Context talk about transitions in film and art/sculpture.
Tuesday:
Modelling
Quick fire design. Construct three models based on transitions from your site sequence. These will be fragments of spatial thresholds – spaces of movement and transition. Photograph the interior spaces of your models – consider light and shadow, colour and textures. Self-directed Print 3-4 A3 images of your models which reveal the scene transition
3 key words:
window
focus
control
manipulation
Model 2
Model 3
Model 4
Magic shows? They play with the audiences focus to portray a certain narrative.
Focus in film – James Bond opening scene. The whole screen is full but you only look at one spot in the frame.
Wednesday:
Inspo for cinematic moments around framing and focus –
Contrast – colour and light, channelling light.
Reflection – framing a window of our environment
If I was to play with light and shadow, putting an installation at the customs street end of fort lane would allow really long shadows to extend down the lane over the course of the day. Peak stretch will be morning and arvo
Search light/ spot light?
Window into a building…warp whats being seen? Channel whats being seen.
Brainstorming ideas for one final scene transition model:
Turn the whole street into a ‘bar’ enter through light gate? tron esk.
Fort Lane at night:
Viewing the lane at night gave me Chicago (the show) vibes or reminded me of the red light district in Amsterdam.
The use of levels, lighting, window framing of the women, theme of putting on a show, being watched.
‘The challenge of this studio brief is for you to imagine the laneway differently and to propose a design for one of the existing buildings, or spaces between or on top of buildings which enhances the public life of Fort Lane. You might also consider designing a temporary event which creates a temporary public.
In this design studio you will need to be inquisitive and curious, and to identify an aspect of the site that resonates with you. We want you to observe your responses to the site. What do you notice? What stands out? What do you overlook? What is hidden, forgotten, covered over? What is problematic, missing, or unseen?
Your design project will explore the Fort Lane site (including the existing buildings) in relation to a cinematic concept &/or process, such as 2 Giuliana Bruno, Atlas of Emotion: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film (New York, NY: Verso, 2007), p165. 3 frame, projection, sequence, movement and transition.’
Read Giuliana Bruno’s Public Intimacy pages 17-21 as a starting point for your design inquiry
Tuesday:
Research cinematic devices and their long histories
The first important aspect is the distance between the camera and the person(s)/ object(s) that is (are) going to be filmed. There are three broad categories: the long shot, the medium shot and the close-up. . Within these three categories there is a variety of subdivisions. The two most important ones are the extreme long shot (Panoramaeinstellung), e.g. a tiny group of riders in a gigantic landscape in a Western, and the extreme close-up (Detailaufnahme) where only e.g. an eye or the mouth is seen.
Another important element of visual composition is the angle (Blickwinkel) of the camera. When the camera adopts the perspective of a character the terms point-of-view (or POV-) shot or subjective camera are used. Voice-over means that a character speaks but is not shown while speaking or that a voice tells or comments on the story.
Focus – the human eye is drawn to what it can see best.
Kinetoscope – The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. The Kinetoscope was designed for films to be viewed by one individual at a time through a peephole viewer window at the top of the device. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video, by creating the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter.
Print out three images of cinematic device
Flip BookShadow PlayMagic Lantern
Sketch design of your cinematic device
Initial sketch ideas exploring different concepts:
Developing first concept of focus and exploring design:
Fav movies – why are they your favs. Break down the cinematic elements
La la land
Grand Budapest Hotel
(tv show) Ratchet
Wednesday:
Site visit with cinematic device –
My device was a neon green piece of acrylic, sanded on one side to obscure the transparency. Leaving a small window in the centre I used this device to bring focus to the site.
As I began to observe the site through my device I noticed I could play with the smooth side of the acrylic and the sanded side to get different results of what i was photographing. You can see this in the pics of the ‘Everybody’s’ sign.
I was originally going to just use clear acrylic but I had some of the green lying around the house and i’m really glad I used that instead. It created a lovely cinematic filter in itself.
Shiny side facing the camera.
Matte side facing the camera
I was able to use my device to look through as well as to reflect off of to create some really interesting views.
I wanted to make a poster that showcased the psychedelic nature of the event. I attempted to create a moire effect with the lines in the background which I think was successful. Because the line work makes the poster so busy, I kept the main information very clear whilst drawing inso from 1970s posters. These two elements are themes that I have used in the event space making the transition from poster to event, streamlined.
I’ve simplified the amount of acrylic pieces in the space to create more suspense and a climax when walking into the hot house. I would have 1 acrylic piece at the entrance to the winter gardens then one at each entrance into the hot houses and then inside the hot houses have 6 large pieces suspended from the ceiling. I’ll have little jelly domes with banana bread inside.
Jelly Treat Method:
Ingredients:
A loaf of banana bread (I bought one from the supermarket)
Jelly Crystals
Follow the instructions on the packet of jelly crystals to prep the jelly.
Carve out little bites of banana bread.
Once the jelly crystal mixture has cooled down, pour into a dome shaped mould and place the banana bread into the jelly.
Place in the fridge to set overnight.
Once set, pop the jelly out of the mould and dust with sherbet.
Eat and enjoy your sticky fingers.
