Category: Uncategorized
Vehicles for investigating the archive
Persona: Hunter – Navigating the everyday with an Occluder
Designing Meaningful Interactions: W1
5 Characteristics of a good UX:
- intuitive
- efficient
- memorable
- anticipate errors
- satisfying
Artist In the Archive: HW 1 – In the Haystack
IN A HAYSTACK: Using only the search mechanisms available on loc.gov, find one item or collection of items and write a short ‘portrait’ of the object. What is it? How was it made? Who created it? How did it end up in the Library’s collection?
Continue reading “Artist In the Archive: HW 1 – In the Haystack”
Intro to Wearables: HW #1
Soft Circuit 1.0
Some inspiration for class from our teacher Jingwen:
I was inspired thinking about possible LED systems that could be turned on at night when biking. The idea would be that you could fasten the switch connection when ready to head home.
I started to read a little bit into Kate Hartman’s book intro to Wearables too:
We watched a video called The Next Black for class that we’ll discuss next session. It had me go into a deep dive on youtube looking more into videos from studios and researchers. I also watched some of Eyebeam’s documented talks like this one here and found it pretty interesting? Thinking also about material up verses concept down + the intersection of material science and textiles.
I also enjoyed seeing and hearing about some of the projects from Lauren Bowker’s UK studio the unseen? Especially the ones that dealt with bioluminescence and wind reactivity. I think the idea of reflecting the other elements around us that usually go unseen is a powerful idea to explore ❤ I also really loved her carbon jacket that reflected the air pollution ( and could selfheal – returning to its original state).
In Class Exercise:
Collective Narrative: HW #1
Part 1: Create a 24 hr comic
Saturday – 2.2.18
Part 2: Visit & Respond to Paa Jones: Gates of No Return @ the American Folk Art Museum
Paa Joe ( Joseph Tetteh Ashong) is a master craftsman and artist of traditional figurative coffins. The coffins are part of a ritual, where the deceased is buried underground in a custom coffin that is carved and decorated to symbolize an element associated with that person’s life. It’s a celebratory way of ferrying the passage into the afterlife and ancestral realm, an act of empowerment. Some examples could be a red snapper for a deep sea fisher, a camera for a photographer or as Paa Joe mentions in an interview, a hammer for himself so that people would identify him as a carpenter. The family okadi (symbol of ancestors) could influence the shape.
During 2004 – 2005 he was commissioned by the late artist, collector and art dealer Claud Simard to make 13 large scale architectural models of still-existing slave castles and forts located on the Gold Coast of West Africa, now Ghana. Seven of these sculptures are what are shown at the exhibit, alongside really amazing photographs from when Paa Joe visited the sites of each castle, along with his sketches. As written by the curator, Valérie Rousseau, “The models are beautiful and heavy reminders of human commodification in a world that is still struggling with injustice and pernicious systems of racial inequality that have been perpetuated for centuries”.
It was my first time to the American Folk Art Museum and was super excited to visit! It was nice to hear people audibly impacted by the work. The museum itself had me start thinking about the Icelandic Folk Art Museum I visited last Spring Safnasafnið.
