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LOOSE ENDS : Clay and Copper sculpture

ADAD 1002 Assessment 2 Project Statement

What are we if not for our thoughts? It’s been found that an average human processes 70,000 thoughts in a single day, which counts down to almost a thought per second. This is one of the reasons why the human brain is said to be the most advanced and complex structure in the universe. We grow up believing that we are who we think we are, our thoughts mold us into who we want to be. We are human because we can control out thoughts. But with a glitch in the system, what if we could lost that control?

Intrusive thoughts and anxious impules have long before been considered to be the generic traits of “OCD”, and little do most know of the nature of such thoughts, how it impacts one’s emotions, personality, and overall lifestyle. Intrusive thoughts are obsessive- ever recurring, often mostly un-realisitic, that invoke an unnecessary fear in the mind.  Unless one has experienced a lap of such continuous episodes, they wouldn’t feel the extent of such inner weakness. These thoughts always dwell on the worst of life’s scenarios, and based on our mental reaction ,these thoughts tend to keep coming back every time you would try to rationalize with it. In Assessment 1, I focused on the cyclic continuity between anxious thought and mental reaction. In Assessment 2, I wanted to overview the glitch as a whole.

I continued my exploration and experimentation from assignment 1 with the intention of trying out new sculpting mediums- as I was very interested in visualizing forms creating in 3D. My key goal in this assignment period was to work with new materials like metal wire, molding clay and also to experiment 3D modeling at the Virtual Reality studio. I was mainly inspired by 3 artists: Kate McDowell, Christina Mrozik and Odani Motohiko; each of their styles resonated a beautifully eerie feel influenced by the Dark art and surrealist eras, and this is what inspired me to explore into a more ‘darker’ side of the theme.

In my first experiment, I used bendable copper wire to create a mini sculpture of a brain formed by a snake. I liked visualizing this glitch as a snake – it brought out the eerie feel I was looking for, though I wasn’t sure of my final project at the time. From there on, I went on to recreate this sculpture in Virtual Reality using ‘GravitySpace’. VR modeling was definitely a highlight for me in this assessment. I had not tried it before and I loved experimenting with the various brushes and tools available. My plan of execution at this point was to 3D print a mini sculpture which I could create in VR, by developing my idea from the copper wire sculpture I had made. Due to time constraints and having to allow a two week period to 3D print, I was unable to go ahead with that idea, so this gave me the opportunity to model my own sculpture using modeling clay.

At this point, I had to narrow my focus on concept. My final statement was based on how something we have so much control over, somehow find its way to take control over you and my final project idea was to envision the mind as an imposter – the snake being a perfect symbol of betrayal. My sculpture shows the interaction between mind and self – clay and copper, how the mind begins to gain control and take over. The gradual metallic in-growths on the face suggest this idea of ‘gaining control’. I chose black Molding clay and Copper wire for this sculpture because I felt they both contrasted very well in visual appearance and surface quality. The clay portrayed a sense of solidarity, grounding and control, whereas the copper wire brought on a sense of drama, manipulation and acted as a center of attention in contrast. Ironically, Copper is also said to facilitate mental agility. The figure heard appears to be slightly tilted to the right which creates a very interesting overall balance within the sculpture. I created the copper snake using the ‘snake weave’. If I were to re- do the sculpture, I would have chosen to replace the inner silver cable wires to be copper ones too so the colour stays pure and consistent.

Overall this Assessment was a good journey which allowed me to push past my boundaries a bit more and I’m glad I got to get some hands on experimentation done and recorded. I have never sculpted before and this was definitely a self-learning experience, and I’m pretty happy with my final result!

Bibliography

http://www.human-memory.net/brain_neurons.html

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201303/what-is-consciousness

http://www.darkartandcraft.com/blog/2015/10/28/the-dark-arts-of-japan

https://www.artsy.net/artist/kate-macdowell

http://christinamrozik.com/

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Assessment 2 progress: Snake weave with Cables and Copper Wire.

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Loose Ends: ADAD1002 Assessment 2 Sculpture in modelling clay and copper wire.

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Assessment 2 Final Project: progress work of clay sculpture.  

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Artist reference: Christina Mrozik- Amazing content and I love her style of bringing things together and entangling elements over each other. 

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Plan for final project in scibbles.

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This is a short stop motion video of how ink dissolves in water. I did this as an experiments as I wanted to play with materials that disperse, spread, deviate. This was a fun experiment and equally tedious. This gave me a few ideas on developing imagery for my final project. 

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Experimenting with nail polish and black paper was very interesting! I love the subtle rainbow effects it gave, similar to the effects of oil mixed in water. I thought of doing this experiment after I played around with the glitchy wave patterns from my photoshop experiments.

I pored a few drops of clear nail polish on to a bowl of water, and immediately dipped my black paper on to it and it coated the nail polish on in an array of psychedelic colour.

 I never thought in colour before for this assessment, as my artist reference was also more close to a monochrome palatte. This burst of colour was an unexpected move that my experiments led me to.

