3D Module- 1st term

We were given a research project of Structure.

Structure - Build. Support.Organise

Research Questions
Why is structure important and what does it allow us to do?
What are the values and material of structure?
Is there a predetremined hierarchy of needs/goals that guarantee a successful structure?

I think structure is the framework which supports and organises its content, structure is often derived from experimentation and follows previous successful formulas. It can be both man made and natural.

We were told to go away an explore what structure we found interesting and collate primary and secondary forms of research. I picked dramatic structure and starting investigating what models there were already out there for dramatic structure. As they told us not to think about an end concept I looked at dramatic structure deliberately not thinking of design in mind.

"Dramatic structure is the organisation of conflict between characters in their world" Julia Keefer 2002

Dramatic Structure is found in plays, books, films, songs, and advertisements. First of all I looked at the history of how dramatic structre has been defined in Theatre. The mot famous of theorists was Aristotle who decribe the structure of needing the following:

A Beginning
A Middle
An End

Freytag theorised about dramatic structure developing the Freyatg's Triangle.

Starting with an incentive moment, then a conflict being introduced leading to a climax resulting in the plot unravelling and then finally ending with a resolution.

Although alot of works follow the traditonal model there are contemporary writers/directors who challenge them. It is now quite common for plays and films not to resolve by the end. I have seen plays that do not even have a climax, the writing being more of a stream of conciousness. I'm not sure if pieces without climax should be called Drama though one could argue that merely the presence of an audience and a platform could constitute as dramatic.

Brecht famously challenged the traditional model, though he didn't manage to intergrate his theories fully in his pieces. He set to break the the bourgeois convention of the fourth wall. To simplify his very complex views he felt plays should make the audience think not feel.

“Today when human character must be understood as the 'totality of all social conditions' the epic form is the only one that can comprehend all the processes, which could serve the drama as materials for a fully representative picture of the world.”

(Brecht's comment, 1931, in The Threepenny Opera)

“...the epic poet presents the event as totally past, while the dramatic poet presents it as totally present.”

The epic invites calm, detached contemplation and judgement; the dramatic overwhelms reason with passion and emotion, the spectator sharing the actor's experiences.
Brecht criticises what he calls “Culinary theatre”. This is theatre which merely gives an experience, mental refreshment as a meal is a bodily restorative. Brecht despises theatre which provides mental foodstuffs but makes no difference to audience. He believes that the audience should be made not to feel, but to think. (Note that Brecht supposes these two to be in opposition to each other - but this need not be so: Shakespeare at his best can challenge the head and the heart.)
Dramatic theatre presents events:

• from the hero's viewpoint (distorting judgement,) and
• as happening now (preventing calm detachment.)

To counter this the illusion must be broken. Theatre must do this continually.
And, therefore, the audience must be made aware that events are not present events (happening now), but past events being represented as narrative, with commentary provided to encourage our own reflection. This is not unlike the experience of reading a book with critical notes in the margin, or as if a novelist supplied his own comment on a page facing that bearing the narrative. Some modern anti-novelists have done this.
The audience is intended to sit back, relax (hence Brecht's wish for smoking!) and reflect, as did hearers of bards in classical Greece or Anglo-Saxon England. The theatre of illusion creates a spurious present, pretending things are happening now. But the epic theatre is historical: the audience is continually reminded that epic theatre gives a report of events.

To discourage audience from identifying with character and so losing detachment, the action must continually be made strange, alien, remote, separate. To do this, the director must use any devices that preserve or establish this distancing.
http://www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/drama/brecht.htm

I do not necessarily agree that something can not make people feel and think at the same time. Maybe I need to look at the differences between Brecht and Freytag to define my own opinion of what dramatic theory looks like. From my research I think the main differences are:

Brecht                                   Freytag
Detachment                           Attachment
Past not present                     Action in the present
No fourth wall                        Fourth Wall
Narrative                               Suspense of belief
History                                  Experience

The predetermined hierarchy of needs I think for comes down to just an audience and a platform.

I have no idea how to translate this in 3D as yet!! But I think I will try out combinations of the above.

For assistance in thinking in 3D, I brainstormed words that would relate to both dramatic structure and design to trigger inspiration.

Reveal
Suspend
Suspense
Spectator
Audience
Transport
Interaction
Detachment
Illusion
Mask
Frame
Unfold
Box
Conflict
Contrast
Vivid
Moving
Striking
 

Laser Cutting and 3D Printing

Got introduced to the laser cutter and the 3D printer yesterday and my mind is now reeling with possibilities. Here I have rasterised a piece of cardboard with an image of a stamp.

I want to start playing with these machines as soon as possible so I can experiment with combining the processes with traditional methods. Off to buy some materials today so I can see which are successful I will post further photos when I get to try them out next Friday.

Research Module 1st Term- Themes

My first project was to come up with themes I am interested in exploring for my MA. We were told they must be deep not to general and have three chosen images for each theme with no more than 50 words explaining our choices.

I had no idea what they they meant by theme, theme is not subject matter and is general in its very nature. "Theme" is an umbrella that its subjects sit under, the theme being what the subjects have in common.

It is also quite scary to make decisions so early on and be stuck with them so I had a hard time with this project.

I narrowed it down to the following four.

Spectacle
Bower Bird
Censorship
Facade

Spectacle/
What makes a spectacle? Here I have shown pictures of a theatre, a car crash and a public hanging. I am interested in the relationship between the spectacle and the spectator, the times of complete detatchment and when the spectator becomes part of the specatcle itself.
Bowerbirds
/http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1310855/How-male-bowerbirds-use-optical-illusions-attract-mate.html
I've used Bowerbird as a symbol of collectors and their collections. Bowerbirds collect and decorate their bowers with shell, stones and other natural ornaments to attract the female. The satin bowerbird tends to only collect blue debris to match their own blue appearance. I think this absolutely fascinating and drew me to think about the way we nest, collect and accumalate and the different reasons surrounding why we do this. In some cases we can be defined by our objects but I wonder if in other cases they are used to fill a void. I knew a girl who collected penguins, soft toy penguins, photos of penguins, pottery penguins... I could never really fathom why...
Censorship/
The interesting thing about the history surrounding censorship is how telling it can be about the society at the time. There is a lot of humour to be found in censorship also and I like to put humour in my work. Playing around the idea of having a sense censored may prove interesting. If we are unable to use our voices it forces us to consider other methods of communicating, our gestures and our expressions become more articulated. You minimize one thing and the other become more heightened like squeezing a balloon.
Facade/
The word facade can mean many things which is exactly why I chose it. I love how it can relate to both an object and a human as I think design is about trying to correlate the two. I am drawn to people that appear to be hiding a secret, the idea of what happens behind closed doors could provide endless material to explore. I like people to suprise me and challenge my perceptions, we all have habit of falling into stereotyping when we first meet people when really we have no idea who they are or what they are into, which is why I have chosen one of my images of a bearded cross dresser. The picture of the building shows chipped of paintwork revealing the brick undernath I think this links very well with the cross dresser. Hiding, revealing, illusion and deception are very exciting things to explore in design and I feel facade can relate to all of these words.