Mapping deadline!

So I realized I have no posts for the whole mapping project, which was a part of our induction. And since today is our deadline, I thought I should write a post on what I've learnt from each of the 5 projects we have to submit.

I'll be honest with you, when I first heard we had to map, I wasn't so impressed. But mapping out spaces brings out spatial qualities I never knew.

Initially, we were chose to discover Chelsea in a new light. The focus was on body positions and how they provide us with different perspectives around the university. We chose to have our group stand in a circle, almost like statues to gain various viewpoints. From that, we took pictures and created a map of our journey.

Our second project involved 'stalking' - this was fun! We had decided to start off in the canteen, as it pretty much the centre point of our university, and from that scatter according to the person we're following. I chose to follow the cleaner and I thought it was quite interesting, as he took me on a different route to get to the library, which is somewhere I go very often. We went through the crypt and fire escape. Although it was a short journey, it was hectic as well, as he had to keep running back to the storage room to get his cleaning equipment if he spotted a spill. From that, I mapped my journey and combined it with our group. We each used a different coloured string and eventually you see our strings rolled up into a ball - each of the people we stalked will continue with their journey back home...

We were then told to map a book. And as vague as this sounds, it can actually be quite interesting. I found a book on tree house living, and according to that mapped out my safe spots which traced back home and other countries.

Mapping the victoria and albert museum was quite a task. Although it was incredibly beautiful, and there was so much to see, like a child, I got easily distracted. Thus, I decided to follow children around the museum to see what they got up to, and I must say it made the project a lot more enjoyable. Lastly, we were told to map London! My first and final idea was to think about places which are familiar to me, and yet I still need direction. I chose Harrods, as I always get lost there! After drawing out a rough cross section, and then eventually a scale plan of the ground floor, one that I visit often, I was able to understand why I need direction. The floor is so busy, that it almost seems like a maze when I walk in, but in addition to that, there are so many distractions; confectionary, perfumary, handbags! I feel the need to stop and look for something every time I try and get to my destination.

So I have to say the journey has been quite a ride! But for now, a much deserved break from mapping is needed!

Friday crit

As always, friday crit's are genuinely very important, as we get to discuss what we've been working on. The tutor's raised some very valid points, which we need to start discussing:

- If we keep in mind a political concept, it would make our story a lot more interesting. Don't resort from our initial inspiration, which is the concept of the Berlin wall. We were told to look at a book, 'Wolves in the Wall's', which tells the story of wolves living in the walls of a girls house, except her parent's don't believe her.

- We could create our own word which reflects this escape from the parasites. Is 'hibernation' the best word to use? Or should we be creating our own word?

- Are the spaces only used for sitting? Should the curves be distinguished - one could be used for 45 minutes only, or an hour etc. The space could become more habitable, for example there could be bookshelves placed in the corridor, as opposed to just having resting spaces.

- Maybe the story could start from inside the wall, rather than showing the student getting confused with the light projections from the corridor.

- Decide on a fixed filming technique. Do we want the film to be bleak and misty throughout or do we want it to be more animated, with colour? In my opinion, the colour blue should be prominent when filming, as it gives off a dreamy atmosphere. In addition, because the corridor is very narrow, we should consider the type of lens used. Moreover, we could even film through a crack, as if a person from the outside is looking in.

- Do we want to convey the feeling of claustrophobia? Or do we want to show that the space is cramped, but in a more beautiful manner, perhaps through the projections of various shadows blending together.

- How do we want to represent the parasite? Eventually when our walls disintegrate and break down, the parasite's win - it could be shown as a red glow, rather than just a large shadow.

- We keep mentioning the word 'people', however we need to think about what type of people would inhabit such a space. Do they simple come here to rest, or is there another meaning behind this. This could tie into our unresolved political concept. Instead of using people, we could use other words, like 'tribes'.

Crit of orthographic drawings:

- Incorporate the physicality of our model with our technical drawings. Don't be afraid to show the light, textures, shadows, and materiality of the wall!

- Trace the elevation and plan to incorporate these physical features.

- Show how the wall has been constructed - construction details!

- Create a series of sections - show the different resting spaces, and body positions, how they change and perhaps how long these positions can last for.

