YEAR ONE

Project 1

Week One:

25/02/19 – Intimate Assemblies

Drawing workshop – Exquisite Corpse. Drew in relation to Sleep/Wake.

Considered themes: Light/Dark, Opening/Dark, Movement/Stasis (Still), Horizontal/Vertical.

I wanted to play with the idea of movement of ideas when sleeping, Although there is a lot of ideas and creativity flying by when our subconscious mind has control, when conscious our mind only remembers and records part of the movement, represented by the harsh line

I wanted into explore rain drops, as the sound of rain is my comfort, I also wanted to explore the sense of solidity and fluidity represented by the variation of soft and harsh lines.

In this drawing I wanted to play with the idea of weight and weightlessness as well as the idea of horizontal/vertical. The dark circles represents a weight, dark in colour, holding everything down – gravity gripping on to our heels. There is a sense of movement from horizontal to vertical, this occurs in the physical change from sleep to wake as we go from laying to standing.

I wanted to explore Light and darkness, cyclical and non-cyclical motion and solidity and fluidity. I was still trying to break away from the idea the literal flooding of light through the opening of the curtains, shown by the sharp triangles. The repetition of the patterns expresses the cyclical feeling and on going of the calendar – everyday being the same/similar.

Other Themes: Cyclical/Non-cyclical, Diurnal/Nocturnal, Interior/Exterior, Weight/Weightless, Dream/Certainty, Temporary/Permanent, Active/Passive, Material/Immaterial, Permeable/Impermeable, Fluidity/Solidity, Macro/Micro.

26/02/19 -Personal reporting.

This is my duvet after I have go out of the bed. The light shapes are soft and comforting to the eye, no contrasts, light and delicate.

The harsh lights of the day escaping through the curtains break the peace of my restful sleep. I was inspired by the pattern displayed on the floor. I loved the contrast that the harsh shapes had against the softness of my bed, opposites.

27/02/19 – First A2 Conceptual drawing

When I brainstormed how I felt when in the Sleep to Wake threshold, the main thing that stood out was the sense of fading, or a very gradual transition. I also wanted to focus on the subject of anxiety, and the fact that sleep was my break from the pressure and business of my daily routine.

The density in the point at the bottom left corner represents the feeling of suffocation in having anxiety and being unable to have room in my head left to dream and be creative when surround by stress and the unknown. The density slowly reduces and broadens while rising up to the top right corner, seeming like the stress is fading away, weightless. I wanted the day portion of the drawing to feel heavy, as it is dark and the lowest section of the drawing, as if it was weighing the drawing down, representing both the literal weighing down of the body due to gravity and the weighing down of my body due to the lack of freedom to due anxiety taking over the mind. The burden of anxiety seemingly starts to float away as the drawing progresses up to the top right corner.

The business of the day fades away as the focus of the every day responsibilities are no longer the main focus. I included sharp geometry in the bottom left corner to represent the “black and white” or “factualness” of being conscious. The geometry slowly becomes more and more rounded as Imagination and creativity start to play in when in the Sleep to Wake threshold.

Week Two:

4/03/19 – Atmospheric Model

Model Inspiration

This Sculpture, created by the Spanish artist José Manuel Castro López, represents and expresses the themes of weight and weightlessness, and solid and fluidity well. This sculpture is made from sculpting and carving marble or garnish into a soft looking texture. He manages to create the stone from seeming very hard and solid into soft material.

Yasmin Brain created this sculpture inspired by the Japanese installation artist Chiharu Shiota, she played around with the juxtaposition between the two thickness’s of metal. This expresses the idea of the robust vs the dainty.  I was Inspired to use materials of varying weight and colour. This is where I got the idea of using cotton balls and wire. The sculpture looks as if it becomes lighter and starts to float away, I love the concept and was inspired by this idea.

5 Marquette/Conceptual models created to represent the concept of my wake to sleep threshold, based off the drawing. Selected a range of materials which related to my which related to my A2 drawing.

