Living Sculptures
Living Sculptures Benjamin Dueñas Figueroa Degree Project Masters in Interaction Design - UMEÅ, Institute of Design - Umeå University. Umeå Institute of Design - Umeå University. Examiner - Mikael Wiberg Programme Director, Masters programme in Interaction Design, Institute of Design - Umeå University. Examiner - Lennart Andersson Director of Interaction Design, Designer MFA - Ergonomidesign Stockholm, Sweden
Index 2.9.2 Snow Sculpture Contest 2.9.3 Model & Material 2.9.4 The Battle of Jante 2.10 Story & Movies 2.11 The Story & The Sculpture 2.12 Environment and Context
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2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16
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Summary
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Acknowledgments
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1.Introduction 1.1 Approach - Interaction Design + Art 1.2 The Ice Hotel 1.3 A touch of Interaction 1.4 A sculpture made with Interaction Design 1.5 My view of Interaction Design 1.6 Slow Technology 1.7 Time Technology 1.8 The city 1.9 Umeå 1.10 Walking in Umeå 1.11 First Thoughts 1.12 Methodology 1.12.1 Project Schedule
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2.Research
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2.1 Living Umeå 2.2 Sculptures in Umeå 2.3 Sculpture Analysis 2.4 First Explorations 2.5 Shadows in Umeå 2.6 Shadows on the map 2.7 Observation 2.8 Searching Concepts 2.9 Artistic Events in Umeå 2.9.1 Light Festival
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3.Conceptualization
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3.1 Palette of Tools 3.2 Brainstorming Sessions 3.2.1 The Session 3.2.2 Results 3.2.3 Table of comments 3.2.4 Open House User Study
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3 4 5 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 10 13 13
Kinetic Sculptures Open Source Models 2.14.1 Cow Parade 2.14.2 Roundabout Dogs Emergent Interactions What does it work for? 2.16.1 Solving a Problem 2.16.2 Saint John of the Cross
2.17 Comparison Graph 2.18 Seeing through the tower
3.3 Selected Places for a Sculpture
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29 29 30 31 31 31 32 33
37 38 39 - 40 41 - 42 43
3.4 Sculpture Values 3.5 Sensing & Sensuality 3.6 Fantasy coming to reality 3.6.1 Steampunk 3.6.2 Real but Useless 3.7 Ideation Sketches
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3.7.1 The 3.7.2 The 3.7.3 The 3.7.4 The
Fountain of Umbrellas Windmill Chocolate House Broken Bridge
4.1.1 The Acoustic Bridge 4.1.2 The Tree of Bikes 4.1.3 The Vagabund House 4.2 Sculpting & 3d Modeling 4.2.1 Clay or 3d Modeling
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3.8 Second Sketching Face 3.8.1 Bike Fountain 3.8.2 Snow Factory 3.8.3 Tree of Bikes 3.8.4 The Acoustic Bridge 3.8.5 The concept in the river- The Windmill
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3.9 Prototyping
4.Design
3.9.1 Lego Sketching 3.9.2 Cam Mechanism 3.9.3 Lego Cam 3.9.4 Lego with Throwees 3.9.5 Tracing Leds
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59 60 61 62 63 64
4.3 Video 4.3.1 Presentation Techniques
4.4 Story
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4.4.1 Lars, The last man after the fire 73 - 74 in UmeĂĽ. 75 4.5 3D Model Proposal. 76 4.5.1 The Vagabund House 4.5.2 Features 76 4.5.3 Sustainability & Environment 76 4.5.4 Accesibility 77 4.5.5 Collaboration 77 4.5.6 Mechanisms 78 4.5.7 Instrument 78 4.5.8 Architecture 78 4.5.9 Functionality & Engineering 78 4.5.10 Possible Interactions 78 4.5.11 Web cam
4.6 Conclusions
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5.References
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5.1 Literature 5.2 Web
Summary The project living sculptures is an exploration for a series of sculptures or sculptural and architectonic spaces around the city of Umeå, with the intention of enhancing the experience of living the city and provide a magical moment while walking, and going outside of this city in the far North of Sweden. The natural phenomenons that take place on this particular city, are explored, as the snow, the ice, the long winter and the long sunny days. The intention was to create a transforming sculpture for a transforming city, that can be lived and can work both, in summer and winter. On this project I tried to get away of what has been on my experience a normal and defined project by the industry, and I am looking at it more as my dream project, combining, interaction design, sculpture and architecture. Fantasy is one of the main motivations and inspirations to do the project and the wish of contributing to the city as a student of the Umeå Institute of Design.
Internal Project Supervisor - Mattias Andersson. Interaction Designer based in Stockholm, Sweden - Consultancy Service on Interaction Design, User Experience Design and Service Design. This work is supported by the Municipality of Umeå.
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Acknowledgments I thank God and María for this work and this learning experience. Thanks to all the people who helped me in one of other way to make this work possible I will be always in debt with all of you, thanks to The Design School, The Umeå Kommun, thanks Umeå and Sweden. Vitorio Benedetti Jose Ledon Rahul Sen Roberto Christen Mikko Pitkänen Jannes Peters Caroline Lindberg Lena Edman Linda Bresäter Ville Lintamo Tae-yeol Lim George Paramantes Joachim Falck-Hansen Ya-Ting Maggie Kuo Pierre-Alexandre Poirier Benjamín López Carl-Erik Enqvist Stephanie Wuschitz Gabriel Jenny Mozgovoy Lars Sahlin Linda Bogren Tapio Alakörkkö Mike Stott Birgitta Nordholm Niklas Andersson Mikael Wiberg Mattias Andersson
Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Umeå - Sweden Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Art School - Umeå University. Miss Baltazar’s, Laboratory Miss Baltazar’s, Laboratory Umeå Kommun Umeå Kommun Interaction Design Lab - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University. Institute of Design - Umeå University.
I dedicate this work to Grisel...
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1.Introduction 1.1 Approach - Interaction Design + Art.
This work is presented as a degree project for graduation from the Masters Programme in Interaction Design at the Institute of Design - UmeĂĽ University in Sweden.
With a background in industrial design, and after being working for five years within the industry of medical products and medical technology, I learned the importance of a multidisciplinary group on the development of a project, and not only for that field but also for the field of industrial and interaction design. Many design studios in the world as IDEO are constructed on the basis of a multidisciplinary group of people from different backgrounds as for example: mechanical engineering, electronics, software development, graphic design, psychology etc. and more and more the industry is requiring and integrating the interaction design to their groups.
The reasons I selected this project are several, and I think I am putting together all the learning that I have had through the study of this masters. First of all I think that this is my dream project, in which I can put together all my effort and skills, being at school is a possibility for dreaming and doing something I specially like. Thanks to the school and it’s reach environment of people that pushed me all the time to think in different and new ways, I end up doing this work.
