Prototype Discussion
21/04/09

Before we discussed about giving the first trial for the main sculpture prototype, we explored the possibilities to enhance the appearance. Initially, we settled ourselves with a head on the body of the sculpture. Sazilah then initiated an idea to create a ‘Medusa-like’ photo holder. We scrapped the initial idea and adopted Sazilah’s. We got practical and provide suggestions such as how to create it, material used, how to attach the photo, the flexibility, length and weight issues.

We went on to the lower part of the sculpture which was the batik skirt. Ideas rushed in like running water. Robin suggested using plastic or strips of plastic as a cover instead as it illuminate light better than batik cloth. Robin then suggested doing a ‘Wayang Kulit –like’ effect which is shadow play. We managed to settle ourselves with moving shadows cast through the plastic cover. More suggestions were made and installing a long strip of Velcro was one of it by Robin. The reason behind it is for user friendly. It will allow users to change the design of the ‘Wayang Kulit – like’ effect and to change blown up bulbs. The existence of the Velcro is to also make cleaning easier and change of new bulbs easier.

We also consider what type of lights should we use in the main sculpture. One of the suggestions was to use Christmas lights. But considerations made by the team were will the light burn out the plastic over the sculpture, the colour and size of the light and whether it is waterproof.

these are sketches made by Robin. (click on images to view it clearer)

this was the interior of the lamp that ziqq shared which he saw when he went Ikea. The way the lightbulbs are hold inside the lamps are very interesting and they allow light to be given out equally from top to bottom.
sahida's final sketch on how the lamp cum photo holder would look like.
so this was what ziqq and robin meant by having a shadow that cast out on the bottom part of our lamp cum photo holder.
Material discussion
After finalizing our design, we discussed about the type of materials needed.
1) White plastic bags
2) Hanger wires
3) Wooden/silver pegs
4) Tin cans
5) Mechanic tools
6) Working gloves

Disco Ball Discussion
http://www.instructables.com/id/Saturday-Night-Fever-Mini-Disco-Ball/

Sazilah shared with the team about a site she chance upon called Instructables.com. Initially, we had doubts about breaking the CD as we were unsure about the outcome. But, this resource has enabled us to continue our vision to beautify our exhibition.

LINKS
wayang kulit: http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/~dwa/WayangKulit.html
disco ball: http://www.instructables.com/id/Saturday-Night-Fever-Mini-Disco-Ball/

Overview Of Addition Ideas
• Finalized design – ‘Medusa-like’ photo holder
• Change in material for lower part of sculpture – to plastic strips
• Install Velcro on the lower part of the sculpture
• The type of lights to be placed around the main sculpture
• Creating the disco ball
• For the exhibition showroom: cocktail table, more lights, shoe holder, bookshelves, rubik’s cube seats.
Pending Ideas
• Rubik cubes
: To be transformed into either arm chair, seats or stool which are to be located around the main sculpture
• Questions
: How many do we need?
: Expenditure
: Positioning of the Rubik cubes

• Mcdonalds (MCD) paper bags
: To make a statement by doing patch work and creating a lamp→ showing the numerous number of MCD consumptions
• Questions
: Can MCD paper bags illuminate sufficient light?
: Will the motive be understood by the mass?
: How do we get supplies?

Showroom Pending Ideas
: To improve the ambience of the exhibition

• Cocktail Tables
: To create an atmosphere where viewers can relax yet be amazed by the material used (rolled up tin cans for the surface)
: To be located around the showroom where viewers can still enjoy the main sculpture
• Shoe Holders
: To amaze the viewers with the material used (thick cardboard, tin cans)
: To provide a more welcoming gesture to the viewers. (boast comfort level)
• Bookshelves
: Material used will be cardboards
: To be placed around the showroom
• Paper Lights (IKEA pics that Ziqq showed)
: To display a wide range of lights around that showroom
: Material used either plastics or paper (MCD paper bags)

- sahida
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So here are some of the pictures I shared with the team, the trip I took to Ikea.
After the Ikea trip, I saw alot of simplicity in the range of light design they have. Materials wise they used plastic and paper moslty, I even looked at the way they design inside the lamps to how they hold up the light bulbs which led to sharing of interseting ideas in the meeting as stated by Sahida above.

