Last week I formed my idea about how the installation would occupy the space.  I had an idea of it being a double-sided screen which would flow towards the windows.  After evaluating the site and the logistics of hanging the piece, it has become a more rigid idea which more closely fits with the existing geometries of the space.

[Logistics:

The piece would hang from string wrapped over the truss at two locations, one 6′ from the south wall and the other at the wall.  To make these vertical connections more taught, they will be attached the desk located directly below.  The main vertical strings would be comprised of string and circular plastic loops, strung together, to create attachment points for horizontal strings to be strung. These horizontal strings would support small pieces of crescent board which, like a tapestry, would form a screen.]

Once I created the rough boundary of the piece, I began to wonder what would be the ‘pattern’ on the surface.  It seemed curious as to why I jumped to the conclusion that it would be a pattern and that it would be applied across the surface maybe in a regular order or in a gradient.  It might be the Erwin Hauer influence, or the general architectural zeitgeist that an interesting design should be or could be repeated indefinitely and stretched across an un-specifically sized or shaped surface.

While perhaps valid in some architectural contexts, this thinking seemed trite and inappropriate for the specific location and I tried to see, instead of creating a shape and then repeating that shape until space was requisitely filled, how could I design a screen that was guided in form by the introduction of color?  Thinking of the rectilinear geometry of the space, I created a flat grid and by cutting and moving one square could then manipulate the shape of the plane and introduce color.

Bounced color then guides the form and the shape can be created organically, but not randomly.  My intention would be to guide the form, color, and shadow of the screens through one simple process of cutting along the grid.  I’ve always been fascinated with Sol Lewitt’s ideas of space definition and utilization of ordering systems to generate new forms.  These cut pieces would be held into form by being tied onto the grid through tension, something like Spencer Finch’s piece at MASS Moca.

The idea would be that the exterior would glow from bounced color and inside the two planes and due to the highly reflective nature of the material, colored light would be reflected on the space above below and to the sides of the screens.  Due to the patterned surface, I was hoping light would catch in many directions, something like the phenomena that occurs underneath Herzog and Demeuron’s Caixa Forum.  A refracted light sandwich.  I’ve been having trouble finding the right material to do this, though.  I went to TAP plastics, art supply stores, and department stores looking for materials but I tend to find either highly reflective double-sided materials or transparent films.  The material I’m using for tests is just white crescent board with spray paint on one side, but I haven’t been able to achieve a gloss that is reflective enough.  I might have to make a hybrid material myself, which wouldn’t be very clean.  My other idea is that I scrap this bounced color idea all together, since it’s been a hassle from the beginning, and start over.  Nancy recommended that I do something like the MIT chapel installation.

I had been vaguely entertaining the idea of a kinetic component to the installation, due to its location in the kitchen area and the tendency for the MAX to rumble by and for people in the space to create air movement.  Nancy pointed out the draft from the windows present at my installation location and the possibility to utilize this existing energy in my screen.  When I think of kinetic sculpture I tend to jump to Alexander Calder.  I think a more relevant artist is Jean Tinguely, whose museum I visited in Basel.  I found some interesting ideas of his, including one involving plexiglas to make a screen.

Hauer, Erwin. Erwin Hauer: Continua–architectural Screen Walls. New York: Princeton Architectural, 2004. Print.

Erwin Hauer is a sculptor whose work entertains a notion of complicated simplicity.  This book focuses on his sculpted architectural screens and his ability to repeat a single pattern block to create striking compositions.

“Herzog & De Meuron – CaixaForum Madrid :: Arcspace.com.” Arcspace. Web. 05 May 2011. <http://www.arcspace.com/architects/herzog_meuron/caixa/caixa.html>.

This website details the Caixa Forum in Madrid.  A mix of old and new structures, the Caixa Forum, designed by Herzog & DeMeuron is a museum space which bridges the old and new of design in Madrid.

Joselit, David. American Art since 1945. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. Print.

This book attempts to address all major art movements in America since 1945.  By highlighting key players in these movements, this book is a major reference for understanding artists’ influences in the 20th century and how artists and different movements evolve and inspire new work.  By placing modern and contemporary art on a timeline, it is possible to more completely understand the significance of individual work within 20th century American art.

“Museum Tinguely.” Museum Tinguely. Web. 05 May 2011. <http://www.tinguely.ch/en.html>.

This is the website for the Tinguely museum in Basel, Switzerland.  Jean Tinguely was a Basel-based kinetic sculptor whose work dates from 1954-1991.  The website highlights his more prominent works and builds a timeline of succession of his diverse ideas for kinetic sculpture.

Spencer Finch. Web. 05 May 2011. <http://www.spencerfinch.com/>.

