PORTFOLIO
ANNA VALSTRØM
ART & TECHNOLOGY
1. SEMESTER 2011
SEMESTER:
SUPERVISOR:
1st semster
Betty Li Meldgaard
INSTITUTION:
TOTAL AMOUNT OF PAGES:
Art & Technology, Aalborg University
40
GROUP NUMBER:
COPIES MADE:
5
3
SEMESTER PERIOD:
AUTHOR:
01.09.11 - 27.01.12
Anna Valstrøm
HAND IN DATE:
21.12.11
SEMESTER THEME:
Embodiment - Sculpture & Technology
TABLE OF CONTENT
SENSOR WORKSHOP
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TECTONIC
ARDUINO WITH THOMAS
CENTRE OF GRAVITY
ASSIGNMENT WITH CHRISTIAN
THE LIFETIME OF A SCULPTURE
THE SWING
EQUILIBRIUM
THE FINAL SWING
MOBILE
THE THEME AND THE SENSORS
CONCRETE WORKSHOP
EXHIBITION
MY CUBE
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THE GROUP SCULPTURE
MORPHOLOGY AND TOPOLOGY ASSIGNMENT
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TENSION AND COMPRESSION
FORCE DIAGRAM
FIRST PICTURE
SECOND PICTURE
THIRD PICTURE
FOURTH PICTURE
CONCLUSION
PORTFOLIO IN DIGITAL FORMAT
39
The sensor workshop lasted for two weeks. The purpose of the
workshop was, to get knowledge about sensors, in a way that
made us capable of using them in our projects.
ARDUINO WITH THOMAS:
Sensor
Workshop
Thomas was there to teach us about the sensors. How they
worked, and about the different sensors you can get. To program the sensors, we had to use the program called arduino.
In arduino, you can choose different layers which are programmed differently. You have to attach an arduino board
to your computer, and on the board you can attach sensors,
lamps, speakers and so on. Then you choose a layer on your
computer in arduino, and the layer will control for example
how often the lamp blinks.
When we had the basic working, we started to play with sensors and sound.
We needed to come up with an idea of what to build for the
exhibition. Our first thought was to build a robot of old computer parts, and then use ventilations for eyes, and add light or
perhaps movement to the robot.
ASSIGNMENT WITH CHRISTIAN:
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Then Christian, from Illutron, was with us for two days, and
he gave us an assignment. We should build something out of
wood, that could move somehow and it would be great if it
could carry a person. We only got one hour for the assignment.
My group decided to build a swing. We talked about just using the beams in the ceiling, to hang the swing from. But we
wanted to build a swing that was more stabile then that, and
one that could move.
We came up with the idea of building a frame of wood, as a
triangle. Then we added three wooden sticks from each corner
of the frame, and attached the sticks in the top, so that they
created a triangle as well.
THE FIRST SWING
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PROTOTYPES
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Then we hang three strings from the top, and attached a triangle seat to the strings.
The swing had got movement, and it could actually carry a
person around 80 kg.
We decided to go with a theme called: The 5 senses.
The purpose of the theme was that when you sat on the swing,
you would get your five senses activated.
THE THEME AND THE SENSORS:
THE SWING:
After choosing the theme, we decided that we wanted to have
some light sensors, so that light would turn on when you sat
on the swing.
We did that by putting a push sensor inside the seat, which
means that when you sat on the seat, you were pushing the
button and the light were starting.
We also wanted to attach sound to the push sensor, but that
was beyond our abilities. We tried, but couldn’t make it work.
Instead we came up with the idea of placing a small bird with
a sensor inside the swing. Then the bird would start singing,
when you sat on the swing.
Now we had the sense of hearing and seeing activated.
To get the sense of smelling as well, we sprayed some airwick
spray inside the swing, to make it smell like a forest.
The sense of feeling was the feel of the swing. To get the sense
of tasting activated, we found some snacks that people could
eat while sitting on the swing.
After having build the swing, we thought is was a success, and
therefore we decided to work more on the swing idea, and
forgot about the original plan with the robot.
We had some ideas about how to improve the swing, and how
to add sensors to it. First of all we wanted to make the swing
bigger, and the seat more comfortable.
But we had to look at the construction of the swing first.
The swing was a triangle, but how could we know that triangle
was the best construction for the swing? We decided to make
some small prototypes of two different types of swings. A triangle one and a square one, to see which one worked best.
We could see from the prototypes that there were pros and
cons with both constructions. We also had to think of which
impression we wanted people to get when they saw the swing.