The interaction design then has been intervening projects of all kind of fields, which demonstrates the enormous capacity of action for this study. Capacity, which allow it to be in projects not only related with human computer interaction, but also with projects related with industrial design, games, music, sports, medical design, gastronomy, biology, architecture, art, etc..
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Icehotel located in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden.
1.2 The Ice Hotel. The Ice Hotel was originally created on Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, the idea of constructing an ice hotel emerged due to an art exhibition of pieces made on ice, that took place in that region. The exhibition was made inside an Igloo. A group of foreigners that visited the exhibition equipped with reindeer hides and sleeping bags proposed the idea of having the igloo as a place to sleep, from that point was created the Ice hotel. Since then the Hotel which is conceived as a Fairy Tale come true have been constructed every winter and now is a world famous concept which provide unique experiences to its visitors. The ice hotel invite new artists every year to construct it, and now it is been included also interaction design, searching for new experiences mixed with the concept of the hotel.
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This is the closest example of a multidisciplinary team of artists, architects and interaction designers that I can refer to the way I am approaching this project.
Ergo - screwdrivers developed by Ergnomidesign 1982.
1.3 A touch of Interaction Design. The project Ergo, designed by Ergonomidesign, shows a way in which it was developed a product in which interaction design took part. A product like a screwdriver with a simple and effective solution of locating graphical icons on the backside, to easy locate the correct one, and in which no computer interaction is needed.
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1.4 Motivation
1.6 Slow Technology and Slow Interactions.
I see necessary to integrate interaction design with different projects of art. I personally think that the humanity is arriving to a point of the history in which the technology is miss used and it is overpassing the human capacity for understanding it and living with it.
Slow Technology is a design philosophy that discuses the general principles of it and that analyzes the basic issues in interaction design, aiming moments of reflection and mental rest rather than efficiency in performance.
My intention with this project is to create with a sculpture an example of interaction design that questions the use of the technology on our daily basis and that proposes a “slow interaction” with the people of a city and with the environment.
1.5 My view of Interaction Design My conception about interaction design through the course of my studies, it is the one that is focused on the study of the human, and the interactions with it and around it. But not using the technology available as the way to achieve something. The field is still growing and defining itself, and this project is an example of another direction that could be followed. I am using the methodologies I have applied on other previous projects of interaction design. I wonder what would happen if it an interaction designer is asked to create a sculpture. Should we say no to that kind of project?, it is impossible?.
Examples of slow technology artefacts are art and music. A house is built as part of our everyday-life environment, but at the same time it is architecture, interior design, etc. can be conceived as works of art. We can change our perspective by looking at the house as an art object and not just as a building in which our office is situated. Then the house is not longer “just “ a heated place that keeps the rain out, but also a complex unity of interesting expressions of which many have their roots in the reflective environments of artistic work.1
1.7 Time Technology This theme identified as a slow technology aspect, concerns the design that amplifies the presence and not the absence of time. It should not be technology that is tiresome and time consuming, but technology that stretches time and slow things down. A good music instrument is typical example of that technology.2
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Taken from the article Slow Technology - Designing for Reflection - Lars Hallnäs and Johan Redström.
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Time Technology, article Slow Technology - Designing for Reflection - Lars Hallnäs and Johan Redström.
A key issue in slow technology, as a design philosophy, is that we should use slowness in learning, understanding and presence, to give people time to think and reflect. Using such an object should be not time consuming but time productive. Lars Hallnäs and Johan RedstrÜm
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1.8 The city Before mention that I am working with Umeå, I would like to say that I wanted to explore more “the city” I think of it as an constantly generator of ideas and interactions, and it is one of my greatest inspirations for this work.
1.9 Umeå It is the largest growing city in the north of Sweden, with a population of 112 000 inhabitants, 30 thousand are students, so you can say that it has a young and vital atmosphere. The city is currently competing to be the “City of Culture for the year 2014” in the European Union. You can find an international environment and it is possible to find people from all over the world. Umeå it is a strange place to think and live, it is unimaginable what is like to be here if you have not been before. Two years is not much, but at least I been here at winter and summer time, feeling the cold, biking on ice and taking fika at 10:30 in the morning.
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So I am starting with this point as a strong reference of my research on designing these sculptural spaces.
1.10 Walking in Umeå. Still I think that is difficult to move to a new city to another, and most difficult to adopt it and feel it as yours. That is the reason I am seeing this project as a contribution to the city, of the way I have lived here and adopted it. I could endless say many things that I personally love from Umeå, just to mention some of them: I love to walk by the river, the whitest white of the snow that I have ever seen, the minus 20 degrees chilling your face, the sticky and heavy snow, the foggy days, the white trees and the people. I have seen over this time how the city it is transformed by the winter, with it’s long nights and almost screaming silence. My inspiration came from that, preparing yourself to live a changing and transforming city understanding both winter and summer as having different but also exciting opportunities to live.
what makes different a think from another a day from another is the adoption... The little Prince.
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1.11 First Thoughts My first thoughts about the project were to produce a sculpture or series of sculptures around the city of Umeå, with the intention of generating on people the sense of exploration over the city and enhancing the experience of living here in Umeå in summer and winter and taking advantage of the natural phenomenons.
With this in mind I generated a collage of images and I relate the pictures with concepts of living the city looking for experiences within the city. I took examples of different cities in the world which I visited previously, and I see as inspiration or images that have had a strong visual impact on me as magical places.
La Fontana di Trevi in Rome, this fountain containing figures of the Roman and Greek mythology, is always visited not only to appreciate the monument, but also to celebrate whenever the local football soccer team in Rome has a victory. People makes a huge celebrations there, and it is a strong point for reference in the city. It has also functions like launching coins on the water to make a wish or take a quick shower.
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The Park Güell on Barcelona Spain is a magic place to visit also, it was an experimentation studio at that time for Antonio Gaudí. He came up with this really special place full of architectural elements that makes you feel on a different world for a moment.
A place that involve people
A magic place...
A place that is not only a floor to walk on
A place to imagine. A common space for Architecture and nature.
Your favourite place A place to make a wish.
No matter if it rains or snows...
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A place for both Winter and Summer.
Inspiration Collage
Natural
Architecture Object
Landscape
Artificial
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1.12 Methodology
February
January
March
April
May
June
Degree Project - Schedule - 2009 week 6
week 7
week 8
week 9
week 10 week 11 week 12 week 13 week 14 week 15 week 16 week 17 week 18 week 19 week 20 week 21 week 22 week 23
Research
Prototyping - Building
Presentation Preparation Report
Analysis
Video
Exhibition Preparations
“3 weeks before� presentations
Easter
Halfway Presentations
Kick - off
Ideation
1.12.1 Project Schedule For this project I wanted to follow a different structure from the previous projects I have always worked. On this case I extended the research part for almost eleven weeks, but at the same time I worked on analyzing and thinking on possible ideas at a rough sketch level, with the intention of exploring concepts earlier in the process.
