more of a story like feel. All-in-all I enjoyed this critique and it was interesting to sit in on something as different as the third year's presentations. 

Project 4: Luminare

For this project we were assigned to design a luminare which represented our selected light phenomenon. Sense my light phenomenon was a sunrise through a CD, I choose to use CD's in my project. I found these really cool purple sided CD'd which reflected the light really nicely, from there I experimented with a couple of different arrangements that would reflect the light the best. After talking with Tommy, I decided that the best reflected position for the CD's would be handing from the light, because it was more about how the light reflected on the CD's verses the light it projected.

Sketches of my luminare which includes front, bottom, top and section view.

First attempt of luminare.

Light Phenomenon

For my light phenomenon, I originally was going to just do the something along the lines of a sunrise. To my surprise I found this old decapitated "Limpbiscuit" CD out in the yard when I was taking pictures. I decided that it could be used as a good filter for my phenomenon. From there  I experimented with the different sides of the CD and thus fourth took this picture below.

Project 3: What To Do With a 2x4?

For this Project we were assigned to take a 2x4x17" piece of wood, we could cut it as many times as we wanted as long as it created something visually appealing. Our only restraint was that we were not allowed to use and kind of glue/nails/etc. to hold it together.

I had trouble evolving an idea from just one plank of wood, I spent many hours in the wood shop experimenting by using the different machines. Finally I decided to create something similar to a window shade, I cut the plank in half long ways. Then using one of the halves, I cut that with the ban saw in many smaller planks no more than a quarter of an inch think so that they could fit evenly in slits which I  had cut in the other half at a fourty-five degree angle.

Scale Figures

In this example, we were told to sketch different scale figures from 3/32" to 1 1/2" scale.

Scale figures are used to show the proportion of a drawing. In perspective drawing it is easier to locate the vanishing point to determine the scale of a figure. We practiced with different scales in class, learning to draw figures in a short hand, like a loose sketch.

Five Sketches: examination of fellow sketcher's

These are examples of my own sketches that I liked in comparison to that of my fellow sketcher's in class

'magnola leaf'

'cut 2x4"'

'profile sketch of leaf'

Tuan Vo

'bottle'

He depicts this bottle in a more technical contour sketch that would be interesting to adapt to my technique of sketching.

Tricia Collins

'self portrait'

Her technique of hatching to create value in interesting due to the fact that not a lot of people can pull it off well, except in this case with Tricia's self portrait. 

Dan Flavin

By Webster’s definition, light is electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by the human eye.  Light is simply a phenomenon with physical aspects which is still unknown fully by science.

Dan Flavin, untitled 1973

Dan Flavin's capture of light by  using florescent colors contrasting in dark rooms gives a new quality of light, especially the repetition of pattern captivates the viewers eye. I was especially intrigued by the fact that he's using a dying media and using it as art.

Dan plays with the light spectrum and manipulates the way we see light. Its like what Tommy and Stoel say to us, it may not be about how the piece displays light but what it reflects. In this piece Dan definitely wants you to experience light in all aspects. 

In comparison Bruce Nauman plays with the concept of florescent light as a media for art. Where Nauman's work speaks for its self, Flavin's work is up for interpretation based on the eye of the beholder.

Bruce Nauman, 1978