I got my flat mates to try my jellies and was delighted at how they reacted to peoples touch. They flopped around and got the sherbet on their fingers. The pure jellies didn’t hold their form very well but the jellies with the banana bread held really well. The sherbet creates a really interesting combo in your mouth. Overall i’m very pleased with how they turned out. The only issue I had was they were tricky to get out of the moulds so weren’t as perfect as I would have liked.
The texture of the banana bread jellies with the sherbet on top created a really interesting sensation in the mouth. The texture is somewhat off putting but the taste is sweet as you taste the granules of sherbet.
To display my jellies I will place them on an acrylic sheet in neon green to create glowing platform.
To install the acrylic sculptures I will use a suspended ceiling system using a suspension clip to clip onto the arches and trusses of the winter gardens, allowing a steel rod to be secured to it and then threaded through some small holes on each corner of the acrylic sheets and secured in place with a nut.
To create the acrylic sculptures the acrylic sheets will have to be heated up and moulded into an interesting fluid form. To make my trial models, I placed the acrylic into my home oven and once it was heated through used heatproof gloves to mould it into interesting shapes.
These dishes are a sight to behold. The effort put into the presentation is incredible. The meal becomes a whole experience.
I’m drawn to using food inspired by the 70s because thats the era of psychedelics and new age thinking which is where some of my other themes for my intervention come from so it would tie together with the rest of the space.
I love the idea of using jelly because you can get such great colours that would tie nicely to the candy coloured acrylic sheets in my intervention. Jelly also exudes weird and wonderful. The way it moves, looks, feels is all very enticing and out of the ordinary.
Perfect Salad
I liked the sherbet element that Heston used in his 70s themed dish and the way it transferred on to peoples hands and gets everything sticky. I want to find a way to create a similar situation where peoples hands get sticky so you can see how many places they touch and to draw attention to our hands like how covid did in 2020. I want to re create that dynamic of being nervous and overly aware of using your hands.
My first idea was to create a large jelly cake and somehow dice it up whilst still holding itself together. Each cube of jelly would have a toothpick coming out of it so the look of the jelly cake would be that of a hedgehog. I would then dust the jelly in sherbet so that when you picked up the jelly cube the sherbet would fall onto your hand making it sticky and tempting you to lick your hand.
Hedgehog Jelly Concept Sketch
I realised that form probably wouldn’t actually hold together nicely.
My next idea was to not cut it up and make people just pinch a piece off but didn’t think that would be very enticing and people would probably not engage with it because its too messy.
I then thought of doing little individual jellies that you pop straight in your mouth like little lollies covered in sherbet. its inviting, somewhat hygienic, gets people using their hands and gets them sticky.
Mini Jelly Concept Sketch
Another idea, if i was to take it further, was to copy the 70s and put food that shouldn’t be in jelly into the jelly. Banana bread was a common theme of lockdown so if I go down this route I would add bits of banana bread into the bite sized jellies and dust them with sherbet.
I have a strong idea but i need to do more modelling and developing my design in sufficient detail. I need to move into the rendering phase, creating clear images to convey my ideas.
Moire Effect:
‘Moiré effect is a visual perception that occurs when viewing a set of lines or dots that is superimposed on another set of lines or dots, where the sets differ in relative size, angle, or spacing. The moiré effect can be seen when looking through ordinary window screens at another screen or background. It can also be generated by a photographic or electronic reproduction, either deliberately or accidentally.’ Its this effect that I am trying to create with in the site. Drawing inspiration from a electronic moire effect.
The below images show the colours that come from this effect from a digital environment.
Mercante tasta is a design studio in Italy that does interesting designs that play with colours, unique modern forms whilst nodding to a retro style of design. They very cleverly marry materials, textures and odd shapes to construct their spaces.
A project that I really like is their Restoration and enlargement of boutique in Milan:
The attention to detail in the little moments are what gives this space its wow factor.
I will start doing more digital modelling to flesh out my ideas and create clear design drawings and assembly.
I will also develop my food element of the design exploring the nature of touch and transfer of food on our hands.
Create more of a wow moment. Create suspense, climax within the space rather than filling the whole space with my intervention.
The theme that I need to develop is that the screen is the psychedelic opiate for this space.
Explore systems for warping vision/ warping perception. The menu looks like something but tastes like something else?
How would I invite people to participate? flyers? age demographic?
Artists i’m looking at –
Bridget Riley – Moire effect
Riley was born at Norwood, London. She studied at Goldsmiths’ College from 1949 to 1952, and at the Royal College of Art from 1952 to 1955. She began painting figure subjects in a semi-impressionist manner, then changed to pointillism around 1958, mainly producing landscapes. In 1960 she evolved a style in which she explored the dynamic potentialities of optical phenomena. These so-called ‘Op-art’ pieces, such as Fall, 1963, produce a disorienting physical effect on the eye.
Heston’s feasts follows Blumenthal as he conceptualises and prepares unique feasts for the entertainment of celebrity guests. The dining room, food, and presentation are themed around a period of history.
