"Create a white 3D object with 57 sides"
With this piece, I knew exactly what I wanted to produce.
The image came naturally to me.
A structured head piece.
With my initial thought "It is inevitable that as time passes by, we as a society will find the need to recycle the old for new, almost infinitely"; and my previous ideas toward my silent based film, I gained inspiration form looking out my window at my surroundings.
As time has passed by, we as a society have built this domestic, industrial habitat. 10,20,30 years ago, what I see outside my window would of been different, even if it was only a slight change, point is, over time we grow together to produce, bigger, more amazing structures.
Therefore we recycle the old buildings, the old surroundings of fields and greenery etc, for new, more industrial living. As time passes by, the architecture we see around us will be more exciting, more diverse then what we as a society would have ever seen before, and this pattern will carry on until we reach that point in time, were we cant possibly improve.
To kick start my inspiration, I walked around Birmingham city centre, to see first hand the buildings we have produced; varying from old to new, both showing similarities yet still different.
Here are some photos that I find correlate to my idea.
The geometric angles of this building, gave me the idea on how I wanted my head piece to initially look. sharp and edgy.
I began to look more closely at how the buildings were put together, as you can see in these images, its as if they were produced of hundreds of smaller square sections. I found this added to the geometric image.
I started to realise using a lot of smaller sections could really help me produce the defined, geometric image I had imagined.
Even the older buildings, were made up of smaller sections.
I notice more with the older, more historical buildings, that they mad more softer, circular shapes, then the modern building our generation have built. which gave me the idea to contrast the two designs together. Having a geometric, structured base, and then softer edges.
Rough Ideas
I started to think of how I could portray, such angles, as a head piece. I thought I could use materials like tin foil, to base out the shape I wanted to produce. This is because I could mould the shapes and angles I wanted.
As a rough idea, I began to wrap the foil around a participants head. As shown bellow.
This has given me a rough idea of the shape I want my head piece to look, although over all I do not feel I have gained as much out of this, as I had originally thought.
I began to draw out what sort of designs I had in mind, using geometric shapes such as squares and triangles.
Hat Designing
After rethinking my structure for my head piece, I realised it was almost impossible to build such a structure that would sit well on someone's head.
I began to think of fashion documentaries I had seen. Philip Treacy came to mind.
He is a world famous hat designer, so much so that his catwalks end up turning into extravagant displays of art work.
I began to look through his designs, and realised how I can still produce a large structured piece, if I made a few alterations in the material I used and my designs.
His hats have become a huge inspirational base for my final piece.
I started to think of my brief, " create a 3D object with 57 sides", so my initial idea for a design was to have 57 individual pieces over 3 layers. 19 pieces per layer.
I came up with this idea by seeing a pair of earings.
To produces this I would need some form of structed material as card was to weak.
I wanted my outcome to be big and lavish, so I began to brainstorm materials.
I would have to use wire to direct my material.
I began yet again to go off of this idea, as I thought it was to much of a simplistic idea, and wasnt sure if the structure would substain its purpose.
Idea - 57 sides
I was watching tv.
I saw an advert that made me think of a new idea.
(video to follow)
I really like the idea of desiging and making a hat of my choice, still inkeeping with the geometric, structure theme, and using white materials.
Yet instead of simply makin my head piece with 57 sides, Iam goin to photograph it from 57 sides (angles / directions).
This will hopfully give the impression that my design has 57 diverse sides you can see.
Test run
After experimenting with the photography suit and scrap material, I began to design my first hat idea.
I wanted to produce a soft / hard contrast.
I used ostrich feathers and spines for this, black and white.
I then added pearls to tie the two together.
This was purley and experiment to see my millinery skills.
My final deisgn consisted of the idea, if 57 individual loops.
I liked the way in which I had used feather previously, so to contrast with the elegant loops I used a tougher feather, Goose biot.
My original design I added a vale made from white Organza.
I wanted to experiment a way to display my work in a more interesting manor.
I plucked inspiration from a nokia advert I had seen. This is were there where various photographs taken of an object from diverse angles.
After adjusting my design, I took 57 photographs from each angle.
I wanted to display my images in a 3D way.
I wasn't sure how to conduct this as photographs wouldn't be strong enough to support the weight.
Instead I decided to just submit one high quality images, alongside my head piece.
I experimented with different angles.
I thought a head on image would keep my work much more bold.
I thought having a white back drop made my head piece dissapear.
I started to experiment with a balck backdrop, as it would help contrast my design even more.
I started with a close up shot, I dont think this worked as well, as it didnt show off all of my design.
This is the orignal photograph of my final piece.
I started off by playing with the contrast and adding a film grain.
I also sharpened my image. I really liked this outcome, almost prefered it to my fianl choice. Yet I feel it wasnt as clear as it should be, to display the photograph.
This is my final photo graph that i have submited.
I have adjust the contrast and lighting to make Emily's skin look more pale and the black bits to stand out more.
I have also added a black fame to enhance it, in comparison to the wall I will mount it on.
I will display it on a singled out piece of wall with my head piece on a plinth.
