Project I - Exercise 02 and 03

The first weeks of TD-1 will be spent learning through making, studying the limits and potentials of material, and through the addition of increasing complexity, exploring spatial relationships and ordering systems.  Project I centers on the interaction between a marble and a plane as a way to engage these fundamental concepts.

As a way to share reference material and precedent images, our studio will have a online blog which will act as a platform for discussion and interaction between students as well as with the instructor.  Students will be required to contribute through the posting of images, thoughts, observations, and research as well as with comments on the posted material of others. BACdesignstudio.blogspot.com

Exercise 02 due Monday September 2 (no class):

•  By Monday at 7:15pm, set up access to the blog platform, review the reference material there, and post at least one image which you think directly relates to the first exercise of Project I.  This could be a photo of your own progress on Exercise 03, an image of transformative operations on planar surfaces ie. Folding, crumpling, tearing etc.  or anything else you have been thinking about while engaging with the assignment.

Exercise 03 due Thursday September 5:

•  Produce 6 new versions of your constructions.  Use paper for the first 3, then use chipboard for the next 3.  This transition to a similar, but unique material will affect the way in which you work, the type of operations that you can employ and the resulting design.  Take time to explore the new material, and brainstorm its unique properties. 

Consider the following questions as you develop iterations:

- How are you able to achieve controlled acceleration and directed movement of the marble?

- How do you create enclosure so the marble cannot escape? 

- How can you make a planar material 3-dimensional?

•  For at least 2 of the new constructions, draw the unfolded “pattern” using pencil on vellum.  These should be drawn at 1:1 scale relating to your construction.  

    

The goal here is to communicate both the order of operations and the final system you created that accommodated the marble on a flat piece of paper.  This means you will need to think about how to represent the direction of the folds, the sequence in which you constructed your proposal and the actual pathway the marble traveled through the structure.

•  Watch the 50-minute documentary “Between the Folds” available on the studio blog and YouTube.