Ashford Three Dimensional Design (edited 8/11/15) This Syllabus is divided into three parts: I. Thoughts on 3-­‐Dimensional Design II. 3DD Expectations III. First Day Outline I. Thoughts on 3-­‐Dimensional Design This course engages 3-­‐dimensional form and its visual language through skillful engagement with the skills necessary to manipulate physical forms and their use. The technical and intellectual skills developed here are vital to all types of visual production. By learning how to produce and negotiates the physical spaces of life, any artistic thought can be changed. Although our work will embody many sculptural techniques in production, this is not a sculpture class. Instead, the fundamental elements of 3-­‐
dimensional forms including scale, orientation, volume, mass, and space, are to be explored as both as principles and in application. (An example is how a lap joint appears as a layering, and feels as something strong, and works in tensile strength.) We will treat form-­‐making as a language in itself. What does this mean? We will try to discover how created objects and events make the re-­‐invention of life possible – or seem possible as a model or a dream. Knowledge of materials and their use in fabrication is a huge part of this class. By learning how to put a variety of things and materials together into new forms we can present a transformation of ourselves in accordance or in rupture with what already defines us. We will progress through various kinds of material research over the progression of the semester, engaging with a wide variety of materials and procedures that will be reinforced by your Friday techniques sessions in the shop. We will use corrugated cardboard for the first 5 or 6 weeks and then move on to steel and wood and plaster and then take on materially open assignments. 3d production demands 3d thinking. Traveling between the real problems of material fabrication and the ideal expectations of our imaginations, we can engage in how 3dimensional thinking makes re-­‐invention possible. Accordingly, consciousness can be examined through the relationships within a built thing: objects can become stories about our relationships to each other, the collections and sociality of our association, our revolt and rebellion, the invention of institutions and the autonomy we might demand in response to them. 3d work then is work on existence itself. Every time we make a thing that takes up space we are proposing how things could be different, how one thing could be displaced by another; what can be felt; how we are moved in our bodies and in our minds; what organizes and elevates the things around us; what organizes and elevates our selves -­‐ what we can imagine we might feel. One basis for the term “three dimensional” is the three-­‐axis system: width, height, and depth. One way to re-­‐imagine these coordinates is through our bodies. The horizon moves left to right in front of us, the height of our bodies up and down, and the direction of our movement changes the vertical and horizontal as subject to our position. In this class we will try to see the rational and measurable character of the material world as open to subjective speculation. II.
3DD Expectations This class is primarily assignment driven. Some are due in one week, and must be totally completed outside of class. Other assignments have more weeks to complete and you will use class time to work on solutions as well. Every class on assignment due dates will be taken up with group critique -­‐ so work absolutely must be finished before class starts. Besides the time to actually make the work -­‐ 3dd demands time before class to set up the solutions to our assignments – and time you need to document and clean the work up. So you need to plan your time well in order manage the limited space of this room. You must come to class prepared. Preparation will change though as our assignments progress in material use and complexity. Bring with you to every class an 8”x10” or larger book that you can write and draw in, and a suitable means for mark making and note taking. The notebook should be a place where you work out your visual plans, document false starts, record ideas for future work. The notebook is crucial as a record-­‐keeping device for remembering what questions come up in critique sessions around your work from you and your colleagues. I often will make references in discussion that could be very useful to you, for later 3dd assignments or for any future work you do, if you research them elsewhere on your own time. Keep all assignment sheets, notes, drawings, photos of models, photos of failures, and multiple view photo documentation of finished projects for the class. It cannot be overstated how important planning can be for this class, where we are building things often with materials and ideas that are untested. This can be in your notebook or separate. But you must photograph all of your work the day it is critiques and move it out of the room that evening. I will need to see notebook and documentation later in the semester at both mid-­‐semester and final review of the work you do in this class. Grading procedure: 60% assignments 30% critical participation 10% documentation. If you foresee any attendance problems please just let me know in my mail box in the art school office. No lateness. No working on solutions during critique. No working during other section’s class time without permission from that instructor. The first day: 3DD plan old with revisions 2011 !!!!!!!!!!!!!! before class: read abstraction – grey book; make image of crystal cathedral Day One 9/6 Story one: the arrested boy the limen, the boundary, the threshold, the territory as held by power and the form of that territory is always designed 1.) My name is….. 