DES1GN
STUDIO
In this unit I was asked to spend time studying the corner of Benefit and Meeting Street. The goal was to spend as much time there as possible and employ various means of recording it. I used writing, photography, film, rubbings and graphs to record my location. I spent a lot of time walking through that intersection when I was there for classes freshman year. It was interesting how this exercise forced me to see the place in a new way.
Data While I was at my location I decided to start recording data about the space. I recorded the colors of cars that drove by in and hour and the kinds of people that passed me. I also took a series of photos and took color swatches from them to try to describe the location though color. One thing I found interesting while recording the traffic in the area was the amount of tourists that walked through the area. I translated the data into visual displays.
Photos I went to my location three times to photograph. I went once in the afternoon during a class day, once before dinner and once at night. I found the interaction between tourists and the castle very interesting. Tourists would often come up to the building where I was sitting to read the information posted. Visiting my location in the rain was also interesting. The color that was reflected on the street transformed the environment.
Time Lapse Over the course of a half hour I recorded video of the space. My camera was placed out of view so people walking by wouldn’t notice they were being filmed and change the way they interacted with the space. I used the program hyperlapse to speed up the footage. Hyperlapse is helpful because it helps to make it possible to watch large portions of video. At the same time it takes away the experience of lulls in activity.
Rubbings One way I recorded my space was through rubbings. I went to my location and looked around for different textures. The rubbings I made were interesting in their diverse patterns. I found that brick is one of the most common materials in the area. I could find very few examples of wood used in the space. All of the surfaces were rough and gritty. The buildings in the area are all very old. Even the new restaurants are in old buildings.
In this unit my work revolved around the word key. I explored all the different ways I could express the idea of what a key is. I began with typographic explorations. By doing this I thought about the feeling of the object and the qualities it represents. I went on to create rubbings, stamping, and an animation. This helped me to understand how type can affect meaning.
Type Explorations I began the unit by exploring different ways I could arrange the letters of the word key to reflect its meaning. I came up with several responses to this. Some of them reflect the shape of the key and others, the function. While looking at my physical key I was inspired by the cryptic quality. I found that to be an important element to the whole ethos of the key.
Stamping I experimented by heating up lithographic crayon and using it as a medium with which to stamp my key. The result was interesting. I decided to continue by masking the word key and stamping over it. I intended to take off the tape and have the type exist in negative space. In the end I liked the different reaction of the ink to the tape versus the paper and left the tape.
Rubbings I returned to rubbings in this assignment. I was interested by the effect the stamping that I had done with the key and wanted to see how the dimensionality of the key would translate to two dimensions. I printed the letters to spell key with a thin outline on the characters and did rubbings inside the lines. The texture of the crayon on the industrial key contrasts nicely.
Animation In my animation I focused on the cryptic nature of keys. I was inspired by how the function of a key is known only at its most basic level. What the key is protecting is know only to the owner. In the animation I changed the coloration of the letterform so that it would not be fully legible but when the stills were played at a fast pace it would become clear.
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In this unit we were focusing on tools. We were given the task of picking various objects and finding ways to use them in unusual ways. I selected a hair comb, my printer, an architectural triangle and the process of CMYK printing as my tools with which to experiment. This unusual process of working led me to create interesting textures and graphics.
Crayon + Triangle One of the tools I selected was an architectural triangle. I wanted to find a way to use the triangle as a drawing tool. To do this I heated crayon wax and melted it into the concavities of the tool. I then placed the triangle on paper and pivoted it on one of its points to draw. I did this with both hardened and melted crayon. I found the effect of the melted crayon to be effective.
Comb Bubbles I used a hair comb, which has little concavities as a tool for blowing bubbles. While I was experimenting with this I discovered that the bubbles had an acidic effect on paper when held up to light. The liquid on the paper allowed lighter to come through. During the critique I brought in soap and encouraged people to try this experiment to see the effect themselves.
CMYK Printing I was curious about CMYK printing and the way that colors interact when printed in layers. I learned how to create color separations correctly and experimented with different scale of dots. Because I did not know how to do this correctly I was able to come up with some interesting accidents. I explored the effect of printing the different colors in separate passes.
CMYK Sampler I was interested in the process of CMYK printing. I explored it by creating a sampler where I started with one graphic image and changed it by using the different variables of CMYK printing. The different variables I used were; scale of dots, angle of dots, shape of dots, and a mixture of all the options. For the directions I chose to list all the steps of CMYK printing.
