m4: reflection

Virtual Environments S2 2013

Ahmad 2013

610347 | Group 1 Afifah Ahmad Shamsudin

M4|Reflection


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"Observation is a necessary part of creation" Heath et al (2000)

The volumetric surface of an inflated float cannot simply be measured with wrapping measuring tape around it. The float is a 3D object which can is bound to be seen in perspective by human eye. To have more accurate measurement, I need to find a way to see it in 2D. From A in studio, we have gathered ideas on how to get accurate measurement for volumetic object. I find that taking photograph of the float would be the most suitable

approach. I captured photos of the float from top, front and side by trying to position the camera as parallel as possible to the float. The photos are printed out and the scale of the printed image to the actual object is calculated to get the actual dimension. For the calculation, I chose a line that is the easiest to measure and compare on both photos and object.

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The base of the float is not inflatable. Making changes to it will not affect the ability for the float to inflate. Therefore, I cut through the dashed line to allow the float to lay flat.As the float is laid out flat, I noticed that it has become less inflated than it was. More air can be blown into the float now as the unbending of the float has allow more volumeric space. It is good to know that bendings in inflatable system takes out volumetric space as well as creates difficulties to inflate evenly due to tight space for air to pass through.

The bottom and top of the laid-flat float is symmetrical. After reading Miralles and Pinos, I realised that laying out the float would be a great help in understanding the system. To lay out the float is simple as it is almost rectangular. The line of symmetry falls on the center point of the laid-flat float. It can now be cut along the line of symmetry which happen to be the seams. With this, it is understood that in order to create seams, the two connected surface have to be symmetrical.

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From making this model, I discovered that, it is possible to attach different parts together to create a complex inflatable system.

After interrogating the system, I made a prototype to test out the findings and also to uncover other aspects of the inflatable system. I used a garbage bag to test this out as it is cheap as well as has the ability to trap air.

A rectangle is cut and folded in half to create two symmetrical surface.

The longest open side is sealed with cellophane tape.

The same side is sealed again with cellophane tape after flipping it inside out for stronger seam.

One of the edge is sealed and folded to create a tube shape.

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4 to 7Another rectangle half the size of the first one is cut out. Step 2 to 7 is repeated to make shorter tubes.

Two incisions are made in the centre of the longest tube to allow the ends of the shorter tubes to fit. The two short tubes are sealed to the openings on the long tube.

The only open end is taped to the hairdyer to inflate the object.

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“The best way to learn the location of invisible boundary is to keep walking until somebody complaints” - Sommer (1969)

Personal space is subjective. Some people are more comfortable with physical contact than some. As personal space is an invisible boundary it is hard to know whether we are invading someone’s personal space. The environment where the person is in play a role, for example, it is acceptable for people to stand close to each other at a party but not on a lawn where people are relaxing.

BassRape 2011Wikipedia 2013

To simplify our everyday interaction , society has came up with a collective expectation also known as common sense. But then again, common sense is not as common as we think because background and culture has created the irony of varying common sense. With all this being said, finding and defining personal space to be exacerbated or thwarted in the second skin design will be a challeging and interesting process.

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To narrow down the notion of personal space, I decided to analyse the stereotypical behaviour of women when encountering their first date. Analysing information from movies, common sense / norms, and very little personal experience I find that there are certain areas that cannot be approached by men on a first date.

Staring at women’s chest & placing hand too high or too low on women’s back will give women a negative impression on the men. Besides the merely physical ‘hands off’ rule, Mercado (2013), suggested that the thoughts of women during her first date should also represents her personal space in a psychological perspective.I

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We came out with a few individual ideas in the first week. In module 2, I got into a group and we were inspired by each others work therefore we decided to explore our final design based on these.

In my initial sketches, I decided to wrap the inflatable around the women’s personal space during the first date. This idea is however very static and does not optimise the potential of inflatable which is able create motion and extrude more drama. However, I feel that the notion of personal space in this sketch is quite strong and it can be worked on.

First date

Michelle (2013) explored the behaviour of puffer fish when it feel threatened. Puffer fish puff when it when approached. This is an interesting aspect which can be applied in the design to show the transition of behavior when a person’s personal space is invaded.

Kwan 2012

happy fish

Initially, Mercado (2013) wanted to exemplify the claustrophobic nature and blind spots in his design. We were inspired by this design as it creates drama and motion. It is later incorporate with puffer fish and fish date to create the second skin design

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Our first task as a group was to create a body mesh to help us create our Rhino sketches and models in proportion with the real body. The outcome of 123D Catch was passable as the shape of the body is clear without extreme distortion. All of our second skin design was made based on this mesh and it has been very useful to imagine the real scale of the Rhino model and get a close representation to how it will look in real life.