The square construction gave the swing more room, and made
it easier to swing the seat. But we had decided that we wanted
the swing to be more like a hanging chair then actually a swing.
We also concluded that the square construction would be
less stabile when it got bigger, than the triangle construction
would.
After weighting the pros and cons on both constructions, we
decided to go with the triangle construction.
EXHIBITION:
THE FINAL SWING:
We decided to take the first swing down, and build a new one
that was bigger. We improved the construction by attaching
the wooden sticks better. We also made a new seat, which was
bigger, and more comfortable.
Then we began to think about how to attach sensors to the
swing, and what the theme should be.
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The exhibition was Friday night, October the 7th.
People were interested in our swing, and thought that it was
really cosy inside the swing.
We would have liked to have more light on the swing, to make
the effect more powerful. But we couldn’t attach normal lamps
to the arduino board, because the arduino board only used 5
volts. Therefore we had to use just the small LED lamps. But
we made some flowers out of steel wire and attached the LED
lamps to them, and we also attached some lamps to the seat.
The LED lamps that were attached to the sensor, worked great,
and started when you sat down on the seat.
We discovered during the exhibition, that the lights didn’t start
when small children sat on the seat, because they didn’t weight
enough.
In the end of the exhibition, our light stopped working. We
tried to fix it, but couldn’t find the problem. If we have had
more experience with arduino, it would have been easier to fix
the problem.
The bird that should have started singing, when people sat
on the swing, only started singing when people left the swing.
That wasn’t really the idea with the bird. I think we should
have tested the bird more before we started the exhibition.
The food that people could eat while sitting on the swing didn’t
really work. Because people didn’t really notice it, and wasn’t
aware of the fact that they could just eat it. I think we should
have offered it to people when they entered the swing. Or we
should have put up a sign, saying that you could eat the food.
Overall the workshop was very useful and educational. I have
gotten familiar with arduino, and the concept of using sensors.
Of cause I need to work more with it and get more help for me
to understand it completely. But I think I have got most of the
basic principles about arduino.
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THE FINAL SWING
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The intention with the course was to be able to work with
sculpturing in an architectural and artistic way. We were given
some theoretical knowledge about the subject.
Morphology
and
Topology
We were shown how a natural motive could be turned into
something very different, and perhaps even into architecture.
The example was the Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg. He drew
a sketch of a cow, as it looked in reality. Then he drew the
same cow again, but now starting to use straight lines to mark
the cow. He then drew the cow using only boxes and diagonals, and then he used the colours from the cow to keep the
similarities between the sketch and the cow, still keeping the
boxes. Then he separated the boxes, keeping the colours, and
was now only using vertical and horizontal lines and therefore
making straight boxes and rectangles. The picture of the cow
now looked nothing like the first sketch, but if you look at the
process, you will be able to see the similarities. The last picture
could now be used for making architecture.
ASSIGNMENT:
With this example we were given our assignment for the
course. To make four small pictures out of wooden sticks and
foam. We should look at a painting and then make one picture,
then make number two while looking at number one and so
on. That way we would experience the same thing as Theo van
Doesburg had proven; that one thing can through some steps,
where you keep some of the elements, turn into something
very different than it started out with.
All paintings we could choose from had curved lines, to make
the challenge more interesting.
The painting I choose for my assignment had some interesting
elements.
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FIRST PICTURE
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FIRST PICTURE:
make the wine bottles, because I realized during the process,
that they were not the important element in my picture. The
woman was the most important element. From the woman
I made the shape of her legs, breasts, head and her arm, and
used that to indicate the female form.
For the first picture, we should use only wooden sticks. We
were only allowed to use vertical, horizontal and parallel lines.
It was important to try to give the picture some height.
First I choose to focus on the wine bottles and the squares in
my picture. Turning it all into straight lines. I experienced that
this was more difficult than I thought it would be. After a while
I became aware of the woman in my picture, which you may
not see at first, but still is an important element in the picture.
It was very difficult to turn the woman into only vertical and
horizontal lines, and still be able to identify it as a woman. I
made the woman sort of float on top of the picture, supported
by some wooden sticks going out of the picture.
FOURTH PICTURE:
For the last picture we should again use foam, and focus on the
volume. I kept the woman in the picture, but made her more
abstract than on the other pictures. I still made the form of her
legs and her arm the dominating part of the woman. I made
different levels in the picture, again using foam in different
thicknesses, but also putting a layer of foam on top after having
made the shape. Then I made a layer of foam that was going
through some of the other foam, and then the rest was hovering without touching the plate.
