1. Graduation Project — Artefact #3

This week I continued to refine my third prototype that utilizes motion as an output. Building on my findings from last week, now I have a rough picture of how I want the movement to be.

Thoughts & Observations

Packaging aesthetics

The design of the third artefact is based on the stalked bacteria. I had three considerations regarding the packaging of this artefact: One similar to the first artefact is to overlay various plastic bags, two is to cut them up into strips to create a different pattern, while third is to use only a specific type of plastic just like the second artefact that only uses black plastic bags. So far this prototype uses the same logic as the first artefact: cutting up random bags, layering them and fusing them together. I wanted for it to have its own individual characteristic that sets it apart from artefact one, so I decided to only use transparent/translucent bags to create contrast with the other artefacts, as well as to highlight prevailance of translucent plastic bags which I found to be the most common one.

Movement

So far, I really liked the jittery movement of the artefact. Right now there are 2 options: one is with the servo motor stuck to the ground so that the wires are the ones rotating the whole artefact, or, letting the servo motor loose and have it shift the wooden board. Something I liked about the first movement is its dramatic movement of the "tail" as the structure turns. The turning speed quite fast and it voulf be quite suprising for people

2. Publication

I reached out to my interviewee, Sarah, to show the current progress on the publication. She said she really liked it and I was very realived to hear it! I also asked for her permission to publish a picture of her as an introduction and she gladly agreed. One small request she had was to add the organization's socials unto the publication which I was already planning to!

For the cover of the publication, I had the idea of overlaying the title unto the cover of 2 publications so that when they are layered, the title can be seen. After a couple of test prints, finally the alignment is right. I also numbered the publications from 1 to 4 to indicate the readers the order in which they should be read.

3. Weekly Roundup

Prepping for submission

It is an odd feeling realizing that everything is coming to an end. After dissertation and open studios, everything went by pretty quickly.

For my grad project, I'm quite happy with where I am with my current artefacts. My only wish was that I had a little bit more time to refine some things or to expand it even more. Or that I had started earlier in Sem 1 with the making and developing the concept. Alas, it is what it is.

Viva voce is also approaching quickly. To prepare for it, I will be taking queues from my cohort presentation and open studios experience to reflect and improve on this time around.