Transforming The Everyday Project

Stuart Haygarth-Cosmic Burst

In this particuar project the brief was to use materials to create something that would transform an object or environment. This brief was pretty wide as there were many things I could do. We were shown artists/designers who used this idea in their work and one designer that stood out to me was Stuart Haygarth. I particularly like the way he used unusual objects to create chandliers, lamp shades etc. So for this project I decided I wanted to work with light. I first thought of painting balloons with glow in the dark paint and hanging them to create an illusion but I didnt feel a personal connection to  this idea. So I then thought about what my everyday activities or things were and films, music and games are a big part of my life so this made me thinks of using CDs/DVDs in my work.

Experimenting with the idea of CDs and Light:
To investigate this idea I used fishing wire to hang several CDs around a light just like Stuart Haygarth had done, to see what sort of shapes or light would be reflected. Even though the outcome wasn't so successful I thought this eperimentation helped me realise to develop this idea of CDs even further and use different variations and other materials to help with development.

Development into Final Idea:
After the experimentation I then thought about combining what Stuart Haygarth does and my idea of using CDs. This made me think of using CDs to creat a chandlier. To explore and make sure that my idea worked I experimented on a smaller scale and superglued a couple of CDs aroundmy ceiling light. I did this in a dark room for better results and the outcome I achieved was spectacular. The image created form the reflected CDs onto the wall was almost holographic and very interesting. I decided that I would make this into a chandlier on a bigger scale, therefore this was my final idea.

Process of Creation:
The first thing I did was to buy a lamp light with a plug. I then tied a wooden dowel to the cable using fishing wire as I needed the cable to be straight and upright. I thought this would be the cheapest and most efficient way to make my product.

I then painted the wooden dowel wiht white paint. I put three coats on which took me longer than I expected as I didn't think I needed three. I also used gapha tape to fix the wooden dowel onto the joint. Professionally I should have been using a plastic fixing. The presentation of this looked as professional as it could get with the materials I had, maybe if  had used more expensive materials or a metal/plastic pole instead of the wooden dowel the presentation could have been improved.

Afterwards I cut a line into several of the CDs using a hack saw. This was to create platforms for the different levels of the chandlier where the CDs would be sticking onto the wooden dowel. I stuck  these on using a glue gun. However the support of the glue was not strong enough as I wanted so this is something to think about if I wereto do this project again.

I then layered the CDs around the platforms in the design I wanted using superglue. There were quite a lot of setbacks with this as sometimes if something were to hit the CDs they would fall off or crack.

Create Something That Flies Workshop

Flying Carpet

Drawing in Space Project

The brief for this project was to create an illusion using the environment and colourful tape as equipment. This project started off really well my group had alot of ideas however further on we found out our ideas were a bit too complex to carry out. Therefore we focused on cracks and how to make the ennvironment seem as if it were breaking apart. We carried out a miniature idea first, creating an illusion on a window to make it seem as if it were smashed. We first used a hammer to create the cause of the impact in the photo however that didn't work so we used someones fist instead.

When that was successful, we moved onto our bigger idea which was to make a beam in the classroom seem as if it were cracked down the middle. Planning this took ages but we managed to create the illusion nethertheless.