For the final picture I choose to only use the two elements and
in that way make the picture simpler.
SECOND PICTURE:
The second picture should be made with foam. It should take
base in the first picture with the sticks. The point with making
the picture in foam was, to add volume to the picture. It was a
good experience for us to explore using volume. For the second
picture, we should look at the first picture and use some of
the elements again. I choose to work more with my three elements: the wine bottles, the squares and the woman.
I experienced that when making the woman in foam, it was
even more difficult to make her look like a woman than it was
with sticks. With the foam she was turned more into a factory.
I used foam in different thicknesses, and experienced with
making the different layers of foam overlap in different ways. I
think the overlap gave the picture a very interesting effect.
THIRD PICTURE:
The third picture should be made with wooden sticks as the
first picture. But this time we were only allowed to use diagonals. No horizontal, parallel or vertical lines. We should now
look at our first picture and turn it into diagonals. I kept two
of my elements: the squares and the woman. I choose to not
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CONCLUSION:
After having made the four pictures by looking at my painting,
I realized that the pictures had moved away from the painting,
and have turned into four completely new pictures. During
the process I didn’t realize this, but when I looked at the four
pictures afterwards, I saw that I had made four new individual
pictures. Especially the fourth picture had very little to do with
the original painting, and could easily stand-alone without
knowing which picture it was made from. But when you know
the assignment you can see that all four pictures have some associations to the two elements I have chosen to keep from the
original painting.
The exercise made me see how you can create a whole new
picture from the original picture, which still in a way is the
same.
I can use this exercise as a tool later on, when I need to turn
inspiration into my own product.
Theo van Doesburg experienced the same thing as I did with
the pictures, when he turned the cow into a useful picture that
he could use for architecture.
SECOND PICTURE
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THIRD PICTURE
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FOURTH PICTURE
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The tectonic course was mainly about analysing sculptures,
looking at the stability of the sculpture, the tension and compression and figuring out where the forces on the sculpture
come from. The tectonic course was also about different materials, mainly wood, concrete and metal. The course was teaching us about the more engineering part of building a sculpture.
CENTRE OF GRAVITY:
Every sculpture, like every human, has a centre of gravity,
which makes the sculpture balance.
When a human is balancing on one foot, the centre of gravity
will always have to be at the centre line of the human, otherwise the human will fall. Shown in the sculpture by Edgar
Degas.
When the balancing human is made as a sculpture, different
rules for centre of gravity counts. When we are talking about a
sculpture, the centre of gravity doesn’t have to be at the centre
of the sculpture, it should just be inside the base of the sculpture, and the sculpture will be balancing.
Tectonic
THE LIFETIME OF A SCULPTURE:
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When building a sculpture, especially one that should be
placed outside, you need to be aware of the fact that the
weather has a huge influence on the lifetime of the sculpture.
An outdoor sculpture will be affected by all kinds of weather
and earth shakings. The earth shakings doesn’t have to be as
dramatic as earthquake, it can just be shaking from cars driving by.
No matter if the sculpture is placed inside or outside, the foundation the sculpture is placed on matters.
When building a sculpture you need to think of all possibilities
that will make the sculpture unstable. That could be the weather, the earth, the foundation and so on. The sculpture should always be build for the place where it should be exhibited. When
the sculpture is build for the place, it will be aware of things
that affect the sculpture, and therefore it can be prevented.
MOBILE
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FORCE DIAGRAM - MOBILE
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Vertical forces = V
Horizontal forces = H
Moments net sum = M
EQUILIBRIUM:
Equilibrium means that the sculpture is in balance, that it is
aware of the forces on the sculpture and still keeps in balance.
The sculpture needs to be in equilibrium otherwise the sculpture will tilt. To obtain equilibrium you need to be aware of the
forces on the sculpture. The forces should add up to zero to
obtain equilibrium. There will always be forces on the sculpture, pulling up and down. The forces depend on the weight of
the sculpture.
In our mobile the sum of the forces turned out to be like this:
ΣV = F+F+2F+2F+2F+4F+4F = 16F ; R = 16F
ΣH = 0 (no horizontal forces)
ΣM = 0
The forces minus the reaction force: 16F – 16F equals zero,
which means that the mobile we build, was in equilibrium.