2.) SELF INTRO. where are we from? what do we do? This is a group you may depend on for a while. The discussions we have together could be the foundations of future work. Being an artist is the hardest job in this world, you need each other. How many of you have something to write on. Here the ideas of your fellow students may make you able to work to work, now in this class and later in 5 or 25 years. Please write everything down 3.) Intro. to class PROCESS This course engages 3-­‐dimensional form and its visual language through skillful engagement with physical forms and their use. The technical and intellectual skills developed here are vital to all kinds of visual production. By learning how to produce and negotiates the physical spaces of life, all artistic thinking can be changed. Although our work will inflect and embody many sculptural techniques in production, this is not a sculpture class. Instead, the fundamental elements of 3-­‐dimensional forms including scale, orientation, volume, mass, and space, are explored as principles independent from their potential use. We will treat form-­‐making as a language in itself. We will try to discover how invented objects and events make the re-­‐invention of life really possible – or seem possible as a dream. Material knowledge is a huge part of this class. By learning how to put a variety of things and materials together into new forms that present a transformation of ourselves in accordance or in rupture with what already exists in the world. We will progress through various kinds of material research over the progression of the semester, engaging with a wide variety of materials and procedures that will be reinforced by your techniques sessions in the shop. 3d production demands 3d thinking. Traveling between the real habits and problems of material fabrication and the ideal expectations of our imaginations, we can engage in how 3dimensional thinking makes art possible. Accordingly the principles of art’s effect on consciousness can be examined through the making of things: the collection and sociality, revolt and rebellion, the invention of objects and their invention of us, institutions and autonomy. Our work then is on existence itself. Every time we make a thing we are proposing how the way things are could be different. What can be felt, how we are moved physically in our bodies and non-­‐physically in our minds, what organizes and displaces the things around us -­‐ what organizes and displaces our selves, what we can imagine we might feel. For me the basis for the term “three dimensional” is the three-­‐axis system. But I like to see this diagram as beyond rational calculation and based in feeling. I like to each each axis based in some way on a notion of infinty – and therefore aspiration. The horizon is one line, the height of my body another, and the direction of my movement the third – width, height, depth. So if the basis of the class is the real in 3dd the implication of this basis is everywhere. Also it is a class about the relations of forms to the world. What is the nature of our collective investment in objects and the relations between them? How doe we design these experiences as material expression of who people are and what people do. What effects these decisions and what language and shape can they take? discussion Technical: The class is primarily assignment driven. Some are weekly, and must be totally completed outside of class. Other assignments have more weeks to complete for which you will use class time as well. Every class on assignment due dates will be taken up with group critique -­‐ so work absolutely must be finished before class starts. Besides the time to actually make the work -­‐ 3dd demands time before class to set up the solutions to our assignments – and time you need to document and clean the work up. so you need to plan your time well in order manage the limited space of this room. You must come to class prepared. Preparation will change though as our assignments progress. Bring with you to every class an 8”x10” or larger book that you can write and draw in, and a suitable means for mark making and note taking. The notebook should be a place where you work out your visual plans, document false starts, record ideas for future work. The notebook is crucial as a record-­‐keeping device for remembering what questions come up in crit around your work from you and your colleagues. I often will make references in discussion that could be very useful to you, for later 3dd assignments or for any future work you do, if you research them elsewhere on your