Storyboard/Filming

Second term begins, which means we need to start finalizing our story board as well as considering filming our model. The only major change we decided to make was to make an additional wall, which contained the fiber optics that we initially wanted to incoporate. The wall which contains the fish wire can be used for the ending of our story - this is when the wall eventually disintegrates due to the overcrowding of our space.

We split the tasks where some people will be working on model making, as well as the storyboard. I decided to work on the storyboard and show how overcrowding will take place. But what needs to be kept in mind while drawing is how we are going to film it.

After coming up with a few sketches, we had a small group meeting to discuss how we want to film each of our scenes.

My scene involves the build up of people who start to discover our space. Thus, from this I started to picture crowded areas which in could film in London. I thought the tube would be a perfect place, as the space is limited, which reflects our narrow corridor. This would allow me to incorporate the sounds of a busy crowd into my scene as well. In addition, I tried to picture the feeling of being in a crowd and how I would want to show that in my scene - portraying almost a blurry effect, as if the person is moving frantically in a crowd, or maybe getting dizzy. Rather than showing the figures clearly, it would all be blurred. Or, I could just film the increasing shadows. I would have to try out both ways to see which one suits our scene.

Moreover, I would have to experiment with sound - rather than just capturing the background noise at a set volume, I could play around with sound. For example, by increasing and decreasing the noise at certain parts.

Reflections

Looking over our project, we were told to reflect over our work during the christmas break - are we really satisfied with what we have presented to our tutors?

Looking at our model, I would have to say I am definitely satisfied with what has been presented. The work that lead up to the final result was pleasing for all group members, yet there are some things that we still need to think about.

Material research was a key consideration throughout the project. How do we want to construct the perfect wall, a hidden wall that we call our sanctuary. The constructed wall, which supports our resting structures was a success. The moulds looked great, but is it really that comfortable if we think practically? But the question that needs to be asked is are we looking for comfort or a sleek design, or maybe a combination of both? Looking at our final design, we have striked a combination of an appealing design, as well as comfort. The many layers make it easy for the person to get to that plateau where they can finally rest. In addition, the shapes are organic, which is not only eye catching, but allows various body positions to be adopted.

As for our storyboard, wax as a material aids our story: because the corridor is narrow and becomes congested with time, due to the many people that discover and inhabit our space, the wax eventually melts and our space no longer exists. However, if we think about practically/real life construction details, we have to think of other materials. Something that I personally like is foam. An architect that I have been closely researching is Tokujin Yashioka. Apart from the many designs that have caught my eye and inspired me for this project, something that I loved was his spongy chair, made of polyester elastomer. It looks comfortable, and because of the flexibility of the material, it can create interesting shapes. In addition, this type of material is translucent, which ties in with one of our main concepts, light.

End of term crit

So after staying at uni for hours the last week of term, friday finally came!

Sleep deprivation and coffee addiction was evident amongst our group members, but I have to say it was all worth it! Looking at our presentation, projections and finally our model was so fulfilling.

The past few weeks, we have been discussing our model and a few changes were made. For our existing wall, our initial plan was to incorporate fiber optics and concrete together to create a translucent wall. Transluceny is a major concept in our project; the materials combined with light projections is what gives off the dreamy atmosphere that we wanted to project. However, because the fiber optics did not arrive on time, we resorted to our back up plan - fish wire! Although this doesn't give off the same effect, I have to say it was quite successful, in terms of the texture of the wall, and a slight hint of light running through the wall. The fiber optics eventually arrived, so we will definitely be making the wall again!

The main wall which incorporates our resting structures was very eye catching. There was a question raised as to why we chose this shape. Initially, the curve almost looked like a traditional telephone, which means it would only be able to accommodate one body position - sitting. Thus, we expanded upon the idea of playing with body positions to create the curve that we have now. The shape is more organic and raises the possibility of resting in whichever way we desire to. This could involve, sitting, lying down, resting your arm/elbow/leg and so on.

