Project Calendar

Artist Statement

My hollow fabrication project was based around the work of designer Arik Levy, the Belgian company Materialise, the idea of private, and the process of rapid manufacturing. I wanted to be inspired by Levy, not limited by form, and consider private for my work. I experimented with positive and negative space, and the element of shape. I came up with an original form that cannot be directly identified as anything, but figuratively speaks to the individual. I wanted my form to be free and organic, unlike most examples of hollow fabrication that have uniform thickness and harsh angles. I deconstructed this method and mentality to reveal pure form. Simple and consciously executed was my goal. They inspire thought and speak differently from person to person. The size and scale of my shapes complement the human figure. The negative space allows the skin to show through and mimics the positive space, constructed out of metal, in hopes of achieving a positive/negative reversal. I choose to apply ambiguous surface textures to my pieces so the viewer can typify their symbolic representation in there own way. I feel it is up to the viewer to question what it is, and for the wearer, to know what it means to them. When worn these pendants flow with the form of the body, they do not box anything in despite their box type construction. I believe a success for the element of shape within the constraints of hollow fabrication.

Arik Levy

Arik Levy designs for Materialise and many, many other companies including Vitra, Vizona, Desalto, Ligne-Roset, Gaia & Gino, Boutet, Sentou, L’Oreal, Serralunga, Baleri Italia, Lanvin, Boucheron, Alon Segev Gallery, Belux, Sector Sport Watches, Designers Carpets, Tai Ping, Baccarat, Galleries Lafayette, Swedese and Softline Allkit.









From his Paris based company L design, Arik develops projects in industrial, interior and graphic design for the European and international market. His unlimited creativity and technical skills have allowed him to work with a variety of subjects and disciplines. He works as both a scientist and a poet. “Innovation, simplicity and experimentation allow him to translate concepts into products, space and experience”, Claimed Materialise and Gaia & Gino about Levy’s work. Levy designed “Black Honey” and “Minishake” for Materialise using Rapid Manufacturing, a technique that I consider very interesting and promising.









I choose to try to emulate Arik Levy because he was one of the first designers approached for this new production method. ID Magazine called Levy a “superstar” in their article Private First Class that dealt with the challenge presented to four designers based around the idea of private. I wanted to be inspired by Levy, not be limited by form, and consider this idea of private in my work. Hollow fabrication has an element of privacy in the fact that it is indeed hollow. What could be inside? Is it for the wearer or the viewer? I played around a lot with positive and negative space and the element of shape. and came up with an original form that cannot be directly identified as anything, but figuratively speaks to the individual. I wanted my form to be free and organic; most examples of hollow fabrication have uniform thickness and harsh angles. I deconstructed this mentality to reveal pure organic form. “If you use a material in new ways, you’re creating a new molecule for the industry, the public, and yourself,” Levy said to Metropolis magazine describing the process behind some of his products. I admire Levy’s mentality, aesthetic and drive. He recognizes how important it is to think ahead, not be afraid of new technologies, or accept limitations.










I think my organic forms push the limitations of hollow fabrication. They speak differently from person to person. The size and scale of my shapes complement the human figure. They look very natural around the neck. I choose to apply surface textures that are pretty opened to interpretation. I feel it is up to the viewer to question what it is, and for the wearer, to know what it means to them.

























http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/%22%3Ehttp://www.metropolismag.com/cda/

http://www.idonline.com/

http://www.within4walls.co.uk/new/designers.php?id=ARIK%20LEVY

http://www.artnet.com/artist/424179902/arik-levy.html

http://www.gaiaandgino.com/ariklevy_en.htm

http://www.materialise.com/materialise/view/en/556885-Arik+Levy.html

Rapid Manufacturing & Janne Kyttanen

Rapid manufacturing is an additive fabrication technique for manufacturing solid objects by the sequential delivery of energy and/or material to specified points in space to produce that part. Current practice is to control the manufacturing process by computer using a mathematical model created with the aid of a computer. Rapid manufacturing done in parallel batch production can provide a large advantage in speed and cost compared to alternative manufacturing techniques such as plastic injection molding or die-casting. Rapid manufacturing may involve custom parts, replacement parts, short run production, or series production. (When the part is used in the development process only, the appropriate term is rapid prototyping.) Rapid manufacturing for large products with layer-based manufacturing from metals, plastics, or composite materials is well known for several industrial applications in the military and aerospace sectors. Small products and microsystem applications are known in medical as well as diagnostics and sensor technologies. Batch production of very small parts by rapid manufacturing techniques may offer cost and time advantages. Increasingly, rapid manufacturing is being applied to automotive, motor sports, jewelry, dentistry, orthodontics, medicine, consumer products, and collectibles. http://www.wikipedia.com/rapidmanufacturing










