Luu My Linh
TUT N I T URE
PRE FACE December 2021 What this book reveals is my final design project at RMIT University Vietnam. This is also the first time that I dive into experimental furniture although I have always had the tendency to do shape-driven designs. One thing I learnt during the journey of becoming a designer is we all constantly find inspiration from the world around. For this particular project, that inspiration comes from tutting dance, an art form I adore. Dance and design sound related and irrelevant to each other at the same time. However, as I pull them together, I do realise there are always more in the unexpected links for us to explore. I want to send my thanks to my lecturer Manny Ling, my supervisors Andrew Stiff, Rebecca Lu and all the support and encouragement I received to make this project happen. Hope that it also inspires someone out there.
CON TENTS
INTRODUCTION DESIGN 1: QUARTER SWING ACCENT TABLE DESIGN 2: SLIDE N BLOOM SHELVES DESIGN 3: ROUND ABOUT CHAIR DESIGN 4: TICK-TOCK HOLDER
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INTRO DUCTION
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CONCEPT APPROACH 9
CONCEPT The core of TUTNITURE is to explore how movements of tutting dance can be translated into furniture. Combining two separate fields is a challenging practice, but to start with, form plays an important role in both. Tutting focuses on the use of arms, hands and fingers’ movements to create the impression of geometry (Brambila 2017). As shown from Fig.1 to Fig.4, the dancers incorporate techniques such as flipping, sliding, finger tutting, isolation and pivoting in their routines. Designs of this project will be formed based on the knowledge as well as how they are used in life.
Fig. 1. Freestyle Tut to Look At Me Troyboi by Long in Void Dreamers, 2017, video.
In terms of colours, a white and gray scheme is used to direct attention to forms and movements. Meanwhile, the vibrant ones are intended to highlight them and deliver the dynamic culture of tutting dance as well with its original connection to EDM (Maranan et al. 2013, p. 167).
Fig.2. Finger Tutting to Hello (foolish) - itsnk x nân x TSL by Long in Void Dreamers, 2019, video.
Fig.4. Tutting to Safe - Daya by Dytto, 2018, video. 10
Fig.3. Cover Ziv’s Movements by Spella, 2021, video. 11
APPROACH 1. Series of movements
Firstly, I take on the challenge of creating a short tutting routine with some techniques learnt. At this point I do not have in mind how the designs developed from this routine will look like. I would then trace movements between significant positions to see what shapes they create and use them in the designs. The complete routine can be viewed from page 14-23.
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2. Furniture type
Since this is an experimental furniture project, I aim to produce a set with various structures and uses. In addition, to highlight the motion quality and interaction between the arms, hands and fingers in tutting dance, the furniture designs are made assembled with pieces slotted together. Materials can be of personal choice such as cardboard or wood, but for the purpose of this project, white and transparent acrylic are used to showcase clearly the movements. Depending on the material thickness, the width of each slot needs to be adjusted. Those in the designs are 0.3 centimetre.
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DE SIGN 1 QUARTER SWING ACCENT TABLE Dimensions (cm) H38 24
W40
D40 25
1. Trace of movements Incorporated into the design are three movements from the first part of the routine. They are chosen for introducing curves between the angular positions of tutting. Moreover, since the finding sparks inspiration and creativity for the whole furniture collection, I incline to highlight the movements in this design with a shade of purple.
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2. Structure The design has 7 pieces in total. As the main focus, the one conveying the opening quarter swing is placed on top, with the similar shapes on the side. The semicircles are made smaller as secondary movements while two rectangle pieces come in to support the structure. They also help balance the angular positions and circular movements of tutting.
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3. Dimensions (cm)
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0.3
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(x2)
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DE SIGN 2 SLIDE N BLOOM SHELVES Dimensions (cm) H65.6 34
W101.2
D30 35
1. Trace of movements In this next part, the design indicates continuous sliding movements that lead to an isolation of all fingers with symmetrical curves. Because the movements are in a gentle and ordered way, I decide to highlight them with pink.
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2. Structure The shelves have 11 pieces. So as to show the continuous movements, it is built in a long structure which can be broken down into three main blocks: the open square created by the first three movements; the same square rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise according to the fourth action (page 40); and finally the one showing the sliding forward and backward into the curve pieces. Objects up to 30 cm in size can be placed. The curve pieces and other supporting ones for balancing purpose may be used as dividers.
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3. Dimensions (cm) (x3)
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DE SIGN 3 ROUND ABOUT CHAIR Dimensions (cm) H68.5 52
W69
D43
SH42 53
1. Trace of movements Two combos of movements in the third part of the routine are used for this design. Others are left out because they are quite similar to the movements traced previously. The first combo includes a flip of both hands to one side and then return while the second one reveals one hand rotating around to all sides possible and the other hand follows. These actions happen fast with energy so orange is chosen to illustrate them.
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main hand’s movements viewed from the side
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2. Structure The design has 7 pieces in total. The two semicircles created by the rotating movements are made the central focus because they are more dynamic than the other combo. There are one vertical piece in the middle to mark the start and end point of the rotation. Meanwhile, the two on the sides are lower to highlight the curve.
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3. Dimensions (cm)
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DE SIGN 4 TICKTOCK HOLDER Dimensions (cm) H45 66
W75
D25.6 67
1. Trace of movements The last part consists of seven positions whose movements hit seven points on a curve. Additionally, each position has a different finger movement, leading to seven versions of the holder design. Although it includes curve and angular pieces like the others, this shows a new aspect of how movements are translated as well as the growth through them with different versions. Therefore, I choose green for this design’s.
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2. Structure The design has 16 pieces in total for all versions. Among them, the angular ones can be interchangeably used on the two semicircles’ slots. Objects whose size under 15 cm can be put inside the gaps without causing imbalance.
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3. Dimensions (cm) 0.3
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End.
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REFER ENCES Brambila, A 2017, The ultimate guide to learning tutting dance style, viewed 24 October 2021, <https://www.brambilabong.com/blogs/ popping/tutting-dance-ultimate-guide>. Maranan, D, Schiphort, T, Bartram, L & Hwang, A 2013, ‘Expressing technological metaphors in dance using structural illusion from embodied motion’, in Proceedings of the 9th ACM Conference on Creativity & Cognition, Sydney, 17 - 20 June, pp. 165-174, viewed 30 October 2021, <https://zenodo.org/record/1478243#.YX1hBp5Bw2y>.
IMAGES Dytto 2018, Tutting to Safe - Daya, video, Youtube, viewed 5 November 2021, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGop6IKUaOI>. Long in Void Dreamers, Freestyle Tut to Look At Me - Troyboi, video, Youtube, viewed 23 December 2021, <https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=07Xj8CKLWYk>. Long in Void Dreamers, Finger Tutting to Hello (foolish) - itsnk x nân x TSL, video, Youtube, viewed 31 October 2021, <https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=5g1eL9cjJwk>. Spella 2021, Cover Ziv’s Movements, video, Youtube, viewed 6 November 2021, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPzU4IhVk1M>.