Softness of Things

Final

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 02:39:59 +0000

Week 11 - Narrative

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:20:55 +0000

Week 10 - Material

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:06:15 +0000

Week 9 - Interactivity

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:04:04 +0000

Week 8 - Space

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:27:55 +0000

I have an obsession. Ever since I've moved to New York, I've been obsessed with how people live in small spaces. How much space do you need to live comfortably? I think living in tight or small spaces forces you to be more creative. I'm not interesed in how to design for small spaces as much I'm interested what normal people do and how they transform their unit into an extension of themselves, and what they make of life in their small spaces or rental units. Because of this obsession, my friend gave me the following book by Kyoichi Tsuzuki:

Which features photographs of apartments and people from all walks of life that just live comfortably and happily in small rented units.

Hence, the birth of Itty.Bitty.Digs. A site/blog of user-generated content of people's small living spaces. I really do see my small apartment, even though it's rented, as an extension of myself. I'm a pack rat and it shows. I want this online space to allow others to share their small spaces and what they've made of it.

Week 7 - Body

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:48:56 +0000

For this week, I was thinking about ornamentation of the body. Ornamentation takes on different forms, whether it is for decorative purposes, to display status, etc. I wanted to work on ornamentation for the body that was not only decorative but also functional and served a purpose for me. Hence, I came up with the idea of To-Do-List Jewelry.

Week 6 - How it all comes together

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:02:07 +0000

This class has made me rethink a lot of things, personal and nonpersonal. It's made me rethink my practices. For example, my approach to projects has been a bumber-car methodology, where I just try things out, hit an obstacle, and then try something else, until something worked. For my first assignment, that's what I tried, and the result turned out to be not what I imagined at all. I didn't realize that I never took the time to think things through. So for my second assignment, I busted out the sketchpad and starting writing down all my ideas and then sketching them out.

That process probably gave me the best project idea that I could have otherwise come up with. It's so interesting to me that I never thought of doing this before, especially since in Software Development I always started with the design process and the system architecture before I actually start writing a piece of code, so I'm at a loss to why this process never translated to ITP for me.

Softness of Things forces me to critique myself and overcome a lot of insecurities when it comes to making things. The natural progression of the class made perfect sense to me and my project idea. I noticed my original idea needed to be developed and designed in the same chronological order of the class assignments.

The class discussions on sustainability and other issues have made me focus on my own practices and my waste and a lot of my faults. It's so great to be able to take a step back and awaken to all these things you've been unconsious of.

Week 5 - Sustainability

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:19:53 +0000

This week's assignment is to work with energy. I decided to continue developing my original 'modular lamp' idea, since an integral point of the project is a sustainable self-sufficient, self-renewing energy system. My idea was to create a modular lamp that works as a standalone battery-powerd lamp, but when added to the larger aggregrate lamp, would work as part of an AC powerd system (a chandelier), that will light up all the modular lamps in the system, and recharge their batteries at the same time.

Week 4 - Networks

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:19:18 +0000

Week 3 - Connectors

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:37:54 +0000

I tried going to see Ingo Maurer's exhibit at the Cooper Hewit for some inspiration for my modular lamp's connectors!

The idea I came up with for the modular lamp and the aggregator lamp, was to use a "male" connector shaped like a fondue fork with two prongs, that would be inserted into the modular lamp. I got ahead of myself and made it too complicated, and then frustrated, and then decided to try other connectors.

I really struggled with this assignment. I don't think I really got anywhere. Some ideas I was trying out:

Week 2 - Modular

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 05:13:18 +0000

I wanted to create something that is not only modular but also energy-efficient, useful, economical and pretty.

Week 1 - Make something

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 05:04:05 +0000

I wanted to experiment with two mediums I've never worked with before: glass and clay.