Our light projections were varied - we wanted to show a human shadow in different lights. Hence, the backgrounds changed with every projection. Various colours and lighting were used, but the tutors seemed to take a particular liking for the colour blue. This is something we all agreed on - blue emits a peaceful, meditative atmosphere, a colour that when projected, would be easy to get lost into. They loved how we were very abstract with the light projections, which is something that is usually hard to show with model making. But the fact that we could incorporate the two, they wanted this idea to be more prominent. Because our projections and model were shown separately, this could be the reason as to why they wanted to see how it would all look combined. This is where filming comes in! We need to make further discussions as to how we want to film our model after the christmas break.

Experimentation

The escape from the parasites

After various design proposals and discussions with our tutors, my group and I have finally decided on our story. We were given the responsibility of managing the 'walls and boundaries' for the film project. And as this task was given out, we immediately went around Chelsea College looking for the most interesting walls. For us, interesting turned out to be the walls which had many cracks running through them. They gave off a feeling of mystery, as if flow of the cracks were leading to a space.

These cracks are valued in our story, as they act as an indication to which walls we can run into, thus our environment suddenly becomes interactive. Our story is such, that all of our group members are running away from the parasites; these monstrous, brooding creatures which are taking over Chelsea. The walls thus possess a specific route through the university which contains our hiding spots, or in better terms, our sanctuary.

Our hiding spots possess various resting spaces. For us, the parasites provoke negative emotions, and thus we need this sanctuary to escape the hectic environment outside. Our resting spots, inspired by Zaha Hadid, look like cocoons which emerge from the walls. The fluidity of the structure can be looked at in a deeper meaning. It is intact with the purpose of these spaces - fluidity signifies freedom, which is the emotion that we gain from this escape. It can also be looked at from a much lighter view. Concepts such as freedom and escape reveal strong emotions, however, our whole story is in fact very comical - a bunch of students running away from parasites at university creates a bizarre as well as a humorous storyboard.

It was definitely enjoyable looking at different body positions and researching to come up with our finalized shape, which reflects our design interests. Initially we experimented with wood, which was hard to cut out, and then vacuum formed it to create the space. Further experimentation with clay would be good to define the curve of our hiding space.

In addition, the acoustics of the structure can also be taken into consideration. Because it literally encompasses the subject, it could act as a way of blocking out the noises from people walking in the corridor, creating a peaceful atmosphere.

Material research and experimentation was a very interesting side to the project. The thought of playing around with the translucency of the wall is a beautiful concept. Fluidity is prominent with our design ideas - it exists in our hidden world, as well as what is presented to us from the outside - rather than shining light onto a wall, it can now pass through and create elegant shadows in our space. Thus we tested with materials such as sugar and PVA, but came to a greater liking for wax - its easier to work with and has prominent translucent properties. This further developed into researching construction details - what materials would be used in real life building of these walls, which further deepened our knowledge.

Working with my group members has, so far, been such a great experience. I would say, the fact that we all get along is extremely satisfying. We've been dividing the tasks amongst each other to work towards building our final model and presenting in the end. Fingers crossed that our everything will go as planned!

Film project

Finally the design process begins! Although I've really enjoyed the technical side to ISD, it's time to get creative. After a tedious process of surveying our spaces and gathering information to fully understand our site, we've been divided into groups, and further into sub groups to start to create our film set.

We were posed with a one week competition and through the creation of storyboards, we're now implementing our design ideas to create our chosen setting. My group and I wanted to bring back Chelsea's history, through the use of a religious symbol engraved on the floor.

A major inspiration was Mike Nelson's exhibition at the Tate Britain*. A combination of dim lighting, noises, and narrow corridors was the exact same feeling we wanted to project. Chelsea College is hauntingly beautiful - the immense amount of corridors and rooms makes me feel as if I can never know the building well enough. Although we had mapping projects to familiarise ourselves with the university, human nature is such that we end back at the same areas. However, with this film project, there's a certain urge to further explore the building. The history is such, that we wanted to bring back the chilly atmosphere of the military hospital that once existed. Looking at old documents and descriptions of what Chelsea used to be like, we're reconstructing the past through our understanding of the information that we have collected.