I then was lead to doing some research on
Chiharu Shiota, I was inspired by her ability to use string to make objects seem as they are floating. I played around with the idea of threading cotton balls on to the string, however I felt as if the string would make the cotton balls look as if it was restricted.

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Although I was set on using cotton balls and wire, I know I needed to experiment with different materials. I played around with card and paper. I was most happy with the way my models looked when the paper and card weren’t overpowering the model, although I loved the interior spaces which they created.

Each model I tried to represent my idea in my drawing, the transition of weight to

Thinking through model-making

Using a single Axis, placed the models in a line from the most interior to the most exterior

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6/03/19 – Abstract writing

Heavy weighted, my whole awake body is pulled down both by the earth’s gravity and the burden of responsibility. No protective layer shielding my body with comfort. Fully vulnerable and revealed to the world. Daily schedule is black and white; factual, aware of time. Action and decisions in reality, solid, firm and stable, affecting future endeavours. Impacts permanent. Actively conscious, my mind is externally pressured to be closed from imagination, suffocated. Represented by the thin dark coloured string and metal condensed geometrically together at the bottom. My body then moves vertical to horizontal transitioning from wake to sleep as comfort is needed. My free spirited mind breaks free from  restriction of routine as it needs to be put to rest. Unconscious to the transition, I am unaware that I am falling. A blurry time frame, fluid. Shown by the sharp point gradually broadening and transitioning into a less compact space. Sleep begins when the sun falls below the horizon and darkness awakens in the night, reducing vulnerability with absence of other beings. My  body feels weightless as I lay under my airy down, as if I am floating amongst clouds, nothing pulling my feet downwards. Horizontal results in  support and comfort for my body’s entire mass. There is safety and reassurance in the knowledge that I will not fall while my mind is free. Darkness-shuts off my surroundings reducing distractions. Tension and unsettledness falls away as the darkness surrounds me like a blanket, hiding me away from all the day’s stress. Action and decisions in dreams, fluidity – having no fixed shape and yields easily to external pressure. Nothing impacted,  all impacts are temporary, erasable. Dreaming, hard to differ reality from fantasy.  Flooding with creativity and open to ideas, aspirations, fantasies and hopes. Expressed by the progressive transition of the open space being filled with soft shaped and coloured cotton balls and paper. The writing represents ideas and aspirations, the cotton balls represents comfort and rest.

6/03/19 – Atmospheric Model, Final Model

The suffocation from mental freedom due to anxiety is represented by the thin dark coloured string and metal condensed geometrically together at the bottom. The fine strands of the black strings represent the feeling vulnerability during the say, being alone there is nothing to protect me yet being surrounded is overbearing. The three lines from the point through to the cotton balls represents the duration of time.
The unawareness and slow fading from wake to sleep is shown by the sharp point gradually broadening and transitioning into a less compact space.  The mental freedom, due to being safely at rest from the stress of the day and being able to dream freely, is expressed by the progressive transition of the open space being filled with soft shaped and coloured cotton balls and paper. The writing represents ideas and aspirations, the cotton balls represents comfort and rest and the weightlessness of the night due to lack of stress.

Week Three:

11/03/19 – Atmospheric Photography

In the atmospheric photography I wanted to show that the darkness was a support/comforter to the cotton balls, as darkness acts as a factor of comfort while I am sleeping – acting like a blanket. I tried in multiple ways with the shadows being projected differently behind the model.

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Atmospheric photograph, final

I decided on this photograph, as the shadowing is not overly powerful that it doesn’t look supportive, but looks comforting and warm. There is a sense of fading as there is leading lines falling down to the relaxation/cotton balls – as we fall from wake to sleep to gradually. The warm pale brown of the paper balls has a meaning of being down to earth, with properties like stability, structure and support. The brown color stands for protection and supporting the family with great sense of duty and responsibility. The strands of string hang down from the left out of focus, symbolizing the day that has past leading to the present. There is a shadow, not concrete – unable to be touched, an anticipation of the day to come, flowing up to the right. I have captured the shadows to represent how when I wake up I will gradually get uptight again and become suffocated by anxiety all over again, there is an anticipation of what is about to be.