- ziqq


And of course, I didnt just look at the lights, I looked at everything, there were alot of smart design in Ikea, and this was one of them that struck me. I shared with the team how we can use carboardboxes to make these!BUT we still take in mind that the main priorty now is our lamp cum photo holder. That's our main priority, only after we will start doing the decoration and improving the ambient of our exhibition!

all pictures are taken from ziqq.
sketches are done by robin and sahida.

SKETCH!

so these are sketches made by sahida of the exhibition. this are still tentative drawings to how it would look like! (:

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Based on today's discussion, this is what I've gathered for now.
These are the drawn pictures of what it would look like in our exhibition room.

First three pictures: visions of our exhibition
Material used: metal wire (hangers), strips of plastics, lights (chrismas lightings, normal bulb), cardboard/boxes (for pedestal), white/silicon glue.
Black walls, bottle seats around, Robin's sculpture huge in the middle, cloth (batik) lamp as it's bottom.

NEW IDEA, Hanging Cloth Lamp
Last two pictures: Cloth lamp vision
Material used: cloth (batik, used clothes, skirts), metal wire (hangers), normal bulb

- sahida

FYP Meeting 1.
re-look, re-think, re-fresh.

13th April 2009
Meeting Objectives: Constructive Criticism
First meeting with Lydia!

BIG IDEAS!

So today, we met our supervisor, Lydia. We went about talking about our ideas one by one. And once everyone finished, Lydia took over.

"1 plate of fried rice shared by 5 people, everyone gets just a little bit out of it. Wouldn't a person get more out of it if they get a plate each?" - Lydia

5 BIG ideas in one room, too much to take in and people don't know what to focus on. Well that was what Lydia saw it as. And she did told us maybe we'd like to focus on one and make it look damn good as she felt that it feels a bit too messy and all over the place.

Actually, after the meeting we felt that we forgot to tell her one thing. That the limelight would go to Robin's statue light lamp thingy. The focus would be that, smack right in the center of the exhibition. The other ideas were things to decorate around the exhibition, so much focus would actually go to the statue.

Initial ideas are always planned to go bad, but don't throw them away work from there.

Re: Purpose Design

We were all asked to re-look into our ideas and ask ourselves, what is the purpose? Is it only for decorative purposes?

We were reminded of the description of the project,

RE:Purpose Design can be seen as a creative attempt to recycle and re-purpose existing, used
commodities and products into functional and aesthetic lifestyle products or furnishings.

INSPIRATION!

Get inspired. We need inspiration. We shall all have our own, excursion and blog it out here soon. IKEA is a great place to get inspired. But yes do document anything interesting you see outside and blog it here! Like Lydia has told us, research research research!! Research is important in this project as we need to know our stuff well, what materials we are working with, so we know how to exploit those materials.

Check out the website Lydia suggested: http://www.readymade.com/

We are DDI students!

Design for Interactivity. How do we make our product something for people to interact with? How do we make it something that can represent our Diploma and long term better enhance our portfolio? Where is the interaction in our ideas?

Seize media opportunities!

Lydia did say how maybe we would like to look at doing something for the public so that our work can be recognized and it will be known for a good cost. Guess we might want to look at this in the later part? Just keep it in mind.

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Okay guys (and girls), we are on the right track so to speak. As discussed earlier we need to get inspired, and Project Lumiere is still going to happen (well for now it is), the statue production should start as soon as possible! We need to re-think whats the purpose of our statue, is it only for lighting? How do we make it to have more pupose? I think that the statue it self is already made up of alot of unexpected materials, like plastic bags, hanger wiring, cardboard boxes etc. we just have to think a little deeper and get inspired and re-think carefully.

Roles of the team:
Project Leader: In charge of overseeing everything, and keeping the team on track. (ziqq)
Logistics : In-charge of getting contacts and will be the one contacting people (robin)
Management: In-charge of time-keeping, project schedule (shahida)
Researcher: In charge of backing us up with sufficient knowledge (zila)
Resources: In-charge of getting materials (v)

Pre-FYP Meeting 1.

9TH April 2009
Meeting objective: Brainstorming Ideas.

Ideas!

