Redefining the Grid
For my defining the grid project I started off with a very orderly grid that used diamonds instead of cubes. After the first iteration, I wanted to make it less repetitive although I wanted to keep some order. With some inspiration from the pylons on campus, I decided to make a three-dimensional structure that focused the viewer’s eyes to the center. I started out with a star to be the center of attention but eventually decided to leave the center empty.
Sketch Book
I used my sketchbook fairly often to try and represent different things I saw. I started by trying to draw larger structures such as buildings and trees. I found trying to draw something like a three-dimensional building overwhelming without a plan so I tried to think about how different likes on the buildings would compare with other lines in two dimensions. I found that trying to draw buildings was easier with reference lines that fit what I actually saw on the structure in front of me. After large structures, I tried to represent smaller structures like leaves and a branch of a pine tree. I found the smaller objects harder to represent than buildings although I was able to hold the reference on the paper. The final thing I tried to draw was a backflip. In order to draw a backflip, I needed to make the figure in different positions of the back flip. While drawing this I found simpler forms were better.
Clay Tile Project
My clay project started out with an assortment of ideas about how to link multiple tile patterns together. I wanted to be able to stick multiple tile patterns together and has a flow that would continue from one tile to another. I ended up deciding to stick with the pattern that had an endpoint every two inches from the corner and that looked like intersecting tree branches in the center. While I was making the clay time I wasn’t sure if I wanted to add texture or depth to the branches. I eventually decided to elevate all of the branches and get rid of and small detail as I thought it made it too noisy. While glazing the tiles I decided to use every color at least once, creating that shared a common path and endpoint but not a common color.
Light Project
For my light project, I wanted to show how light interacts with a lens. When a focused beam of light interacts with a lens, it can fractal create an image much larger than the center of the beam. I was able to achieve this at first using a strong laser pointer and a lens, but when I tried to use sunlight it was much harder. The beam from the sun was too spread out to fractal well with my lens so I tried to recreate the image that would appear by using and blocking mirrors. While the light did create a pattern it was not what I was hoping for, but I was very happy with the other effect that I observed from the mirror and ended up photographing that.
Final Project
For my final project, I wanted to show how perspective can change how something appears. To show this I wanted to recreate the illusion created in M.C. Escher’s Waterfall drawing. The drawing appears to flow infinitely using an illusion. In order to create the 3D model, I recreated the structure by separating the levels of the illusion and building them one on top of another. After I had the 3d model created I textured it and recorded it starting from the illusion perspective and moving to show how it can’t work.