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Final Piece, Blossom Branch 2020

See here for the piece with context: http://meganbenson.me/flowers

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Mock up of what it could have been

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Melting the flash, to reveal hidden structures part 2

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Melting the flash, to reveal hidden structures 1

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Video of it close up!! Very pleased that the servo is able to move multiple teeth racks at the same time. Using the branches found in my local park as the structure.

excuse the music

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Artist Research

Phoebe Washburn, I like Washburn’s work; by utilising discarded material she’s playing with value and dichotomies, such as her piece Regulated Fool’s Milk Meadow, where she looks at organic matter vs industrial tools and human desire to control life. Her pieces are often site based which leaves room for chance, she names this practice spontaneous architecture:

“I just let the structures evolve by repeating the same action again and again. The process has a slightly neurotic element in that it involves adding little behaviour habits. As silly as it sounds, I often feel as if my assistants and I are beavers building a dam. The shapes are less about form than they are about the activity involved in amassing and assembling the forms."

This struck me because the cyclical monotonous nature of repeating an action is something that tied my physical experimentation with automata with my conceptual line of maintenance workers, the ways in which they are timetabled around the workers with more rights, of a higher status, dealing with structural bias against them. The fact that they are forced to come in, sick or not, because they cannot afford not to, forced to repeat often monotonous labour.

Ken Rinaldo’s Autopoiesis, is really cool too. I love the combination of organic and mechanic materials. I love the fluidity of his robots and their interaction with the visitors and each other.

I would very much like to continue creating work that plays with material and movement and the virtual/ earthly divide; grounding reflections in physical experimentation

Theo Jansen’s moving PVC sculptures, walking on the beach while helping preserve the wildlife. is this everything I’d love to be an more?? yes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj-NqWDH2qE

Jane Prophet’s  (Trans)Plant, looks at plant structures but took it in a slightly different direction to me, using organic motions rather than material. This to me, harks back to my note about Tim Hunkin’s Arcade Machines, in that in order to survive and be in a public realm, robustness is key. But in doing so, removes the delicacy and preciousness that you get with real nature, it goes in with the assumption that people are haphazard, clumsy, do not proceed with care, will break and intend to break at any opportunity given. So don’t give that opportunity. Which is why my piece cannot be interactive with visitors, for it will just be destroyed.

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Notes from atau and April's session, regarding conceptual development

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Using Github pages with Hugo to host website portfolio and degree show project (flowers)

It seems to me that the way I code is the same as the way I make art. Messy. half finished, screwed up, multiple folders with similar names everywhere with a singular final beautiful fully working project in the midst of it:

Collation of tutorials that were most useful, so if to do it again, you can skip to the beautiful end project and not the scrunched up half projects strewn around it:

-https://inside.getambassador.com/creating-and-deploying-your-first-hugo-site-to-github-pages-1e1f496cf88d

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The most effective way to do it, is to do it

After partaking in a collaborative session as part of Arebyte, we ended by chanting the mantra of Toni Cade Bambara and Amelia Earheart - “The most effective way to do it, is to do it” following the Black Feminist Breathing Mantra found here. The experience stuck with me both for physical action of saying the same thing as others do brings about feelings of community, of our individual voices melding into one, and the strength of the statement. That if you are aiming to do something, action is the key - to not think too much between those steps. 

The most effective way to do it, is to do it

The most effective way to do it, is to do it

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New technique for flower, doing all the petals around the clay mold instead of separate ones each

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Trying to add wooden structure to them and make it look more branchy

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Some undeveloped brainstorms

Also artist research on decay:

https://www.rebeccalouiselaw.com/artwork

http://kathykelley.us/about/

https://thepointmag.com/criticism/the-art-of-decay/

http://lazymom.org/okgssdlrrlko5k9csjr8jig0aaw9l9

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Mechanical progress, thinking through the conceptual side today also. tracing back to where I started and themes of thought now, post lockdown. Also the roses in my parent’s house are in full bloom.

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Close up of cogs working :)

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Two flowers working!!!! 

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Stepper Motor, Not working very well, not sure why

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MATERIAL TESTING!!

Above you can see some paper clay - although no blender so instead left it to soak for three days and then molded it with flour. Gonna try again with a hand blender in a week or so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YirNv5xOjfM

Melting plastic - thought, as from previously, that I shouldn’t be making more plastic… so instead I’m melting it into something new??? I’m not sure the fumes are very good, perhaps the fumes are worse than making more bio plastic? I need to do some thinking.

Either way, it semi working / has potential.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsvif1v8qv8

Which leads me to needing to do some conceptual thinking of how the piece would change if I used melted plastic as a material. Ive been using 3D printed PLA so far so its not like the material has changed that much. But if I am wanting to have a token towards overlooked care structures perhaps plastic is not the way. But then again, recently there has been a massive call for plastic because of its sterile capacity for masks and ventilators, so perhaps plastic can be thought through to still highlight the care infrastructures. I’m not sure