Virtual environment group project M3

M3 Fabrication

Section & Profiling

Virtual Environments S2, 2013

Daniel Parker, Diana Galimova & Spring Lu

Personal Space

Personal space is a zone in which we feel comfortable physicaly and mentally.

Mapping of Personal Space and Most Vulnerable Zones

Virtual Environments S2, 2013

Daniel Parker, Diana Galimova & Spring Lu

Precedents Study & Inspiration

Ana-Rajcevic

Scaphander Helmet

Virtual Environments S2, 2013

Iris Van Herpen Body Suit

Section & Profiling Pavilion

Dita Von Teese’s 3D Printed Dress

Faraday St Bakery

Second Skin Example

Matija Cop Suit

Dita Von Teese’s 3D Printed Dress

Daniel Parker, Diana Galimova & Spring Lu

Precedents Study 3D Printed Dress for Burlesque Dancer Dita Von Teese:

This 3D printed dress, designed by Michael Schmidt and Francis Bitonti, inspired us to focus fine apertures upon our second skin design.

Firstly, the flexibility of this dress reminded us of changing the size of grids according to the shape and specific areas of the body.

Also, this dress makes us aware of how to utilise the transparent nature of section and profile material system.

Virtual Environments S2, 2013

Exaggeration of Volume around the Head:

These precedents emphasise the exaggerated shape around head. They made us aware how important the head is, and how it needs more protection than the body. The head is the most sensitive part of body, as it is the location of most sensing organs: eyes, noise, mouth, ears and skin.

So more protection around head is needed in order to create more comfortable personal space.

As a result, we decided to change our final design to a shape that is around head.

Daniel Parker, Diana Galimova & Spring Lu

Relfection & Self Awareness

This is an interesting phenomena, which influenced our exploration and designs. It is essentially the way people seek their own reflections in mirrors, windows, glass and other reflective objects. We are so intrigued and fascinated by seeing ourselves, perhaps because we’re all (to an extent) narcissistic, but also perhaps because seeing ourselves provides us with some kind of comfort or reassurance. This comfort perhaps derives from us feeling oriented; as though our body is the point of origin of our conscience and existence.

Virtual Environments S2, 2013

Daniel Parker, Diana Galimova & Spring Lu

Formation of Ideas

Mapping of Visual Range

The most influencial aspect of our research was the body mapping - this revealed vulnerable and sensitive zones, which we would like to protect using our design. The neck and the back of the head feels like the most vulnerable area of the body - as you cannot see the potential threats or uproaching strangers.

Hence we chose to make a hood-like helmet which would protect this area, as well as protecting your chest (and personal space at the front of the person).

This hood creates a feeling of safety and protection. The hood is also meant to create a volume through a series of voids.

The other aspect of our design was the concept of ‘self-awareness’. Utilizing this in the design would allow us to distort the body of the individual inside the second skin (by using reflective film in the apertures), but also perhaps distort their perception of the outside world. In our design, we want the subject to be able to view out of the design, but also see themselves in it.

Another influencing factor was our line of sight. Our design must not restrict our vision so we are still able to walk and interract with the outside world.

Working With Reflection (Utilizing Reflective Film)

Virtual Environments S2, 2013

Daniel Parker, Diana Galimova & Spring Lu

M2 Design (Changed)

This design is what we had presented for M2. We felt this did not quite address what we were aiming for, but also that perhaps this was not practical.

This model took quite a lot of effort to fabricate - this is due to the unusual way in which the planes intersect.

The great things about this scaled model; however, is the way in which it interacts with the subject’s body.

Virtual Environments S2, 2013

Daniel Parker, Diana Galimova & Spring Lu

Experimentation

On the left is one of the experimental 1:1 prototypes made by the group. This model shows us different ways in which the second skin may interact with the subjects body and the self-awareness within this designed object. This also demonstrates what would be seen by the outsiders.

Experimentation with Reflective Surfaces

Distorting Perception

Self-awareness and Perception of the Outside World

The Experimental Design disables Peripheral Vision

Virtual Environments S2, 2013

The aesthetic and technical things learnt from this experimental design, such as the positioning of the reflective film and appropriate widths of sectioning slits, helped us get an undestanding of what we wanted to design. This is the main inspiration for our M3 design submission.

This Second Skin Design is Highly Protective

Daniel Parker, Diana Galimova & Spring Lu

Final Design Idea

The final idea we chose as a group was this helmet (shown above). Through this design, we wished to create something which is large and volumous out of a material system comprised of voids and spaces. This volume would need to provide the subject within it with a feeling of safety and protection. We found that the most vulnerable zone on our body was the back of the head and the back of the neck - hence we decided to cover those areas with the volume. Another zone which we felt needed addressing is the chest/heart area, but also the spacial zone before the person’s face. Hence the shape of the helmet would also need to somewhat create a barrier between the subject and the outside world without compromising the person’s line of sight. This shape also allows for interraction with others, as it isn’t too threatening and isn’t large enough to disable close contact. This shape also allows for arm movement and isn’t hard to move in.

The additional benefit of such a simple shape is probably the fact that it allows us to play around with the appertures and different effects that we’re able to create in Rhino.

Virtual Environments S2, 2013

Daniel Parker, Diana Galimova & Spring Lu

Final Design

The Final Design in Rhino

Virtual Environments S2, 2013

The Densest Grid is on the Chest

Sectioning to a Single Point

Visibility and Use of Apertures

Daniel Parker, Diana Galimova & Spring Lu

Materials & Technical Aspects of the Design

Our final material choice isn’t particularly as exciting as we were hoping - but this is largely to financial and time restrictions. The material used is 1.0 mm Mountboard, which is probably slightly too thin and too flexible to be efficiently used for this material system. In addition, we were unable to use reflective film as well as we shold have primarily due to the pricing, but also some of the other conflicting factors in our design (such as the angling of panels away from the person - hence the person is unable to actually see the faces of the planes).

The hardest part in this material system was probably getting all of the slits at the right lengths and at the right places - sometimes, they would not pring in the desired places. However, we overcame most of these difficulties in the end.

Cavity Inside the Helmet

The reflective card enhances the visual effect. The placement of it was influenced by our sight and visual paths.

The slits were quite difficult to work with, because they didn’t The planes on one of the axes are all meeting always go as planned - the positioning was off or they were not towards one point in front of the person. This deep enough. makes it easier to walk.

Virtual Environments S2, 2013

The panels are all angled towards this point.

This allows the person to see out of the helmer and enables them to walk safely.

Daniel Parker, Diana Galimova & Spring Lu

Final 1:1 Second Skin

Virtual Environments S2, 2013

Daniel Parker, Diana Galimova & Spring Lu