Research Analysis Ideation
This way I research, analyze and sketch, iterate the ideas and continue back on the research, to clarify things that emerged through the process.
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Degree Exhibition Opening
week 5
Degree Examinations
week 4
2.Research 2.1 Living Umeå.
2.2 Sculptures in Umeå
I think I started to think about this project since the first time I arrived to Umeå, one year and a half before the degree project, so I think I commenced my research since then. Just by looking at this place coming from a totally different one, I discovered here that it has a changing environment every day, a place where you have to be really aware of the weather, being pendant on not to miss a sunny day, a foggy day, a snowing one or even a totally gray one.
I started by looking and searching the sculptures in Umeå. I remembered to have watched some, but actually I founded that Umeå is full of sculptures and small parks.
I have never been that much aware before of the changing stations the way I was here, and watching all this incredible things happening on the nature, from the changing color on the leaves on Autumn until the heavy snow and white days in March and the green and sunny city on June. Winter is more than special here in Umeå, starting by saying that it last 6 months, you suddenly get less and less light and you get more and more early nights, meaning an opportunity to get advantage of this.
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I took pictures of the most interesting sculptures for me, trying to cover the most of them in the city, and I analyzed them finding particular things as the materials, topics and basic shapes.
Sculpture representing the northern lights. Location Umeå University. I think this is one of the most representative sculptures for the Umeå University and Umeå, it represents in an abstract way the northern lights, it is on the main campus by the lake, and it has lights inside it that makes it more attractive by night.
Geometrical Abstract Sculpture. Location - Umeå University. This geometrical sculpture of towers that together also form an angled sliced tower, represents materiality with the rusted metallic surface for the outside of it but the stainless steel finished for the tower on the inside. I like also how the snow has painted on white the top surface of them, as white squares.
Curved Stones - Location Umedalen Sculpture Park I liked this huge stones on the sculpture park, they represent to me the simplicity of the nordic culture, just a huge curved stone that has the shape of a bench, but also look as old ships dancing on the snow and making a contrast color separation on the snow surface.
Glass Abstract Geometrical Sculpture - Umeå Central Station. This is the first sculpture I saw when I arrived for the first time to Umeå, and I think now I had this image of it on my mind. It is not really huge but the crystal represents a frozen wave and nature that has this place. And it has a great illumination effect on the night.
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Light Towers in the snow. Location - Axtorpsv I found this sculptures on my way to the University, coming from Gamlia, I specially liked the effect of the red light on the snow and the pattern on the metallic tower. The snow helps to spread light on it’s surface.
This is not a sculpture in UmeĂĽ, but I liked the way it looks, it is like a big robotic sculpture on the way to the Umedalen Sculpture Park, with functional purposes of managing sand. I probably call it a non intentional sculpture - machine.
This is a wheel metallic sculpture, it seems that it is a mechanical wheel from a huge machine, but looking at it you can appreciate that it is probably completely made of chairs. Location - Umedalen Sculpture Park.
This is a mountain of metallic tubes of different sizes forming concentric circles. A person can go inside the sculpture as entering in a forest, but I could appreciate also different patterns as you are inside it. Location - Umedalen Sculpture Park.
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Rusted Metallic Fishes and Flowers. Location - Umeå Downtown. I love this sculpture on the center of Umeå, I like the green color of the rusted metal, and the abstract figures of flowers and the fish, and how the snow stays on all its surfaces.
The Standing Man - Umeå Rådhus-Torget (main square). This sculpture is pretty recent and curious, the name is “The Standing Man” and it is represented as a normal person with winter cloths. The sculpture is located on the floor so it blends with people around and it is so reachable, that somebody started wearing the man with dark glasses, scarfs and hats.
This sculpture are a series of phantom swedish houses represented as outlined lighted houses floating in the middle of the forest, it has a really magic effect.
An anthropomorphic sculpture on Umeå Downtown, a man with a telescope in the middle of a small park.
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This sculpture is located in Strompilen by the river, which provide the sculpture with a great natural background. It seems a wooden or natural formation because of its organic shapes, I could say that it is formed by the river, and you can see that it is formed actually with many faces on different layers.
A woman with a child on his arms in the middle of the snow gives the feeling of charm and protection, located also at the Umedalen Sculpture Park.
Between the Humanisthuset and the main library at the University of UmeĂĽ it is located this sculpture, I had the feeling of a robotic running man, represented with abstract geometry.
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2.3 Sculpture Analysis
Sculptures in Umeå
After analyzed the sculptures in Umeå, and I made this graphic of four categories, in terms of the location, materials, and themes.
Not Protagonist, Variety of Themes, Static, Not Interactive Special Locations
But in overall terms non of them are really protagonist as a huge bridge or structure, as for example, The Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Statue of The Liberty in NY.
Themes Nature, Abstract, Geometrical, Architechture, Human Body, Not Religious.
There is a variety of themes from the ones inspired on the nature to the abstract and architectural. I could find also a rich palette of materials, metal, stone, glass, light, snow, concrete, wood, clothes etc.
Materials
About the locations I found three main places where the sculptures are located in the city, The Umeå centre, The Main campus of the University, and the Sculpture park in Umedalen.
Metal, Stone, Glass, Light, Snow, Concrete, Wood, Clothes
Locations Umeå Centre, Umeå University, Sculpture Park
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2.4 First Explorations On the first stage of the project I was exploring and observing all the things happening in the environment, at this part of the world, things like the movement of the shadows, why they are so long? and about their movement.
The question about the length of the shadows at this point is explained because of the inclination of the earth’s rotation axis accordingly to the sun and the curved surface of the earth. On the Equator the shadow is projected vertically on the earth during the equinoxes different from that on the north pole of the earth the sun rises over the horizon at a very low high, the inclined light over the curved surface projects the long shadows at this place.
From the very beginning I started taking pictures of all those things and I started producing sketches at the same time. I was interested in the shadow movement that is connected with the movement of the earth and the sun, as it was used before to predict the dates on the calendar and the equinoxes, as in the ancient cultures like the Mayan in Mexico.
2.5 Shadows in Umeå This is a picture taken on early February in the morning, the shadow is inclined to the left and it is following a clockwise movement. At this part of the year there are not much more light hours but during the morning it is possible to catch some light. In fact the shadows on the north part of the earth, determined the direction of the hands in the clock, since the clock was invented and developed at the north hemisphere, but in the southern hemisphere of the earth the shadows move the opposite direction (anti clockwise).
High of the Sun at 11 am on February in Umeå Sweden - Historiegränd Ålidhem.
small figures on the surface of this model help to understand the long shadows on the curved surface of the earth.