1. Import photo into photoshop. 2. Click Image Menu. 3. Click Mode. 4. Click CMYK Color. 5. Click Channels. 6. Click Menu. 7. Click Split Channels. 8. Click Image Menu. 9. Click Mode. 10. Click Bitmap. 11. Select Halftone Screen. 12. Click OK 13. Select variables. 14. Click OK 15. Click Image Menu. 16. Click Mode. 17. Click Grayscale. 18. Double Click the layer. 19. Click on Select Menu. 20. Click on Color Range. 21. Select all white. 22. Delete all white. 23. Click Image Menu. 24. Click Mode. 25. Click CMYK Color. 26. Open the Yellow window. 27. Click Image Menu. 28. Click Mode. 29. Click Bitmap. 30. Select Halftone Screen. 31. Click OK 32. Select variables. 33. Click OK 34. Click Image Menu. 35. Click Mode. 36. Click Grayscale. 37. Double Click the layer. 38. Click on Select Menu. 39. Click on Color Range. 40. Select all white.
41. Delete all white. 42. Select all. 43. Copy. 44. Open the black tab. 44. Paste 45. Creat new layer. 46. Move new layer under Yellow. 47. Layer Style 48. Select Color Overlay. 49. Click the color box. 50. Click Color Libraries. 51. Scroll to the top of color picker. 52. Hit the down arrow twice. 53. Select Yellow. 54. Click Layer Menu. 55. Click Merge Down. 56. Open the Magenta window. 57. Click Image Menu. 58. Click Mode. 59. Click Bitmap. 60. Select Halftone Screen. 61. Click OK 62. Select variables. 63. Click OK 64. Click Image Menu. 65. Click Mode. 66. Click Grayscale. 67. Double Click the layer. 68. Click on Select Menu. 69. Click on Color Range. 70. Select all white. 71. Delete all white. 72. Select all. 73. Copy. 74. Open the black tab. 75. Paste 76. Creat new layer. 77. Move new layer under Magenta. 78. Layer Style 79. Select Color Overlay.
80. Click the color box. 81. Click Color Libraries. 82. Scroll to the top of color picker. 83. Hit the down arrow twice. 84. Select Magenta. 85. Click Layer Menu. 86. Click Merge Down. 87. Open the Cyan window. 88. Click Image Menu. 89. Click Mode. 90. Click Bitmap. 91. Select Halftone Screen. 92. Click OK 93. Select variables. 94. Click OK 95. Click Image Menu. 96. Click Mode. 97. Click Grayscale. 98. Double Click the layer. 99. Click on Select Menu. 100. Click on Color Range. 101. Select all white. 102. Delete all white. 103. Select all. 104. Copy. 105. Open the black tab. 106. Paste 107. Creat new layer. 108. Move new layer under Cyan. 109. Layer Style 110. Select Color Overlay. 113. Click the color box. 114. Click Color Libraries. 115. Scroll to the top of color picker. 116. Hit the down arrow twice. 117. Select Cyan. 118. Click Layer Menu. 119. Click Merge Down. 120. Print
Transparency In the first portion of the unit I was exploring the transparency of ink. I decided to continue exploring that by printing on different sides of a sheet of tracing paper and seeing how the different inks interacted. I installed the print outs on a window so the stained glass quality could be seen. I also tried overlaying text to create a complex linear form.
In this unit I selected a space to observe. From my observations I created a proposal for an installation, which I later executed. Initially I chose the breezeway between the river and the Design Center. When I began to think about my installation I realized that the themes I was exploring better fit the lobby of the Design Center. The process helped shape my work.
Observations While I was sitting in my space I noticed that people had a lot of difficulty getting into the breezeway because of problems with the door. I sat in the space for an hour and recorded all the difficulties people had with opening the door. The door has a security system but as is noted on the chart many people follow others into the building without scanning their ID.
Proposal I translated my observations about my space form the previous week into a proposal for an installation. To announce my installation I created fake versions of posters that existed in the space. I would tell people about my piece by making an announcement but no one would actually notice that something in the space had changed at all.
Instalation For my installation I decided to continue replacing posters. I went to the lobby and picked posters to scan. I rebuilt them changing out the text with my own observations and thoughts about the lobby. The instillation stayed up far after the critique, which is a testimony to the affect. The posters are able to exist without being noticed by all the people who are there. The text on the following pages is the text I wrote for the posters.
The space is a fairly noisy. It is not generated from people talking in the space. The noise is made from people’s movement. Footsteps, the clicking of the card reader, the handles of doors and the conversations of customers and cashiers in the RISD store fill the space. The noises echo around the empty room. All of the sounds relate to the idea of motion. Conversations exist in the space but only in passing leaving fragments of ideas and stories. I have noticed that some posters get taken down after a while. The other day I walked through the space and saw that a large arrangement of posters had been taken down. It was unclear if the posters were taken down my people who put them up or if someone else came and took down all the out of date posters. When I started making my own iterations of posters I was sure to change the date on them so they were the day of final crit. I did this because I knew that they would be more likely to be removed if the dates had passed. After placing some posters with the date of November 5th it became clear that date alone would not protect them. One of my posters with that date got taken down. The reason is unclear because I have seen other posters in the same style still hanging around campus. Personally I hate posters that are out of date and sometimes take down posters I see that advertise events that have passed.
