the Aquatic Olympians Rainbow

A sculpture representing the line shapes that dives make as they are preformed, while also focusing on creating a functional work of art. This sculpture was created to represent divers at the Olympics. Every part of the sculpture represents something about diving.

FMP Evaluation

Throughout these past six weeks I have had to go through ups and downs, setbacks and adapting to changes that arose with my project. In the third week of the FMP I had been given news of an unexpected death in the family and had to fly back to California for a week. I still kept up with development of ideas but I know it wasn’t the best first week development I could of done. For my research, I mostly used the internet and site visits. I did go to the library during the first week of research, but I was unsuccessful in finding any books that had to do with springboard diving or the Olympics and or other water structures. 

From very early on, about the first week of research, my initial idea had changed without me really catching it until the second week when I realised that my research was leading me in a different direction. Originally, my idea was to create a springboard diving center because I was not able to find one in London when I first moved here, but after the research weeks, I found that I was looking at the line shapes that the dives made and I became more interested in creating something with them then creating a diving center. While out in California I had access to baling twine, used to keep hay together, and wax. Because I wanted to look at creating something with the line shapes of the dives I visited my High School divers at their practice and photographed their dives. I used the photographs to twist the twine to recreate the dive and used the wax to hold it in place. I then went on to using wire and from that I came up with a design for my final model that I liked.

I visited the 2012 Olympic site many times, taking pictures and making drawings of the site and while there the ‘Orbit’ by Anish Kapoor was being built and I went back and did research on him and found that I have seen his work around London without actually knowing it was his. There was an exhibition in Hyde Park that his work was featured in along with a few pieces in the Tate Britain. His sculpture inspired me to create a sculpture for any Olympic aquatic center. Since I had voids in my design, a friend suggested that I look at Barbara Hepworth. Her work was all about looking at everyday life and the voids that were overlooked. Both Barbara Hepworth and Anish Kapoor helped inspire my design final design.

I have learned that even an original idea can change once research is conducted and not to fight the change that happens but rather embrace it because something really interesting can come of it. I think in future I will be less likely to run with my first idea but enjoy the process of always developing ideas. Overall I am very pleased with my final project and the development process it took to get to the end result.

Oh how I hate blogging!!!

Right! So getting down to the final push and I am FORCING myself to blog! I have kept a journal throughout this project but I can't seem to bring myself to want to post blogs about how I feel my project is going. I think I am feeling this way because blogs are not a personal thing, anyone can pop on the internet and read it. Whereas my journal is more a personal thing that only I can read and be happy about writing in! Its weird because in keeping this journal I am ok with someone going through and reading it whereas whit my blog it is pretty much the same thing! I don't really get myself in that thinking!

But moving on to what I have done this last week and this week! So last week was the start of the developing stage of our F.M.P. I got bailing twine and wax and because I am looking at the shapes and lines the dives create I molded the twine into the shape and used the wax to hold the twine in place. This at first did not work because the wax wasn't cooling fast enough to hold the twist and tuns in place so I then though of using fishing line to help hold the shapes, then dip them into the wax and let them dry that way. This way worked and I have now made many more samples in the same manor!

This week I have moved on form the bailing twine and am using wire. Doing the same idea with bending the wire to match the shape of the dive. I have found that the wire is holding much easier than the twine! But I have enjoyed I think more working with the twine!

For my final piece I will be making a scale model sculpture of something that can be erected in any Olympic Aquatic cite for diving. I am thinking about using heavier wire for the scale model and will be heading down to the metal work shop this next week. But as for this week I am going to continue to experiment with different materials and see which one would be the second choice I would use to construct my final idea with.

Crit

I found todays crit to be helpful. Lots of good feed back and new places to take my research and development to the next level.  I am going to start looking at sculptors on a whole and what influences them, along with the Arcelor Mittal Orbit structure at the Olympic park. Which will lead me to look more into the designer Anish Kapoor.

Keeping up with Blogging...

During this term, I have learned that I am NOT a blogger!  It is like a physical chore to make myself log into my blog.
But with that aside, I have been researching and drawing over the last week.  I have been looking and researching diving and the history behind it. And from there I have gone on to research previous Olympic Aquatics Centers and have made 2D models in my sketch book out of the materials that I think complement them the best!

Film Review- Contextual Studies part 2

Over the last seven weeks we have watched different and varying films.  Having said that, there were films that, in my eyes, were just bearable none of them really grabbed and haled my attention for longer than 10 minutes before my mind would start to wonder off.  I would be asking myself, what made the tutors choose that film and why.  Never really finding an answer, I would go away from the films feeling like “what the hell did I just watch?” and all around just being really confused.  Once I have accepted the fact that these films were not going to leave me satisfied as a film that I happily chose, I allowed my mind to just sit and watch and no longer tried to figure out why they chose those particular films.

The first film I watched at the Odeon Theater was a film called Slacker. Produced in 1991, by Richard Linklater, and was budgeted on a $23,000. Slacker, shows life in Austin, Texas and its social outcasts or misfits, mainly the twenty-something year olds, using a series of linear vignettes.  The characters, who in some way just do not seem to fit into society’s norms, move seamlessly from one scene to the next, randomly coming and going into one another's lives. Some focal points of the film would include a UFO buff who adamantly insists that the U.S. has been on the moon since the 1950s and woman who produces a glass slide purportedly of Madonna's pap-smear.  The way the producer shot the film by introducing the different actors into the ending of the first actors’ scene was interesting, but as it kept going for a little over an hour and a half and then it just ending, left me a little frustrated because this film never built up to the plot and on top of that, it never gave me an conclusion.  I think my generation is used to seeing films that have a storyline and a conclusion, whereas the film Slacker had none of that.  So, on that note, I did not enjoy the film Slacker for the mere reason that there was no plot and no conclusion…

Out of the all the films there were two that I semi-enjoyed. Une Femme Est Une Femme (A Woman Is A Women) a French film made in 1961, and Rashomon a Japanese film made in 1950.  Une Femme Est Une Femme was probably the most interesting film I watched throughout the film series.  It was about a free-spirited young woman who wants more than anything to have a baby.  She tries to persuade her boyfriend Emile to go for the idea, but he is agents it, so she goes after Emile’s friend Alfred. I think I was able to connect with this movie more because being a woman I can relate to her wants and needs. This is an unexpected romantic comedy, the thing that sets the film apart from others is Godard's unique style: the use of on-screen graphics to give insights into the character's motives, the speaking directly to the camera, the stop-start of the film's scoring and the emphasis of moments and dialogue by music is all well-done.

Tossing around Ideas~

I have gotten my Final Major Project... the big one! The one that actually counts for something... I have been tossing around ideas still a little unsure where I am going to go with it. I know I am going to aim to get a distinction. I mean there is no reason for me to have come so far and pay X amount of dollars, not to aim that high! :)

So my ideas: At first I was thinking about designing a Cat Walk stage with a specific theme. Thinking about the placement of the stage and people along with how the whole flow of the venue. But after thinking about it a little longer and discussing it with my peers, I have developed another idea. Designing an aquatics springboard diving center! Diving is something close to me and something I know really well.

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