justin han (637711) m4 journal

OVERVIEWdesign a second skin: a wearable volume that surrounds and protects our personal space using the design technique: profile and section.

PERSONAL SPACEmy definition of personal space is a private area in our body where outsiders should not intrude. I realised that people will more likely to allow strangers to intrude into their sides rather than their front and back parts of the body. As discussed in Sommer (1969), our frontal upper body area around the chest and the area beneath our back around hips are fragile parts where both genders, but often for females, refuse any intruders. Sommer uses public transport as an example, that people would travel in a crowded train standing side-by-side or back-to-back, but most people are uncomfortable to travel facing each other within 45cm.

I maintained incorporated my initial definition of personal space from Module 2 in the final model. it defined as our five senses (smell, taste, sight, hear and feel). hence, my personal space was the area around my face. my group nominated the idea of Elizabethan collar* to wear around our head. though, the design was very different in the final model compared to the development in Module 2, but positively.

* used in vets to stop dogs from scratching its face.

CLIENTvirtual environments

AUDIENCEviertual environments tutors and students

637711 Justin HanSem 2, 2013

REFLECTIONMODULE 4

IDEATIONMODULE 1



IDEATIONOBJECT

siphon pump

Our assigned object, siphon pump was, unfortunately, an extremely confusing example of profile and section. The sections did not relate to the dominant technique our group eventually used at the end. This example created confusion between profile & section and panel & fold,. As a result, my group was a few weeks behind On the other hand, it was a great example to involve movement, and led our group to incorporate the movement discovered in siphon pump into our final fabricated model.

The first task was to measure the dimensions of the siphon pump and visualise by hand drawing onto an A3 paper (see left). Measuring every single little detail of the sections was very challenging and complex as shown on the right. Also, I attempted measuring the maximum and minimum length when extended and compressed, in a similar manner to Heath, Heath and Jensen (2000) measured the adjustable-seat office chairs.

41.5

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SIDE ELEVATION

TOP PLAN


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IDEATIONGRAPHIC

Rhino

Measuring subtle details and visualising on paper was difficult, but transferring the same detail onto the Rhino software was less stressful. I typed in the dimensions as I progressed, and the most handy tool was the “undo” command, which is unfortunately not available on paper.

I believe the purpose of this visualising process was to recognise the complexity of designing. Designing a such simple and small object involved a number of complicated processes.

side elevation 3-D perspective


IDEATIONSKETCH

sketching ideas

This is the idea of two heads next to our head that represent a symmetrical balance among our shoulders. Based on my initial definition of personal space, this was to stop intruders coming from the side, whilst maintaining the nature of human body.

The collar above would cover the whole upper body and way above the head. This idea was inspired by the Elizabethan collar (see Design Brief).

This idea was inspired by old British armours for its symbolism: power and protection. This was the misconception of profile and section, perhaps confused with panel and fold.

Repetition of spikes, or pyramids, would disallow any physical intrusion from others. However it seems to use panel and fold technique. This idea was also led from the misconception of profile and section.

Once my tutor clarify the concept, it led me to alter the Elizabethan collar idea, generated above.

This uses the waffle structure of profile and section. It covers the body while the Elizabethan collar wraps around the head. I generated this idea after understanding the technique.


IMDB (2013)

DESIGNMODULE 2


DESIGNINSPIRATION

Yokohama terminal


Following my tutor’s thorough explanation of profile and section, I finally understood the two major technical structures: Contour structureAndInterlocking ‘waffle’ structure.

The biggest inspiration of this project was the Japanese Yokohama Terminal designed by the Foreign Office of Architects (FOA). The terminal seems to be dominantly composed of contour stacks of folded wooden panels (see the third image on right). The first two images on right uses similar technique I discovered in the siphon pump in Module 1, which is similar to panel and fold.

Source: MVR (2013)

Source: MVR (2013)

Source: Dykxhoorn (2009)Source: FOA (2006)

DESIGNREFINEMENT

rhino design 1

We agreed, as a group, to refine the idea of Elizabethan collar further in Rhino. However, despite our efforts with multiple attempts, we had technical difficulties to operate the 123D Catch software properly. Alternatively, I measured and recorded the dimensions of my body with a ruler (see right), and typed in the dimensions as I worked through Rhino in the same way as I did to visualise the siphon pump in Module 1.

Designing without a 3-D human model was not a sustainable method. As it is apparent in the images on left, the design was pathetically simple and rigid. I dominantly used the ‘extrude’ and ‘Boolean2Objects’ commands in Rhino to achieve this design.