13/03/19 – Crafting presentation.

Format trialing for presentation: Played around with which pieces are placed where. Was needing a balanced look, easily understanding the progression of the pieces.

Final Format for presentation:

I was very happy with how my presentation turned out. I decided on this portrait format as one of my focuses was falling, therefore this emphasized the long leading lines. I added dark card as a background for my abstract writing, so that when looking at my presentation, your eyes is lead to the lines and the sharp points and that there is a sense of flow and familiarity.

Feedback:

“A strongly developed Project 1- the processing of your ideas of anxiety into visualisations is very considered. The drama of gravity, suffocation, etc are carefully articulated (visual and verbal). A really nice method translating your ideas into practice (drawing, model making, photography) is happening- keep up the great work.” – Rafik Patel

Project 2

Week Four:

18/03/19 – Site Research and findings

Auckland’s largest memorial to Seddon would be the Seddon Memorial Technical College, first suggested as a memorial to the late premier in 1906, completed in 1911, and officially opened in 1913. The building still stands on Wellesley Street — but is, of course, today part of AUT.

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Seddon Memorial Technical College 1963, known presently as ST PAUL St Gallery Three.

On March 21st or 22nd in New Zealand, and also 23rd September, the Sun is directly overhead the equator. At your place the Sun reaches a maximum angle of 90° minus your latitude. For example, the latitude of North Island is approximately 40°S (you can be more precise for your location by looking at an atlas). So, at an equinox, the Sun reaches a maximum elevation angle of 50° above the horizon.

City centre bus map

The city centre map shows where bus routes run.

20/03/19- Collaborative group work.

In our group of five, we were asked to bring our research and site sketches together to put together an A1 Site Map of the ST PAUL St Gallery Three, AUT.
We laid out all our research, drawings, photographs, and statistics from when we walked around Albert park – the gallery. then we explored thresholds within Albert park- Gallery, which crossed into sleep and -wake threshold.

Exploring the themes of Weightless/Weight, Light/Dark, Open/Close, Solid/Fluidity.

Group collaboration of the site map

Analyzing specific Features of the Site

First Draft of the site map

Week Five:

23/03/19-Spatial Designer Research, Tadao Ando.

Tadao Ando, (born 13 September 1941), is a self taught Japanese architect and landscape designer, who is the winner of the 1995 Pritzker Prize.

Japan has strongly influenced Ando’s style of life, architecture and design. Ando’s architectural style creates a “haiku” effect, “emphasizing nothingness and empty space to represent the beauty of simplicity.” Designing sophistication and simple yet complex spatial circulation. Tadao Ando keeps his language and Japanese culture in mind while researching around Europe for inspiration. He believes that architecture can change society, he quotes, “to change the dwelling is to change the city and to reform society”. “Good buildings by Tadao Ando create memorable identity and therefore publicity, which in turn attracts the public and promotes market penetration”. –
Werner Blaser. The simplicity of his architecture emphasizes the concept of sensation and physical experiences, mainly influenced by Japanese culture.

Zen, a religious term, focuses on the concept of simplicity and concentrates on inner feeling rather than outward appearance. Ando is influenced by the concept of Zen in his work and became its distinguishing sign. In order to practice the idea of simplicity, Ando’s architecture is mostly assembled using concrete, providing a sense of cleanliness and weightlessness (even though concrete is a heavy material) at the same time. Due to the simplicity of the exterior, construction, and organization of the space are relatively potential in order to represent the aesthetic of sensation.