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2.6 Shadows on the map I put a white board on my desk, and I started populating it with pictures and motives of UmeĂĽ for inspiration, I also put a picture taken from the sky where you can see with a very small detail the streets, the houses, some parks and the projected shadows of houses, trees and cars over the pavement. I marked with red the big green areas searching for possible places to locate the sculptures, and go and visit them personally. On this picture you appreciate only a small part of the city but it was interesting and really good to analyze the city from another view. I was also analyzing the projected shadows on the floor, it is hard to know in the map the real measure of the shadow without knowing the high of the building, but you can see on the example that the shadow goes until the corner of the block.
I made a rough experiment with a bottle on the river and I could measure that the length of the shadows vary from 3 to 4 times the high of the object but I did not go deeper into the scientific part of this just to have rough idea.
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Shadow length of a building in UmeĂĽ.
2.7 Observation Lots of observation and lots of pictures of the fascinating little things that happen here mainly in winter are stored in my computer, as I consider them part of the experimentation that I can use for the project. I selected four pictures of my favorite phenomenons of the low temperatures, the first one, the white trees when all the nude branches are covered with a layer of ice crystals, the second, the ice formations on the glass of the bus stop on very low temperatures and all the figures and formations that is possible to find, the third one , the accumulated layers of snow and that converts many spaces in snow pools and the last one, the effect of melting snow transformed into water and then forming ice shapes.
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2.8 Searching Concepts I started sketching since the beginning of the project looking for concepts and good ideas on a an early stage. On this first ideas I was looking to work with the snow and dynamic forces of the wind and sun light to power the movement on the sculpture. I played also with the idea of mixing color and transparent filters to obtain colored shadows.
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Idea of some circular transparent and colored layers that mixes to form colored shadows.
2.9 Artistic Events in Ume책 Every year there are many interesting events in Ume책, I would like to mention two of them that are of my particular interest for this work, one is the Light Show in winter and the Snow Sculpture Contest in both events is encouraged the participation of the citizens as a collaborative effort, thing that is really amazing when you appreciate the results.
This year not only artists participated but also the kids of Ume책 created a collaborative installation with glass bottles personalized by every kid.
Glass Bottles painted by the kids in Ume책 for the Light Festival.
2.9.1 Light Festival On the Light Festival are invited artist to create light installations around the city, depending on the form and nature of every work, can be the duration that they are exposed. A map is provided in order to locate all the installations spread in the city so every one can go and discover them.
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2.9.2 Snow Sculpture Contest As in the light show, every year is organized the Snow Sculpture contest, on February, probably the coldest month of the year and guarantying that there will be enough snow. This year I participated on the contest for many reasons, one of them just to live the great and unique experience of doing such an exotic piece, and the second, to be closer to people and the cultural and artistic events in the city, for my project.
On the contest teams of three individuals send a proposal, the organizers select the best proposals and eight teams participate on doing a sculpture. Every team starts with a huge cube of 3 meters width, per 3 meters depth , per 2.5 meters height, so it is a lot of material to get rid of in case you have a small proposal to do.
2.9.3 Model & Material For the participation we did a model made of gray clay, this material was perfect for this proposal in which we had to model human bodies, a face and a monster, and were able to add the level of detail that we wanted.
2.9.4 The Battle of Jante The concept for the sculpture is about a law that has been adopted as a way of thinking here at the Scandinavian counSnow Sculpture Participation Team - Lena Edman, Linda Bresäter, Benjamín Dueñas Figueroa, 2009. Name of the Team: Sunrise Place: First Place. Title of the Sculpture: The Battle of Jante.
tries as Sweden, “Don’t think you are someone”, is one of the phrases of this law, that was imposed by the church in middle age to avoid people to make disturbs or rebelling against it. Jante is the guy who talked to the people of Scandinavia about this law. The sculpture depicts two battles on the pages of a book, the battle of the past of Sweden with two fighting Vikings and the battle of today of a person fighting with the monster of Jante in the mind.
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2.10 Story & Movies I decided to look for a story behind the sculpture since I had the experience of the snow sculpture contest where the concept of the sculpture is related with a story, I could see and confirm how people was attached to that and how this can trigger the imagination of the people to be closer to the art piece. looking for that story I watched many movies and rear some tales, looking for inspiration. At the very beginning I searched for a love story, that is the reason many of the movies are related with that topic. I am mentioning here the most inspiring movies for the project. Lovers of the Artic Circle Citizen Kane Gnomes and Trolls Across the Universe Howl’s moving Castle -
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2.11 The Story & The Sculpture Looking for more examples of story based sculptures I also found some very interesting examples that I want to mention on this document. The project developed for the Snow Show Festival in Torino, Italy 2004, by Lebbeus Woods and Kikki Smith, is about the construction of an art and architectural installation made of snow and ice. All the proposals are designed on a team conformed by one artist and one architect. this time they constructed this proposal of a girl Alice, on a frozen lake which in the night turns on a net of lighted lines of fiber optics, revealing the content of the frozen lake. “The looking glass reflects the world as we see it but also reveals what we cannot see by simply looking but only by imagining.� Lebbeus Woods & Kikki Smith. It provides visitors with a mysterious and fascinating scene appreciated during the night. Only the fact of having the character of Alice watching the glass, allow us to enter into a different world of imagination even though we do not know anything about her.
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I can imagine a playground for her and the character playing with a rope of light that allow you to see inside of the surface of the ice. When I see that sculpture I feel immediately attached to it, I feel interest and curiosity about the story, but also triggers the imagination and provoke inside me the feeling of coming back again to visit the place as one of my favorites.
2.12 Environment and Context The kids in the middle of the forest also accompanied by the environment where you are not only going and visiting a sculpture but also its place, a complete scenario or context for the sculpture itself. This element completes even more the story, and provides a point of reality that mixes fantasy with the world we live.
2.13 Kinetic Sculptures Kinematics (from Greek, kinein, to move) is a branch of classical mechanics which describes the motion of objects without consideration of the causes leading to the motion. Kinetics.-derived from the Greek word (kinesis) meaning movement or the act of moving. On this new concept of sculpture are involved, artistic skills as well as mechanical skills in order to solve and figure out the mecha-
way of producing them. In some cases the movement is explicitly designed for the sculptures as in the case of the artist Choe U Ram but in some others the movement is just a consequence of the functionality that is wanted to achieve as in the case of the Theo Jansen’s animals. nisms of the sculpture’s movements. You are not only appreciating the shape of the sculpture but also the changing movement that affects the sculpture. Theo Jansen created animated and self-moving, sculptures, he mixes the concept of animals that consume the energy of the wind, to move and walk, and he uses recycled materials on his pieces.
Choe U-Ram kinetic sculpture and art piece.
On the Cinematic Clock we find a combination of movements different from the normal machinery of a clock, having the same functionality of measuring time but also providing a ludic appreciation of the mechanisms on which the moving elements are conformed by the same hours that travels along the whole system.
Motors, water, wind or magnetic energy are used as elements for this moving sculptures, and some others use the human force as the big sphere that floatates on water. Mechanisms have always appeared as sculptures for me, I see that this also could be a non intentional Theo Jansen’s kinetic sculpture.