Our group was given the task of working with the walls and boundaries that create a space. And with our design ideas, we are working on the basis of changing these walls in terms of it's flexibility and structure. We started to look closely at the cracks in the walls and perhaps how they can open up to a hidden space or to a different world. Thus, the walls don't just serve their purpose of acting as a support and foundation to the building, but they possess a story. One of our main interests are the use of lighting, or projections to deter from the solid nature of walls, to make it seem liquid and flexible. Or even different materials, shapes and textures, which change the look of the wall. So as we continue to develop our ideas and define our story, hopefully it'll turn into something exciting in the next couple of weeks!

*http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/207494480001 - watch Mike Nelson's interview about his Coral Reef exhibition!

Interior and Spatial Design

It's funny after reading endless course descriptions and listening to lectures, I can't come to a fixed answer of what this course means to me. Defining Interior and Spatial Design brings up various perspectives - looking at spaces, understanding your environment, just becoming more aware of what's around you. The key word is observing and communicating that visual picture of your surroundings through drawings.

It's been a while since I blogged about my Foundation year in Art and Design. Definitely overjoyed to be back at Chelsea and even more happy to be sharing my new experience of the design world. It's been a crazy ride these past two weeks, but the amount I've learned in such a few days is incredible - I'm sitting here just trying to recollect all of it, excited as ever for this new journey.

I've seen two sides of the course - both technical and imaginative. I think after a 6 month holiday of disconnecting from work, it has become a real challenge in bringing out that creativity, but the atmosphere of working around such skilled students is inspiring. So far we've been working on mapping, and I think it's been a great exercise of learning how to explore spaces and record that through our drawings.

The technical side of interior design is something I've always wanted to learn. I didn't trust my tutor when he told us a million times that surveying is truly boring! But after hours of looking at the space we were given, measuring, and producing countless drawings, I look at them and feel proud :)

So the course so far has been good to me. Definitely a lot of hard work, extremely time consuming, but the journey of learning has only just begun for me. To picture myself as a designer in the end is truly motivating. . .

Film review

After attending the film programme, these are the two films I chose to critique, well in my opinion, it was the only two worth talking about.

The Long Goodbye; if theres one word to describe this film, it would have to be hilarious! A tall, fairly handsome man with rugged looks posed as the main character, what's there not to like? Jokes aside, what I loved most is his sarcasm, as it greatly complimented his style. Don't be fooled by his macho and wise looks, as we find out that he is as clueless as ever. Despite being laid back and ignorant, Marlowe still manages to get himself dragged into all sorts of situations, which neither made him wiser nor mature, remaining a 'born loser'. After helping a friend to cross the border of Mexico, an alcoholic to be reunited with his wife, and dealing with a mob, he ends up as sloppy as ever; just him and his harmonium gifted by a patient at the hospital when he got run over. His unresponsive and oblivious manner is what I absolutely adored because at the end of the film, his greatest concern was dealing with his fussy cat which was in my opinion, is the most memorable and rib tickling scene! Even though that scene was right at the start of the movie, to be honest, it was the one that grabbed my attention the most, in spite of being presented with such a complex and interesting plot.

In contrast, I quite enjoyed Jan Svankmajer's short films. I thought it was interesting to watch short animated films, and a get a feel of influential animation back then. It allowed me to see a change in cinema, although I have to admit they were quite different and scarring, for reasons I will explain later. 'The Flat' depicts the battle between a man trapped in a room, and the overpowering objects around him, teasing his inability to escape. I thought it was quite odd and made me wonder what was the point in showing all of that. However, the play between those objects and this person was quite enjoyable to watch. 'Dimensions of a dialogue' had surprising elements. In the beginning we were faced with forms of food stuff and tools morphing into one another, and we see the changes between each form that is being created. Following this, we are presented with two clay figures, who are lovers. From flirting to eventually having intercourse, a piece of clay pops out bouncing on the table. After flinging it at one another, it ends up into the figures fighting and ripping each others faces out. The change of emotions was quite amusing. It could depict the nature of relationships; being romantic at first, and after a break up, possessing utmost hatred for one another. The last part was quite humorous; two men exchanging objects from mouth to mouth. Eventually, we see how the transfer of two objects gets muddled around. The whole concept was quite absurd, yet it was entertaining. Lastly, we were presented with the film, 'Food' and the thought of it is already making me lose my appetite. From people turning into, you could say, a fast food vending machine, men eating every single object in their way, and eventually turning into cannibals, to the last course of the meal, which presents all sorts of body parts on dishes, I was about to puke! Being a "foodie", I was quite disappointed…