Janne Kyttänen, born in Finland in 1974, is just one of the big names behind today's product designs created using Rapid manufacturing technologies. During his studies in Barcelona, Janne began experimenting with Rapid Manufacturing. At that time industrial designers used the technology to produce prototypes for new products, hence the name. He proved the potential of using the technique as a manufacturing tool and introduced a line of Augmented Reality based Rapid Manufactured products as his thesis for graduation. One of the sponsors of this project was the European leader in Rapid Manufacturing, Belgian company Materialise NV, who were looking for new ways to use the technology. Janne founded his company FOC in Helsinki in 2000 and in 2002 started FOC in its current form in Amsterdam while using Materialise's machines to produce rapid manufactured lights. This collaboration led to the new Materialise MGX department, which presented its first collection of designer lampshades manufactured with 3D printing techniques at the Salone del Mobile in Milan in 2003. The collection promptly won the Blueprint Best Newcomer Award at the 2003 100% Design Show in London. Today, Janne runs his aptly named company Freedom of Creation from an 18th Century townhouse at the Herengracht in Amsterdam, delving deep into unlocking the numerous potentials Rapid Manufacturing offers. The company produces unique light designs and interior accessories in highly complex and intricate forms and its endless experimenting and research into material applications has resulted in the production of rapid manufactured fabrics made up of thousands of tiny, interlocking pieces. FOC feel the potential is enormous but the fashion industry is as yet reluctant. Further experiments have produced watch straps and jewelry made from a mixture of flexible aluminum and nylon. Janne is convinced that all this is just a foretaste of what is to come: a profound change in the way objects are manufactured. No surprise he and his company won the Blueprint Best New Exhibitor Award at 100% Design 2006. http://www.within4walls.co.uk/new/designers.php?id=JANNE%20KYTTANEN

What a truly cool tool. Very expensive and originally used for prototyping, but not exclusively, until Kyttanen decided that he should not be limited in his design ideas. A 3D printer, unbelievable! Students were encouraged to find one to use but I think that until several companies start making them, they are nothing more than a pipe dream…unless someone wants to lend me 20thou?

Dubai

When is tradition outweighed by advancement? Although we couldn’t say what we would do to either save tradition or move forward, it is very clear what Dubai plans to do. Dubai can either refer to one of the seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the eastern Arabian Peninsula, or that emirate's main city, sometimes called "Dubai city" to distinguish it from the emirate. The modern emirate of Dubai was created with the formation of the United Arab Emirates in 1971. However, written accounts documenting the existence of the city have existed at least 150 years prior to the formation of the UAE. Dubai shares legal, political, military and economic functions with the other emirates within a federal framework, although each emirate has jurisdiction over some functions such as civic law enforcement and provision and upkeep of local facilities. Dubai has the largest population and is the second largest emirate by area, after Abu Dhabi.








Revenues from petroleum and natural gas contribute less than 6% (2006) of Dubai's US$ 37 billion economy (2005). A majority of the emirate's revenues are from the Jebel Ali free zone authority (JAFZA) and, increasingly, from tourism and other service-oriented businesses. Dubai has attracted world-wide attention through innovative real estate projects. But it doesn’t stop at innovative, it goes completely beyond to another plane.

http://www.wikipedia.com/dubai





This plane is one I would call Romanticism, should one look to the past for new design ideas? A similar situation was experienced in the United States when the Modernist movement took over design. Form should only follow function and nothing from the past was needed to move forward. Romanticism was born out of this mindset, claiming that it was ok to borrow from the past to make new aesthetics. It was a split situation, just the same as the designers who visited Dubai found themselves in. The conference held in Dubai discussing some of these issues was attended by Luke Williams the Creative Director of Frog Magazine and he feels that the city reflects western design but also holds on to some middle east traditions. He compared his stay to Las Vegas. Marcel Wanders made another Las Vegas comparison about the lager than life Burj Hotel that resembles the Sydney opera house on the outside but a lounge on the inside. While this city is growing faster than any on earth, it might not be getting where it needs to go. Apparently, some buildings are having traffic flow issues and have to be reconsidered. This to me show lack of consideration to way-finding, especially important to a tourist attraction that must cater to the ergonomics of all cultures. I feel that this city is desperate for tourism. The “world” that is currently under construction shows the shear massive collective that is going into all this. It is an extremely huge, massive, out of this world development that can be seen from space. Williams’s thoughts promoted the need for more processes of design. How can we shape things and make the world a better place? This idea can’t be over looked for this construction of a second world. I understand what this Arabic nation is trying to do but every speaker at this conference, including Oliveria Toscana, seemed to want more simplified design with culture and tradition in mind but the future being most important, the past with a “twist” as Wanders put it. I personally feel it’s over the top, it looks too needy. An indoor ski slope in a tropical zone? I don’t know but Disney World and Las Vegas better watch out because the Middle East is the new hot spot, and however poorly designed, it’s shear size and decadence will define its revenue. If its people would stop judging designers and its designers would step out of pre-conceived ideas I think that Dubai will be the new “place to be”

Materialise

Exporting to more than 20 countries in the world, MGX operates both as a supplier of manufacturing excellence and a design company mastering its own concepts and brand. Apart from its in-house products, it provides solutions in all types of fields such as design, art, architecture, interiors, fashion, beauty & cosmetics. Materialise has benefited from the most renowned rapid prototyping services. As worldwide leader in this field especially in the applications and solutions found in medicine, dentistry and the automotive industry, Materialise decided strategically to broaden its competencies to the design world. With its new division created in late 2003, Materialise has brought about a real revolution in innovative product development by giving the designers the opportunity to access new information and global digital tools. The quite recently born label ‘Materialise.MGX’ is confidently going beyond tooling and digital CAD software by combining art and technology to an already well-established company experience. They use rapid manufacturing to make a lot of lighting, sculptural and fashion type objects like the ones found here:

http://www.materialise.com/materialise/view/en/114835-About+.MGX.html

"Uvula"

I found some very disturbing pictures when I googled the word Uvula. However disturbing, they are informative and I believe only add onto the feelings we connote for the "dangley thing" hanging in the back of all of our mouths.

