January 29, 2012

Our first assignment is to "carve out" a book based on your interpretation of the text. I initially picked up a book about Miami. It was an AIA Guidebook of Miami. I was thinking I could carve out the book so that it was a 3D model of Miami. When you opened the cover you would see the tops of skyscrapers and as you continued to turn the pages the skyscrapers were shrink into smaller buildings, then the homes of Miami, until you reached the flat rolling beaches and the water. After thinking about it a little more I decided it was too straight forward.  It did illustrate what the book was about but I thought it was too easy and there wasn't enough concept in it sooooooooo I did a silly thing and switched out my book on Miami for a book on literature. I know stupid, you don't have to tell me twice. I was trying to make a more conceptual carving so I thought a spiraling of pages around one main topic or concept represented literature pretty well. Or representing the chaos of writing within the covers of the book. But I'm afraid this isn't really me taking things out of the book itself but rather making something up based on literature and not the book. Another idea that I hope will get me away from a conceptual carving and get me back on track comes from the Renaissance painting St. Jerome in his Study.

This scene depicts where writing and literature happen and the book itself explains how to write literature and what techniques should be used. This scene is very architectural and could be constructed by carving the scene or cutting it out of the pages and folding them up or connecting them in some way so when the book is opened it folds up and creates the scene. I'm not sure if this is the best solution but I'm kinda struggling. I should have never given up on Miami. Any suggestions for paths I can take or new ways to think of this to spark some ideas? It's only the first class and I'm already having a hard time creating . . . not good. Am I taking this painting too literally? How should I be looking at this? Please help!!!!

January 25, 2012

Well, today was the first day of studio. As a part of the studio for this semester we have to keeps blogs of our design process, findings, and ideas. After hearing about the approaches we are going to be taking when designing this semester I'm a littler nervous. We are not being given a program. Instead, we are starting this semester by carving out or exhuming spaces and letting them decide what they want to be. I do not normally design this way and have a tendency to be very rigid in my thought process. I tend to come up with a design, see it clearly, and have a difficult time expanding on it. So, to try and avoid that I plan on doing most of my designing in 3-d. I want to make massing models instead of drawing everything in plan and section first. I hope this will help me get into the right designing mindset. We'll see . . .