Final model - science project

So after hours of cutting out acetate and glueing the structure together, voila! I managed to create an open lounge. Because of the intricacy of the shape, as well as the rigidity of acetate, it was quite hard to replicate the shape by cutting. However, it managed to stand up well in the end. The overall structure was inspired by the dandelion. My aim was to create that circular shape, and after a lot of difficulty, the results paid off. Well, at least in my opinion.

In terms of context, I thought it would be interesting to place it in front of the Tower bridge, as there is a lot of open space, along with a great view. For now, I'm quite happy with the context, however I might continue to play with it.

Science!

DNA, molecules, seed dispersion, you name it! This project is all about us thinking independently, and well you can say, coming up with our own brief, despite being given the theme. To be honest, after watching a couple of videos based on this topic, I felt like I was back to school sitting in my biology class. But what is actually amazing is that we tend to ignore what's around us. Nature is prominent and so easy to gain inspiration from, and yet we never really take that into account.

We had several opportunities of going out to build up our research work. I visited the Natural History museum during the first weekend, and I was quite fascinated with their displays of natural minerals and crystal formations. And after several drawings of these beautiful designs, we were taken to the school of molecular science. I quite enjoyed visiting that space, especially the research labs with large

pods as working spaces. Even simple things like the lights and chairs inspired us to sit there and capture every corner. In addition, the Wellcome trust was very enjoyable. As you can see from my previous post, Heatherwick's piece took my breath away. Apart from that, I quite liked the Genome project. The way they presented the chromosomal combinations as socks or interactive ways to understand the human body. Again, I began to reflect on my knowledge of taking higher level biology for IB, and that actually made it even more fun being able to understand what was around me. I absolutely adored the section of biometrics, where the machine used our pulse rate, height, fingerprint and a retina scan to create a graphic icon.

So as you can tell, this week was fun filled and we gained a lot of research, therefore inspiration was all around. I created sketch models, and I quite liked the circular shape of molecules and how they interconnect. My idea is to create a large pod as a lounge area, but I would like it to open and close, depending upon the atmosphere people would like. The greatest limitation is obtaining that circular shape. For now, the experimentation continues...

--- http://vimeo.com/13849070 ----

Thomas Heatherwick

Diverse, talented, skilled, and all the other synonyms for these words are what I think of when Thomas Heatherwick comes into view. He was one of the suggested artist/designer that we had to look up for, for our science project. Just googling his works made me envy every single piece he has created and when I say every single one of them, I really mean it!

We had the opportunity of visiting a structure he designed at the Wellcome trust. It is, if I'm not mistaken, the biggest crystal structure in the world, with 2 tonnes of glass. And as you can imagine, my jaw literally dropped in awe of such beauty! For a good 3 minutes, I was just staring, and then I realized I needed to capture this as much as I can. Such a simple concept of dropping metal into water, and getting that beautiful curved shape is what gave him the inspiration.

Taking a glass elevator allowed us to get the full view of it, and as you can imagine, everyone was fighting for a good place in the lift to get as many pictures.

So this is what you call inspiration. When an artist or designer has the ability to leave you stunned, you know inspiration as hit you. Well I won't lie to you, it made me realize the level of competition in this area, and he got me wishing for a career as successful as his, but I guess we need such people to inspire us and get to the top!

Urban Platform

Urban Platform has by far been the most important and extensive project given to us during the course, and after missing a week of university, I knew there was no time to waste.

The project was site specific; we had to design a space opposite the Jerwood space at Union street to accommodate a viewing platform, performance space, cinema, cafe and toilets. But before this was possible, the site had to be investigated for us to gain inspiration. So the experimentation begun with negative space, tracing out buildings, looking at colour and so forth, and from that, an A2 sketchbook was filled. After looking back, I was inspired by that sense of rigidity and there was a just this blur of lines all around. But what these lines did when coming together, created a shape, and thus I was inspired to create a space consisting of repeated triangles. Yes, my fetish for triangles never ends! But many of them put together is quite eye catching in my opinion.