Spencer Finch is a visual artist whose work focuses on light effects.  His work is highly experiential and involves what he terms invoking the ever-present ‘invisible world.’

http://www.massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=28

Location
From where shall the project begin and to where shall it end?  The original project brief focused on the unresolved quality of space division between studio and kitchen.  The ambiguity of this barrier, while real, as a physical desk marks the line, calls attention to the undesigned nature of this last bay and seems to be a forgotten space.  This is even more noticeable as the other studio bays are clearly demarcated by 4′ white half walls.  The placement of a messy 30″ desktop in the crisp white datum line in an unintended misfortune.   The goal of this project is not to resolve this issue of a dropped datum, but to create a resolution of this line where it terminates on the south wall.

Pattern/Surface

As there is a link which needs to be addressed between what is displayed and how it is displayed (Newhouse, 9), the location of the piece is important as to focus the qualities desired for pattern and surface.  Drawing from the existing geometry, I have the intersection of several rectilinear planes: the half-height partition wall, the 2′ concrete column present in the exterior wall, and the 4×3 grid of  the two black metal window frames.  As Kengo Kuma discusses the reality of architectural decoration, “pattern…explains and strengthens the structure of the space” (Abruzzo, 42).  From these geometries, I can derive a resolving pattern.

In parti, the piece will continue the datum of the half wall, but reversed, flowing towards the ceiling instead of the floor.  I imagine it flowing upwards to keep the visual connection at standing height above the 4′ wall, while making it obvious that it is beginning and tied to the datum line.  From there, the design of the pattern must create a flow betwene this datum and the surface of the window. In searching for the correct pattern of the installation’s pieces, I am consulting not only Kengo Kuma’s prescription that decoration enhance structure, but also ideas from many camps, including inspiration from the work of Theo van Doesburg.  In his patterns, he composes colors and forms which create a sense of movement while viewed and existing statically (Coles, 88).

Light Qualities/Phenomena

This installation looks to synthesize the properties of designing an installation for a static existing interior condition with the modulating exterior condition of light and weather changes.  As Jacci Den Hartog is able to accomplish evoking “the power and beauty of nature rather than re-creating it with exactitute” (Lombino, 34), I hope that my light sculpture will create references to the natural world without literally representing it, and instead creating new form.

As in Dan Flavin’s untitled (to the “innovator” of Wheeling Peachblow) (Bell, 164), the object of the installation will be to utilize existing architectural conditions to create new spatial conditions through the medium of light.  Flavin’s work accomplished the erasure of the wall’s corner through direct focus of florescent light at two angles.  As it currently exists, the column straddling the dividing line of kitchen and studio creates a heavy composition within the space, obstructing light passage and dividing window space.  The installation will focus on lightening the column and refracting light to decrease this heaviness and instead focus on the other architectural elements which lighten the space such as the 4′ walls and the windows.  The aim of this installation will be creating a new ’subtractive barrier’ which lightens and combines the two spaces over an additive approach which might might increase the heaviness of the space.

Abruzzo, Emily, and Jonathan D. Solomon. Decoration. New York: 306090, 2006. Print.This collection of articles explores the nature of decoration within architectural design.  The authors have chosen interviews and academic papers which discuss divergent opinions on the nature of decoration in contemporary context.

Over the past few days I’ve been wondering how to design something visually stimulating for the kitchen even on these rainy Portland days.  I had thoughts of reflective surfaces hung from the ceiling almost like white raindrops with a reflective inner surface that would bounce light and create light movement due to vibrations from the MAX or air movement in the kitchen.  I would like my project to interact with the ceiling somehow..bringing a new sky into the kitchen.

In a quick exercise, I cut a basic shape to see how reflective the color would be onto another surface.  I based this shape on the idea “what if something were growing out of the shape of the window?”

The color was surprisingly reflective even though it was raining and cloudy outside.  I discovered that I had been missing the point – leaving too much open space where I had made the cuts.  I forgot the basic principle of light..it is a wave.  And these waves will try its hardest to get through even the tiniest of cracks.  I don’t need the back of the screen to be open to let light in.  As long as there is a closeby surface to reflect onto, it will reflect the color.  I made a few more pieces to test out a pattern of this design.  It is a very rudimentary test , but helps me understand the direction I need to go.

I don’t want a totally solid screen blocking out the view of the window, but it is helpful to see that even at an angle I can still seem to get bounced color.  this means this application might work suspended from the ceiling.  I want to try larger panels and maybe different reflectivities…maybe a more open framework..maybe I will revert to the raindrop idea.

My thoughts about my final project have changed since exploring bounced color and light. Before I was most interested in how to create “color shadows” (the effects of stained glass but without light penetrating a colored translucent material) but after analyzing the quality of the light at the place of my proposed installation, the south 5th floor windows, I feel the light is much too diffused to create the intensity needed for this bounced color effect This is in part realized by a small test study I have been doing by keeping some panels taped to the window behind my desk.

For this project to be successful, it must engage the space and work with the quality of light that is most common in this space. This means utilizing materials I wasn’t previously considering, such as transparent gels, acrylic, highly reflective surfaces, perhaps even thin metals.