“I believe that the way people live can be directed a little by architecture. My hand is the extension of the thinking process – the creative process. I would like my architecture to inspire people to use their own resources, to move into the future. If you give people nothingness, they can ponder what can be achieved from that nothingness. You can’t really say what is beautiful about a place, but the image of the place will remain vividly with you. There is a role and function for beauty in our time. The speed of change makes you wonder what will become of architecture. At the same time, I would add that the American people have a lot of courage. People tend not to use this word beauty because it’s not intellectual – but there has to be an overlap between beauty and intellect. But in Japan, there’s nothing like that, since the temple is made of wood. The divine spirit inside the building is eternal, so the enclosure doesn’t have to be.” – Tadao Ando

The Langen Foundation in the German town of Neuss.

A meeting of two of the country’s biggest design minds, 21_21 Design Sight is a collaborative effort between Ando and iconic fashion designer Issey Miyake. This design gallery is located in the densely museum-populated district of Roppongi. The idea of this particular building was not only to show works, but to create a center that looks into how the element of design enriches our daily lives.

27/03/19-Spatial Designer Research, Chiharu Shiota.

Chiharu Shiota, born in Osaka, and living in Berlin since 1997, has made us fond of her large scale installations, such as The key in hand, presented in the Japan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Shaping her inner universe in a myriad of lines, she creates crossings that work as key points, either suspending and grasping objects, or as webs capable of generating chromatic surfaces and transparencies, which overlaps with shapes and light. In all circumstances, her artworks allow the inclusion of human beings in a spatial and immersive experience.

“I make music with my art, but you cannot hear it.” Holly Black speaks to Chiharu Shiota, the Japanese artist who weaves a mystical world in her new installation at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

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The exhibition Sleeping is like death at the Daniel Templon Gallery, in Brussels. A site specific installation and performance about the body in its sleeping and dreaming state. Webs woven from black threads come out of three hospital beds, extending into the space, as if invading it. They create a dim environment emphasized by the light that travels through their transparency. The undone beds and the white linens, mark the absence of a body and, at the same time, the dark web, with both round and angular movements, creates a graphic and pictorial mesh.

The exhibition also features small sculptures, which maintain the use of the webs, black or red, as well as drawings of the artist’s mental projections.

Over the Continents by Shiota (2008). National Museum of Art, Osaka, Photo: Sunhi Mang; courtesy of Kenji Taki Gallery.
Haunted by the traces that the human body leaves behind, the work amasses personal memories of lost individuals and past moments through an accumulation of discarded shoes and notes collected by the artist.

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“The piano had lost all its function, but it was even more beautiful than ever before”

Beauty is certainly at the forefront of this installation. The organic nature of the enormous woven structure is almost mystical. When questioned about the planning process, Shiota is non-plussed. “It happens organically, I just start weaving,” she says. The installation took twelve days to complete, with a handful of assistants, but there is still a sense that this is a personal, meditative project and––to an untrained eye at least–– it seems relatively spontaneous. Each taught line marries together to create fluid arcs which recall a vaulted ceiling, or more natural phenomena such as woodland canopies. It seems like the whole thing would be impossible to unravel.

The main piece in the exhibition is an installation created with threads and stones entitled “In the Beginning was…” The stones are woven into a dense circular network, which in turn can be seen as a stellar constellation, as a representation of the “Big Bang”. – 16th January 2016

Week Six:

Using the window as a canvas for art, from inside and out.

I had the idea of creating the interior of the art gallery 3 to be a mystery to those outside. When they walk by, instead of having the knowledge of what it holds but creating a curiosity and an urge to enter into the space but remaining to be an interesting view from outside. It parallels the concept of wondering what others are thinking/dreaming, an unknown. Portrayed slightly on the outside but transformed in the inside.

Week 7: 20/04/19-Spatial Designer Research,
Megan Geckler.

Megan Geckler is an American artist who works in the large Los Angeles. She creates and designs site-specific installations at a large scale which have been exhibited in Sydney, Australia, London, United Kingdom and in Minsk, Russia. Her work, in the United States of America, has previously been featured in the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Wexner Center for the Arts, Museum of Art and History and Pasadena Museum of California Arts. Her work is in the corporate collections of Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles, Four Seasons Resort at Walt Disney World, Nike, Human Rights Campaign, eBay, SoulCycle, and Facebook.