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HES The idea of puffer fish, protrusion and first date are merged together to manifest our notion of personal space - women’s invisible boundary and trail of thoughts during first date. These combination of ideas fill in the gaps that would be present if isolated by themselves.

The collar exemplify the thoughts running in the woman’s head during the first date. The abundance of petals layering each other shows the overlaying thoughts and emotions women are going through. The collar resembles the shape of flower petals to enhance the romantic vibe normally associated with dates. The petals will wave as air is blown into it by making plenty of small holes at the tip ot the petals to create invisible open system to allow continuous motion of air.

The regions off limit on a first date is protected by the tubes wrapping the women’s body on the area as discuss in the notion of personal space. The tubes will inflate like a puffer fish to distance the individual involves when the woman started to feel uncomfortable.

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LeftThe second design idea is similar to the first one. We altered the collar to have more literal representation of thoughts and emotion women experience on first date. The different sizes and direction shows the different emotions and thoughts that is affecting the women at different scale. The protrusion will have an open system which allow aggresive motion whem air is blown into it.

The spikes speak for the off limit region to not be invaded. The spikes depress anyone to go beyond the personal space threshold.

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After further discussion and receiving constructive criticism we continue to develop our second skin idea. We found that the elements in previous design were too contradictory. I also find the spikes have slightly immature teenage rebellion characteristic which does not suit the look we were trying to achieve. We emphasize the element of the petal to make the design appear a lot more feminine yet the way it skirts around the bottom half of the body and the collar flares behind the head strongly exhibit our notion of personal space.

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We use welding method to cut and seal our petals. This method is quick, easy and neat. The burning was hard to control which create small holes along the seam which is what we seek for as we wanted the air to continuosly flow in and out of the petals.

After getting the feedback in the studio, we realised that our design is a bit too conventional. We tried to think of another way to present our notion of personal space by making it a lot more avant garde and as something we can catch a glimpse on a fashion runway.

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Wearable Dress

We thought of making the second skin as something we can walk out on the street with - a proper garment. We searched for design ideas from previous runways to help us get a clearer sense whether our design ideas are feasible.

We were very inspired by the following precedents. Inflatable can create drama, evoke emotion and allow function as explained by Thomas Heatherwick in his TED talk. Although my team and I have uncovered the feasibility of our design ideas, the problem still lies on how to build it and make it work.

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Another important aspect in our second skin design is to create motion. This dancing inflatables are of an open system where the air flow in and out of the inflatable continously. The movement of air is responsible for the motion on the surface of the inflatable. This can be adapted into our design to achieve the dynamics that we wanted.

Dancing Inflatables

Rose petals

Yvonne 2012

Roses are very symbolic with dates as giving roses is one of the romantic gestures often done to impress the date. I analysed the characteristic of a rose and I am intrigued by the abstraction of details from the selected pattern on the roses. The swirl formed by the layering of petals gave me the idea to wrap my second skin in a continuous swirl around the body.

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“Involving human intelligence & perspectives, the information is simplified while its properties are still remained” - Scheurer & Stehling (2011)


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After further interrogation of the design and thorough research on precedents, we refined our second skin idea. We decided to make it more fluid, classy and yet dramatic. We tried varying size and shape of the petals and explore different ways to wrap it around the body.

We came out with a few hand sketches to aid our design process before proceeding onto Rhino modelling. The idea exemplify our notion of personal space that is the invisible physical boundary surrounding a woman as well the thoughts and emotions running through her mind during her first date.

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LSWe tested out different shapes and size of petals to seek for the best outcome. Different shapes and size created different effect, and some are stronger than the other. The less edges there are, the less chances for it to burst.

We petal below, with a long body and rounded head is the most efficient shape as it can be inflated quickly and relatively stronger. The soft, rounded edge works well with the feminine aspect we wanted to achieve.

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The final design exemplify the notion of personal space of a woman on her first date. The way the second skin drapes around her body almost look like a dress that is parading her femininity. Being gentle and shy, the inflatable will inflate when encountering the date and will deflate overtime as the conversation goes well and the date begin to unwind.

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Our design has been very much influnced by Rhino. Our design outcome is largely the result of our experimentation with Rhino. Our initial ideas on hand sketches were altered extensively after attempting to recreate it on Rhino. The design outcome manage to keep the important aspect of our initial ideas but mostly it is influence by what we are able to do on Rhino instead of what we want to do. This is not exactly as bad thing as Rhino modelling has help us to explore more dimension and test out different shapes and scales and see how it will look in reality. However, with stronger knowledge of Rhino we would have been able to have more control on the design and choose whether to let Rhino dictate our design or not. While experimenting Rhino we often forgot to think about another important aspect of our design, that is to create a functioning physical model.

