Rocks at Night

Rocks

And Cassandra said "Let there be light!" and it was good...

Okay so I did a little bit of experimentation and soldering today. I have come up with a little sketch prototype.

I have different sizes of aluminum tubing that I was trying out. The one that worked the best was the 9/32 thickness at 1/4 diameter. But I have to remain flexible when it comes to proportions because the lengths of these are going to differ according to where they are placed.

The first prototype I made I used the thicker wire and a green LED. The wire was too thick to fit into the 1/8" tube but was okay in the 1/4." It's a little bit of overkill for one small light. The LED is not very bright and it doesn't fit in the tube well. Actually all of the LED's that I have tested are not as bright as I need.

The second prototype I made was with much thinner wire (too thin and fragile) and a "lamp" bulb. I used these same bulbs in one of my 317 projects. They work nicely. Fit well. And they are much brighter than the LED's. I'm just not quite sure if it's going to be enough. I also connected a little slide switch.

I need to figure out how to deal with the battery and switch.
I also need to find little translucent balls that will give me the glow that I want. Any ideas?

Admittedly, my previous proposal was related to the site conceptually, but perhaps lacked the explicit "critical" connection required of an installation. My current goal is to physically integrate my piece with the site. An option I'm considering now is to make my piece something that lacks structural soundness in absence of the site, thus emphasizing the mutual dependence between the two (piece enhances site, site enhances piece). I'm considering the use of rope hung from the tree as a supporting element, which would go along with the proposed use of hanging elements (ie lights) nearby. I'm still excited about the idea of using a continuous wrapping plane as the basis for my piece.

This summer I went to an exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York called Fashioning Felt. I was really interested in the many ways felt could create different textures and patterns. It is also really durable and can come in any color. I am thinking of using felt for my project. I have been doing research on different uses of felt and I included some the images I found most striking. I am thinking of doing some sort of hanging or wrapping with the felt which could tie in nicely with Cassandra’s hanging light project or Davis and Laurel’s project.

I have been looking into the idea of stone benches/chairs. I found a couple examples of natural stone seating that I like the idea of. I have them as pictures below. I also found an interesting bench made of stone, but it would require some stonework which I don't know if it is possible.

here's a link to the axi:ome amonte house...

http://axi-ome.blogspot.com/

this is a rendering of adrian's

Gia's Site Diagrams

So tomorrow were going to the site. I'll have some stakes so you guys can claim your sites. I think when we're out there you guys should figure out what type of armature you want to construct on the site, and what kind of visual connections, and connections to the landscape you want to create.

Cassie's first blog

Hello all. I am back from my studio trip to San Francisco. Good times!
Anyhoo...I am still very interested in creating some sort of lighting fixture or illumination device. I keep on playing with different ideas in my head, but now I'm going to put them out for other people's advice...

At first I was thinking about creating a light field out of a series of smaller individual lights. My first thoughts were to have several of these really light delicate strands hanging from the branches of a tree with a tiny glowing orb at the end, kind of like fireflies. But then the whole issue of powering the lights has deterred me a bit.

I love tessellations. So another idea is to create a series of tessellating modules out of some type of translucent material and create some type of fixture. Powering the LEDs or mini-lamps with batteries. If I were to work on the module idea connecting the pieces could lend to some sort of kinetic variable. That might be something for me to look into more.

I have some wire, mini lamps, and batteries that I got from radio shack. So I am going to do a little bit of testing tomorrow.
I am also going to look for LED wholesalers so Gia can do a little bit of her magic and see if we can get some for free.

When I was looking up tessellation stuff I found this and thought it was kind of cool. Even though I am not interested in creating strong shadows with the light, I still thought I would share.
http://www.bugman123.com/Math/ShadowProjection.m1v

Also Matt, could I get some of those site images at the higher resolution?

-cassie

Hi friends

Yooo, Check this out...

I plotted all our sites as proposed in class. Then I connected them in the way that seemed most logical to me, based on the "visual connection" idea I was talking about last week. I think the "snailing" effect as one follows the dotted line is interesting, and somewhat representative of the general trend of the site (inceasing privacy as one proceeds). That sounds like b.s. but i'm serious.

My piece lies between Remy and Sarah's, in other words the third to last "dot" in the sequence on my site plan. I'm proposing that my piece act as both its own seating area, and as a linking element between Sarah and Remy's pieces...............................................

