Pride Sculpture

Assignment 2: "Sculpture by the C...block"

This brief we were presented with the list of the Seven Deadly Sins. In groups of 4, we were to pick one of them, and construct a sculpture emphasising form and dynamism out of Card. The group of people I was with decided to choose the word "pride".

It was difficult assigning an emotion to an animate object. It was a lot harder than I expected. But I soon realised that these verbs that we tie to inanimate objects has it's roots in the common human perception of the body language in others. With a solid starting point, I rushed to finish this week long intensive assignment.

I immediately jumped on the theme of Hubris, and took on the old German tale of "Doctor Faustus".

I had aimed to creature a proud looking figure (depicted by a general tapered shape) but I wanted to show the side of regret and remorse that comes after an act of hubris. So the expressions of the figure tend to be sad, the lines slow and fragile looking. His head is completely hollow, with a demon (Mephistopheles) occupying his consciousness. In his long fragil arm coming out from a hunched posture, he welds an axe, a symbol of the brutality that excessive pride can evoke. /bullshit.

Spreads

This is my 2nd year. Fourth semester.

My university timetable for this semester isn't too bad. 6 weeks in now, and I've learnt a fair bit, gained a few new skills in drawing, a few more insights in all sorts of design philosophies as well as the intricate analysis of stresses in various objects.

I truely do love this Double Degree that i'm undertaking at Monash. I'm receiving all the joys and excitement from the world of Industrial Design. Manipulating form, applying emotions, speed and various other verbs to completely inanimate objects. On the other hand, I'm getting all the explanations into the wonderful book of practical laws. Learning about how things fit together, how things are work in terms of maximizing it's strength without comprising the constant constraint of minimum cost.

All these things are good and well, but these days I've begun to doubt. I see the brilliant mathematical and analytical minds from the Engineering Department. They throw out these extremely elegant solutions and precise calculation from their concise knowledge and understanding of mechanics. Then I see the wonderful, fluid designs full of thought, deep process and profound philosophies. The amount of work that goes into a simple design is most admirable and fascinating.

Then there's me, doing this double degree. Who's torn between the thought processes of both. Engineering for maximum practicability, Designing for the most appealing aesthetics. My fellow double-degree-rs do just fine though. And probably don' share the same insecurities of being spread too thin, and being handicapped in this course (in comparison to those doing the vanilla courses).

Earlier this year, I ran into a fellow doing his Industrial Design at Monash. I found out that he was also a graduate of the same double degree that I was doing. I asked him, "As I'm taking more Engineering units, and gaining more knowledge in that area, I find that...the Industrial Design side just feels so superficial, frail and just fake." He chuckles and replies, "You're feeling that it's bullshit now? Oh man, it only get's worse from here."

That stuck with me.

Actually, he further went on and explained the course outline, and how it's inevitable for you to feel that way. Since you'll be always taking engineering units a level ahead of the units taken under the Design Faculty. Essentially, your course will dictate that you're knowledge in practicality will be so much more advanced in comparison to your skills in controlling aesthetics.

TL;DR: I think I'm spreading myself too thin, and I'm feeling like everything that I know is half-arsed. I'm complaining that the work load means that I don't have enough time and energy in the day to invest general knowledge and research into either degree properly.

"Jack of all trades, Master of None."

Solution: Work harder, be more efficient

Egg Drop

IDE1112. My first Industrial Design Studio.

Assignment 1: Construct a suitable housing of an Egg that is going to be dropped at >2m. The egg most remain intact through out all the different trials.

My three main concepts:

I eventually settled on the Icosahedron concept because it was one of the ones easier to make, and due to poor time management, it was the quickest thing I could come up with.

Essentially, this was the gist of it. I had a big starry object with multiple pyramid shapes to help it withstand the impact force at 2m and a little bit over. A cradle was constructed inside the outer housing in order to help distribute the force evenly around the egg, and to provide cushioning. Shredded foam core was used to imitate Packaging foam to help absorb in impact.

The complete structure, with the table cleared.

My design passed the 2m test, but failed all subsequent trials. What were the trials exactly? Trial 1: 2m

Trial 2: ~7m

Trial 3: 4 Stories
Trial 4: Thrown at a wall
Trial 5: Thrown at the ground.

Of all the housings made, two survived.