Elanie Chan 678301 M4 Reflection

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DIGITAL DESIGN + FABRICATION SM1, 2016 The Sleeping Pod

Elaine Chan678301

Tim Group 3

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1.0 IDEATION

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MEASURED DRAWINGS

I photographed my object from the top and side views and trace over these photographs. I also took a camera roll of the object in use to illustrate its inflated state and ability to extend in length.

For the section drawing, I used a ruler to measure the internal structure within the object and trans-lated this onto the page at a scale of 1:1.

What I found most interesting about the party blow-er was the Inverse relationship of skin and bone. Usually the bone defines the form of the object, however, the wire of the party blower curls up and has no shape in deflated state, while the paper skin forms the structure. In inflated state, the skin traps the air forming a three-dimensional volume. The wire defines and articulates the shape of the object in deflated state.

SKETCH DESIGNS

I experimented with user-generated movement and inverting the rela-tionship of the skin and bone by placing movable wire scrolls on the outside of the skin. My early sketch designs explored the use of inflated volumes to provide comfort and support, with a sharp bone structure on the exterior as a warning to deter people from approaching.Digital model of party blower.

Sketch designs.

Reconfigured object.

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2.0 DESIGN

INTEGRATING SYSTEMS

My group members (Hillary and Joy) had the sticks as their ob-ject, a very different system to the party blower.

From my designs in M1 Ideation, I brought forward ideas of using a movable, inflation system for support and comfort, and a hard bone structure on the exterior as a form of intimidation. My study of the party blower also inspired me to invert the relationship of the skin and bone system - having the sticks (bone) around the outside of the balls (skin) and its form dependent on the inflation of the balls.

This resulted in a system of interconnected inflatable balls with stick structures on the exterior, the sticks moving when the skin system inflated. The lecture discussed the importance of convey-ing an emotional effect through the context (the surroundings and the human body) and the audience/user interface. This design considers this by focusing on the impact that the design has on other people, rather than the user. The moving sticks intimidates people around the user while the user is blissfully asleep, hence creating an intimidating environment for people around the user, and a comfortable environment for the user.

The lecture inspired us to amplify design effects through per-formance (the user manually pumping air into the design which inflates and moves the sticks) and the “multiple” - duplicating the balloon and sticks module around the body to create repetition and rhythm.

First sketch design.

First digital model.

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MOVEMENT

Different stick expansions methods were explored. We considered placing the balloon:

1. Between two hanging stick structures so they are pulled upright & together 2. Between the sticks so they move apart3. Within a stick structure so it expands with the inflation

We ultimately decided to explore the mechanism of a balloon within the stick structure as it seemed the most elegant and dra-matic solution.

EXPERIMENTATION

We tested:1. The inflation of a channel of balloons connected by pipes and connectors2. The movement of sticks by placing balloons within a stick structure so it expands with the inflationSome balloons kept growing in size while others are barely inflated. Hence, we realised that the balloons need to be held within a fabric that constrains them, so that all balloons are equally inflated. The sticks expanded, but the elastic band used to constrain the inflation of balloons kept sliding to the back after each expansion. We would not need the elastic band if a fabric constrained the balloons. Our experiments led us to explore the possibility of using a fabric to control the balloons.

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We drew material inspiration from Lucy McRae and Bart Hess’ body architecture Evolution (2008) and Dripping Colour (2008). Their piece is constructed using pantyhose and balloons and has a provocative and playful silhouette.

Inspired by their design, we decided to carefully place the balloons to support the sleeping body and use a fabric to hold the balloons in place. We also decided to vary the size of the balloons (using different fabric size to constrain them) to visualise one’s personal space. Bigger balloons will be placed at the front of the body to indicate to in-crease the distance between the user and people around the user.

The lecture also suggested quantifying personal space to identify the size of our design. We quantified personal space to be most prominent from the neck down to above the hips, hence our design targeted this area.

PRECEDENTS

Body Architecture - Lucy Mcrae and Bart Hess, 2008 Body Architecture - Lucy Mcrae and Bart Hess, 2008

We developed this design from our precedent research and study of personal space and made a fabric on Rhino to constrain the balloons. The balls are wrapped in a ser-pentine shape around the body to support key areas such as the neck and back. The balloons and the stick struc-tures define the user’s personal boundaries from the sides as well as front and back.

DIGITAL MODEL

Quantifying personal space.

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A non-stretch mesh fabric was used and the two tem-plates that were used had an irregular shape to have varying sizes of inflated balloons. An irregular shape would conform to the shape of our bodies better.

All balloons successfully inflated, however, the integra-tion of the sticks was not as effective, as the air from the bigger balloons within the mesh started to flow into the balloons between the sticks and outside the mesh. The sticks needed to be better integration with the bal-loons and the fabric to give us more control over their movement and also a more uniform aesthetic.

PROTOTYPE

3.0 FABRICATION

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RED = Final File Size/Bleed LineBLACK = Page Size/Trim LineMAGENTA = Margin/Safe Art Boundary

Areas to improve and develop from M2:

1. Better integrate the sticks with the inflation system2. Develop our design further in its deflated state as a wearable, fashion item3. Incorporate a time-sensitive component into our design

“Better integrate the sticks with the inflation system”

The sticks are attached to the outer rim of the top fab-ric and the centre of the bottom fabric so that when the balloon inflated, the sticks are pulled up at an angle. This movement is quite dramatic and seamlessly inte-grates the sticks with the inflation system.

DESIGN & PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT

Top - old sticks movement

Bottom - new sticks movement

“Develop our design further in its deflated state as a wearable, fashion item”

n our previous design, the balloons were only placed where the body needs support, but now that we have fully integrated the sticks with the inflation system, we now want to surround the body with balloon and sticks to enhance the effects of the sticks. We want the design to be a piece of clothing that the user can slip on and feel protected and comfortable in. This design eventually evolved into the cape concept.