I created a sketch model initially, and went straight to the final, as I feel from making, my ideas come into my place rather than drawing. The end results were quite pleasing. I left it white, as I felt that when natural light comes in, the atmosphere is quite comforting. And because the space is also for art exhibitions and performances, it makes it all the more lively.

Christmas project

I remember the day we got briefed on the christmas project, everyones faces dropped down and we basked in sadness. Well to be honest, I was dreaming of being on a sunny beach for my winter holidays, but life moves on, and we had a new project for the break. So the christmas project looked at the pop up phenomenon, particularly in London, during festive seasons. So we were asked to keep that concept in mind and create a structure, with a certain function. Now I smiled at the thought of this brief, since my 10*10*10 project was a successful pop up model, however the challenge was yet to arrive; we had to make it flat pack!

Going around London and taking pictures during christmas was such a delight! Every street was lighted up and shops decorated, and the feeling was festivity was all around. Thus, it was hard not to get inspired. I remember walking down South bank at night, and compared to all places in London, I thought there needs to be more of a crowd down here. Funnily enough, during the day, it was definitely a place people wanted to be at, because of the market, but at night, it wasn't all that great. So keeping that in mind, I created a structure for people to dine at night, inspired by the Yorkshire Pavillion. I made it out of foam, and it consisted of repeated pentagons. I thought the shape was quite nice, and I decided to keep it white, as the surrounding environment was already filled with lights and decorations, hence I didn't want a clash of designs and lights. I still feel that my model can be worked on, but I loved the concept and design.

10*10*10

10*10*10 - What exactly does that mean to you? I remember sitting down and thinking of probably the same things which are coming in your head right now; dimensions, codes, distance, equations. Basically everything related to math. And at the same time, it could mean a range of other things - is it a message, perhaps? The bottom line is, we were all baffled; it could literally reflect a plethora of ideas!

The first week was pretty much planned out for us. We worked on scale on the first day, experimenting with small, medium and big squares, putting them into different environments to photograph. For the large scale, we moved out a kilometre out of Chelsea, and went to Big Ben, London Eye and the River Thames, photographing each area we encountered, and the tube and bus stops to indicate distance. Continuing, we experimented with all sorts of materials, creating interesting surfaces. It was basically learning the properties of each material to see how they could be manipulated. We then moved onto something completely different; use/function. I took 10 photographs of people sitting down in different ways. This is where I got confused, and I think all of us were pretty much in the same situation; how does any of this relate to our project?! Finally, the brief explained it all. Taking into account 'to sit', I had to design a space to display that function. My inspiration, Zaha Hadid. I absolutely love her use of organic shapes to create such eye catching pieces. Keeping that in mind, I drew out a couple of human poses against those shapes and created a final structure in the end. I experimented with clay and wire, but in the end, created a pop out of the structure. In terms of context, I was thinking Millenium park in California, however I feel that it now just looks like a structure rather than a place to sit, hence I feel it would look better in a park for children to climb on. The crit was, as always, helpful. My ideas were appreciated, and yet work could be done on certain areas. I'm actually thinking to continue working the experiment I did, as I feel it is in someways better than my final model. It was definitely on the whole a challenging project.

Final result - Reuse.Remake.Reinvent

I've finally created a piece of furniture! It was a long and hard struggle, but I learn't so much from it. After dissembling my piece of furniture, which I found from the streets, I had to create another piece with a different function. I had many pieces of wooden planks, and so I decided to create a modular shelf. I'm generally inspired by taking a certain shape and replicating it into an interesting form, which is evident from my final product. My final inspiration was from Martino Gamper, as I realized he had produced something very similar to my idea.

Creating such a piece required a lot of effort. I remember trying to cut the planks into different sizes, and sawing each of them was quite tough. And then the worst part came; putting the pieces together. First I tried drilling, and the holes didn't go straight into the wood. Then came hammering; the nails went sideways. Both ways lead to the wood chipping. I was so frustrated, I thought I might as well give up. But then I tried out a combination of glue gun and wood glue; surprisingly it worked! Although it wasn't strong enough, it somehow managed to stand up. I was quite happy with the result.