Robin started off the meeting, with his sharing of idea.
He showed us his sketch and ideas.
He showed us his sketch of the famous ancient greek sculptures, Venus de Milo; the Greek goddess of love and beauty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_De_Milo

The Thinker (French: Le Penseur) is a bronze and marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin held in the Musée Rodin in Paris. It depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thinker

The Statue of David, David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture sculpted by Michelangelo from 1501 to 1504. It came to symbolize the defense of civil liberties embodied in the Florentine Republic, an independent city state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici themselves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_(Michelangelo)

He was sharing how we can make the sculpture using the materials such as paper, tin can, cardboard box, aluminums and metal/steel as the exo-skeleton. It will be something like these, just that it will be in the shape of the sculptures,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamwithcam/23320352/in/set-536431/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamwithcam/23320342/in/set-536431/

And yes the use of these is that, it is not only aesthetically pleasing, each sculpture represents something, and it has usage, it provide lighting, below the sculptures are wardrobes or chest drawers made up of cardboard box and some bottles if I’m not mistaken.

Materials to look into: Paper, Cardboard box, Steel, PVC Glue, Light Bulb, Plastic Bottles

Some things to think about:
• How do we make the sculpture?
• We need to make a prototype first, ASAP!
• Is the sculpture going to be exactly the same of the original? Or is it just following the shape of the original?
Are the products easy to be move about?
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Zila had the same idea of sculpture but hers, addresses the fact that, (usually the) telephone table does not match the seats, so her idea was that the sculpture would be in a position where, one hand is holding the phone while the other was for the user to sit on.
The “flaw” was how do we balance the weight? How do we support the weight of the user?
Zila then continued her idea of using the aluminum foil of a tin can and sew/glue it to make a basket or so. The idea was simple, changed the idea of tin can being use to hold drinks into something that now (the basket) can even carry the tin cans!


Materials to look into: Tin cans, aluminum, glue, thread, rope, wire

Some things to think about:
• How strong is aluminum?
• Will the aluminum rust?
• Is it safe for the users?
• How do we prevent these?
• Can the basket last for long?
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Shahida’s idea was to use water pipe/hose those transparent one and then fill it with glitters and then wrapped it around a fluorescent light . To give like the lava lamp effect.
But the “flaw” was that, the glitter in the tube would sink. Robin then suggests to use gel. The idea of what to put inside the hose is not that strong and need to be further discussed and experimented. Basically what I see is that the idea was of changing what we see and use into something that can be used as a décor and yet functional.

Materials to look into: Water hose (plastic), gel, water, fluorescent light

Some things to think about:
• How do we make it twirl around it without making the plastic hose to bend?
• Will the heat from the light melt the plastic hose?
• What would be inside the plastic hose?
• How big will the lamp be? (Need measurements)
Are the products easy to be move about?

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V’s idea was sharing his idea of making a multi purpose shelve using cardboard boxes. Something that is of do-able and simple.
He also suggested ideas such as a sculpture of T-rex and toys for kids to play.

Materials to look into: Cardboard boxes, PVC glue

Some things to think about:
• How to make the shelves strong and long lasting?
• How do we make it aesthetically pleasing?
• How big is the shelve going to be? (Need measurements)
Are the products easy to be move about?
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I then shared my idea. Okay so basically, my idea was to just simply make bags, it can be made out of paper, and plastic hose as the handle. Making laptop casing out of cardboard boxes. Very simple ideas. That’s why I put more thought towards the exhibition and concept instead.

After listening to everyone’s wonderful ideas. I thought of having this cold dark black room, then having Robin’s lamp sculpture around the room, filled with Shahida’s hose lava lamp, V’s shelves holding Zila’s handmade bags alongside my handmade items. The room would then be lighted up with all the lamps. Giving this mix array of colors and emotions. Something like an Ikea show room kinda thing going on.

The concept of the exhibition:

Project lumiére

Lumiére stands for 'lights' in French.
People always see light coming from something that is beautiful, something of heaven-sent, just like an image of angel.
This project aims to let the world sees that there is light in everything, be it newspapers, wires, rags, cardboard boxes, things that people don’t usually pay much attention to, how some of us just under appreciate all these things, this project would let them see how we see beauty in everything.

Project lumiére showing beauty out of nothing.

Some things to think about:
Where will the exhibition be at?
Budget?
How big will the exhibition be?
How are we going to set up?
Are these all do-able in such a short time?
Are the products easy to be move about?
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We then further discussed on how the room would look like, we had more ideas coming in, ideas of making a disco ball out of cd-roms and a plastic beach ball, ideas of making a colorful lighted seat using plastic bottles and lights and cardboard boxes. (will draw a sketch soon of those ideas and upload here)

Tentatively Project Schedule
(click on image to see table bigger)

Project Lumiere
has been officially launched on 9th April 2009.