Light kinetic sculpture.
Cinematic Clock.
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2.14 Open Source Models I studied also the sculpture as cultural phenomenon produced by a community of artists or the community of a city or a country and I am referring to this kind of movements as “Open Source Models� for creating collaborative art.
2.14.1 Cow Parade The cow parade is a good example of that. It is an artistic movement created in Switzerland originally in 1998 by Walter Knapp that have had an incredible success with exhibitions and creations from artists around the world. The exhibition travels around the world, each time the cow parade is presented on a different city, the community of artist on that city creates the exhibition, designing each artist a cow. The cows are made of fiber glass and the artist can select between tree model positions of cows to work with. The cows are exhibited in the streets of the selected city. I like this model of creation which brings the opportunity to every designer of creating a personal work
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but under the same frame that is the cow. The exhibition is growing every time it goes to another city and it is incredible rich in terms of the variety of results created.
2.14.2 Roundabout Dogs A curious phenomenon happened also in Sweden, where after a sculpture of a dog placed on a roundabout that was part of a temporal exhibition was vandalized. As a result, wooden dogs designed by people on that city, start appearing on the streets. After a while, the phenomenon spread into more cities of Sweden creating a very rich variety of different dogs on the streets.
Wooden Roundabout Dog in Sweden.
2.15 Emergent Interactions On one of the tutoring I had with Niklas Andersson at the UID, he mentioned and also provided me with an article about emergent interactions, a research that it is being done at the school, and directed by him. Emergent Interactions study the relation between a public event, (a concert, a football game), and the information generated, involving the people around, “the spectators”, trough their mobile phones, personal computers or PDA’s. After reading the document, I thought this new research could be applied to the project in terms of a new sort of community developed sculptures where every citizen can contribute to develop it, so it will be also a growing sculpture concept as people aport something new to it. Sketched idea for a growing sculpture where people could leave messages, pictures or digital files, saved on smalls items as candles or stacked old objects.
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Among the things people can aport are for example: sms messages, pictures, music files, text documents or videos that people can let on the sculpture.
2.16 What does it work for? As a designer of a sculpture I asked a lot of questions myself. Among those questions, was to find the real objective or function of the work I am doing. I think that question has been always pretty clear inside me, but it is better to clarify it a little bit.
2.16.1 Solving a Problem During the ethnography course on the first year of the masters, we had a lot of headache trying to find the objective of the course and more than one time we were looking for a problem to solve in our research with people, suddenly we ended up solving how a city should be working and planning the perfect solution for that problem. Christ of Saint John of the Cross in Glasgow, Scotland, made by Salvador Dalí.
At the end we found that this was not the way of understanding people but only closing the gap between the designer and the people that uses what we design, only trying to get closer to them and understand them a little bit more.
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With this project I am not solving any problem either only bringing people the possibility of having an experience on this city, and may be the function of it, is pretty much imaginary.
2.16.2 Saint John of the Cross I am comparing this project as going to the museum to see a famous painting, where people go explicitly to a specific city to see that painting, as it is the case of the Christ of Saint John of the Cross in Glasgow, Scotland. The painting was originally bought by the Glasgow corporation, for about £ 8,200, and since that, the corporation has recovered more that twice of the original value. People in Scotland has adopted this painting as their own, and actually won the prize for the Scotland’s favorite painting in 2006, and people continuously go to visit it to the museum. I compare it also as going to watch your favorite part in the city or going to your favorite coffee shop in town, having a cup of coffee with your friends but this time providing the experience with a sculpture.
2.17 Living Sculptures Comparison Graph
Fixed Sculpture or Monument
Living Sculptures
Interactive Installation Architecture
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2.18 Seeing through the tower
Eiffel Tower, Paris France
When the Eiffel Tower was about to be constructed it had many opposite opinions, why to built a useless monument? was the big question, Gustav Eiffel founded many justifications for that, using the tower for atmospheric or mechanical engineering tests, but at the end people find on the Eiffel Tower more than those justifications, they are attached to it and the tower provide them with an imaginary function. Andy Warhool said that an single image of a celebrity could say and express more things that anything, he express it with his film “Empire� when he took an 8 hours and 5 min. film of the Empire State on the USA. the film is one of the most communicative and astonishing films of the history.
Empire State - New York, USA.
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3.Conceptualization
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3.1 Palette of Tools With this graphic I helped myself to clear the options I had to design the sculptures or spaces. I am calling tools to those options and how they could be combined with topics I got from brainstorming sessions, and personal brainstorming that I have done through the course of the project. The Topics I had at this stage of the project where:
Memories
Solar System
Story Expression of Time
Paralel Worlds Plant Personality
Nature Driven Interactive - Use of Sensors & Hardware
Solar System Plant Personality Expression of Time Parallel Worlds Memories Story Based
Memories
Solar System Plant Personality
Low Tech
Expression of Time
Sculptures or Spaces
Expression of Time
Story
Mechanical - Kinetic Sculptures Memories
Tools
Expression of Time
Material Based
Story Emergent Interactions - Include People Information Mobile, PDA interaction
Solar System
Open Source Systems
Paralel Worlds
Story
Solar System Memories Plant Personality
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Memories
3.2 Brainstorming Sessions. Together with my classmates we had some sessions for brainstorming ideas about our projects, before the mid presentations. Each of us organized a session using different materials and techniques. It has always been a question for me on what should I ask on these brainstorming sessions to get the most of them, and it was not the exception on this case. On all the previous sessions I had during the masters I have seen different techniques for brainstorming, and I believe that one of the most power full tools to trigger creativity it is found in using props like neutral objects, words or pictures that can take participants to think on different ways. For this session I thought on using a big map as prop, so I printed a map from Google maps on the internet, I founded it really useful because I wanted people to see the map of Umeü with all the details as actually is looking at it from the top, with all it’s houses, parks and streets.
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The place you would put a sculpture. Select your favorite place in Umeå. A romantic place or the place of love. A place you would like to know. The place you would celebrate. The place you would never go. The place you would go your last day in Umeå. The place you have in mind of Umeå.
3.2.1 The Session I stick the map on the white board that we have on our studio, and I asked the people participating to select different places on the map resulted from 8 questions that I formulated for the session. For each question I asked people to select a place on the map with a sticker of different colors. I was interested in knowing which places would be interesting for people in Umeå, first, to put or locate a sculpture, and how people could relate those places with their favorite ones in Umeå. I also was interested in special places as the romantic places for example or the place you would never go to see if I could find interesting information.
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This are the questions I made for the brainstorming session: 1. 2.- The place you would put a sculpture. 3.- Select your favorite place in Umeå. 4.- A romantic place or the place of love. 5.- A place you would like to know. 6.- The place you would celebrate. 7.- The place you would never go. The place you would go your last day in 8.- Umeå. The place you have in mind of Umeå. Together with each question I asked the participants to write on a post it, in a sentence the reason they selected that place and write a personal code on each color sticker to identify the answers on the map.