We turned the design into a cape that the balloons can hide under and the sticks can poke through. A cape is comfortable like a blanket and can also be worn around the university. We incorporated the eyelets as a design feature, creating a pattern that attracts people to come closer to the user, but repelling them with sticks when they breach the user’s personal space.

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“Incorporate a time-sensitive component into our design”

We separated the inflation of the balloons into different systems as the user may wish to use the comfort and defence system separately when he/she is not sleeping yet.

As argued by Sommer (1969), there are invisible boundaries around the body and different people react differently to the invasion of personal space. People experience the strongest comfort being approached from the front than the side. Our design responds to this by placing the longer sticks and larger inflated balloons at centre of the body, and varying the length of the sticks so that the sticks are shorter at the sides and near the face and bottom of the cape.

The prototype was refined to include eyelets at the front and back of the cape, allowing the sticks to pivot smoothly. The sticks are held together by a metal ring that passes through the screws at the end of the stick. Bigger eyelets have been chosen at the front to create the dramatic pattern.

A 65% cotton and 35% synthetic fabric was chosen to allow for the expansion of the balloons but also provide some constraint to ensure consistent inflation across all balloons. From the lecture and the reading by Pottmann, Asperl, Hofer and Kilian (2007), I learnt that materials that stretch is an exception to the rule of developable surfaces, as the fabric can stretch to avoid gaps. This knowledge further convinced us to use a stretchy fabric to enable ease and precision of assembly.

As outlined in the reading by Kolarevic (2003), there are many types of digital fabrication processes including 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional fabrication and they can be subtractive or additive. We used card-cutting, laser-cutting and customisation in our de-sign. Card-cutting was used to produce templates that allowed us to cut out the cape and the holes for the eyelets at the front of the cape. Laser-cutting was used to produce the circles backings that were later sewn on the inside of the cape to hold each balloon in place and provide a pocket for expansion. The Rhino model also gave us a rough indication of the number and length of sticks, number of eyelets and area of fabric that we needed.These digital fabrication processes allowed us to translate our two-dimensional design into a three-dimensional one as accurately as possible.

The cape was cut by hand to avoid any unnecessary seams that laser-cutting would create (due to material size limitations of the laser-cutter)

PROTOTYPE OPTIMISATION

Placement of ballooons.

Final sketch design.

The backing with eyelets.

Templates for laser-cutting.

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FINAL DIGITAL MODEL FABRICATION SEQUENCE

Table of materials..

PLAN

ELEVATION ISOMETRIC

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ASSEMBLY DRAWING

1. Eyelets are hammered into the cape2. The balloon channel is secured at the back of the cape3. Sticks with screws on one end are inserted through the eyelets of the backing and the eyelets on the cape. It holds the balloon in place.4. Backing with eyelets is stitched onto the back of the cape.

COMPLETED 2ND SKIN

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4.0 REFLECTION

Bernstein and Deamer (2008) discussed the workmanship of risk. In craft, we are working with a material that is not predetermined and we depend on our own judgement, dexterity and care to produce the final product. The making of the second skin design truly allowed me to appreciate the value of craft, as there were many manual processes to our design, e.g. hammering the eyelets, cutting the cape, putting in screws…etc. Because the quality of the finished prod-uct greatly depended on our care and dexterity, a high level of risk was involved. We had to rely on the precision of our hands, sight and our knowledge of material behaviours. We encountered unforeseen problems, such as the sticks split-ting when we tried to twist a screw in it. We had to drill a hole into the stick prior to inserting the screw. Hence, we found ways to overcome these problems by changing our methods. It took a lot of time and patience to put together the design, but this made the experience more rewarding and we were proud of the finished product.

As mentioned in the reading, craft expands to include not only the actual making but also the design process. We also took risks during the decision-making process, such as choosing to design a moving mechanism, which presented us with a degree of risk and challenge from the outset. However, once we discovered a way to realise the movement, the rest of the design naturally came together. I strongly agree with the reading that innovation comes from taking risks, and I believe that we were able to create an interesting design by tackling the concept of movement which seemed difficult and impossible to begin with.

However, the finished design was quite difficult to inflate and the movement of the sticks was not as dramatic as we envisioned. In our prototypes, we only ever tested the inflation of six to seven balloons at one time, and overlooked that it would require a lot more force to inflate a greater number of balloons. We should have testing this more rigorously or split the balloons into smaller, more manageable systems.

Ultimately, this was a unique, fun and challenging experience from which I have learnt many new skills. I realised the importance of group dynamics, teamwork and making compromises when working in a team. From Rhino, I learnt how to “extract isocurves” and “loft” to build a fabric/curved surface. I was also introduced to digital fabrication techniques such as card-cutting and laser-cutting. These techniques would certainly be valuable in the future.

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CREDITS

Page Drawings Computation Model Fabrication Model Assembly Photography Writing Graphic Design

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Elaine Chan Hillary Wise Joy Li

5.0 APPENDIXREFERENCES

Sommer, R. 1969, Personal space : the behavioral basis of design, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall.

Pottmann, H., Asperl, A., Hofer, M., Kilian,A. 2007, Architectural Geometry, Bentley Institute Press.

Kolarevic, B. 2003, Architecture in the Digital Age - Design and Manufacturing, Spon Press, London.

Bernstein, P., Deamer, P. 2008, Building the Future: Recasting Labor in Architecture, Princeton Architectural Press.

Stratford, O, BUILDING ON BODIES: THE ARTWORK OF LUCY MCRAE, viewed 4th June 2016, <http://www.artandaustralia.com/magazine/issue-19/new-pageasfdasdf>