Reuse.Remake.Reinvent

After 8 long weeks of experimentation, I have finally reached my area of specialization; 3D and Spatial. And here's where the work really starts to get serious.

Our first project, although already entailing a lot of research and work, is extremely exciting! Our task involves finding a piece of second hand furniture, preferably wooden, and taking it out of it's function. For reading week, we had to document our piece through drawings and photography, capturing different angles and perspectives. But then the fun part begins; transformation.

As for finding that piece of furniture, I was confident that the task would be easy. Little did I know what I was in for. I took a bus down the road to Angel, thinking I would visit some small shops or markets around the area, but that was getting me no where. I needed to go into alleys or run down areas to find discarded furniture, and that's exactly what I did. Just to add to this, the weather was simply horrible; it was pouring and I had no umbrella with me (hoodie's don't really do justice!) I actually looked through various garbage cans, with people staring wide eyed at me. Just to clarify to all those people, I'm not homeless, I'm just a dedicated art student! In the end, I did find a decent wooden piece. I must say, it was quite an experience.

As for the research, there were various artists/designers which I loved. To name a few, Martino Gamper, Zaha Hadid, Tom Dixon, Future systems and Konstantin Grcic. I love how they've all changed the stereotypical look of furniture, and added their own individual touch to it. I was particularly inspired by Martino Gamper. I too collected my piece of furniture off the streets, just like he did. I like the example he gave which really got me thinking about this project: 'what happens to the status and potential of a plastic garden chair (conventionally located slap bang in the idiom of unremarkable functionality) when it is upholstered with luxurious brown suede?' They've all really experimented with furniture, almost forgetting its function, and that's how they've all come with with such creative pieces.

Crossroads II - The end to rotations

No matter how much we deny the importance of design in our lives, the truth is, it simply can't be ignored. A top restaurant is not just given high ratings for it's delicious food, but it's ambience and structure, which has a major influence on our ability to have the perfect meal. When we walk into a hotel, we tend to look at how posh the lobby is and its facilities, before actually looking at how comfortable and spacious the rooms are. Design is everywhere, but we just don't realise it's significance.

The way an empty space can be transformed in days or even minutes, is what I truly find inspiring and intriguing. Hopefully from what I've written so far, you can get the feeling that my area of interest lies in 3D and Spatial.

My whole life, and I'm sure everyone was probably in the same situation, I was confined to being sent to art classes, where all I did was sit in one position and paint for hours. Thus, as university applications neared, I thought fine art was the decided area. No words can describe how enjoyable these rotations have been for me, because it allowed me to discover the artist that I am and have become.

Although 3D was my first rotation, and thus we were all new to the foundation course, it really helped us to break our comfort zone. Expanding upon this point, the whole way of working was different to A level or IB art. Furthermore, we had three different tutors feeding us with their opinions, which was mind boggling and at the same time, forced us to make our own decisions. Creating structures out of the simplest materials, like paper, was tough, but in the end, the results were extremely eye catching. What I learned here, allowed me to apply this in the other rotations. 3D is infect persistent in all areas. The development of my work in each of the rotations all had a 3D touch to it.

What I enjoyed most, was our final project in 3D where we had to actually put our models into context. It gave me a feel of what the BA program would be like and allowed us to explore interesting situations. And what I loved about it, was that it was so different. Making models to contain an object, walk through and support the human body, and blocking out our stereotypical thoughts was a huge challenge. Letting yourself go and just playing around with materials and different designs, created such powerful designs; I could actually picture the majority of what was produced in the real world.

The area talk today was a huge help for all of us. Moreover, it just raised my excitement level. I quite liked the comparison of 3D students to a magpie; being aware of your surroundings in order to gain inspiration for our projects. In addition, the importance of being a people person; having the skill to work with people is not something that everyone possesses, but the fact is, I've become more open to work in groups since this course started.

Choosing your future path means looking to your strengths, but also, to what you're passionate about. It has to excite you, and that is exactly what 3D does to me. After leaving the area talks today, I knew for sure that this is where I want to be and I can't wait to grasp each opportunity that it has to offer.