Monday, December 12, 2011

Powerpoint Images

More images along the way. These are just taking awhile to load since they are larrrge.







Friday, December 9, 2011

IP Weekly Progress -- #12








What I did:

Monday: (5 hours) Started on another mini model and started on drawings for powerpoint.

Tuesday: (4 hours) Revised the branches, flora forms on the tree of the mini model, and worked on the actual drawings. Began writing and composing an outline of my powerpoint and what I’m trying to achieve per slide.

Wednesday: (5 hours) Looking for images and beginning to build powerpoint. Went to the Botanical Gardens to get some visuals and inspiration.

Thursday: (6 hours) Practiced some photography of my drafts. Revising, planning, and re-doing drawings.

Process:

It was a little less about the making and more about what I’m trying to achieve for myself and what questions I can bring to the table to make my review much more beneficial for myself. I need a list of questions and a third-party’s outside opinion. Putting together everyone also helps me become more conscious of what I’m doing and what I want others to perceive my installation. It’s a great exercise as to how to articulate what I’m doing. It’s been difficult explaining to people what I’m doing – some people I managed to and others I haven’t as much.



What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

I would like to take this time to reflect on my semester thus far. I’m not sure how I feel about this semester ending so quickly because I feel that despite a lot of efforts I made, I feel that the physical aspect of my project is not quite as well made as I had hoped. What I feared actually happened which was limiting myself in terms of figuring out material rather than just making. There were some good weeks and some weeks that were pretty bad – but in the long run right now I have a great idea of what needs to be done. I feel confident for next semester because the actual making is going to start. With these sketches and images I’ve been composing the image in my head is coming to life. Although when I actually sculpt it in paper my idea evolves into something else. My techniques actually are the driving force behind my project and it’s hard for me to specify specifically what I’m doing and I prefer to keep what I do a little loose ended. I have a feeling when I write my thesis is that I need to less broad and keep it simple. “I’m making a forest,” rather than “I’m making an environment with these kinds of flowers, plants, and trees.” My making is experimental as I feel this sense of wonder when I start with one idea then another comes to life. How my plants come from this “world” in my head is similar to the process of nature – The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations. Hannah gave me some good advice earlier on Thursday too -- the large tree I made last week looked nice, but why make a tree? You can see a tree anywhere. Comparing that to the my other plants, they resemble some plants you see, but their overall appearance is whimsical and imaginary. This is a difficult project just because I'm composing these brand new beings -- it sometimes I come up with nothing and other times I come up with several.



Expanded the tree into an ominous large form.

I visited the Mattehai Botanical Gardens to get a sence of several different kinds of plants in one small space.



I also wanted to get some inspiration up close.






















What I think I should do next/show for my review:

Photos of my in-process/drafts

Photos of finalized forms drafts

Sketches of flora

Concept drawing of the environment

Bird’s eye view of environment/map

Paper texture for slide background

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Strange Trees

Socotra islands, Yemen




The island is very isolated and through the process of speciation, a third of its plant life is found nowhere else on the planet. It has been described as the most alien-looking place on Earth.

Kauri Tree, New Zealand

The largest trees in the world prevent landslides and mudslides on the slopes.

45,000 year old stump of Kauri




Baobab Tree, Native to Africa (Kenya, Madagascar)

Madagascar split from India around 88 million years ago, allowing plants and animals on the island to evolve in complete isolation. The island has been isolated for about 70 million years. Because of this, a very high proportion of the plants and animals are endemic, occurring nowhere else in the world. Consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot in which over 80% of its plant and animal species are found nowhere else on Earth. These are dispersed across a variety of ecoregions, broadly divided into eastern and south-central rain forest, western dry forests, southern desert and spiny forest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar