TIME:
15 weeks
TEAM:
Solo
TOOLS:
Sewing and fabrics
Papier maché
Rhino 3D
Illustrator
Photoshop
CONCEPT:
The main concept for my wearable apparatus is drawn from a gradual loss of sight. At the start of my research process, I searched for narratives of people who had lost their sight in adulthood. The author Jorge Luis Borges called this gradual loss a gradual fog or dimming. There are different fabrics that cover the user’s eyes with different opacities as you move backwards. There are more safety pins and metal as you go to the more opaque fabrics for a tactile sensation.
The loss of sight in this context allows the user to “see” the intrinsic qualities of things and people. In Aristotle’s book of metaphysics, he called this the essence.
This is the Operative, Gradual Fog Enveloping, Essence Unveiling Mask.
The loss of sight in this context allows the user to “see” the intrinsic qualities of things and people. In Aristotle’s book of metaphysics, he called this the essence.
This is the Operative, Gradual Fog Enveloping, Essence Unveiling Mask.
PROBLEM 01:
Creating a wearable apparatus that is based off the the physical senses. The wearable apparatus must either inhibit or enhance the sense assigned. The apparatus can not be static, it had to be transformative, transformable, pliable, responsive or adjustable.
My assigned sense: SIGHT
My assigned modifier: MINUS
Points to consider:
- mask is a SPACE / constructs multiple spaces
- mask is a CONTAINER / shapes multiple containers
- mask is a TOOL / effects multiple tools
- mask is a SURFACE / comprises multiple images
- mask is a BOUNDARY / establishes multiple boundaries
Final presentation was a digital pin up due to COVID
This was the interactive layout
PROCESS:
My Miro board for collecting precedence
To begin this project, I dedicated a lot of time to researching masks that exist in the world today. This proved rather difficult because searching the term "mask" in 2021 leads almost entirely to a flood of face masks in regards to a worldwide pandemic. After following some rabbit holes of inspiration, I found myself compelled by masks as they exist in high fashion, costumes or worn by musical artists (s/o Bjork!).
Towards the bottom right of my precedent board, an affinity towards paper light sculptures can be seen. I enjoyed the materiality and the translucency of the paper, I enjoyed how free flowing and curvy they looked. I decided to explore paper as a material in making my mask. I purchased reed, aluminum wire, tissue paper and glue to begin my material experiments.
INSPIRATION:
While listening to a Radio Lab podcast episode titled Translation, I found a story that really compelled and inspired me. The story is of a woman who was in an accident and lost her sight. She used a mechanism called a Brain Port (sunglasses with a video camera attached, connected by a wire to a flat piece of metal that rested on her tongue. Video images from the camera are converted into tiny electrode shocks occurring in a mouthpiece that sits on her tongue.) Thus, allowing Emily to "see". Below is a snippet from that podcast episode of Emily describing what she saw.
PROCESS:
I investigated what it means to see, what blindness is like. What does it mean when people use figures of speak like "I see what you mean?" Are these figures inherently ableist? Why is seeing basically equivalent to understanding?I took heavy inspiration from Jorge Luis Borges, an author who gradually lost his sight in adulthood due to a degenerative condition. His perspective on seeing and understanding the world was extremely compelling. I saved these in the Miro board, too.
Below is a poem Jorge wrote about losing his sight, read by me.
Taken from RadioLab episode titled Seeing in the Dark. John Hull lost his sight in adulthood and decides to not rely on pictures anymore. Here he describes how he perceives his children.
EMPATHY:
I wanted my mask to illustrate that while people lose their sight, they don't lose their understanding. In fact, they can understand things better when they don't have illusions of pictures to fool them. Aristotle wrote about this in his book of Metaphysics.
MATERIAL EXPLORATIONS:
Because I wanted the transparency and the slight ability to see through the material of choice, I played around with tracing paper dipped in oil. This makes the paper more translucent.
tracing paper + oil sunglasses
Tracing paper + oil sunglasses
SOLUTION:
Oily paper was too fragile and time consuming to dry. I decided to go with fabric that had differing opacities to maintain that translucent effect. The wearable apparatus starts with the most translucent fabrics in the front that gradually get more opaque as you move the structure backwards.
PROBLEM 01 SOLUTION:
The final deliverables for this project were very specific. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our reviews were held in a virtual space. We used a software named Miro, we each had nine 8.5" x 11" boards aligned in a grid. Each board had a specific requirement.
PROBLEM 02:
Build a stand for the wearable apparatus, something for the mask to rest upon while not in use.
PROCESS:
I decided to create my stand as a lamp. Because my mask plays heavily on transparencies, I wanted to create something that made good use of that.
I papier-mâchéd fabric onto a styrofoam head. I layered the fabric onto it and cut it in half down the center to remove the styrofoam head, drilled holes into it and sewed it back together to create a lampshade. I put this lamp shade over a thrifted lamp stand.
PROBLEM 02 SOLUTION:
PROBLEM 03:
Built a container. The container had to mirror the wearable apparatus in some way.
PROCESS:
I chose to make the container's opening mechanism similar to the way the mask covers the eyes. With a center joint on each side, the panels can open and close with ease, just like the mask.
I started by creating a small handheld prototype of the container to see if it would function the way I intended.
After that I moved on to make a bigger version of that prototype. I used cardboard as my material, and had to get it wet in order to curve it the way I wanted.
The cardboard ended up being too thick, so I removed the inner corrugated sections of it. This made it thinner and easier to work with. I painted it and lined the inside of the curves with black paper.
I paper machied half of a balloon in order to get the curve of the underside of the container. I glued it all together to get this!
PROBLEM 03 SOLUTION:
PROBLEM 04:
Create drawings of the wearable, the stand and the container.
Once all of our objects were built, we needed to draw them out using a 3D modelling / CAD software called Rhinoceros. These drawings were used to help explain the concepts of our mask and how it was constructed.
PROCESS:
I wanted to create an IKEA style manual of how I created the container. I did this because I wanted to experiment emulating a style, I wanted to emulate a physical paper manual. I did this by photoshopping textures and creases and adjusting the blending modes on the layers so it looked like the text was also affected by the lighting caused by the creases.
FINAL PRESENTATION:
The final presentation was held over zoom because of the pandemic. All of the work was up on a digital whiteboarding software named Miro. People could browse and zoom through it at their own rate while I discussed and presented my work. Because it was digital, people could zoom into the work indefinitely (I recommend this because there are plenty of details hidden within the screenshot).
RESULTS:
This project took place during covid. Normally students have access to a studio space on campus but that was shut down entirely. We had to use our own resources and spaces for all of the work. I was really proud of myself for powering through the pandemic and diving into my work headfirst. I used this project as a form of stress relief during all the madness. It was something I had control over, something that was entirely predictable because I was the only one who effected the work that got done.
This project pushed me to try a myriad of different mediums, from physical prototyping to scale, to full scale prototyping, to 3D modeling, to illustration, to photoshopping textures and emulating physical objects. This is by far my favorite project I've ever done.
It was awarded the studio award! An award given to students who continually present excellent work throughout the semester, pushing the boundaries of what's expected of them.
SPRING 2021
PRODUCT STUDIO 1
PROFESSOR CHODORIWSKY
