M2 - Design 2

http://landsofwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Orange-peel-healing-properties.jpg

M2 - Design Profile and Section Virtual Environments James Brown - 638 111 Ajaya Haikerwal - 585 856 Shanaaz Mutaliph - 640 182

M1 - Ideation - Combined Work

Development

Recent deveopmental sketches are assisting us in working out the mechanics of the design. At present, we have started to look at how we can allow the arms and hands to move freely without disrupting the overall shape of and structure of the design.

A key consideration to also make here is the kind of material that would be ideal in the situation where arms would need to move smoothly in and out from.

Following on from the orange peel guide, we are thinking about what it might look whilst closed and whilst opened.

Precedent Study Our initial object of study, the honeycomb ball, interested our group a substantial amount. It was for one, made out of a thin paper material which alone could not have created a 3-Dimensional form. When it was in its spherical form, it held a shape because of the interweaving of the sheets of paper. The second effect created by this ball was the way in which it could move, and take on 2 forms and their intermediates.

The closed form was modest, while the open form was extravagant. This is what we reflect within our Second Skin- a changeable form which hides the profile-andsection in one mode- reserved and shielding, whereas the other mode would be open, showing off our material system in an exaggerated display.

Our form was inspired by two main objects, and there are elements of each within what we have created. If you cut an orange, you get segments. When pieced back together, they form the whole orange again. We were searching for a form which could represent both a defensive mode and an offensive mode. The defensive is the non-sliced, spherical orange, and offensive is when it’s folded out like in the image, showing points at the outermost extremities. The second form is the flower, and again just for the opening and closing nature of it, in a fluid motion, the point of rotation for each petal at the base, which is what we have taken from that.

http://www.devra-party.com/images/attributes/honeycomb%20ball%20mint.jpg

http://www.colourbox.com/preview/2208197-433782-orange-segments-on-the-plate-isolated-on-white.jpg http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/4070/PreviewComp/SuperStock_4070-12592.jpg

Personal Space ~ reaching the conclusion about an orange peel being the best option ~ Initial designs across all sketches displayed an urgency to protect and shield certain areas of the human body. While most of the rough ideas attempted to encase the back and front area of the torso, keeping in mind the brief had to address the concept of personal space, we began to think further about what we considered our personal space and when it was being infringed upon.

Measuring personal space proved to be quite subjective and depends on many variables. Variables included the context in which personal space is imposed on such as it being different from two people in a space wide as a basketball court to a lot of people in a confined space such as a tram. What also was an interesting variable was the notion of speed and the rate at which someone may approach another person or a body part such as the swing of a fist or a firm handshake. For one of our group members, regardless of the speed and gesture in which somebody approached them, they felt quite uncomfortable with someone from behind them.

From one of the initial sketches, it was encouraged to take from that the notion of understanding pressure points on the body and responding to personal space would be best executed in a design that would sheild the major pressure points while simultaneously allowing free movement of the hands and arms as a means of defending immediately where necessary and making general movement of the body easily. The changing nature of personal space coaxed us to think about what kind of shape alligned with the attributes of profile and section would allow for these criteria.

Identifying personal space with variables

Rhino Models The rhino models we are working with are beginning to display the background and formation of the orange peel precedent in both aesthetics and it’s function.

We are beginning to encapsulate the complete look and movement with an outward opening type second skin, allowing free movement for arm and hands.

Rhino Models Following on from the goals set previously, we are aiming to keep to the structure of the honeycomb lantern while also displaying characterisitics of the rigidity in it’s material.

While thinking about on outward opening, we are not ruling out the option of there being a hinge to hold the structure together and allow for easier removal.

1) Making a component out of paper allowed us to see how the pieces would slot in to create each segment of our form. We created the idea of a back panel housing a number of horizontal (and later vertical) intersecting planes.

2) Making the whole form out of plastercine proved challenging, but it allowed us to experiment with how we would actually attach the final form to the body- a waist strap would be crucial, we found.

Physical/Working Models

3) Creating the movement of this was perhaps the most important exercise, and further lead us to think about how we would attach each segement and the whole form to the body, including a locking mechanism at each of the two stages (open and closed) the segments would have to create.