I’m wanting to create a food intervention that affects the hands in some way and I really liked the response that Hestons desert got from this episode, in regards to the sherbet and how it made peoples hands and faces sticky. I would love for the food to mark a persons hand and i just thought of my childhood when i’d eat raro and my hands would turn yellow. It would be good to trial some things to see how i can get peoples hands sticky.
I really like how the guests are transported in the Charlie and the chocolate factory episode of Hestons Feast. Playing with the perception of what is edible and what isn’t, a theme that was significant in the original story and something i want to bring into my intervention.
I definitely need to do more iterations of my design ideas to flesh them out and explore my ideas further. I need to do more artist research to see how other people have explored similar ideas and to get inspired to push my project further or to just see a different perspective and observe new ideas.
Going forward i will develop my two main elements through more iterations. The food element of my design and the psychedelic environment it sits in.
I will research designers who have explored unique ideas surrounding food, covid space and psychedlic exhibitions or environments.
To do:
Develop food element of design.
Designer research to do with food.
designer research to do with covid
Designer research to do with psychedelic space
Experimenting with materials:
Pleating patterns applied to acrylic sheet to distort light and add colour to a space. The way the pink acrylic plays with colour when looking through it, creates purples, oranges and pinks. Very psychedelic. When the light travels through it the shadow takes on an awesome pink broken up by the pleating. A very cool shadow.
I pleated in a diagonal pattern with the mirror board and loved the result. The way the reflective surface catches the light in the folds is incredibly eye catching. The reflective nature also helps to create the illusion of it being a soft material and distorts the reflection. I like the idea that looking into these objects, you get to see a different, warped reality that lives within the reflection and the shadow of these objects.
How to create a shocking wow moment. Intervention at the entrance?
Design idea sketches:
First iteration of design.
Second Iteration of design
How long would it be up for? whats the purpose. In honour of lockdown it gets set up for a month in march?
sketch ideas/ photoshop ideas on how to play with light, refraction, colour and engaging the senses?
Develop positioning statement:
The winter gardens were built for the purpose of providing an escape from the city and to provide something to do in the winter months. This idea of an escape from reality ties into the foreign, exotic plants within the site. Everything about the site takes you away from the norm.
This past year of life has been very out of the ordinary and has left a lot of people with the desire to escape from their homes, their towns, their realities. I will develop the winter gardens into a space that meets that desire. To allow people to leave their worries behind and be fully transported to a new dimension. A fully immersive environment.
I will create an intervention that doesn’t alter or damage the original structure but re imagines the space for a temporary food event to commemorate our time in lockdown in 2020. The event will run for a month from the 24th of March – 30th April.
Inspired by a digital twist on psychedelic art, I will use colours found in blurry technology screens as well as the extreme exotic shades found within the hot house, to create my
psychedelic environment. This comments on the technology that took over our lives, distracted us and entertained us over lockdown.
The aim is to create a glitch aesthetic, whilst drawing on the traditional fluidity of form from the 70s psychedelic art movement. I will use bright coloured acrylic sheets warped to look melted and blurry at the entrance to the site, in the pergolas and all throughout the hot house to cast colour and refract light around the space. I will utilise the natural light to manipulate shadow and alter how the space feels at different intervals throughout the day.
I will set up food within the hot house spaces that highlights the privilege of touch with our hands. Small bites of food will hang from the ceiling for you to consume without the use of your hands. The string that suspends the food will be coated in edible dye that will transfer to your hands if touches. This can set off the chain reaction similar to covid 19 showing where your hands touch.
Group feedback on ideas and positioning statement so far.
This was really helpful exercise. The practise of vocalising my thoughts and ideas helped me to clarify what I was actually interested in and start to refine my idea.
It was great meeting with my study group and being able to draw on ideas that we know are of interest to each other helping to guide each other into a concept that they would excel at and be excited by.
Positioning Statement:
The winter gardens were built for the purpose of providing an escape from the city and to provide something to do in the winter months. This idea of an escape from reality ties into the foreign, exotic plants within the site. Everything about the site takes you away from the norm.
I will create an intervention that doesn’t alter or damage the original structure but re imagines the space for a temporary food event. I want to explore the ideas of social distancing/ sharing a meal together in our current climate in a context of a space outside of our normal.
To create a psychedelic environment I will use bright colours at strategic places to cast colour around the space. I will utilise the natural light to manipulate shadow and alter how the space feels at different intervals throughout the day.
I will set up food within the space that explores themes like social distancing, the nature of eating and what is a normal way of eating. I personally love to eat in a grazing manner and would like to explore the use of hands when engaging with food and the controversy that comes with that in this current climate. Setting up food in a way that resembles fruit picking or gathering. Alternatively it would be interesting to explore eating with a distance element and explore how you can create an intimate meal between two people when there is physical distance between them.
Further development:
I need to start to honing into one idea.
Colonial events are the ones usually held in the winter gardens.
Figure out how to create a full sensory experience – enhance that, how it feels, temp, smell etc.
Explore motif of grids, repeating elements and shapes eg archways, symmetry, shadow grids on grids idea – playing with light.
Site Map:
My site map identifies the location of the site in relation to the Auckland domain and the topography of the land.
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Spatial Fabrication 