If you look closely at the site plan I just posted you'll notice the general shape of the above axon represented in plan. The folding plane is meant to pick up on the visual connection with Remy's piece to the North, then to twist and send a visual connection towards Sarah's to the East.

These are some perspectival sketches of what I imagine my piece to look like...

It represents a careful fusion of many ideas into one tangeable form....

1. Ambiguity: I mentioned that ambiguity is something I observed in the site and something I wanna carry over into my design. The folding plane starts as a seating element, then shifts into a bracing element which then becomes a plane on which to rest one's back, etc.

2. Privacy vs. Exposure: The "bench" offers two seating zones. One which is open and unrestricted (to the right), and one which has distint boundaries (to the left).

3. Natural vs. Unnatural: I'm interested in the fact that the site attempts to emulate nature, while in fact it exists as a mere copy of it. By this I refer to the boulder "canyons" that are indeed made of natural forms, but are assembled in an unnatural fasion. As you can see, my piece is composed of two distinct elements...1) A folding plane, and 2) a supportive box. I intend to construct the two elements with equally distinct materials, and am leaning toward wood for the folding plane and either concrete or steel for the box. I consider wood natural, and concete/steel as man-made.

I feel like I just revealed alot, but I know you all will do the same soon. See you in class

Love always,

James

Alright, since that last post went so well, something else that was totally frickin awesome that seems to have been captured from the site is the boulders. The texture, the earthiness, the depth created from the ever changing sun makes this spot one of the most dynamic. I dont think im going this way, but I've thought about it alot. I'm wondering how to capture that texture.

Alright, so I'm toying around with the idea of biomimicry. It is in the early fall, so the site is really overgrown and the natural / wild aspect of Amonte really caught my eye. I took this photo and it got me thinking about how I could transform or use the essence of the shape of the leaf and incorporate it into a piece of furniture.Something like this could look similar to this "inspirational chair" I found:

Site Photos

Here are some photos I took of the site. If anyone wants higher res versions, let me know.

First off, I wanted to share a place to get metal for good prices. I was at Shapiro Metal Supply Co the other day for a different class and was wandering through their warehouses. They have an enormous amount of metal of different type, shape, and size. They are relatively cheap, and the people that work there are friendly. I bought a lot of metal and had it cut, and they cut me a 60%+ discount. Their website is http://www.shapirosupply.com/.

The site

_I headed out to the site knowing only that it was somewhere along Mason about a 1/4 mile before Manchester. I typically end up seriously lost when I don't know exactly where I am going, so when I was unable to locate the site on Google Earth or find a map of the site online, I expected the worst. When I turned onto Mason, I began searching for anything that resembled the cad drawing we were shown during the first class.

I think Mason Rd is short for Mansion Road . . . I eventually saw the Almonte sign. I was initially amazed at the steady flow of traffic along Mason, which produced patterns of noise, it was evident that this stretch of Mason was simply a one shot connection between 64 and Manchester.

_I noticed a pattern of grouping/stacking throughout the site.

http://www.shapirometals.com/scrap-metal-yields.htm

Like I was saying at lunch, I'm interested in the ambiguity of the site. Standing in one spot, a person can feel either entirely protected or entirely exposed, depending on which direction they look.

That's one reason why I enjoy this tree. Sitting under it, a person feels entirely protected, yet entirely connected their surroundings. It provides enclosure, but doesn't obstruct one's view. In this sense, this tree acts as my metaphor for the entire site. I'd like my furniture to pick up on this metaphor.

The tree's right in the middle of the site, between the pile of unused rocks and the large retaining

wall, towards the northern side of the tree grove.

At ground level, ie the perspective of a person sitting on a bench/chair/whatever, this grass is beautiful. It surrounds the site I'm looking at.

That's it for now

I was searching online for my sustainability class and came across this website. http://www.inhabitat.com The furniture section is probably most relevant for our project but take a look at some of the other projects. There are some really interesting ideas about using different kinds of materials. The article that struck me was Affordable Housing Made from Recycled Materials. I think what most caught my eye was the door made from old bottles.

I just found this site related to the Human Cities Organization based in Europe. Take a look at this furniture in the landscape: http://tolerie.humancities.eu/
Let us know what you think. Gia

The Beginning

Either as individuals or in teams, the students will be designing an installation for the Amonte House site in Ladue, Missouri. The design possibilities are limitless, but must be derived from a condition on the site.