3.2.2 Results As a result of the session, which I founded surprising, about all the different selected places, I had the next observations. After reading the comments, I found very interesting the variety of reasons that people chose but even though and I could find and relate that people tried to locate the sculpture on populated places and with easy access for people to watch the sculpture, different from the selections of favorite places that were related more with memories, anecdotes, and or nice place they liked.
Places Selected on the Nydala Lake.
Same selection as favorite `place and place for the sculpture.
In only one case were selected the favorite place and the place for the sculpture as the same one. The most populated section was on the downtown of the city and near the river.
UmeĂĽ Institute of Design. Ă…lidhem - Student corridors.
People selected as places they would never go, those ones on the map where there seem to be only housing places and far away from the center of the city. One of the most selected places was the UmeĂĽ Institute of Design, as the place of love or romantic, as favorite, for celebration and the place they would go their last day. But that was because almost all the participants were students from the School.
Places Outside of the map
Most Populated Section on the map.
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3.2.3 Table of comments form the session:
Place for the sculpture
Favorite Place
Feel like I am in a city
Calm, Relaxing Bike path “Feeling of Solitud”
People crowd even though is not so much crowded.
Design School, because of the people there.
Many things to see and buy
The little harbor - I love the Silence.
I would like it to be visible for a lot of people
Sanctuary feeling in nature a bridge and all forest ad water around you.
A lot of their lives.
Love to walk by the river it’s nice and beautiful.
I like the statue of Liberty
Internet, feeling busy, regular life
For inspiration
The burned down house looks dystopian.
When going running it motivates me Near School on the river so there is something else to look at. I think the lake is one of the most beautiful places in Umeå. In summer you could see the sculpture and in winter you can reach it and interact with it walking in the frozen water. Between the bridges, the sculpture offers different points of view to the people who passes by. Gateway into Umeå Visible, Frozen River, Affects, Seasons Affects. It is right next to the water and it is on a foot path , meaning lots of people are walking there often.
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The sculpture park it offers so many views and the seasons transform it so much.
Romantic Place
The place you would like to visit.
I had my first meal “pizza” in a kebab place in downtown Umeå.
Looks interesting on the map. Because it has a nice nature there and also some museums to visit.
Alidhem students homes - meet all the people in same situation (studying) and same age.
Interesting because I would like to see what they are building there.
The airport is where you send off the people you love.
Never been to the sculpture park, I should go!.
The shores of Nydala are my place of love, specially in warm weather.
I’ve never walked around the island.
Relaxation, Beautiful.
I would like to go to the lake by a beautiful bridge with a nice view.
We always had pick nicks here by the river we used to live close by.
The other side of the TEG is like the dark side of the moon.
Love the summer feeling, beside the river, great for walks!.
Haven’t been so far from the centre.
Love its location and its beautiful during both summer and winter. I picked up my girlfriend from the harbor exciting and memorable experience.
The place you would never go.
Volvo Factories, I’m not interested in trucks. Mariehem student homes, they are so far away. Tomtebo, why go there?. I think there would be nothing to see. I would never go there cost it’s too far away and in the middle of nowhere nothing to see. It looks to hidden away. Too far!!, No car!!. Ersboda is out of bounds. Nothing to see there.
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3.2.4 Open House User Study After that session I used the same map again on the Design School “Open House”, this is an annual event, when the school is opened to people in Umeå to visit it and see the work that it is done on the different programmes. I put the map on a crystal, and during the course of a day I was explaining people about the project and a lot of the visitors participated, selecting places by answering the questions I asked for the event. For this occasion, I selected only four questions, that I have to translate to swedish to be easier for native people of Umeå to understand them, and make not take from them to much time. I printed the instructions on an A3 paper together with the map and I also set up a small table with pens and a small notebook for people to write the reasons of why they selected those places.
Where would you place a sculpture in Umeå?. Where is your favorite place in Umeå?. Which place would you like to know?. Which place is the most romantic for you in Umeå?
Questions translation by: Birgitta Nordholm. Instructions translation by: Lena Edman and Linda Bresäter.
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At the end of the day, the map resulted on a very populated map, but it can be seen very clear how the places selected by people, are concentrated on two big areas, the first one along the river, on the downtown of UmeĂĽ, and the second one, on the Nydala lake.
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3.3 Selected Places for a Sculpture
From the results on the map, and the comments from people, I selected three places in UmeĂĽ to locate three different sculptures. The first place is the River, people have a lot of connection with it, there are lots of beautiful landscapes, and is always nice to take a walk by the river. There are many possible parts that could be selected to place a sculpture along the river. From that question, came the idea of doing a moving sculpture that can be traveling along it. The second place is in Ă…lidhem, it is the place where most of the students live, they are an important part of the city, so this would be also a special connection with them. The third place is on the lake, since it is also a place very linked to people, a place for summer and winter to go in family or with your friends having a relaxed and calm moment.
1st concept - Along the River Path. 2nd concept - Ă…lidhem.
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3rd concept - Nydala Lake.
3.4 Sculpture Values
Own and Cared by all the people in Umeå Slow in Technology After having the brainstorming session and being talking with people from Umeå, people that have lived here for many years, I extracted from those chats, the comments and the map, the concepts that I wanted the sculptures to contain and that will also define their properties.
Access for every one Provide a tool for explorations, and reflection Sustainable and Ecological. Involved with a story happening in Umeå. Elements of Magic and fantasy
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3.5 Sensing & Sensuality
Visualizing what is not seen, a video presented at the conference, animation of the magnetic fields - by Semiconductor.
Einar Sneve Martinussen, Timo Arnall and Jørn Knutsen (RFID wooden objects).
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In the middle of the course of the project, we attend this event, organized by Matt Cottam from Tellart and the Interaction Design Masters Programme at The UmeĂĽ Institute of Design. A whole day of fantastic presentations of great personalities in the world of interaction Design was a turning point on the development of the project. I felt totally identified and inspired with the work being presented by all the exhibitors, I felt also very surprised that many of the talks referred to the city as inspiration for their work.
3.6 Fantasy coming to reality
3.6.1 Steampunk. One of the concepts I realized that I was looking for on this project after that conference, is the transferring of fantasy to the reality, I thought of bringing this experience as traveling back in time or visiting a fantastic place in your own city. I believe this has been explored trough the tales, films or science fiction but not yet on a real scale or as architecture itself.
to the use of steam as main power source for any technology, and sets the style as in the Victorian era in the 19th century in England. It combines this retro fashion style using old and rusted mechanisms and machinery with science fiction, fantastic inventions or new technology as computers or instruments. Most of the times the intention is to appeal only as objects from the victorian era but not necessarily as working technology. On the cases below computers, including an I-pod is being converted into steampunk models.
