Multiples

I have used the laser cutter to generate more flat boxes ready for folding and have begun to play with the constructing multiples of the same object.

I have decided to take notes directly on one of the boxes. 

Cassidy Bollinger

In the spirit of "examining the mundane moments more critically" I put my mapping to the test. The reason why I decided to map this walk specifically was there was nothing special about it, the entire purpose of my walk was to get to the school to work. I wasn't planning on taking any detours along the way. The different colored lines represents my different tasks or goals in mind. It hadn't been apparent when I was first creating this how much I change my direction to meet my goals.

In chronological order:
Red: "I want to go work at the school"
Purple: "I need supplies before I can work."
Green: "I'm going to enjoy my walk home."
Blue: "I lost my student ID, so I need to retrace my steps."
Yellow: "Okay, found it, I'm done. Now I'm going home."







The first map was sketched during my walk, without looking at a map at all just basing it off of feeling alone. The second is redrawing the map with the map of Beverly in mind. And the third is my exact trip using google maps as a reference.

Amy Chan

I feel like I have been stuck with the idea of 'what to make because everything already exist'. After discussing some things in class such as looking into big drug companies and generic vs. non-generic, I realized these drug companies invented all their drugs. Whether if its good or bad, they exist and people use them. So I thought about how I could be the con artist and just lie. I think this what kinda got me lost and stuck because I was looking for the good in everything, or when I did find the bad in something, it wasn't enough to convince an audience because it's too good.

While looking into all these things I thought about how I could invent or make-up a drug that is completely ridiculous, but believable. I came across these words (some in english and not) and they describe feelings that you cannot put into words. So I decided to make drugs for these words along with the idea of pet peeves we all have, and wish we could have something to solve these problems. I did not want to make up a name for a drug and not have a reason or sense to it. Therefore I looked into the scientific names of general drugs and somehow combine that with the word.

Here are two template ideas, not assembled.

Box production at a larger scale

Continuing to work on this concept of unique packaging that requires more interaction from the user has brought me to the idea of multiplicity. In the previous semester I focused mainly on creating different boxes from different reasons, and if I set aside the reasons I have only a blank box that is playfully interactive. I am going to craft that box in multiples and echo the works of Andy Warhol and challenge the barriers between art and design.

Below is an image of the vector components that will be used to laser cut multiple boxes in a fraction of the time it would take me to generate and equal amount.
























I am also making revisions to this box as I produce it in volume. To do so I need to Craft a box and change my template according to any design corrections I make during the creation process. This means printing via and Epson Artisan 1430 which has a 13" Width restriction and because of that every piece of Bristol needs to be trimmed before getting printed on.

Jenn Jones: revisiting, planning ahead, yadda yadda

revisiting my thesis, i realize i have to try and merge all my ideas and research with the kind of art i make naturally. i'm always drawing aesthetically pleasing and silly cartoons that are really emotive and colorful. my thesis seems totally opposite of that; it feels very formal and mysterious. my goal for the time being is finding a way to express my thesis in the style of art i am most comfortable with. so i'm content-searching things to draw. my favorite aspect of my thesis so far has been the new moon, and its symbolism for rebirth and new beginnings.

i did some research and learned that in biblical times the new moon was used to mark the beginning of each month, and was treated like the Sabbath, where no trade or unnecessary work was to be done. the word used for New Moon in Hebrew is 'Rosh Chodesh' which literally means “beginning, head, or renewal”. the beginning or head of the month. It is a time of spiritual renewal. here's some of my notes

to start thinking about this again, i pulled up an old sketch of an abstract rendering of a New Moon rising over Calvary, the hill where Jesus was crucified. i also started to redrew a screenprint i made of a new moon, jesus' hands, and olive branches.

moving forward, i want to think about what it really looks like to go through a dark time, and come out stronger on the other side. maybe i can express this in a short comic in my cartoon style, or condense it to a group of drawings in that style, or something abstract. bottom line is, i want to make work kin to my natural abilities, and able to be understood. i need to find what message i want to deliver about my topic, and the best way to do so.

