One of the new ideas for my project has been these more cage shapes to contain some of the others. This way instead of just having these abstract shape 'memories' floating on their own, they could be partially contained, and well as being outside of it. This was just one idea to test with, I would maybe add another side into it to add more vertical space to see into, or have it hang from the other direction. The other filled photo shapes could then either rest at the bottom of these, or still hang inside, underneath, and all around them.
I tried doing a 3D print with a makerbot after taking a bit to figure that out, to see if that would work for the cage shapes. Otherwise they would be pretty difficult to fold and keep together. Also, I think it would contrast well with a rigid structure against the shapes being not as much depending on the paper I use. The one part I tried as a test came out badly, and broke into a few pieces.
I also was talking with the Object Design people as well about using the laser cutter to cut the shapes out, and they said there shouldn't be any problems with that, or with lining the laser up to an already printed page as well. That way I can print out the images, and just laser cut the shape without having to use scissors for however many I end up needing.
I have also been fixing sizes of my shapes, so I can now build the shapes to the correct scale. I created a few so far that are 3 inches now. The previous sets were either scaled to fit a page size, and the next trial set was an inch big which was a bit small scale-wise to be able to see anything of. I could still have a some that are larger, but I think I found a good smallest size. I have tried to contact some of the artists whose work I'd like to find out about more, but I haven't gotten any responses yet.
Another thing I have been rethinking with is with the boxes again. I need to just try making a simple one and seeing if I like it.
Digital Cage Shape
3 Inch shapes with broken blue 3D printed cage
Large 82x82 Print taped onto the conference room wall.
(Closeup) Large 82x82 print taped to the conference room wall.
I found some more information and other artists at Artsy: James Turrell's Artsy Page. Artsy is a great resource I used to find out about similar artists that I didn't know about, upcoming exhibits, and artist info.
A synopsis of the conceptual element driving my officially approved thesis project
Home is a physical and psychological destination that we all have in common. It is a place of comfort, memory, longing, distance and dislocation. For my thesis project I will complete a series of interdisciplinary installations and objects that explore my personal relationship to and understanding of the concept of home. Having relocated many times, I’ve developed a feeling of dislocation. I’ve begun to question, where is home? What qualities make a home possible? What does it mean to settle down? Can a home be a shield between us and the world? Can we hold onto it and carry with us, wherever we go?
In my continued search for home, the places I’ve lived begin to blend together, blurring the boundaries between specific locations and time, until I cannot distinguish one place from another. I need to know a place, to discover its identity and find my identity within it. A new place, a new home, may take over the old, but cannot destroy it, remnants remain, creating a layering of time and space like layers of strata in the earth, a record of life. What if we could collapse that record, to pull at time and space and bring all these places closer together, to create the perfect chaos of home, where every moment can live at once and be equal, never having to sacrifice the comfort of home for the challenge of forward movement.
This is what it looks like printed on the phototex being tiled and stuck together. I don't think the seams are too visible.
Phototex printed on the doorway from across the hall
Closeup of the seams
After figuring out some more problems, I did get the metal to print out, here's some images of what it looks like. I think I'd like to try using the clear-coat later this week to see if more of the metal through instead of just the white.
I've been messing around with seeing what/how to get some of my ideas going, so here's some results. For the wall mural, I wanted to try just to see if seaming the image is something possible, so for the square images, instead of just having a 40x40, it could go 80x80+ if it's sectioned across pieces that join together. I tried doing a small sample out of paper just to see how to print it out easily this way, and if it would look horrible. It wasn't that bad considering its low quality on copy paper, and I cut it with scissors.
I also tried working on figuring out the whole projection part of my one idea. This time I did it a different way which works a bit better I think. I just used some sheets of paper to go on, and was holding everything while editing it all, so the scaling/sizes are a shade off, but it seems possible at least if everything is mounted solidly.
Collage Stuff: Seems like printing straight onto sheets of aluminum is the cheapest way to go using coats of inkaid. There are also precoated sheets that cost a lot more. Another thing is to do transfers onto the aluminum as well. Then the highest option of other some of the other printing methods, like dye sub, which is a bit off the scales, and undoable with what's available to for me to use. I also found this material called Chromaroll, but I'm not really certain about it. The basic summary is to get some aluminum sheets, sand them with steel wool, wash them with something to get the oils off, coat them a few times with the ink aid, and print to victory. If none of this works at all, I can always just use paper and mount it to the metal too I suppose, or just use canvas.
