Final Project: Bike Rack Design

Initial sketches of the proposed bike rack design: 

           

     My name is Lauren D. and I am a senior art student at TSU. Being an avid cyclist, I was immediately drawn to the bike rack design challenge. Not only is biking a great form of exercise that promotes a healthy lifestyle, but it also reduces one's carbon footprint by cutting down on harmful vehicular emissions. Since this proposed design is for the TSU campus, I chose to model my bike rack after a Tiger, the school's mascot.  This design is not only a functioning bike rack, but thanks its sleek simplicity, the design also doubles as an attractive art sculpture when not in use. The piece itself measures 9ft x 4ft: the measurements of a full grown adult tiger. 

Proposed location:
Behind TSU arts building

Because of the proximity to the parking lot and main roads, I chose this space by the TSU Elliott building. Because there is an extreme lack of bike parking around this area, I think this unused strip of concrete would be the perfect location for my bike rack design.  Since the design is TSU realted, it could also be placed at several different spots around campus. 

Materials:

2''- square steel tubing- I chose square tubing to maintain a geometric look to the bike rack.
powder coating in royal blue- better than painting because it is weather resistant and will not chip or rust over time. The coating also helps the steel stay at a safe temperature after long exposure to the sun/heat.

Costs:
Materials (tubing, powder coat) and manufacturing: $1,600
Labor: $500
Delivery and Installation: $300

total: $2,400

Making the Model:

First I traced my design onto a 1'' thick foam board:

 

After outlining the shape several times to get the required thickness (about 1/4''), I began the long and painful task of cutting the design out: 

 

this took forever!

Next, I wrapped the foam board in blue tape to achieve the color I wanted. I chose tape because the foam was too jagged and rough to paint over. The tape smoothed out the rough edges. 

Then I glued the shapes to the mount and voila! 

Damien Hirst Butterfly Fiasco: Artist Kills 9,000 In The Name Of Art

From Huffingtonpost.com: 

Damien Hirst has never been a fan favorite amongst animal rights activists. They didn't love his formaldehyde-soaked shark and they weren't so pleased with hissevered cow's head, so you can imagine how they reacted to the butterfly massacre that was his recent exhibit.

The atrocity art installation, titled "In and Out of Love," was shown at the Tate Modern earlier this year. It consisted of of just two white and windowless rooms filled with live butterflies whizzing about, and was part of a larger retrospective that involved other winged insect-inspired creations. But it's entering headlines (and enraging the humane population of the world) this week because The Telegraphannounced on Sunday that the absurd Tate show resulted in the total death toll of over 9,000 butterflies. Stepped on, violently swatted, or bored to death by contemporary art, the 23 week-retrospective reportedly led to approximately 400 winged deaths per week.

 

 

 

Art relating to

Prototype

A prototype of a hover board.

Repetition

The same arch forms a pattern of repetition. 

Modularity 

each module comes together to form a whole 

Two articles on Repetition and Rhythm in Art

Here are a few great online articles that explore repetition and Rhythm:

MoMA| Serial Forms and Repetition 

Sophia.org| Design in Art: Repetition, Pattern and Rhythm 

Restricted Areas in Russia by Photographer Danila Tkachenko

On this cold and rainy day, these images of Russia by Danila Tkachenko seem appropriate.

Microsoft Kills Clip Art

From abcNEWS :

Clip Art, the iconic collection of images beloved by students and professionals around the world for their whimsy and ease of inserting into Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, has been laid to rest. 

Microsoft announced in a blog post that it is shuttering its Clip Art library in favor of Bing Images, where users can now download royalty free images to use in their projects.

Destressing using Art Therapy techniques

I am definitely one who struggles with stress, especially around the holidays. Here are some art therapy techniques that can be used to combat stress and anxiety.

5 in 1

"Recycles". Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

Five street artists known as TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME and CEKAS, have collaborated on a massive 30ft. tall street art piece in Poland. Read more about it here. 

Damien Hirst's Army of Geppettos

Here is an interesting article that gives an in-depth view of the artisans that actually craft many of Damien Hirst's (as well as many other renouned artists) large pieces.