The images represent:A) the designB) is the design’s illustration of a physical model with box-board using contour structure. However, when I nested the file in Rhino, I realised it exceeds our group’s budget to laser cut 47 sheets of any material.C) is the design’s illustration of a physical model using the interlocking ‘waffle’ structure.


C)

A)

B)

DESIGNREFINEMENT

rhino design 2

In order to reduce material costs, I came to a decision to delete unimportant sections in the body using Rhino. I decided to maintain the contour structure in the head with 3mm box-boards, but perhaps use the interlocking structure in the body. To give more variety, my group originally planned to include chains in the body as another dominant material. The idea was that heavy and metallic characteristics of chains would create negative meanings to intruders.

However, the idea of chains was not very feasible in terms of practicality and it did not fulfil any part of the Design Brief, including our chosen definition of personal space.

Following the group discussion regarding the previous design, we decided to also remove some parts in the front of the head to provide visual corridor to the wearer. Conversely, from another group discussion, we came down to a conclusion that opening up the front destroys the purpose of the collar, and it does not surround our personal space.

For this module, I used Adobe Photoshop as a temporary replacement of 123D Catch.


DESIGNPROTOTYPEoverall structure

My group constructed a prototype out of plastic and sticky tapes. This was a quick practical stage to test the practicality and to visualise its overall form in reality. This also allowed me to seek for parts to improve. It showed me that this design would be extremely difficult to wear, and to walk around.

I attempted to test the contour and interlocking structure with paper using the text of Pottmann et al. (2007), but the papers were not solid and thick enough.




FABRICATIONMODULE 3

FABRICATIONINSPIRATION

mood page

Source: SFS (2013)

XaXor (2013)

MB (2012)

MB (2012) MB (2012)

Webneel (2013)

abstract headasym

metry

abst

ract

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ymaterialism

For a more abstract and interesting design, I started researching for ideas I did not include in Module 2. It was clear that asymmetrical dresses are nowadays very common in women’s fashion industry.

Clothing designers seem to have designed many abstract and creative dresses. They seemed to be exaggerated either in the head or the body, but not both. The white dress in ‘abstract head’ section seems to be similar to my Elizabethan collar idea. The exaggeration in the head seems to be fluent with the body and seems very light due to its translucent clothing fabrics that wraps around the head. Contrastingly, the image parallel to the white dress seems to use simple and less materials in the head. It seems less but represents more meanings.

The black & white image (1860s) on right looks like Elizabethan collar that has been vertically deflected. It surrounds the body in a grid-like structure, where others may see through them but they cannot physically intrude. In contrast, the image below is more recent and it radically exaggerated whole lower body from the waist.

I thought it was worthwhile to look at materials as well.Some clothing designers used the latest technology (IPads) to create texture of the dress, while some use recyclable materials in their designs. Nonetheless, low-medium density wooden boards are probably most suitable for our design as it is not much heavier than the box-board, but a lot stronger.

FABRICATIONDESIGN

rhino development

As I could not access 123D Catch, and having learnt that using Photoshop cannot be the replacement, I thus decided to download a 3-D model from the Internet. I mathematically calculated the difference between my height and the model’s height, and scaled the model to my height. For example, I am 190 cm, while the default height for the model was 181cm, therefore I divided 190 by 181 (=1.05), and scaled the model by 1:1.05.

1) shows how I developed my final design in Rhino. I drew a few curves into my desired forms around the human figure, and extruded them. I used the rebuild tool to reduce the number of points to work with. I turned on the points and started designing abstract forms.

2) was an alternative presentation of the design process. Following my previous designs, I added hierarchy in proportion. The chest and hip are clearly emphasised and are out of proportion to fulfil my definition of personal space. However, It was physically impossible for a box-board to hold the weight in the front (circled in red).

3) is my final design, which I removed the problematic part from 2). I also refined and finalised the design.

3)

1)

2)

I decided to involve movement in the head while still maintaining the idea of Elizabethan collar. This movement was inspired by the movement I discovered in the siphon pump from module 1. It sits on the wearer’s shoulders while his face is exposed. But when he feels threatened (anything that interacts with our five common senses, including smell, light, view, noise, etc.), he can then pull up the rings. Black rings (black lines above) are connected via red stretch rayon, which allows the movement to occur in all angles. I tried to hide the red rayon in the upcoming fabrication process during the period where it sits on the wearer’s shoulders, and when he pulls up, red stands out amongst the black body.


FABRICATIONPROTOTYPES

body & head

In contrast to the body development, this head prototype was a good representation of profile and section. This was built in the midst of designing the new model, therefore I had to borrow my previous idea from Module 2. A number of flat 3mm box-boards have been laser cut to test the waffle structure. Every piece and notch were etched in Rhino with alphabets and numbers for clear model making instructions.