MOBILE:
The assignment with the mobile, had made us experience with
creating equilibrium, and had made us realize that there are
different things that needs to work together to obtain equilibrium.
We did an assignment on how to create equilibrium. We were
to build a mobile with inspiration from the mobiles Calder
has made. The mobile we build, was hanging from the roof. It
consisted of six wires attached with strings. Each wire needed
to be in balance to make the hole mobile balancing.
We made a force diagram of the mobile, to show how the
forces were divided on the wires. To obtain equilibrium, the
forces pulling down should be the same as the force pulling up,
and therefore the forces added up to zero. The force pulling up
is called the reaction force, because it reacts to the force pulling down.
The mobile was hanging from the roof, and the roof was therefore the reaction force. The reaction force, the roof in this case,
should have the same force as the mobile, cause otherwise the
mobile wouldn’t stay were we wanted it to.
When building a mobile you need to be aware of the vertical
and horizontal forces to obtain equilibrium. The tendency of a
force that causes an object to rotate around a point is called a
moment. The net sum of the moment is therefore important.
The sum of the moments needs to be zero to make the mobile
stay in vertical and horizontal equilibrium.
CONCRETE WORKSHOP
For the concrete workshop we should individually design a
cube. The cube should be made in concrete and should measure 15x15x15 cm. We should all build a box in wood where
the concrete would be moulded in, and afterwards the wood
would be removed and we would have a cube out of concrete.
MY CUBE:
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For my own cube I wanted to experience with having a form
going inside the concrete, that when it is removed would make
a shape inside the concrete. I build a small pyramid of wood,
inside my wooden box, on one side of the box. The other sides
I wanted to keep simple and minimalistic. Therefore I decided
that there should be nothing on the five other sides. I wanted
the plain sides to be very smooth and simple, therefore I also
choose to make the cube grey.
MOULDERING FORM
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MY CUBE
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GROUP SCULPTURE
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When I moulded the cube in concrete, I got some plasticizer
in my concrete, which will make the surface of the concrete
smooth and shiny.
When the cube had dried over the weekend, it was time to
remove the wood and see the result. The plain sides turned
out to be very successful and as I wanted them to be. Though
the side turning up while moulding was a bit different from the
other sides, it was shinier and not as smooth as the others.
The side where the pyramid was inside the concrete couldn’t
come out of the concrete. I should have made the pyramid in
foam instead of wood; cause foam is much easier to remove
afterwards. It was a shame that it didn’t work, because I think
it would have been a good effect to the concrete.
TENSION AND COMPRESSION:
In the sculpture there is both tension and compression. Compression is the stable part that carries the sculpture. Tension
doesn’t carry all the weight and therefore you should be able to
replace the thing with tension with strings, and the sculpture
will still last.
In our sculpture the tension is in the strings holding the cube,
and on the outside of the wooden sticks going up. Compression
is on the inside of the wooden sticks going up. The wooden
sticks are holding the cube, and therefore they are in compression, cause they cannot be removed.
FORCE DIAGRAM:
THE GROUP SCULPTURE:
We made a force diagram for the sculpture, to calculate the
forces on the sculpture.
The main forces in the sculpture are going along the strings
holding the cube. Force 1 and 2 added together minus the reaction force equals zero. Therefore the sculpture is in equilibrium, and the cube is carried by the strings and the construction,
and is staying in the air.
For the group sculpture, we choose to use Katja’s cube. Her
cube contained of four different sides. Each side dealt with
circles and squares in relation to each other.
For the sculpture we build a square construction of wooden
sticks, and then we hang the cube in strings that was attached
between the sticks. We had different ideas of how to attach the
strings, but ended up with sort of a basket for the cube. When
the cube was placed, the wooden sticks going up, started to
bend towards the cube, because of the weight from the cube.
We thought of fixing the problem so that the sticks would be
straighter, but decided that we liked that it looked like the
sculpture were going to break. It made people curios, and they
wanted to touch the cube to see if it would last. The strings empowered this feeling of fragility, cause they were almost invisible and very thin, but still they would hold this heavy concrete
cube.
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F1+F2=R
F21
F11
R
F2
F1
FORCE DIAGRAM - GROUP SCULPTURE
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ion
s
Ten
sion
TENSION AND COMPRESSION
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Tension
Te
s
Compre
n
io
s
n
GROUP SCULPTURE
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PORTFOLIO IN DIGITAL FORMAT
39
ANNA VALSTRØM
ART & TECHNOLOGY
1. SEMESTER 2011