I can relate more closely my thoughts this to the steam punk movement. “Steampunk� is a sub-genre of fantasy and speculative fiction, the term refers
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3.6.2 Real but useless. Recently I read that the NASA was selling three of their space shuttles, Endeavour, Discovery and Atlantis, for exhibition purposes, after more than 15 years of use on $42 million us dollar. One of the museums interested in having one of these is the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington and probably also the The British Science Museum on the UK. Those ships as the very old trains that no longer work for their original purposes have now after their retirement another but not less important roll of telling stories to people and trigger imagination for thousands who will go and visit them. rocket launch countdown was invented by fritz lang as a cinematic shortcut, and then adopted by science.
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3.7 Ideation Sketches
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3.7.1 The Fountain of Umbrellas
On this concept I am exploring a fountain with umbrellas, I think the concept of the fountain can be explored a lot, there are many things that happened to water on its many forms, as the snow for example. I am proposing a snow fountain that produces snow in winter and water in summer, the water in winter can also be poured in a slowly way so it produces ice figures or a surface to skate.
On this concept of the fountain I thought of including different sounds that you could hear from different parts in the city. The colorful umbrellas can increase as people leave an umbrella or they can be borrowed as well, and I wanted to explore the curved surface of the umbrellas as money repealers and they together form a roof of umbrellas as well.
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I imagined this is more like a boat on the water with some windmills being moved by the wind. On winter it stops moving when the river freezes, and in summer it begins to move again.
This concept was originally an idea of a huge clock on the middle of the water making music produced by people’s mobiles, and evolved to a moving sculpture floating on the water. On this sketches I am looking to define a little bit the shape, size and first proportions, and I also apply some colors.
3.7.2 The Windmill.
This is a wheel of colored transparent glass, that is being moved by the solar energy, in a sunny day it produces light colored shadows.
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3.7.3 The Chocolate House
This concept inspired on an 100 year old house of chocolates in UmeĂĽ, as many spaces inside with many rooms on where you can make sounds that produces a different effect on each of the rooms and some sounds can trigger to produce smells on the rooms.
3.7.4 The Broken Bridge This is a broken bridge with no end that is decorated by people and where the sounds happening outside, like the water sound or the wind, are amplified while approaching the ear to the wooden structure.
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3.8 Second Sketching Face During the second stage of sketching and based on the places selected for placing the sculptures, I was combining the previous concepts with more ideas. I wanted to specifically explore features on the sculptures and providing them the values I obtained previously form the map session.
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3.8.1 Bike Fountain This concept combines the fountain of snow and bicycle parts, as a story in Ålidhem. Umeå is a city of bicycles and specially in Ålidhem where most of the students live it is possible to find many bicycles, some in use but many of them abandoned, without owner. I thought with this sculpture concept I could reuse all the abandoned bicycles in the city and build a sculpture.
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3.8.2 Snow Factory I was exploring elements for the fountain of snow as individual features that I could develop for the sculpture. On this sketches I was seeking to build a snow cake feature where all the accumulated snow is poured into different moulds of sheet metal, and then forming snow cakes wherever they are full.
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3.8.3 Tree of Bikes This concept mixes the idea of the bicycles with a tree of spinning wheels, they could be activated by kids when they play or while they bounce the swing attached to the tree.
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3.8.4 The Acoustic Bridge. Since the lake is the third selected place to locate one of the concepts, and thinking that this is such a quiet and peaceful place to be, I thought on the idea of a bridge that expands the sounds of the nature or other produced sounds whenever you are inside it. For that I was exploring to build big wooden and rectangular structures where people go inside and experience sound. The modules are different and thus respond in different ways to the sounds produced. I see this bridge as a tool for people to explore and amplify sounds.
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3.8.5 The concept in the River - The Windmill I personally think that the best place to put a sculpture in UmeĂĽ, is the river, for many reasons, but some of them are because, it could be accessible for every one since the river is all along the city and connects many parts of the city, people in UmeĂĽ is very attached to the river, the city is constructed around it, people use to walk by it or run, it is a strong representation of the nature and water as a source of power and life for Sweden and UmeĂĽ, and I am personally impressed by its changes in summer and winter, from a very calm river with mirror surface to a very dramatic one and to the static frozen version of it. For those reasons I selected to develop more the concept for the river so I kept developing more the idea of the windmill.
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3.9 Prototyping In the prototyping stage I was exploring the some of the possible features that could be applied on the concepts. On this part of the project I was curious what could I obtained of some ideas i had from the sketching stage. I decided to prototype those ideas the fastest way possible to explore the more features I could. After being experimenting I think this part was successful in the way that I could obtain surprising results which can be applied to a sculpture in many ways.
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3.9.1 Lego Sketching. Having those concepts I made several prototypes with lego to recreate and figure out the mechanical movements in the proposal and understanding how this really work and could be solved on a bigger scale. I thought of using Lego, to iterate as much as possible more ideas in a little time.
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3.9.2 Cam Mechanism. I found that I can use the same mechanism founded in the cars that moves the main engine. That mechanism corresponds to the pistons on a car. If I simplify even more that mechanism It is in fact a Cam mechanism. Cams are used to convert rotary motion into reciprocating motion. The motion created can be simple and regular or complex and irregular.
Cam Movement
High Point
Cam movement example.
Simulation of the Mechanism of the Cam with an offset axis.
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Two leva on the same rotation axis that rise the laying elements.
39.3 Lego Cam. I replicate the Cam mechanism with lego to play with different solutions, and applications. As in some of the kinetic sculptures I saw, I made the cam mechanism to rise long lego bars, that produce a harmonic movement while one bar is raised the second is down, and vice versa this could be compared to the graph of a moving wave up and down.
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Lego Prototype Sketch 3.9.4 Lego with Throwees. Playing with mechanisms, I prototyped the idea of visualizing the paths of a non constant or irregular movement.
Non - symmetric axis Battery with LED (throwee).
I achieve that attaching parts with a non symmetric rotation axis which at the same time rotate on a Cam System Mechanism, this produces a combination of movements coming from the cam rotation but also undefined movements. I attached an led together with a Lithium battery, that combination is usually called “Throwee� in order to trace the movements with light.
Lego
Rotation - Axis Batteries with LED (throwee).
Moving Rotation - Axis
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3.9.5 Tracing Leds. I though this concept could be applied to one of the sculptures in UmeĂĽ. The idea is that people can come and during the nitghts on winter time they could take a very special and unique picture of one of the sculptures in the city.
Capturing a Unique Moment
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4.Design At this section I am presenting the three concepts I selected for the places selected and I am showing them as illustrations in its context here in the city.
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4.1.1 The Acoustic Broken Bridge. The concept of this sculptural and architectonic place is to enhance the experience of sounds produced in nature by means of big wooden chambers that provides with different effects for the sounds made inside them. The sculpture is meant for people to explore the sounds in the nature and to experiment producing also different ones with musical instruments.