Emily Fox - Winter Break

I took the opportunity over winter break to check out some museums in New York City. I was most excited to see The Secret Life of Textiles: The Milton Sonday Archive at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is a small installation of Milton Sonday's studies of lace structures and woven structures.

Looking at the structures and examples in this exhibit, along with the research materials I got to look at in the Antonio Ratti Textile Center gave me a lot of information and ideas. I'm interested in playing with variations in the density of the weavings, potentially working with structures that are more similar to lace or gauze for some printing. I am also really curious about using some of the prints as a material themselves, for example, working with scans of the prints and manipulating them through tiling and pattern repeats.

Here's some quotes from The Textile Arts by Verla Leone Birrell. This reading gave me a lot of insight into why people are interested in textiles, including myself, and helped me to figure out partially why I am doing what I'm doing.

"If for no other reason, a study of fabric formation and design can be undertaken for the express purpose of gaining an insight into the achievements of cultures other than our own." (pg 1, Birrell)

"Many people have turned to weaving & other textile arts for the feeling of satisfaction they derive from these skills." (pg 1, Birrell)

"Since remote antiquity, man has expressed himself through the medium of the textile arts." (pg 13, Birrell)

Kara Guttadauro

As this semester begins I've been thinking a lot about how all my pieces will tie in together and also thinking about how can I sell this if it was a real business. After talking and thinking of different ways to show my work I am going forward with finding old pictures of my grammie and getting some of her clothing. I still will be getting stories but this time it will be of the same person but from friends and family.

I had scanned in 5 out of 60 of the paper that I made last semester pulling ones that had different details in them and made some edits to sharpen the details some more. Each piece of paper is different and has its own look so picking was hard. I really enjoyed the end result of this paper and I want to print it large so that the viewer can see the details in the small paper. I really wanted the story with the paper but I realized that just the paper alone is powerful and interesting to look at. I still want the story so I am thinking of different ways to show it without just placing it next to the paper.

n.n. newhart

I've been thinking a lot about my approach to this information. I wanted to incorporate some of the things i've been writing. John pointed out to me a statement I made that I didn't see as significant as it is. I had referred to myself as a former christian in my statement. That's something in my work i've always been talking about. I am no longer a practicing Christian and no longer belief in it's truths but I still follow some of it's moral teachings and other rituals they practice. I think about the ritual of prayer and how it's used in Christianity. I find myself writing poems that sounds a lot like prayers. So I decided to make a book out of it.



I wanted to keep working with the cut outs and crossing shapes. I added the element of color to this piece that i've been working on. Crossing both drawn letters and cut outs I think helped add depth and different levels of emphasis through out the piece. However, I think it would have benefited from filled in letters and more variation of them through out the piece. I want to use a serif typeface in this as well to see how that sits in this context. I also want to work with different colors of paper for this to see what reads best. I am very fond of the burning bush page but the middle folio caused it to be backed with red and made it harder to read.





Actual text:

Father, Father,

Forgive me Father for I have sinned.

It's been 4 years since my last confession.

I don't believe you stand in for

the holiest of holy any longer

I give no sacrifices;

no turtledoves or goats to bleed for me

I haven't seen any burning bushes these last few years.

Father

you are only a figment,

a piece of something that has shaped me,

but no longer has a face or a purpose.

Just a whisper of direction.

Forgive me Father

I've forgotten your place,

Making home in your absence

all the same.

Amy Chan

After looking into the depths of snake oils last semester, snake oils are surrounding us in various forms if we look at everything that is in our culture today. I read a few articles about consumerism and how it alters our perspective and trust on many things. Then I looked into some common emotions and how that affects our trust along with the connection of color. Color affects the choices of consumers and it becomes associated enough with something that you would automatically trust it.

I then looked into a few articles that John McVey sent me awhile back about psychic scams and how it is somewhat a form of snake oils. These psychics would make false promises and spiritual claims by making you believe you are cursed or will be cursed if you do not do something for them. They play with your deepest insecurities in order to persuade you just like any advertisement if it were visual pleasing enough to capture your attention.