Having to create second skin with inflatable system was almost an independent process as the topic of inflatable was only touched on the final lecture. Rhino has been a great help in presenting ideas however digital fabrication as mentioned by Kolarevic (2003) was not suitable to execute our second skin design.

Our model making process could have been a lot more sophisticated if we have synchronise thought on aesthetic and function. Trying to inflate the model at the right speed and amount of air in each petals was a struggle. Some of the petals was over inflated while some barely did. The model was also very delicate as we cannot inflate it for more than 3 times without the petals being detached from the tube. Better material, stronger sealing method and a lot moreW effort would have produced better outcome of the final model.

It would also be interesting if we incorporate inflatable with other system such as ‘panel & fold’ or ‘profile & section’ so that we could have practiced the digital fabrication process in FabLab. Digital fabrication is very synonym with Virtual Environments and we are missing out on part of the fun process.

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CREDITAhmad, Afifah 2013, Group 1, Virtual Environments Semester 2/2013

Mercado, I 2013, Group 1, Virtual Environments Semester 2/2013

Xu, M 2012, Group 1, Virtual Environments Semester 2/2013


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Y BassRape 2011, Take the night - bring this party home, viewed 22 October 2013, < http://bassrape.me/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1155 >

Dancing Inflatables 2013, Inflatable Rental, viewed 23 October 2013, < http://www.inflatable-rental.com/dancinginflatables.html >. Enric Miralles,Carme Pinos, “How to lay out a croissant”

Miralles, E & Pinos, C 1988/1991, How to layour a croissont, El Croquis 49/50 En Construccion pp. 240-241, ISSUU, viewed 22 October 2013, < http://issuu.com/annie_walsh/docs/01_miralles_-_how_to_layout_a_crois >.

Gordon, D 2010, Inflatable Dress, Wearable Art Blog, viewed 23 October 2013, < http://www.wearableartblog.com/my_weblog/2011/05/mobius-wearable-art-runway-show.html >.

Heatherwick, T 2011, Building the seed cathedral, TED, viewed 22 October 2013, < http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_heatherwick.html>.

Heath, A, Heath, D, & Jensen, A, 2000, 300 years of industrial design : function, form, technique, pp. 1700-2000, New York : Watson-Guptill, 2000, ISSUU, viewed 22 October 2013, < http://issuu.com/annie_walsh/docs/01_jensen_300_years_of_industrial_d >.

Hoyun 2007, Inflatable combination dress and chair, Popgadget, viewed 23 October 2013, < http://www.popgadget.net/2007/08/inflatable_comb.php >.

Jones 2013, Helpless Babies Will Always Get Bullied!, The Reality Formula, viwed 22 October 2013, < http://www.realityformula.com/helpless-babies-will-always-get-bullied/ >.

Klein MB 2009, 5 Talking Tips, SheKnowsLove, viewed 22 October 2013, < http://www.sheknows.com/love-and-sex/articles/807254/first-date-conversation-tips >.

Kolarevic, B 2003, Architecture in the Digital Age - Design and Manufacturing, Spon Press, London, ISSUU, viewed 22 October, < http://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-3984089-dt-content-rid-12657208_2/courses/ENVS10008_2013_SM2/03%20Kolarevic%20-%20Architecture%20in%20the%20Digital%20Age%20-%20Design%20and%20Manufacturing%20_2003_.pdf >.

Kwan 2012, How To Avoid Common Dating Pitfalls, SheKnowsLove, viewed 22 October 2013, < http://www.sheknows.ca/beauty-and-love/articles/950757/4-dating-mistakes-to-avoid >.

Lee, SM 2010, Inflatable dress, SML Pro Blog, viewed 23 October 2013 < http://blog.seeminglee.com/2010/02/diana-engs-fairytale-fashion-collection.html >.

The puffer fish 2013, Wide Photos HD wallpapers, 22 October 2013, < http://www.widephotos.com/hd-wallpapers/the-puffer-fish/ >.

Scheurer, F & Stehling, H 2011, Lost in Parameter Space?, IAD: Architectural Design, Wiley, 81/4, July, pp. 70-79, ISSUU, viewed 22 October, < http://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-3984100-dt-content-rid-12607882_2/courses/ENVS10008_2013_SM2/02_Scheurer%20-%20Parameter%20Space%20_2011_.pdf>.

Sommer, R 1969, Personal space : the behavioral basis of design, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, c1969, ISSUU, viewed 22 October 2013, < http://issuu.com/annie_walsh/docs/01_sommer_personal_space >.

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Yvonne, P 2012, A rose is a rose, Fanpop!, viewed 22 October 2013, < http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/roses/images/20581045/title/rose-rose-photo >.

m4: reflection

Documents

inflated float

laidflat float

complex inflatable system

symmetrical surface

actual object

line of symmetry

volumetric surface

volumetric space