While conceptualizing the piece, I found that when I tugged on the strings of my fabric how I had shirred it, that the motion appeared almost like a struggle depending on how fast and with how much force I pulled with. Upon setting up the fabric, I wanted to include more side to side motion to amplify this effect. Ultimately, I aimed to establish the scene, built to climax, and come to a resolution. I liken this piece to the struggle of a live butterfly pinned down, while it is being stretched and prodded at by some collector. The struggle increases and becomes more violent until ultimately the fabric goes limp and is then discarded. Past the one minute mark, the motions are not capstone controlled but rather results of my own cutting of the strings. I left this in because I felt that it completed the allegory, both in concept and with the revealing of the underside of the fabric and a completely limp form, and then its discarding.


I found special interest in the braiding that appeared when I threaded the cloth a certain way. I hand puppeted the cloth for a while and found the that if I anchored it in specific ways, the cloth would stretch and scrunch in similar patterns, the expanded form being limp with a central body to it, and the scrunched form being reminiscent of a butterfly or bowtie type form. Upon stringing up the fabric to the capstone, I found the up and down motion almost like a struggle and I wanted to expand on that concept. I also felt like the shirring motion alone was lackluster and that additional points of contact and motion could help tell the story and give me more control over the types of movements I wished to achieve. While using the capstone, I found that if I anchored certain points to the rods and increased the tension high enough, I could move the fabric freely without needing to use counterweights. I felt counterweights would take away from the sort of direct jerking or fighting motion I wanted to achieve. I succeeded in attaining the variety of motion I wanted and was able to get movements close to what I desired.