Part 3 of Studio Project

Just thought I'd share where my studio project was going.... for the 3rd part of the project, we were given someone else's "artifact" (I did the radio thing in the last post), and we had to design an environment, or field, for the object to exist in... a reliquary of sorts..

To make a long story short, I decided to make a box that would very simply organized by a grid, with tiny little doors and delicate hinges that would open on every panel, even when it wouldn't make sense for all the doors to open on the same space, like at a corner. It took forever, especially with the miniature hinges (which were intended for doll house doors ha!). The point was that you would open up each door and get a different framed view of the object. (the object was about fragments). Each view would also be filtered or blocked in one of 3 ways. Sometimes you would get a literal brick wall, other times just parts of the brick wall that you could see through, and then in just the netting behind the bricks. (In the middle panel it was a clear tunnel to the center of the artifact, which was the most important part). Anyways, here's how it turned out!

Part 2 of Studio Project

For the second part of our project on transformations, we were told we had to make some sort of artifact that related to our video. It had to be small enough to fit in the palm of our hand, but other than that it was open for interpretation. The idea was to be abstract with the ideas from your video, so for mine, after talking with my critic, I wanted my object to reflect the idea of revealing mechanism behind a facade, rather than reflect the literal man/woman change in the video. Further, I wanted to explore the idea of revealing mechanism, to the point where I wanted an object that would reveal the mistaken or percieved mechanism behind the surface. Sort of like when you're a little kid, and you don't know how something really complicated like a car or radio work, so you invent some sort of way in your mind.

For me, the object was a small vintage transistor radio that had seen better days. It seemed obvious to me, that had I not known the guts behind what makes a radio work, that they would be operated by a family of miniature instrument-playing marshmellows.

Me in Drag! for...architecture?

Well, one of the more fun projects this semester in studio was a film project where we had to document some form of transformation...It could be anything really, totally up to our interpretation... the idea is that the built environment is constantly in a state of transformation, and as architects how we deal with that current or potential transformation is important... This was only part one of the project, so we'll see where it goes...

Anyways, I decided to go man to woman! Or rather....Woman to man... I liked the idea of revealing the true mechanism behind the facade, and paralleling my transformation to that of my vintage kitty clock (the facade of the clock versus the reality of what makes it tick). I wasn't going for super cheerful, the sound of the clock is intended to be a little off-putting since it becomes the sound track.. I'll try to attach the video below, but for now here are a few photos of how I turned out!

P.S. the dress is real 60's vintage- I LOVE it...the shawl I had to improvise- its a piece of fur from Walmart haha...worked good enough from a distance though...

Back in Studio

And now for the home stretch... the last semester of Architorture! Alas, I'll be released from Architraz!

(ok, enough with the architecture puns...)

But seriously, I can't believe it! This is beyond huge for me...And yes, I know I still have to somehow get through this semester...but once I do....woooo here comes lifeee! I know its not gonna be all lollipops and rainbows and fluffy things, but I'm so ready for this...SO ready... School is officially 100% over May 20th (graduation), and after that I'm going to begin the quick transition into moving to Upstate NY. I'll be graduating with a bachelor of science in Architecture and hopefully I'll fenangle something out of all the preservation classes I've taken). A LOT has to be done, and its not gonna be quick or simple, but I've been looking forward to this moment for a long time... I have a home waiting for me up there that needs all the love I can put into it...

Speaking of which, the parsonage is coming along! I have to find my photos, but over break I scraped the peeling beadboard ceilings, took up layers and layers of linoleum in the kitchen, and have begun scraping wallpaper. I discovered gorgeous 1920's wood flooring in the kitchen, with also-gorgeous painted 1860's wide plank flooring beneath... (for some reason, they only added the 1920's wood in the kitchen, which makes me a little worried as to why they did that (fire? damage?). Scraping the wallpaper was also really addictive, and I want to get a sample of every wallpaper layer I go through to keep in a book on the parsonage :)... I had planned to get more done, but a couple things came up over break that ended up changing the dynamic of the trip...

On a final note, with the beginning of studio (its hard to believe we're almost a month in), I was so thrilled this was the last semester I went on a decorating binge... (partly because I got an awesome corner window seat this semester!). Compared to everyone else, I may have gone a little crazy, but it fits me just fine...had to bring a little "home" to my daily workspace :)...(p.s. sorry for the crappy cell phone pics!)

Can you guess which desk is me? (And I still haven't started on most of my desk yet!)