Rhode Island School of Design Department of Interior Architecture INTAR 2108 | Defining Art in Space Breaking the Boundary Between Art & Architecture
Defining Art in Space
Instructor Minhee Kim Jiahui Yang
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Course Description Art can be defined as something visible or invisible that expresses the imagination and creativity. Architecture is both the process and the product of planning, designing, and constructing buildings. How can art create conversations with its surrounding architecture? And how can artists and designers get involved between art and architecture? Our goal is to look at the possibility of pushing the boundaries between art and architecture through installation art which represents the intersection of those two disciplines. This class will start with case studies including works by James Turrell, Gordon Matta-Clark and Doho Suh in order to understand how artists use architectural features to let space create emotional experiences. This class will help students to recognize and utilize various architectural elements such as sound, lighting, materiality, structure and human activities. Students will be given an existing interior space to spatially analyze human experiences as a process to explore multi-sensory programs. The final project of this course will be a collaborative full-scale installation in an enclosed room. This course will provide an opportunity for students to redefine the relationship between art, architecture, and humans.
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Final works Furniture BFA 17 SuHyun Lee Graphic BFA 17 SuJung Lee
The Bed Description
We live in a world of squares. We sleep in a square bed, look outside the square window, reside in a square building, and move along in the infinite space filled with the four closed sides. In this four corner of the fake window, that is filled with squared bricks, shows our stiff minds that fits everything into these corners. Without realizing the world outside, we only live inside the box that we have drawn for ourselves, and continue to hunch into the corners.
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A bed is an object which contains numerous traces of our history. It shows what we are, who we are, and who we think we are at its most honest state of mind. As an object that sits between our reality and dream, it acts as the main source of transportation of imagination. Taking this bed, that contains our inner lives, we wanted to represent it vertically on a window plane. A window, which connects the inside world to the outside, shows our desire of continuing our imagined dreams not only within our minds but to the outer world. Our installation art is not only a peek into one’s most personal diary, but also our most passionate yearning to leave a mark in the world of the things we dream.
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Final works
Foundation Students Janny Ko Lynn Cho
Hunminjungeum
Description
Hunminjungeum is a native script created by King Sejong, officially publicized on October 9th 1446. Through this project we wanted to deliver King Sejong’s wisdom and the warmth contained in the words of Hunminjeongeum. The 11 lanterns are vertically installed with four wooden sticks; straight and strong wooden sticks emphasize the king’s strength and straight love towards citizens. The ivory fabric is chosen to illustrate the originality of the Korean traditional paper and the tightly woven fabric to illustrate the strong connection of the King and the community.
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The lanterns are easily shakable by the wind, indicating the freedom the citizens gained after the creation of Hangul. Also, the white strings used to hang the lanterns emphasize the pure heart of the King being thoughtful of his people, wanting the illiterate in Hanja to easily communicate. In order to signify the originality of Hangul while emphasizing the importance of the language, a common Korean traditional shape ‘X’ is woven with thick black strings. In the process of creating Hangul, the king overcame all the back-breaking process and extreme oppositions. Our project contains a deep respect towards the king, and we’d love to share his wisdom and love.
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Final works
Foundation Students Namrata Dhore
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Final works
First year Undergraduate Song Gan Nancy Lu
The Skyline Description Intrigued by the shape and structure of the site, we aspire to investigate how individuals respond to the surrounding physical elements through movement. Walking through the site for the first time, we noticed how our paths were determined by the visual details around the staircase. For example, attracted by the Providence skyline, we were inclined to climb to the top stair in order to enjoy the view. In addition, we navigated through the site based on the snow mounds piled at different levels of the staircase. Hoping to stimulate participants’ internal self reflection and movement through alterations of external features, we decided to focus our piece on distorted mirrors and their impact on human perceptions.
These mirrors are deliberate imperfect reflections of the site to provide a warped perspective: they not only reflect the surrounding, but also encourage viewers to evaluate their own relationship with the site. The vertical mirrors installed capture one’s footsteps and movements up and down the staircase. The horizontal mirrors laid flat on each stair reflect the sky and establish a directional relationship between the top the staircase and the semi-circle. 18
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When viewing the installation from the walkway, one will only see the mirrors installed. However, when one begins to ascend upon the stairs, he or she will start to notice the wave-like patterns casted by the sunlight reflecting off of the mirrors. The reflection patterns are achieved through the undulating surface of the mirror paper of which ripples according to the wind. The reflections, in combination with the texture direct sunlight creates on the vertical mirrors, blurs the separation between the concrete and mirrors. Visiting the site during different times of the day, one would gain varying experiences through the changing sunlight and reflections.
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Once reaching the top stair, he or she will see a vague indication of his or her figure by glancing downwards to the triangular structure placed in the semi-circle. Furthermore, one will only be able to see the waves created by the sunlight and the horizontal mirrors which reflect the sky. The triangular structure across the site serves as an interactive mirror that can be assembled by the participants. Lastly, the participants can leave their personal marks on the site through pasting mirror strips, found in the box on the top stair, on the two brick walls. The conscious placement of the strips also portrays a collection of relationships developed through one’s movement in the site. We hope you enjoy the experience!
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Week 1. Class Project
Week 2 Class project 02.
SPATIAL INVESTIGATIONS
THINKING THE SPACE WITH SECTION Interior Perspective-play with sections studies Class project [Section drawing]
Description The class project is a spatial experiment by manipulating the space. The project is an exploration based on the model scale translation of spatial attributes derived from your ‘Recorded Model’. Working with models that are roughly scaled in of a 10”*10”*10” box, the project investigates spatial experiment methods through the insertion of your installation in your selected site. The generative process of your design The verbs of “manipulation” are strategies to spatialize your ‘Recorded Model’. Using verbs as a design tool also reinforces the idea of design as an active and fluid process. Consider your installation artwork is a volume inside another volume(the site). The way that the volumes and the verbs are related to can be directed by specific requirements of given spatial needs. At that moment of volumetric manipulation, the designer is presented with an opportunity to consider one of the several conditional opportunities: to connect one volume to another volume, to situate the volumes in relations to the site, or consider how to relate and affect the set of manipulated volume to the site.
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Students studying spatial experience often think primarily of the plan to start with programs and functions of a project. However, plans have limitations to explain the depth of spaces and details of space such as materiality and structure. Section drawing for the space is a visual communication and an essential tool for designing and understanding the space. In this class, students will learn how they can use section drawing as a communication tool and how we can expand people’s spatial experience in space through section practice. For final work from this assignment, students will communicate with their section drawings to develop their idea. This will help student to determine materials and structure for installation art work.
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Book designed by Minhee Kim 2017 Interior Architecture Department RISD
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