Day 3: Scrimaging

Today my team and I made a lot of progress with our design. We all have the same thoughts for what we want to do next and are very happy with how it has turned out so far. A lot of the day dealt with the images we are taking of the installation, for which I have coined the term "scrimages". We are playing around with filters, viewpoints, and distances so that we can have a variety of images for our final presentation.

 

We have finally started to actually come together as a class as well. All of our designs are starting to merge together and look like a cohesive piece rather than each of us taking up one corner of the room. This has created a better atmosphere and more movement through the space, although there needs to be a little bit more of a connection still. That is what we will be working on next time! Stay tuned.

Day 2 Sophie

Today we continued our work from last Friday. To meet our words, we are considering to make a spider web. 

We also interact at the center of the room with other groups. Also, our project is from the entrance of the room to the exit of the room. Acrossing the whole room makes our project larger!

Day #2: The Project Continues

When we arrived in Columbus for class this morning, we found that a new student had joined the class and would be a part of our group for the installation project.  While trying to explain the project to our new group member, Stephanie, I found that none of us could quite find the words to describe what we were doing.  As someone that is used to always having words, I found this moment very uncomfortable.  I felt like I was disappointing our new teammate or giving off the impression that we didn't care, but the project is ambiguous in nature and I think Stephanie began figuring that out as the morning progressed.

After getting settled in, we convened as a class and decided that we had to create a grid in the room before anymore real work could begin.  We only have two ladders at our disposal, so this stalled the project for some of the groups.  During this downtime, we decided to create a team of representatives (one person from each group) to meet and discuss our different ideas and design concepts.  I volunteered to represent our group, and I think the discussion panel went very well. It was much easier to understand where everyone was with their designs and how we could connect them to one another when there were only 5 people taking turns speaking and interacting rather than the chaos we kept experiencing as a large group.

Once the grid was complete, our group began making more moves with our design.  Once we pulled the fabric through the middle of the corner and brought it down to the floor, we all stood back and really liked the direction we were going.  While throwing out ideas on where to move next, Courtney mentioned the word "spiderweb" and it became an epiphany moment for our group.

The spiderweb compasses all three of our words, and our design was already beginning to take a similar design direction.  We are going to push the idea further and hope to create a "condensed" abstract spiderweb in the corner where we've been working and let it gradually dissipate throughout the room.

As we began altering our design after lunch, another group asked if we wanted to pull one piece across the room and interact with their section of the installation.  It was a lot of talking all at once, and people were pulling the section of fabric every which way trying to mold it to how they felt it needed to be placed...it was overwhelming, confusing, and a bit frustrating.  I took myself out of the situation and observed as two of my group members and the other group figured out the conflict, partly because I'm not confrontational and partly because the small, dusty room was giving me a migraine and I needed to sit down.

By the end of the day, we all felt that we had pushed our design as far as we can go until other groups start hanging more fabric for us to respond to.  The room is already shaping up and it's interesting to see other groups blending their designs into ours, so I'm really looking forward to seeing more progress next week!

Day 2: The Project Unfolds

We continue on Project 1 at the beginning of day 2. Going through this process is a little unfamiliar. Usually during my design work, I research, get inspiration, draw up some ideas about the space, and then execute my design, tweaking it little by little as it gets closer to the final design. For this project, we really had to play with the material and start hanging it up before we could see our vision.

Our approach is very different than it was when we started. We have started to call it a "Spider Web", because it not only looks exactly like one, but it also perfectly reflects the 3 words we were given. I am starting to like the way the curves of the scrim interact with each other. It is very interesting to see how each new piece adds to the overall design. Interacting with the other groups is important as well because it creates movement throughout the room instead of having all separate designs in each corner of the room. As much as I was hesitant at the beginning, I am starting to trust the process a little more and am excited to see where it goes.

Epiphany Day!

Super exciting news!

We discovered the perfect metaphor for our design, a SPIDER WEB! You guys will have to wait for the reasons.... BUT our group has a vision that is inspired by this idea of a spider web and it's going to be amazing! What has been making me really excited is that when I'm high up on the ladder, I can see a ton of different possible pictures coming from every which way. Especially in black and white, these photos are going to be super powerful and artistic. Even the smallest little curve in some of the scrim, in my visual mind, I can imagine being drawn in like charcoal and making a great piece of art.

Day #2

Though its the second day of the project, its my first day being able to participate because last week i wound up breaking my ankle. So, this being the first day immersed within the project it was a lot of information to take in and process before getting started on generating ideas with my group members. More than planning out an intricate idea of what we wanted to put up, we decided to delve in right away and play with the scrim once it was up to get it to a place where we liked it. Once we had an anchor from which our idea could start, the group had an epiphany as to what we would from here out base our concept on.

Columbus Diary 1 Sophie

After the project one was assigned, we discussed together about how to make these three words work. All of us contributed with different ideas and made some initial drawings.

When we figured out how to make all these three words expressed by using this fabric, we went into the room and started working to make sure these ideas work.

It was really hard to decide which corner of the room we are going to put our project in. Because of the door that was included in our corner, we felt like the difficulty level had been improved. 

Then we also decided that our project is going to be interacted with others. This extended our spaces and made our lives easier.

Finally, we made it. We made our project meets those three words by making this huge piece of fabric into three different levels and we are going to improve it in the following weeks.

Day 1: Project Launch

Project 1 was introduced today and we will be creating an installation "experience" with fabric and light based on 3 words that were given to each participating group. As one of the five groups working on this installation, it will be interesting to see how the room develops over the course of the next few weeks. At first we found our words to be contradictory, but as the day progressed we figured out ways to work around the contradictions and incorporate other groups into our design.

Our initial design concept involved layering different shapes cut from the fabric that aligned on a central axis. From different angles, you would see the 3 words that we were given. As we began installing this idea, we noticed that it felt stagnant and flat. We wanted to create interest by implementing continuation between the layers and manipulating the flat fabric into more of a 3-dimensional object.

As we move forward, we will keep expanding our design to interact with more of the groups. Doing this will help strengthen one of our words and will create more of an experience within the room. One thing we struggled with today was being respectful of the other groups' space, but we have been instructed to start staking territory and let other groups react.

Upon reflection of the day, the development of the project has generated more interest to see what is to come. Keep checking in weekly to see our progress. As an added bonus, here is some more insight into our day: you CAN look like a superhero while hanging fabric and scrim makes great headbands.