The lobby leads to a lot of different kinds of places. One door leads to the package room and the studios in the Design Center. People who are going to pick up packages know that the have something there and enter through that door with a sense of purpose and speed. Going there is a fun thing so people move faster through the space to get there. People who are going into the double doors of into the design center move slower because of they are going to work or to class. The double doors also leads to the mailroom. This is a place people go when they are procrastinating or have a break. People move faster into the mailroom because of the anticipation of what may be waiting for them there. The RISD store also has an entrance in the lobby. Many different kinds of people go into the RISD store. It is predominantly students trying to get their supplies quickly and get out. Occasionally a tourist will come in hesitantly exploring the area unsure if they can be there. People often pay in the store and then enter the lobby and pause for a second to get their possessions organized before walking back to class or the dorms. People also stop to throw away receipts in the trashcan in the lobby. The space is really a buffer zone to a lot of different kinds of activity and facilitates multiplicity in the space. The posters have many different subjects. Most of the posters in the space are advertising for classes. I found this surprising. It is interested that teachers advertise for there
classes. It exposes the way teachers think about their classes. Because they need students to sign up for their class in order to proceed they make posters to try to get people to sign up. Many of the other posters are advertising for gallery openings or clubs. The large posters are almost always for school-sponsored events. These posters are more expensive and are paid for by the school. These posters are always done in a different style than the posters done by the students. The schools posters are always full of text and very colorful. Posters made by students are always smaller. Many students use black and white posters because it is cheaper and they can print more of them for that reason. A lot of people have taken the quantity over quality approach and printed huge spreads of the same poster. It is so easy to ignore posters so they try to make it impossible to ignore and invade the whole space. There are also advertisements for non-RISD events. The public can access the lobby so some of the posters that go up in the space have no link to the school itself. These posters may have the best shot of being noticed because they aren’t represented in any other spot on the campus. Â
There is a vent in the room that blows hot air on the posters. Some of the posters are falling away from the wall because of the air movement. The posters I put up have detached more than the others because I did not but as much tape as other people. The heat vent generates a lot of noise. The vent is responsible for most of the noise in the space. It makes a loud hum noise. The vent heats the room to a high level. The room seems the be heated more than the rest of the building because of the high amount of time when the doors are opened and letting cold air flow throgh freely. To get started, please spend more time looking at your surroundings
THE INSTALLATION has become an experiment in how much people notice in the spaces they inhabit. The lobby of the design center is a waiting place. Many people come through the room. During the week students running errands at the store and the mailroom and trying to get to studio classes occupy it. People sometimes slow down and use the lobby as a place to wait for friends to meet them. This is one of the only common times when people spend time looking at the posters on the walls. When the weather is bad people will spend more time in the space stalling before going outside. Rhode Island School of Design is a school with a lot of events and gallery openings. The need for so many signs means that no one ever actually looks at them. Making posters to promote an event can’t be the most effective way to advertise. It would be better to make something physical it advertise.
Installation: Look Again focuses on the way people look at and interact with posters on the RISD campus. The project involves the lobby of Design Center. I have been taking and scanning posters from the lobby, rebuilding them with information about the lobby itself, and re-installing the new posters in the same place as the old ones. I am interested in how long it takes for people to notice, if ever, that the posters have been changed. I invite you to join me in this project and make your own fake posters for the space. The only rules are that the content needs to be about your relationship with the lobby and the email has to be changed to lookagain2014@gmail.com All logos of school organizations must be removed. The location must be listed as the Design Center Lobby. Welcome to my seceret poster hacking team.
This space has a lot of interaction between the inside and outside. There are a lot of doors that open it up to the outside. The draft circulates and mixes air between the two environments. Warm air is released into the overhang outside and cold air into the entryway of the building. The air is mixed created one space of equilibrium between the two environments. The doorframe is neither inside of outside. People do not consider the grey area between environments because they are focused on getting on to their destinations. There are a few leaves that have settled in the lobby. The leaves are the only physical sign of the overlapping of space. The leaves feel out of place in the sterile space. The leaves feel alien in the room.
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In this unit we explored the concept of collaboration. We were shown examples of how work can evolve in interesting directions when two people are working together. We were given the task of collaborating on a total of 100 images by sending files back and forth between each other. In the following part of the assignment we picked one method to explore further.
Passing Project In this unit we picked partners and preceded to pass different files back in forth between each other. We began by working on Photoshop and then transitioned to other forms such as; snap chat, physical notes, instagram, and e-cards. The subject of our conversation throughout this assignment varies from discussion of classes to issues of sexual violence at Brown University. I compiled a gif of our work, which can be seen through the QR.
Glitter Posters During the passing project my partner and I found glitter text and animation websites online that exist as relics of a past era of the internet. We took important Dada and Suprematist typographic posters and replaced the typography with glitter text to express the serious but playful tone of the work. The images I have in the following pages are the originals, the stills, and the QR codes for the animated versions of the posters.
PHOEBE MORRISON