Author: bpdohert@andrew.cmu.edu

Landscape Proposal | Bridget, Tracy, Elisa, Jamie

We want to create oversized jewelry as a landscape

Moodboard/Image research
Sketch by Tracy

Sketch/Schematic by Jamie

DESCRIPTION

For our final landscape proposal we envision a large scale necklace which hangs from the ceiling. We wished to create an inflatable that felt inviting, interactive, and playful. We imagine that depending on how the jewlry is hanging from the ceiling, people would be able to traverse the space that is defined by the jewels, additionally, there would be a beautiful ground condition where the jewelery piles on the ground. The hope is that this design in execution would allow for play, touch, and occupation. 

The jewelry would have to be long enough to have an effective draping technique that can define the spatial experience of those who near it. Additionally, by creating an inflatable chain, we have the ability to create charms that are attachable and can add a sense of depth to the design, as well as shape the visual form.

MATERIALS

  • Various dye 
  • 75 yards of white fabric (for dying)
  • Velcoros 

CONNECTIVITY 

Due to the nature of the contraction flow, each person will craft and design jewelry pieces/charms individually and then assemble them at the end, For the necklaces to read like a piece of wearable giant jewelry, the chain portion/connectivity is very crucial. We are concerned about the chain’s dimensional compared to the gem/charm will be difficult to inflation ie: air is not able to travel through the thin tube to the large mass and inflate the gem/charms. Thus we would need to schedule more time toward the end of the fabrication stages to be ready to run into problems and readjust. 

ORIENTATION/POSITION

We would like to hang our inflatable from the ceiling so we would need to figure out the position of the fan and its direction at the site.

Initial rendering — to be finalized

Music Tower | Bridget Doherty

I started playing with rough geometric shapes and came out with an almost brutalist sculpture situation? This has been my favorite piece of classical music for nearly 8 years and the percussive nature of the music has always drawn me into it, as well as the give and take between melodic sections and the driving parts. I think the sculpture/tower I created pays homage to both of those aspects at once, and I particularly love how it would seem to be out of balance with itself and cantilevered, that sense of tension makes it that much more interesting to me.

Isometric views

Top view of the tower

Parts layout minus the sphere (she won that fight, unfortunately).

Link to Rhino file

Improvisation Inflatables | Bridget Doherty

This was a good exercise in a new material, and I had a pretty good time playing and seeing how I could piece them together to get some fun irregular shapes. Getting the last piece seamed in place was always the hardest part.

I started with a larger rectangle of plastic and cut slits as if to create darts. Instead, I added more material which didn’t exactly turn out as I expected (acute angles are very hard to heat seal) but I created an interesting shape nonetheless.

This one played with translucent/transparent plastic, which was fun in the sense that you could see the ‘guts’ of the object and also see through it as you were blowing it up, and conversely, people could watch you get lightheaded as you blew it up.

Honorable mentions to the sphere that finally looks like a sphere.

And also to the sewing samples that lived in my backpack for a week.