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Photoshop experiments: Tiffany and I decided to try out some projection photography as we were both very interested in experimenting with its effects. But while working on it, we realized that ideally, it was projection ‘mapping’ that we were both after (we are keen to learn that at some point!). So we played around with a projector and a Nikon D800, and tried out the effects we got by projecting different photos of different hues and brightness. I was in full black and Tiff had on a lighter outfit so the effects we got were very different. Also as our skin tones were of different shades, we each reflected light very differently- certain colours bounced off differently.

Either way, I wasn’t too happy with the results we got so I decided to play around with them on Photoshop and try out some irregular glitch-y effects.

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Artist Inspiration: Kate McDowell: Stunning resin sculptures often showing distorted amalgamations of body forms with animals and other eerie elements.

I stumbled upon her work after I completed my copper-wire experiment and I found that she has a very similar representation of my ‘snake formed brain’ idea! This again challenged me to develop my idea further. Can I go more abstract?

I love the theme of her work and the emotion it brings out in the viewer- a mix of intricate beauty and slight discomfort. Getting inspired by these sculptures also helped me realize that my topic on glitch would be perfectly complimented by such an approach to evoking the same emotion in a viewer..

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This is a short walk-through clip from one of my sessions at the Virtual Reality studio at Makerspace. I LOVED experimenting with the various brushes and tools using a software called ‘GravitySpace’. It was definitely an experience unlike any other, as I got to draw in 3D in space and the tools were very versatile and I got to experiment by making various movements and the shapes and patterns each brush let me create. 

I started out by drawing my ‘Loose Ends’ copper-wire project using a free hand brush. Drawing this in VR helped me to go further in trying to re-visualize this idea in more abstract ways. I was thinking along these lines as I’m interested in drawing my final piece in VR and 3D printing it in resin.

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Artist Inspiration: Odani Motohiko: Japanese Dark Arts.

I was very inspired by Odani’s work, the eery terrifying yet stunning pieces seem to have an embedded story portraying a dark past within each of them. I especially loved the way the material has been used limited to a monochromatic palette to bring out a sense of simplicity within each complicated formation of structure.

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‘Loose Ends’ - Copper-wire experiment

This is an experiment I did using copper-wire to visualize a concept idea I thought of- the brain formed by a tangled snake. keywords behind this thought were ‘Betrayal’, ‘toxicity’, ‘unreliable’. Even though working with wire was challenging, I was quite happy with the end result. Doing this experiment made me think of ways to carry this idea further - could I recreate this piece as an installation? Could I bring some sort of functionality to it? How could I model this digitally? I quite like the vibe and emotion portrayed through this piece and I want to take forward the mood of this piece to my final artwork.

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Artist inspiration for Assessment 1: Pennacchio Argentato

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“Sever the Connection” – Experimental poster for Assessment 1 ADAD 1002

The word glitch refers to an unpredictable irregularity in a system—digital and analogue alike. Explore the creative possibilities of glitch. 

  My project for Assessment 1 explores this topic in the context of ‘glitch in thought processes’; more rather, the nature of an anxious mind to divert into obsessive intrusive thought sequences diverting from day to day average thoughts. I have interpreted this angle of thought through my own personal experience and documentation, as it is a state of mind I have always dealt with.

  I initially visualized the term glitch in multiple ways; void, bend, divergence and recurrence, in turn visualizing my poster to carry such characteristics to give the viewer such unexpected recurring feelings of irregularity. I knew my poster was one that must evoke feeling, rather than direct meaning; therefore readability was not one of my goals here.

  My creative process began with spontaneous and control-less action- where I needed to create a connection between mind and hand to write words that turned to sentences, then ideas- just as my thoughts would run continuously one lapping on to another. I had to maintain a very experimental and spontaneous approach as that was the only way I could tap in to the essence of such mental chaos. This is also why this assessment- as much as was challenging, has showed me a refreshing approach to creating, because usually, I over-control my actions from beginning to end whenever I paint.

  Afterwards I moved on to the second stage which was destruction and regeneration. This stage symbolizes the thoughts that keep recurring in warped arrays each time they are dismissed/disregarded as not being parallel to reality. This is also in direct reference to the mind’s indecisiveness, shuffling through extreme ends of emotion. The patch work of taped paper-fragments symbolize this overall instability.

  I was inspired mainly by contemporary artist Pennacchio Argentato, who’s sculptures ‘Alternate Future 555#’ and “Shield 0001#” brought about a visual brokenness and refraction, and helped me in-turn visualize my idea. I was also heavily inspired by the posters from the Dada’ movement- for the discontinuous forms and its placement of typography and imagery that evoke strong feelings.

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Assessment 1 progress: A few process shots off my sessions in assembling my final project together. I have to say I really let my self out of control a little for this one and I‘m glad I did because it really let me develop a process along the way. The process was more about spontaneity and creating/severing/regenerating the mental connection and overflow of thought. The process photos show shreds of such written paper, experimentation with inks, paint, and tape.