Although I want it to be a sculpture, I want the effect of the light given from the sculpture to be the part that the kitchen users can appreciate. It is in the kitchen where most of the A&AA students observe the weather and it affects the mood of the studio. How can I create a stimulating environment on a cloudy, misty Portland day?

In this I try to reflect on spaces with similar climates that have achieved this goal. I can think of many examples from Scandinavia – places that fit into the category of contrast for dramatic effect ( and places that filter light to produce calm (Jørn Utzon’s Bagsværd Church, Grundtvig Kirke, Myyrmäki church (Norberg-Schulz).

I’ve also appreciated the amount of color Scandinavians welcome into their architecture. These bright colors can enliven an overcast or rainy landscape (Paimio Sanitorium, the city of Bergen, Nyhavn in Copenhagen). In Oregon the idea seems to be blend in with the rain and the clouds, the mist, the gray. I couldn’t disagree more.

If the screen only modulates shadow, light, and color on itself it becomes an object to be looked at, which is not what I believe is the point of architecture. We are aspiring architects because we are interested in the positive effects of the space that we create. Although popular sentiment, I feel influenced by the work of Donald Judd, particularly after visiting his studio and foundation in Marfa, Texas.

Bibliography: 

Archer, Michael. Art since 1960. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2002. Print.

Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Nightlands: Nordic Building. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1996. Print.Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Nightlands: Nordic Building. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1996. Print.

Click here to view the embedded video.

From assignment 2, adding color.

I was looking for a way to bounce color without giving away the color source to the occupant.  In this way, the space is color-malleable due to time of day.  The day starts with a warm red glow emanating from the right side and ends in a cool glow from the left side.  Although originally intended to be the inverse, reflecting a cool morning ending a hot afternoon, I realize that the a warm morning followed up by a cool evening would be more suitable in many climates during hot summer months.

This unintended gem is particularly interesting especially after reading some of Marietta Millet’s Light Revealing Architecture. I can picture these color schemes making life someplace like Austin, Texas (my previous home) – when summers can mean several months of 100+ temperatures without pause –  more palatable to the human body.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As a culmination to my studies in this class, I am interested in modulating the effects of light to define space. How can something with solid form be used to create a projected mediating atmosphere through visual phenomena?

This installation will be site-specific, creating a mediating zone between private studio space (my desk) and public kitchen space.  I want to study how shadow and color reflection can redefine how a barrier is perceived.  As the site has south facing glazing on either side of the dividing line, the “sundial” projection is maximally mutable throughout the day.

With Lisa Iwamoto’s Digital Fabrications as inspiration, I am interested in exploring the 3D mutations of 2D surfaces.  I will use Illustrator and Rhino to create a digital version of the project for testing and laser cut the pieces for assembly from thick cardstock or crescent board.

This was a study in creating compositions of shadow through small 12″x12″ panels.  The intention was to test what is possible in mediating direct light into shadow, examining a variety of options.  It should be noted that I did not completely understand the final project assignment until talking with students this week. Knowing the scope of the final project helps me understand the structure in which exploring these options will help the development of the final.

I began the study with a simple examination of hardline form used to create shadows on a surface a few inches from it, with enough diffusion to partially disguise the original form.  I scavenger hunted a little bit, finding a chair back and water droplets creating interesting shadows by themselves.  I also tested layering,with strips of masking tape, found objects like templates projected onto other forms, and paper folding.  I used a variety of materials: plastic bags, styrofoam, paper, crescent board, mirrored surface, wire mesh, tape and toothpicks.

After noticing the effects of changing shadows, I became more interested in creating thick panels with structure hidden behind screen.  As light moved behind these panels, the appearance and location of the structure changed, creating uncertainty of form.  I suspect I was strongly influenced by Junichiro Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows, which describes the way in which darkness and ambiguity can improve the quality of space, objects, and events, giving dimension and a more spiritual perception to daily life.

“The beauty of a Japanese room depends on a variation of shadows heavy shadows against light shadows – it has nothing else.”

Speaking about the atmosphere of a painting under the eave of a dark Kyoto temple: “The lack of clarity, far from disturbing us, seems rather to suit the painting directly.  For the painting here is nothing more than another delicate surface upon which the faint, frail light can play.”

There was also an instance in which I used the reflectivity of the plastic bag to mimic a watery surface, which perhaps was inspired by this quote: “And surely you have seen, in the darkness of the innermost rooms of these huge buildings, to which sunlight never penetrates, how the gold leaf of a sliding door or screen will pick up a distant glimmer from the garden, then suddenly send forth an ethereal glow, a faint golden light cast into the enveloping darkness…”

I also was interested in how shadows could disguise complete structural form and mislead: in this example, the structure is the wire mesh, but the vertical shadows appear structural.

In the end, this exercise was really enjoyable and got me thinking about the importance of shadows, but I am not sure that I will be able to carry any of these ideas further into my digital fabrication proposal.  In the next step, adding color, I am approaching the exercise with more focus towards the final project.