Light and Shadow Final Project and Summary

Final Project

Final Project Board 1

Final Project Board 2

Annotated Bibliography

Matsys Design

http://matsysdesign.com

28 Apr. 2011

Matsys is a design studio started in 2004 by Andrew Kudless.  He explores the relationship between biology, the built world and how to fabricate these using computation methods.  I was immediately drawn to the Diploid lamp series which explores complex patterns that can be derived from forms found from nature – in this case honeycombs, scales and barnacles.  It is very relevant to my studies since I am interested in the use of a simple repeating pattern to create a form that is so complex.  Also I find it very interesting that none of the diploid lamps fabricated using glue at all!

James Carpenter Environmental Refractions by Sandro Marpillero

Princeton Architectural Press: NY, 2006

James Carpenter is an architect and sculptor, graduating from Rhode Island School of Design in 1972.  He started with the development of new glass materials and worked with their properties to transform light and space.  The work that I am particularly drawn to is his structural glass prisms which were installed in the Christian Theological Seminary’s Sweeney Chapel.  The result of the bounced light and color onto the wall creates a very spiritual effect which I want to try to explore in my design.

Tazana Co., Ltd

http://www.tazana.com

28 Apr. 2011

Tazana is a company created by a Thai designer and materialist specialist company who believe that design is free for all to interpret making there no wrong or right design.  “Tazana” in Thai means “attitude” and to them, it means that anyone can see something and recognize their own meaning from it.  Most of their forms are derived from Thai culture and the craftsmanship, which i find these qualities very interesting.  Also, I like the idea that most of their lamps start in a very flat form, but when the user lifts them, they reveal their true shape – it may be too early to think of packaging ideas, but this can also translate into a kinetic quality with the user.

Miho Konishi

http://aainter3-net.fromform.net/miho/

28 Apr 2011

Miho Konishi is a student exploring Light Form and her blog documents her works and findings.  She works a lot with paper folding and how those forms can start to inform space.  I draw inspiration from her works which many seem very similar to mine.

UnFolded: Paper in Design, Art, Architecture and Industry

Petra Schmidt and Nicola Stattmann

Birkhauser: Basel

This book is a collection of different artists’ work on the various designs using paper.  The work ranges from architectural installations using paper waste material to simple laser cut rings out of card stock.  The section I am interested in is Origami in Production and Computational Origami.  It is fascinating to me underneath it all, origami is a very mathematical and logical art form.

Poul Henningson PH Artichoke Lamp

http://www.louispoulsen.com/en-us/Product/Pendants/PH%20Artichoke.aspx

29 Apr, 2011

This light fixture was originally designed for a restaurant in Copenhagen.  It features 72 “leaves” supported by 12 steel arches and is a 360 degree glare free lamp.  The leaves act as shields to the glare and the viewer never sees directly into the inner light source.  This luminaire acts as a modern day chandelier and is a popular feature piece to use in many settings.

Dale Chihuly – Rio Delle Torreselle

http://www.chihuly.com/chihuly-over-venice-map-03_detail.aspx

30 Apr, 2011

In 1996 Chihuly – a Seattle glass artist – designed and created 14 chandelier pieces that were installed throughout the city of Venice in Italy.  This chandelier was hung over the canal “of the little towers” reminding the viewer of the remnants of a tower that used to belong there connecting the viewer to the history of that particular site.

Tord Boontje

http://tordboontje.com

30 Apr, 2011

Tord Boontje is an artist/designer who draws ideas from nature, layering materials to entice the viewer.  He believes that the idea of modernism can be complex instead of just streamlined and minimal and embraces the use of technology in his designs but not in a way that overpowers his work.  I am very drawn to the Midsummer lamp.  The use of the many layers work to diffuse the light and at the same time still keep the design airy and floaty.

Isamu Noguchi

http://www.noguchi.org/shop/history

3 May 2011

Noguchi was an artist in New York who integrated elements of Japanese art into his pieces.  He is known widely for his lighting and paper lamp designs where he utilized traditional construction methods used in the small Japanese town of Gifu.  He wanted to express the idea of weightlessness in his designs creating sculptural luminaries.

Aqua Creations Lighting

http://www.aquagallery.com/#/Lighting/Overview

3 May 2011

Ayala Serfaty is the leading designer for this lighting and architectural lighting company.  Much of the forms of the light pieces mimic aquatic life and create a sort of ominous yet intriguing quality when placed in a room.  I enjoy the odd shapes and form and the sculptural quality to the luminaire pieces.

Towards a Final Project pt. 2

So after creating another prototype I was really unhappy with the seam.  Using the heavy vellum paper it is really visible and messy to deal with.  This is something I’ve been dealing with on all my models and I’m afraid that once I bump up the scale the seam is going to be really really ugly.  So I think i’ve come up with a solution.  After studying and thinking about the Chihuly chandelier and the idea that it looks like it’s spiraling, I thought what if I made mine out of a continuous strip of paper that spirals?  This completely eliminates seams except where I have to join the strips together, but they wouldn’t have to overlap and distract from the form.  I think by using this construction method I will be more successful in creating a really sculptural piece.

Strips of paper folded and cut using the same form.  I didn't want to cut the whole thing just yet since I have to make time for studio too...

Strips of paper folded and cut using the same form. I didn’t want to cut the whole thing just yet since I have to make time for studio too…

To give an idea of the final form without the cuts.  Already shows interesting shadows casting on the material.

To give an idea of the final form without the cuts. Already shows interesting shadows casting on the material.

Towards a final project

I have been working on and off today cutting a lantern prototype.  I decided to go back to my original idea and look at the forms i was using near the beginning of class instead of going in the direction where I was experimenting with the stars.  Dave had mentioned that one of my earlier lamps reminded him of a Chihuly chandelier.  A large glass piece that seems to be made out of many little pieces of free formed curled glass tenticles, that seem to spiral and drape all the way down to the floor.  I want to somehow create that same effect using smaller cuts and folds and allow the paper to seem to drape and dissolve into the floor.  Sort of in the same way Miho Konishi has in her paper exhibition.  I will most likely use this heavier vellum paper I found at Columbia Arts supply since I like the glow it creates when a light source is added.  I’m not sure yet how large I want to make the chandelier, although maybe I should decide soon…

Dale Chihuly Chandelier

Dale Chihuly Chandelier

image source: http://www.chihuly.com/rio-delle-torreselle-chandelier_detail.aspx

Mihos paper exhibition

Miho's paper exhibition

image source: http://www.aainter3.net/miho/