I thought about the herbal boxes I made last semester and tried to connect it to the idea of how everything is set with standards and everything we see is already expected, but what about the unexpected? I looked into consumerism and medicine and how it can negatively impact the communications between a patient and doctor. Why? because we have the internet to tell us information when we suffer a symptom of some sort and that alters how you would go about treating something along with a doctor's recommendation.

To get back into the swing of things, I made these small ads for some herbs, playing around with the idea of color and common emotions associated with them. I made them as vague as possible for the idea that one herb can cure or help various amounts of symptoms which can be overwhelming therefore I narrowed it down to one use.

Andrew Tricoche

I feel refreshed getting back into the swing of design. I started a new internship, this one with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation which is really having me try new things and keep designing. Being able to work for a company and feel appreciated has really boosted my confidence as a designer in multiple aspects, as I learn the fundamentals of UI/UX. With this, I'm approaching my original thesis with a fresh pair of eyes and unscrambled brain.

I began by reviewing my process book and list of research to see if there was anything worth revisiting.I found an old reading that gave me the idea to approach music from a different angle. Instead of categorizing music into genres, which often produced similar tones (even with different instruments), I'd explore different representations of emotion through music. Keeping it simple, I continued my research into the subject.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3764399/

Here, I found information regarding the most common emotions represented in music. Here is a screenshot of the table I'm referencing in the link above.

With this, I put together a set of emotions I wanted to represent through music I'm familiar with. These emotions were joy, sadness, anxiety, love, and anger.

I began looking through my playlists of music, conversing with my girlfriend about her own musical tastes, researching the top 100 billboards of today and the past to see what were some common songs associated with these emotions. I put together a list, one song to each emotion:

JOY = "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" - Wang Chung
SADNESS = "Peanut" - Earl Sweatshirt
ANXIETY = "Open Up" - Korn
LOVE = "Brown-Eyed Girl" - Van Morrison
ANGER = "Bullet With a Name" - Nonpoint

I felt these songs appropriately represented their paired emotion due to the overall tone through lyrics and instruments. The idea however, is to physically hand letter a portion of each song. With that in mind, I pulled a couple lines of each song that were examples of the emotion. Here they are below.

JOY
I'll drive a million miles
To be with you tonight
So if you're feeling low
Turn up your radio
The words we use are strong
They make reality
But now the music's on
Oh baby dance with me yeah

SADNESS
Flushin' through the pain, depression, this is not a phase, ayy
Picking out his grave, couldn't help but feel out of place
Try and catch some rays
Death, it has the sour taste (Sour taste)

ANXIETY
Open up now
Head in the sky
Pierce the tongue that keeps telling lies,
Still, it's in my mouth,
You breathe in but can't breathe out

LOVE
Laughing and a running hey, hey
Skipping and a jumping
In the misty morning fog with
Our hearts a thumpin' and you
My brown-eyed girl
You, my brown-eyed girl

ANGER
Oh!

My disposition is in a position for all to see
Regretless of how it feels
I got a bullet with a name on it
Bullet with a name

At this point, I attempted to turn the mp3 files I had for each song into soundwaves using Adobe Audition. There was an issue here though: the information I would be gaining by completing this process in measurement would be tainted by the instruments. I needed an acapella version of each song. This became the process for the next couple hours, learning how channels in audio worked, and figuring out how to isolate the vocals from the sound wave. This came with a lot of issues, the main being the terrible distortion and loss of information. If I were to edit the song down to an acapella, I'd be simultaneously distorting the sound wave, therefore giving me misinformation.

I decided to just simply listen to those isolated portions of each song on loop, making marks above the lyrics to represent where different things happen. These are the simple drawings made.

SADNESS

JOY

ANGER

LOVE

ANXIETY

These marks represent the pitch and tone shifts taken at different points in the lyrics. As you can see, in sadness, the pitch doesn't shift much. This is also true for the rap genre however, often focusing more on the lyrics and beat in spoken word, measured on a single bar:



https://www.rapanalysis.com/2015/04/rap-music-analysis-14-kendrick-lamar/
This is turn helped inform me of how to apply my formula that I created from last semester to the hand lettered visual. While this portion is yet to come, I've begun collecting reference typefaces to aid in representing pitch and volume shifts, noise and distortion through art. This is the next step.