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Through looking back you may go blind – 2011

Using the existing beams and columns of the gallery, strands crisscrossed and tilted forward, terminating at individual eye hooks before streaming up the outside of the columns and back up to the beams overhead. The pattern of this work referenced Mobius strips and had a color progression between the hues of red, glo pink, glo orange and yellow.

26/04/19-Spatial Designer Research, Tokujin Yoshioka.

He is active in the fields of design, architecture and contemporary art, and he is internationally acclaimed with the works dealing with light and the nature. Many of his works chosen as part of permanent collections in museums worldwide, including Museum of Modern Art, Le Centre national d’art et de culture Georges-Pompidou in Paris, and Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
He has won many international design awards. He was chosen by Newsweek magazine as one of the 100 Most Respected Japanese in the World.

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Rainbow Church. A window made of glass prisms by Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka is on show at MUSEUM. beyond museum in Seoul.
The installation consists of a 9-metre window made of 500 crystal prisms, which create rainbows within the space as the light is refracted.

Week 8:

Model with light refraction before installation installed

Final Model with Installation and slight light refraction

The intertwining of the two sections

The intertwining represents a combined experience with other individuals. Two minds having different perspectives and experiences of the same installation – Sleep.

I was firstly inspired by the shadows created by the windows in the Spatial Studio room on Level two. The overlap and change of angles feed my concept into developing into what it has – challenging my mind to emphasize with individuals of different circumstances.

Week 10

10/05/19 -The final pieces

Site Section

Site Plan

Site Map

The brown lines represent the common bus routes around the site, the plain black lines represent the common foot traffic on the footpaths surrounding. The format of the site map parallels back to my project 1 concept – the dense center expanding into a more broad transparent feeling. The darkened buildings, including where the details/textures of the site cover the map, layer the historic Auckland buildings. I have included a compass to communicate the suns daily journey – East to West. The photography of the Seddon Memorial Technical College building/ St Pauls Art gallery 3, is the original photography from 1913, which I have drawn the 1960 renovations on to it. The translucent building details. I have included a traditional Maori triangular pattern which is present in the interior of the Ngā Wai o Horotiu Marae (AUT Marae,) positioned upon the Maori.

The Abstract

A public space, many cultures, ages, personalities and experiences share the interior. Fully vulnerable for the world to see. A heavy weight pulls some bodies down by the burden of their responsibilities, though some freed by social interaction – extroverts. Dream spaces, some flooding with creativity and open to ideas, aspirations, fantasies and hopes may be filled with colour though some may experience darkness through insomnia and nightmares, represented by the different forms of collaboration of shades. Some minds externally pressured to be closed from imagination during the day though some are encouraged. Fine coloured strings condensed geometrically together at the bottom, broadening into a less compact spaces and tightening at different points and angles, the weight of the night differs in experience, some stress free and others suffocating – fizzling down to a point, the depression of the night. Bodies move vertical to horizontal transitioning from wake to sleep as comfort is needed. Unconscious to the transition, we are unaware that we are falling. A blurry time frame, fluid. The lines from the point through to the fanned out ending, represents the duration of time.  Safety and reassurance, in being horizontal, resulting in support and comfort for my body’s entire mass in the knowledge that I will not fall while my mind is free. Action and decisions in dreams, fluidity, the softness of the string reflects nothing being impacted by dreaming, all impacts are temporary, erasable. Dreaming, hard to differ reality from fantasy, represented by the likeness of the shadows combined with the refracted light to the installation. Interaction with the installation, movement from one space to another, impacts the experience absorbed by spectators.