The oral stage is the first in psychosexual development and believed by some to carry on into the later of our lives. All of our pleasure is gained through the mouth in this stage, and I too believe it doesn't stop there. We protect our mouths, we put makeup on our mouths, we pierce, we kiss, we eat, we talk and we breath through our mouths. Contained in all these is an excitement and a celebration.

I want to take all of those things that our mouths and their parts do and try to convey the word Uvula (which is also just cool to say) on a deeper level.



Here is the uvula and some close-ups of human skin:













mouth


cells

hand

The image of beauty

Lin Fengmian

Some of my favorite words

I cant decide between uvula and entropy...

vampire
uvula
satire
verisimilitude
brazen
austere
web
copacetic
aspect
entropy

Esao Andrews

...
Personal calender for the
Responds to Droog project:


Wednesday 25th

Finish preparing bottle tops with first surface treatment




Weekend of the 29th and 30th

Larger drill session for larger holes at shop at home
purchase last components




Wednesday 3rd

Connect all jump rings and bottle tops




Weekend of October 6th and 7th

Make any last changes or finishing touches




...

Collecting bottle tops is one of the ways I keep a hold on aspects of this life that seem out of control. In the act of collecting and appreciating the otherwise expendable objects, we are made aware that often people are too busy doing more important things, with little time for curiosity. Bottle caps that once contain something not so precious, can embody something much more once discarded. The older they get the more beautiful they are. Something found, saved from being lost forever, turned into something beautiful, can be considered a high form of art and not just a hobby. Bottle tops have become a new source of inspiration to create artworks as a humorous glorification of the everyday cultural artifact. In this simple, accessible and familiar material lies suggestion of personal experience, and critique of popular culture. Not all so glamorous as we might believe is needed to create. However, sustainable development is defined as “balancing the fulfillment of human needs with the protection of the natural environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future.” Not so hard to aspect to my “hobby”. I believe that this medium makes people think, not only about issues that concern us all but what concerns them personally. So, I’m going to hold on to my feelings about this, and my bottle tops.

Free your mind...

Alex Gray
New York Exhibit

The ideal I hold to my my art and my life.

Think for yourself, question authority.



Throughout human history as our species has faced
the frightening, terrorising fact that we do not know who we are
or where were going in this ocean of ciaos,
has been the authorities.
The political, the religious, the educational authorities,
who attempted to comfort us by giving us order.
Rules. Regulations.
Informing. Forming in our minds,
their view of reality.
To think for yourself you must question authority,
and learn to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness.
Chaotic, confused, vulnerability,
to inform yourself.


-third-blackset-eye-

In lieu of my previous post, I have thought a lot about creativity. We all have it; we just have to let it out. Learning with others and from others is always productive to crank out designs, but having people count on you in a high stakes game can put the pressure on until something comes out as well. Target has always given back to its community and its designers have made a place for themselves in this game. So they make us “Fabuless” it’s a dream come true. We get to look good, we don’t have to pay a fortune, and there are at least a few less starving artist out there. The community gets something back, and we get spared from the endless borage of runway models strutting clothes that nobody who isn’t committed to anorexia could wear. My only hope is that originality doesn’t get sacrificed for the better of the team.

I live in the real world. It isn’t beautiful and glamorous sometimes, but its mine. You can tell that the “Who’s who” of target think more about design for convenience and functionality in their products, communities, websites and stores. People will always shop at Target, there will always be a need for better design, and designers who get lucky enough to be recruited by the Target team should play the game. Because for the rest of us whose games may be in very different quarters, innings or plays believe that anytime a powerful teammate will come in and help us out. Until then we should let our creativity run wild and design for our passions.


Check out some of the Good/Bad design products I have
posted on flickr:

blackseteyes' flickr

Does creativity have to be innate?

Sometimes we have to tackle a problem straight on and beat it to death with a hammer. To think less AND more and reverse our process. A design collective. We all know the people at Droog feel this way and while I cannot put my full support behind every one of these “dry” designs, I can however not help but believe that we all need to think this way in a world where so many of us get lost. So many other designers, so many other designs, how can we make sure we really have something special? Droog believes in reaching out together, and reaching out to us. Like with this do-it-yourself Drood starters kit:



Design needs to be innovative and consider better ways for everyone and the planet. We all live here, we all have different needs, and we all can’t go it alone. So I suggest that to really realize out full creative potential we need to see it in others first.