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4.1.2 The Tree of Bikes. This concept is a sculpture that interacts with children whenever they bounce in the swing connected to the tree, and also provide a explorative tool for people by taking pictures to it. I apply the idea of the led on this concept, having many led spinning on the bicycle wheels. The sculpture is constructed with abandoned bicycles in UmeĂĽ.
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4.1.3 The Vagabund House The vagrant house is the name of this evolved concept, mixed with the story of the last man in UmeĂĽ when the city was abandoned, he decided to construct a music machine with the rest of his burned house and take it with him in the river to travel. He came back after a long time when UmeĂĽ was populated again but his house is still on the river, going up and down.
He preserved his favorite window to watch the landscape through it. Wind Mill that produces music while moving. Neon light bought by Lars on his visit to the Netherlands. Ceramic Roof.
Plant and old Vase
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4.2 Sculpting & 3d Modeling
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4.2.1 Clay or 3d Model? After the sketching process, I tried to make a model on clay of my sculpture as I did with the snow sculpture before, but I found great difficulty on defining small details since the concept is not a shape as in the human body nor a monster, but instead it has many details of architecture as doing an architectural model, so I decided to change that step, defining as much as possible in sketches. I used lego to help me define the movements and mechanisms on the sculpture. I put my lego sketch over a pen sketch in my notebook to visualize the moving the mechanisms. I planned to produce a small video doing sketches, but I changed that option to model everything on 3d because doing sketches will took a long time to finish the video, different of doing a 3d model were I can make an animation saving time. With the sketch defined I started modeling on 3d, mapping and making some renderings until I obtained the effect I wanted. I did not faced a difficult challenge doing the modeling, as with all the elements on the proposal that had to be modeled.
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4.2 Video
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4.2.1 Presentation Techniques I chose to present the concept of the sculpture on the river, as real as possible and bring people the experience as if it was already working outside, to do that I took pictures and video of many parts along the river, and I mixed the animation of the sculpture, with the video of the river as background. To mix the animation with the video, I animate my model with a green background or screen, this technique is widely used on the film industry to make special effects. Once the animation is produced the green background can be easily removed to be mixed with the video.
3d model mixed with a video background of the river.
Picture of the 3d model on with the green background.
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4.4 Story
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4.4.1 Lars, The last man after the fire in UmeĂĽ.
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4.5 3D Model.
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4.5.1 The Vagabund House The vagabund house results form the story of a man who disassembled his house on Umeå when the city was abandoned after one of the big fires, he came back to see a new Umeå after being traveling, and now everybody can see The Vagabund House on the river. The sculpture is an example of a soniture, an artifact that makes sounds by the interaction with the natural elements: the wind and the water. It expands the presence of time and connects people with the city and the nature.
The story provide the hope of seeing a new born city after being abandoned and destructed, it brings the idea of a new beginning as the many beginnings that the city of Umeå have had on its own history, recovered and reconstructed after the big fires, emerging form the ashes.
4.5.2 Features The sculpture has many features on it, it is a moving sculpture, and a music instrument played by the wind, thanks to the windmill integrated by it’s constructor. It moves along the river on summer bringing people a wooden sound experience
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and visual moving experience. On winter, when the river is frozen the sculpture will stop moving but as long as there is wind on Umeå it will continue playing with that natural force.
4.5.3 Sustainability & Environment The sculpture promotes the sustainability with the environment, working with the force of the water and wind to power its mechanisms. It is made from wood originally from the place and it will be corroded by time integrating to the nature.
Roof Water Wheel
Moving Mechanism Crank Shell Mechanism
Neon Light
Wall
Sound Wooden Boxes Wooden Instrument
4.5.4 Accessibility
4.5.5 Collaboration
I considered accessibility for everybody, if not at it’s full by means of any of it’s features, being possible to be heard by the sound it produces, or being watched moving along the river and with it’s mechanisms.
The sculpture can be constructed by people in the city and with materials coming from different houses as a collaborative effort.
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Windmill
4.5.6 Mechanisms It counts with two mechanisms one its moved by the wind and one moved by the water. The wind mechanism has a rotation axis moved by the windmill and it is the one that produces also the wooden sounds while it rises and releases the long pieces of wood. The water mechanism moves some other wooden and long parts to produce a different visual movement. Both mechanisms serve at the same time to power the neon light of the house so whenever it is off it means that it does not have sufficient energy.
4.5.7 Instrument Whenever the wind powers the windmill it rotates, rising at the same time wooden and long parts, those parts are raised and then released, when it happens they hit each one at a different time, a wooden and hollow block that produces the wooden sound.
4.5.8 Architecture The house corresponds to the design of a typical Swedish house, it is painted in red because it is a natural color obtained from
the mines in Sweden, that was used to paint the houses in the past and that gives this particular tone of red to the wood.
4.5.9 Functionality & Engineering Since this development it is mostly conceptual, there is still a long way of development as a product and engineering system, but one of my original thoughts was that this concept could be produced if it is desired. That is the main reason of the use of the selected materials and mechanisms based on a low tech and feasible solution.
4.5.10 Possible Interactions Thinking on providing information to people about the sculpture (story, manu-
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facturing, mechanisms) The sculpture can have digital modules where people not only can find information about it, but also track and locate the sculpture along the river when it is not visible.
4.5.11 Web cam It could be integrated on the sculpture a real time camera, to have a view from the sculpture, as in a space satellite but is something that has to be better analyzed for privacy issues, and depending on the possible routes the sculpture could have.
Scale Model made of Wood and Rapid Prototyping.
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4.6 Conclusions
This project is not the perfect one but it was exploratory in many ways, from the process, the mix of various areas as a project, the deliverables and the approach. At the end I learned how can I improve this project and how to develop similar projects. I believe that with this project I am not solving anything new or something that has not been explored before, but now serves as a start to think about possible options for producing slow interactions between people in the city and the environment. It provides a base for further explorations, experimentation on the development of a sculpture for the city. It is demonstrated that interaction design can be present in many areas even without the need of using computer technology. Interaction design and art are completely related, this is a very broad field and I personally think that it is not reduced only to human computer interactions.
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5.References 5.2 Web
5.1 Literature
“The Snow Show.” [Online] Available http://www.thesnowshow.com/ html, February, 2009.
Bonami Francesco, Becker Carol, De Boton Alain, Lippard Lucy, Sontag Susan and Spector Nancy. Universal Experience: Art, Life, And The Tourist’S Eye. Chicago: D.A.P./ MCA, 2005.
“Top 5 Amazing Kinetic Sculpture Videos.” [Online] Available http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/03/top5-amazing-k/ html, May, 2009.
Bansky, Wall and Piece. UK: Century. 2005. Hallnäs Lars, Johan Redström, Slow Technology - Design for Reflection.
“Mighty Optical Illusions.” [Online] Available http://www.moillusions.com/ html, May, 2009.
Van Hinte Ed, Eternally Yours - Time in Design. Rotterdam Vivian 2004.
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