Wire project

For this assignment we had to make a 3d object out of metal wire. I chose the spray bottle because it had a straightforward design, but would also allow me to be creative in the execution of the spray top.

I decided to start with the base of the bottle and work my way up to the most complicated part of the bottle. 

Then i constructed the body, using four straight wires going around the base and connecting to the top ring i created. The hardest part was figuring out how to attach the wires without bending them too much. The more the wires bent, the more my object lost its intended shape. 

(Unfortunately, I lost my phone at this point and got a new one, so I am missing a few pictures of my process.)

After i had the body assembled, I began work on the sprayer/top of the spray bottle. This was the most frustrating part of the process. Because the top of the spray bottle was so top-heavy, I had to use a smaller gauge wire to even out the weight. It ended up working out really well.

Kandinsky at the Frist

I went to the Kandinsky exhibit yesterday. Definitely worth checking out!

http://fristcenter.org/calendar-exhibitions/detail/kandinsky-a-retrospective

Mental Illness and Art

Just read this interesting article about how many creative minds mimic brains with schizophrenia, otherwise known as multiple personality disorder or MPD.

Heres an excerpt from the article from bbc.com:

Creativity is akin to insanity, say scientists who have been studying how the mind works.

Brain scans reveal striking similarities in the thought pathways of highly creative people and those with schizophrenia.

Both groups lack important receptors used to filter and direct thought.

It could be this uninhibited processing that allows creative people to "think outside the box", say experts from Sweden's Karolinska Institute.

In some people, it leads to mental illness.

But rather than a clear division, experts suspect a continuum, with some people having psychotic traits but few negative symptoms.

Damien Hirst

Cupid's Lie- 2008

For the Love of God- 2007 

Away from the Flock (Divided)- 1995 

The Immortal- 1997-2005


Damien Hirst, b. June 7, 1965, is an English visual artist who studied at Goldsmith's College in London. He rose to prominence in the 90's as part of the YBA, or Young British Artists group,  and quickly became the group's most renowned member. Through his use of sculpture, painting, drawing and installation, Hirst explores the theme of death and it's ultimate impact on life. 

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Umbrellas

Umbrellas in California via christojeanneclaude.net

Umbrellas in Japan via christojeanneclaude.net

Simultaneously installed in Japan and California, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Umbrellas, was a temporary art piece which began installation in 1990. From 1990-1991 around 2,000 workers helped to install 3,100 umbrellas in Iburuka, Japan, and California. The project officially opened October 9, 1991, and lasted only 18 days, during which 3 million people saw and experienced the umbrellas. 

The project was designed to reflect the similarities and differences in the ways of life in the two inland regions. Blue umbrellas were chosen to be installed in Japan, because of the abundance of water and lush vegetation in the region. The umbrellas in Japan were also placed close together to represent the limited space Japan has. In contrast, the vast and open grazing land of California was represented in the whimsical, spread-out configuration of the umbrellas. The yellow color was chosen to represent the dry landscape of the area.   

The entire 26 million dollar temporary art project was entirely financed by Christo and Jeanne-Claude without the help of any sponsorship. 

via christojeanneclaude.net

via christojeanneclaude.net

Hexahedron Planning and Process

First i sketched out the designs and made preliminary sketches for the hexahedron cubes. I also calculated the dimensions needed for each cube. For some of the more difficult shapes, I made a paper model to help me figure out the exact dimensions. 

 

above: paper model 

Next, I drew shapes with their exact dimensions plus a 1/4 inch border, which would later become the tabs that would hold the cube in place. Using an exacto knife, I carefully cut out the shapes. 

 

Using a ruler as a straight edge, I fl

Next came the glue. I used three different types of glue with mixed results. At first i used a glue stick which worked well at first, but the humidity caused the bond to weaken over night. I also used craft glue, which did basically the same thing the glue stick did. By the next morning, all of my cubes had come apart. I finally chose a glue gun, which made the boxes stick together perfectly. The only downside to the glue gun was how messy it was. It was hard to achieve a perfectly clean surface. 

 Voila!