Architect Design

When creating my design I wanted to have roman, modern, and gothic architecture be the influence for my piece. Even though I had time periods to help influence my work, I still had difficulty with the starting point with my design. I knew I wanted to involve strings with what I was going to create, so I started to attach strings to two pieces of foam board, going in a cross over pattern. After, I extended the bottom with a piece of balsa wood going horizontal to give it more balance. From there, I wanted to start working on the underneath so I created two sets of stairs out of foam board that reflected each other. I ended up extending it more horizontally with another piece of foam board and from there I placed two pieces of foam board vertically behind it. Although, if I had left it how it was then it would have still looked unfinished and empty on those two sides compared to the middle of the design. I went back to what I did in the beginning and created more string work, but used white string instead to establish a contrast. To let the string stick out more I painted the bottom and top foam boards black. Even though I had difficulty in the beginning with my design I was extremely pleased with how it turned out in the end.

Changed Soap

Take away: Cut up the soap 

 Take away: Put into the microwave

 Add: Blue Ink 

 Add: Liquid Gesso

 Add: Nail Polish

 Add: Tacks

Take Away: Put into the freezer 

 Take away: Dropped on the floor

Final changed soap with base

While doing the changes to the soap, I went in with a very open mind with the type of alterations I was going to do to it. I picked the changes as I went along, instead of making a list and doing them in order because I felt as if it would make for more of an interesting outcome. In the end, after the changes had been made I then had to think of base to create that would work with it. A basic base is what I ended up going with since the soap itself was interesting enough to not have anything else added to the base to take away from it. So I just stuck with two pieces of wood that I painted white and stacked on top of each other. I then placed the two big pieces of the changed soap on each piece of wood and balanced some of the broken off smaller pieces on needles.

Soap Carving

First bar of soap

Second bar of soap

I chose a bear as the figure I was going to carve my two bars of soap out of. I began focusing on the negative spaces of the bear and started slowly carving where those spaces would be on the soap. After starting to get more of a shape with the soap I began shaving down some of the sides so I could start resembling the individual shapes that formed the bear figure. The part of the body that I had most difficulty with was the head of the bear and getting it to turn just like how it was on the figure. Once carving the soaps, I found that I had more trouble with the first bar being that it was difficult for me to get the proportions right with the actual figure. When working on the second bar of soap, I had an easier idea on how to approach it and form the shape from understanding where I had messed up with the first bar.

Masking Tape Shoes

The masking tape shoes are completely made out of masking tape. I purchased a pair of shoes in order to deconstruct the form. When starting the process layered the tape in a vertical and horizontal pattern.  This made the structure made sturdy. I traced the bottom of the shoe onto the layered sheets of tape to get the shape going and after that I started to roll pieces of tape and stuck them on the top, but after a little while figured out an easier way to go about forming the base shape of the shoe. To create the outsole of the shoe, I measure the sole of my actual shoe then took that tape and rapped it around. Next, I took apart one of my shoes by cutting out each individual shape that made up the shoe. I traced individual shapes and repeated the layering process. I worked on both shoes at the same time, but I did find that one of the shoes had turned out better with proportion. In the end both shoes ended up being very accurate with my actual shoes. As a result both shoes turned out looking fairly accurate to the actual shoe form.

Five Sentences

1. The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale.

I chose this image for this sentence because I thought it could be the perfect example when talking about the body being the primary mode of perceiving scale, since in this sense the body was used to look like an animal with just the use of paint. Using the body for something like this can fool people for a minute until really focusing on the photo and being able to tell it's actually a person. 

2. The capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experience

I felt as if this image could go with this sentence because I thought all the lanterns could connect to the statement in the sentence, "capacity of objects" since there are usually many lanterns being set off by people. Which, with all the lanterns going up into the sky at once will cause an authentic experience for everyone who is there setting them off. 

3. The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the 3 dimensional
into the miniature that which can be enveloped by the body.

What made me choose this image is because when I read monumental in the sentence I automatically thought of a monument and when I also read 3-dimension I thought of a big statue. But, at the end of the sentence where it states, "enveloped by the body," is what made me think of this statue which is on treasure island right in San Francisco. 

4. Nostalgia Cannot be sustained without lost.

When I read this sentence, I automatically thought of someone being lost in life, not knowing what to do anymore with decisions. Then with that, I felt as if a picture of a maze could also compare to someone being lost in life because when someone is stuck in a maze that just will continue to walk around and making different turns in order to make it out, while someone is lost with their life they will continue to make different turns till they figure out what they want. 

5. To have a souvenir of the exotic is to posses Both a specimen and a trophy.

I felt this photo went with well with this sentence because I thought it was a good representation of something exotic and when having a souvenir from a place doesn't necessary have to be a physical souvenir, but can also be a photograph or the memory of the place.