own time. Keep all assignment sheets, notes, drawings, photos of models, photos of failures, and multiple view photo documentation of finished projects for the class. It cannot be overstated how important planning can be for this class, where we are building things often with materials and ideas that are untested. This can be in your notebook or separate. But you must photograph all of your work the day it is critiques and move it out of the room that evening. I will need to see notebook and documentation later in the semester at both mid-­‐semester and final review of the work you do in this class. Grading procedure: 60% assignments 30% critical participation 10% documentation. If you foresee any attendance problems please just let me know in my box in the art school office No lateness. No working on solutions during crits. No working during other section’s classtime without permission from that instructor. I have tried to design this experience to be a selective overview of how the formation and manipulation of space has developed. In short, by working through spatial problems, we will find out some aspects of how space has changed and its organization has changed us. The bulk of this knowledge will be worked out through contemporary experiences of then we can choose to join or resist, or a little of both, depending on your nature. For me language is a key aspect in discovering how the visual world forms us and in turn can be re-­‐formed by us. I will be throwing out terms constantly that you must take the time to remember and figure out. For example, story I just told uses the world “limenal”. I used it to describe the space between the street and the privacy of the home – a marginal space. A vestibule. In psychology the word is used to describe a threshold below which a stimulus is not perceived or is not distinguished from another: like the difference between pleasure and pain. But more important than language is , you will be making things constantly. The fabrication of forms and objects is key to this process. It is only through the making of things that you will understand, visually what you are thinking about conceptually. The more you produce, the better you will do. It is very simple. 4.) Discuss budget. 5.) Discuss room. THIS IS YOUR ROOM. WE WILL CLEAN AND THROW OUT EVERYTHING AFTER EVERY CRIT. THERE IS NO STORAGE SO WORK MUST BE DOCUMENTED BEFORE IT IS DESTROYED. 6.) Go to Art supply store (Central or Utrecht) get: CASH knife pencils drafting tape metal rule or t-­‐square (long as possible) blank book that is only for this class & meet back in shop. other materials will be purchasable in shop for duration of semester in the main -­‐ but buying your own tools is a great idea. Introduce shop Frank, Richard, BETSY, , discuss space problems & get cardboard Introduction to corrugated cardboard the grain the surface the cut (safety) multiple strokes (for later) the joint -­‐ tabs, shaved edge, pull over, etc. paradox: The cardboard both HAS a plane (a face) and IS a plane. It both describes a separation (a border) and is a support (a wall). This contradiction between physical reality and spatial representation is with us at the beginning and will be with us throughout this course. Forms are both images and things, ideas and realities. ASSIGNMENT 1: Due today,in class. Using cardboard make an object at least 12" cubed (no bigger than 12" in any direction) that gives form to a shape. (No curves) ****?(Without describing a joint.) -­‐-­‐ cardboard is both a sheet (indicating a dimensionless idea of a plane) and a slab (showing a structural flat body) . The solution describes a productive relationship from a 3-­‐D shape that you should draw in some way. Demonstrate three joints, butt, angle, shaved. (?***) **** crit and Introduction to class (“see 3-­‐D intro”.) Crit. outline a distinction between contained volume and relational volume. how is a volume depicted? how it is felt through displacement?; compared to how is it realized psychologically and socially by a viewer. is deeper necessarily more volumetric? Are volumes always fully contained? if open, does a volume entertain more speculation? how can one take into consideration the infinite ways that a 2-­‐D shape can imply a 3-­‐D form? The translation from illusion to real space is a step toward more variables for the viewer and more constraints for the producer ASSIGNMENT 2: (Due 9/16) Using cardboard make two (or more?) objects at least 12" high and wide that qualify, describe and articulate the volume of space between them. The forms must be made from straight cuts in the cardboard only. Joints can be reinvented from the class example if you like -­‐ but keep the time in mind. This is a non-­‐