Nonetheless, I realised that the notches were too large this time, and the pieces fell out too easily. The size of the head turned out to be too small, but it could not be improved any further as any larger pieces would not fit in the 600x900mm sheets of material.

Some parts were frustrating to make where one small mistake could make us restart the whole making process. But from another perspective, they were valuable feedbacks to take away. The first image on right has few horizontal enclosed pieces missing in the middle. Those pieces cannot be put in unless the top rings we remove the top pieces. This resulted us resetting the process. Yet, I believe this prototype was successful.

This is the prototype of the body that was unsuccessful. We constructed most of the prototypes as a group. This was a wasteful prototype wasting about $80. The pieces were too thin, many parts were not cut properly by the laser cutter and the notches for interlocking were about 1 mm narrower than the thickness of the material (3mm box-board), which the pieces could not interlock at all. Thin pieces often broke when my group tried to force them into the notch. Consequently, we came down to a conclusion that box-boards are too weak for profile and section.


FABRICATIONMODEL

final process

Given that box-boards are too weak for the design, I decided to use Medium-Density Fibreboard (MDF) as my primary material. I used the laser cutter again with 3mm, 600x900mm MDF sheets.

As a group, we constructed the model. We made sure that enclosed parts are constructed first. The notches were perfectly in place this time.

I took the model to the garden next to the 757 Swanston building and spray painted in black.

The rings in the head were also spray painted in black to make sure that it flows with the body. This was an unsuccessful process due to lack of planning: whole 5m rayon was used, glued between the rings, resulting large excess of rayon hanging on the side.

BO

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AD

I had to laser cut the rings again, and re-work on the head. This time, we cut the rayon into the shape of the rings and attached from one ring to another as a group. Sticky tapes were used temporarily to hold together.

The size of the rings increase as rises, and we glued the rayon in a zigzag manner. This created a unique red pattern, and helped to reduce excessive rayon.

COLOUR THEORY

alertdangerurgency

powerformality

evil

I chose to use black body to show class and formality. This will communicate to all intruders as a powerful figure.

I was inspired by red when I saw the red & black “ D A N G E R ” sign . The sign alerts people to keep away. S i m i l a r l y , pulling the head up amongst black background will keep intruders away from my personal

space.



REFLECTION &ANALYSIS

At start, profile and section was confusing and complicated. However, after finalising the project, I realised it is conceptually a very simple technique. With profile and section, there are no design constraints. I am able to design anything possible in Rhino, or in any other designing software, and linearly slice the model for physical modelling. I became conscious of this fact through my design process.

Following all misleading concepts raised in Module 1, there were more factors that held my back in the design process. The biggest issue was that I was too obsessed with symmetrical balance throughout Module 2: Designing process. Now that I reflect on the process, I think this occurred due to lack of planning and insightful research that should have happened in Module 1: Ideation process. I was not aware of the fact that there are already many asymmetrical “second skin” in the fashion industry. With symmetrical conceptual constraint, which I unnoticeably created, I could not progress much further than designing something strict, rigid and boring. I believe it was boring as there was no hierarchy throughout the design. For a significant length of time, I attempted altering the material rather than changing its dominant form.

Nonetheless, Scheurer and Stehling (2011) was the way out of this deception and a guide to explore different types of forms in the design world. In Module 3: Fabricating process, I researched for inspirational abstract clothing designs. I designed my final model on basis of my knowledge obtained from this research. This was a huge progress from the previous design and fulfilled my definition of personal space. The design is more interesting and has more apparent emphasis around chest and hips.

The major problem that affected the design process was time management. I didn’t expect planning to be so crucial in a design process, such as researching prior to designing, thus it resulted me rushing towards the final submission. I suppose a Gantt chart, or perhaps a priority list, would have provided a more organised design process and reduce alternative presentations of poor (or boring) designs. As an improvement in my final model, I think it would have been more unique if I stored symbolic objects in between the interlocked structure. Jakob and McFarlane’s Loewy Bookshop was mentioned in Iwamoto (2007), which is a bookshop that uses interlocking ‘waffle’ structure as shelves. Correspondingly, placing removable, identical objects of same colour between all intersections of the model would create unique colour pattern and texture. Perhaps, the object could be symbolic, such as the aforementioned red ‘danger’ sign to keep intruders away from the wearer.

justin han (637711) m4 journal

Documents

students637711 justin

profile section

final model

confusing example of

private area

great example

final fabricated model

frontal upper body area