Presentation of project 2

Feedback:

“A very imaginative threshold design which offers a very unique entrance experience. Consider in more detail the act of embroidery and bring this into all aspects of your design, including the design drawings. Through the model-making process you have developed an interesting design concept of covering the building, much like stretching a canvas on a frame. The colour lines intersecting the interior are very effective, and I particularly was interested in how you are imagining people would move through the lines. Huge potential in this design proposition. Look forward to seeing where you take it next.” – Sue Gallagher

Project 3

Week Ten

14/05/19 – Making the space interactive

I wanted the concept of weight and time to be an interactive moment. Having your comfort rely on others, reflecting life – how we become uncomfortable knowing that others feel uncomfortable. We have a feeling of responsible for others feelings and emotions.

15/05/19 – Abstract

A public space – a multitude of individuals with varying circumstances share the experience. Division of privacy available for sight, vulnerable, lack of  privacy. Dream space, some flooding with creativity, some experience darkness through insomnia and nightmares creating movement to their platform interrupting the other individual. The contrast symbolized by the tonal differences, cool and warm. Fine coloured paper strings condensed geometrically together at the bottom, weighted down.  broadening into a less compact spaces, the weight of the night differs in experience, a division in relation – some stress free and others suffocating. Bodies move vertical to horizontal transitioning from wake to sleep as comfort is needed. Safety and reassurance, in being horizontal, the knowledge that I may fall creates angst, mind is restricted. Weight and time becomes unconsciously manipulative as one stays awake. Personal comfort relies on others, a feeling of  guilt and responsibility for others feelings and emotions.

16/05/19 – Designer Inspiration

Megan Geckler

“Scenic Pastures” was created in 2005 Santa Fe Art Colony Open Studio Event in Los Angeles. Orange chevrons converged down from above to blue painted wood circles on the floor. These three chevrons were independent of each other. I was inspired by this installation as it reflected my project one with the concept of a point broadening outward. I was inspired to design a cone hammock like platform which the supports the body in many ways.

Geckler, M. (2005). Portfolio: Scenic pastures. Retrieved from https://megangeckler.com

17/05/19- 1:50 Elevation drawing

The elevation drawing puts into context nicely the triangular Mosaic glass panel with the exterior of the WB Art Gallery building at AUT. It shows the way which the unique pattern will draw public into the space too then experience the hidden atmosphere of the gallery.

Week Eleven

20/05/19 – first model designs of the sleeping platform

The drawings started off with a single pulley system, however due to the mechanics it worked more efficiently with two pulleys.

24/05/19 – model creation

Using Sue Gallagher’s feedback to incorporate the details of ‘sewing’ and ‘the act of embroidery’ into my design, I’ve chosen to sew on the paper cord onto the aluminium circular frame.

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Week Twelve

29/05/19 – Sleeping platform mechanics.

After experimenting with a single pulley system I had to change it to become a double pulley system in order for the installation wall to intersect the sleeping platform models and to support the weight of the platform and strangers which accommodate the platforms.

Week Thirteen

3/06/19 – experiment with the point

Experimenting with a pivot point, the mechanics of the hidden point works more efficiently as the obvious point is more clean and tidy.

04/06/19 – Atmospheric section with shadows and lighting

05/06/19 – Adding cotton embroidery thread on top of the lines which connects the scattered details of the building to the original placement.

6/06/19 – Atmospheric drawings

View looking into the second platform, face on. Allows the opportunity to visualize how the sleeping platforms will look from face on.

Visually communicates the design concept through the use of atmospheric lighting and shading. Shadows are effectively represented to explain the different elements of the space.

Week Fourteen

10/06/19 – Updated floor plan

Added extra surrounding floor plan of AUT and atmospheric shadow and lighting. This relates the Art gallery 3 to the context of the surrounding spaces.

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Model with silhouette of person shows the scale of the person to sleeping platform. It shows the way which humans may interact or watch the space as it transforms.

11/06/19 – Design Report

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12/06/19 – Presentation drafts

Chose the last format as it connects the relative pieces together and visually communicates the concept of my design of the sleeping platform well.

Presentation for project 3