theatrical assignment one that should not present characters, or anthropomorphized objects. All solutions must work on floor or existing tables -­‐ and keep in mind how height affects point of view. From handout: ASSIGNMENT 2: (Due 9/13). Using corrugated cardboard make at least two objects no larger than 20" in any dimensions that qualify, describe and articulate the volume of space between them as cohesive and harmonious. Try to engage the relative proximity and scale between different forms as a means of visual expression. The forms must be made from straight cuts in the cardboard only, although you may discover ways to make curves appear through layering and juxtaposition. Joints can be reinvented from the class examples if you like but pay particular attention to how a joining technique will affect a form. Often our emotional and intellectual judgments about things are determined at the point where “things come together”. The visibility of an edge, the coordination of the cardboard's "grain", the relative visibility of a seam -­‐-­‐ all will affect both the structural integrity of an object and therefore it's meaning. No hot glue, no ripping or tearing of the material, no bunnies. This is a non-­‐theatrical assignment, one that should not present characters, or anthropomorphic objects. All solutions must work on floor or on existing tables in our room-­‐ keep in mind how height and position in the room condition the expressive potential of your forms and the spaces they occupy and produce. -­‐space can be perceived in the relationship between bodies of material. If space is produced through the interaction of forms, we can design that interaction to have a particular condition or quality that communicates or expresses something particular, about us, our context or condition. -­‐cardboard, a perfect material, can be manipulated to demonstrate both structure and surface, can delineate or define space through surface planes or indicate and suggest space through edges and joints. 8.20.11 Therefore as space is produced, definitions of humanity are articulated. Space is more than a volume, it is a relationship. How can space be made active? Story 2 The policeman and liminality; the territory of an arrest !!!!!!!!!!!!!! #2 Thursday,.Sept. 16 crit ASSIGNMENT 2 each student must try to characterize the relationship of another's work. "I'm calling on you." Elaboration of materials. Glue guns etc. ASSIGNMENT 3: CHANGE THIS ASSIGNMENT!!! (Due 9/23) Using cardboard make an object at least 36" high and wide that presents EMPTY space and SOLID VOLUMES. Your solution should propose a visual relationship between planes and the volumes they create more than an essentially scientific notion about the character of matter. Like all terms describing the visual world. the terms, "negative and positive", are provisional categorizations at best when applied to spatial configurations or physical reality as we experience it with our bodies. When we look at things, the negative is determined by the positive -­‐ and the positive, in turn, is described (or foretold) by the negative. The notion of graphic devices here can help as a metaphor for the spatial, (the good old white square on a black background), but this is a highly different experience because it is three-­‐dimensional. All work should be presented on the floor. You cannot tear or peel the cardboard. Seams and joints should iimprove. some questions to think about: What is empty space to us physically? What is empty space to us visually? What is full ? How can an empty three-­‐dimensional area denote or connote a density without approaching a solid form. How can an empty three-­‐dimensional area be easily measured? In other words, how are volumes as displacement different from description? Can a structural or skeletal form describe a volume without actually displacing its environment? Are all volumes containers? NOTE: I expect to see improvement in the quality of your seams and joints. CRIT a fragment staves the viewer with a peculiar conviction about the wholeness of the object. my experience of an object is rarely just one view. Articulating space confronts the viewer with an artificial object (vs. the naturalism) (this is a relief plane assignment?) Every invented form suggests a regime of forms, a challenge to the environment. The translations of joinery between between planes describe a “limit” of a 3d form. !!!!!!!!!!!!!! short notes to first day: 1.) Introduce the class, introduce the school, introduce self and each student to each other. 2.) Discuss principles of 3dd generally as part of visual intelligence and practice. (see “Thoughts” sheet) 3.) Discuss shop as basis of much of our work, relations with technicians, tools and safety are of first order. (they will have shop tech class Friday) 4.) Let kids out to go Utrecht or Central buy utility knife, straight edge, artists tape (low tack), notebook specifically for 3dd, get money (important) meet back in shop. 5.) Buy cardboard in shop, have techs introduce themselves. 6.) Return to room as a group and demonstrate cutting cardboard, gluing, taping to hold for drying. 7.) Give assignment number one, “decide on any 2d shape and make it into a 3d volume” -­‐ keep small! Keep simple! No tearing, no curved cuts, no other materials. 8.) Let them work for one hour 9.) Discuss any that open up technical issues – the grain of the cardboard, the differences in the two sides’ surfaces, the kind of joint, (beveled, butt, tabs, partial, etc) Give assignment 2 as a handout which is due next tues. (see separate sheet – should be copied in art office for you. Discuss clean up. (the room is shared with three other sections)