Vellus machina
Inspiration for Vellus machina came from my work Consumerism as Manifestation of Eugenics. Vellus machina provokes and addresses the interests of consumers afraid and/or excited about developments in Artificial Intelligence and robotics through the form of an interactive, breathing robot.
To generate the form for Vellus machina, I soaked reeds in water and wove them around a manikin form to create its body. I repeated this process three times to generate the whole form.
I decided to recreate the first iteration of Vellus machina's form in RhinoCAD and Grasshopper so that I could make sure that Vellus machina would fit on the stand for the Digital Fabrication Studio Research: Unrvl the Code 2016 group show. I also chose to remodel in Grasshopper and Rhino so that I could tweak the original form.
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I decided to wet felt uncarded wool to create Vellus machina's fur. I wanted its fur to be reminiscent of a mammal's.
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Initially, I wanted the fur to be naturally dyed gray with sunflower heads, but I realized that this was not needed to convey my idea. Instead, I utilized the original coloring of the material.
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To create Vellus machina's change in breathing rate, I worked with an engineer to develop a calibration code that caused Vellus machina to breathe slower when touched. The mechanics that caused this movement include an Arduino, conductive fabric that senses touch, and a touch capacitance sensor.
×Femme+Masc
Femme+Masc is an initial exploration in the use of organic shapes and bright colors to make hand-drafted, gender neutral garments that combat Western associations of the organic/colorful being feminine.
I started out my sketches for
Femme+Masc by generating garment designs on female croquis. After generating about 15 designs on a female croqui, I experienced a design revelation. I realized I should be drawing designs on a male croqui. By doing so, I would be able to contradict pretaught notions of where organic shapes and color should exist in garment design.
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AMERICAN MADE: I (we) you (me) can perpetrate and empathize at the same time
For material exploration, I focused on pushing the material limits of velvet and kombucha leather. Velvet possesses a lusciousness that gives one a sense of comfort and care, a trait that is needed when addressing complex topics. The image here is of pushing laser engraved velvet to its limit.
×The other aspect of my material exploration is kombucha leather. Kombucha leather is a material that results from a green tea/sugar vat with a SCOBY left in it undisturbed for two weeks. Kombucha captures my attention for its ability to fascinate and disgust people depending on its material state. Since it was a material I was not as familiar with, I chose to devote the majority of my material exploration to the kombucha leather.
Kombucha leather while it's wet(left) and it's drying(right)
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Kombucha dyed in a brazilwood/alum bath
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Exploration of placing kombucha leather to dry over 3-D print forms, brazilwood dyed china silk, and indigo/brazilwood dyed china silk.
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Kombucha leather from different colored teas to see if I could minimize waste from the dye process. Turmeric tea (left), brazilwood tea (right)
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During my time of material exploration, I also learned how to make furniture so that I could explore how I could control how people interact with the work. The bench on the left ended up being a part of my final thesis exhibition.
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Since I pursued different ways of depicting the body, I studied different ways humans depicted the body in the past, such as in window displays, Bodies: The Exhibition, Victorian Post-Mortem photographs, and the sculptures of Edward Degas.
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To create a model accurate to size and to make sure I created the pose I desired, I wrapped myself in duct tape sticky side out and then recovered the duct tape sticky side down so that I would have a relatively water repellent surface to drape kombucha leather on.
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To make sure the kombucha leather wrapped around the duct tape form evenly, I put it in a two-sided press to get water out of it evenly.
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Duct tape body wrapped in kombucha leather sheets
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After completing the body, I designed and prototyped the assless chaps. I thought that I would end up dressing the body in the assless chaps, but after mocking up the work, I realized that this would not be best for the work.
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Process of utilizing RhinoCAD to draft the pants so that they would fit in an 18" by 32" lasercutter bed while still fitting the body
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Prototyping the work also involved determining what height and size a pedestal needed to be create the intended interactions with the kombucha body. To accomplish this goal, I placed the kombucha body at different heights while it was in the same space of the bench.
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Three quarter sketch of the pedestal for I (we) you (me) can perpetrate and empathize at the same time
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Process of making parts of the pedestal on the CNC Router as well as a mock up of what the corner of the pedestal would look like
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A critique of the mock up allowed me to realize there needed to be another material language for the object to convey my concept. In this case, I explored abaca paper pulp, a material that could provide support for the kombucha sculpture where needed as well as convey aspects of my concept.
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Another critique made me realize that the original object I made was too stiff. Combining the abaca material as well as breaking up the kombucha body allowed me to reach the place the work needed to be.
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