Arch 101 final learning portfolioChris Hiner

Fall 2011 T, ThInstructor Jerry Lum

A Pathway In TimeIntention: a specific purpose in performing an action

or series of actions.

Process: the action of taking something through a set of procedures or steps to convert it from one form to another.

Conclusions: when a question comes to an answer; when an idea or thought is settled.

Final project: Mobiles• Moving sculptures that express self, place, space and

time.

First Iteration• Objective: My goal was to learn to how to

balance weight, twist wire, and increase movement with springs.

• Process: For this piece I wanted to try a top down building approach to see if this was the easiest way to balance weight during the construction process. From a chain I attached a large upper wire to create a fulcrum and a support for all the pieces that would hang underneath. In the center I used springs connected to each other and hanging like a pendulum to add a little vibration and bounce to the overall movement.

• Site selection: At this time my site selection was on the wall in the courtyard so I mounted this piece on a three foot threaded rod. Seeing the thin wire supported by such a thick shinny piece of steel I realized that this type of mounting would overwhelm and dominate a delicate, flowing sculpture. I also decided that being attached to the side of a wall was not the best place to mount a mobile and it definitely didn’t make any sense to a movement along a pathway in time.

Second Iteration • Intention: Increase movement and

mechanical complexity.• Process: For this piece I was focused on

harnessing wind power and increasing random unpredictable movement. I decided to hold a wooden dowel frame together with small springs at the joints, supported by one large bouncy spring at the top. The dowels went in five independent directions, and on the end of three I placed triangular wind paddles( four white and one orange ).

• Conclusion: I was happy with the materials and the overall mechanics of the piece, however I felt that the paddles weren't big enough to capture wind and create the amount of movement that I was hoping for.

• First and Second iteration combined: At home I hung the dowel mobile from my first wire mobile to explore the idea of a primary and secondary combined in one piece. This informed my future designs with wire, wood, and wings because I started to consider the way these materials interacted with each other mechanically as well as esthetically

Third Iteration wire mobile• Intention: Build small from the bottom

up• Process: Jerry suggested building

small in the early phases to save time and material. Up to this point most of my work had been large so I took this as a design challenge. I also wanted to build from the bottom up, starting with small parts, balancing up as I went. Just for practice I started building the tiniest wire mobile that eventually, to my surprise, grew into a useable piece.

• Conclusion: This was an important learning experience for me because I realized that I had more overall control of the weight balancing if the lower, smaller pieces were finished as I put together the larger supporting pieces. When building from the top down I had to guess how much weight would be on a support before hand, and that was limiting.

Third Iteration insect wing• Intension: To combine a wire mobile with

larger moving parts in order to generate random movement.

• Process: In order to capture energy from the wind I decided to build a single seed pod style wing that would cause sway back and forth, conveying movement.To create a gentle, flowing movement, most mobile designs put flat panels of different sizes and shapes at the tips of wire pieces. For my design I wanted large springs and the single wing to be the main “engine” of the piece while the wire mobile floated around, as if carried on the wind. This was two dowels attached a few inches apart. They had some independent movement but were fixed to each other.

• Conclusion: Some ideas were starting to take shape, but the piece lacked the complexity of motion that I was searching for.

Forth Iteration• Intention: Expand existing design and add

new materials.• Process: This was my first version of a

three level, two wing design. I added swivels so that the different parts could move more independently, and I used bells to add to the sensory experience. This piece has two wire mobiles, one in plain steel and the other done in black and red wire. The colored wire was a useful way to add expressiveness, however it doesn't photograph well.

• Conclusion: I liked the middle tier being perfectly balanced on its fulcrum while the wings were off center. It has an element of risk being large, delicate, and at the mercy of the wind. The wings, being of the same design, responded to changes in wind direction in about the same way. My goal for future iterations would be to design wings that would act very differently from each other, maybe even rotate in opposite directions.

Fifth Iteration• Intention: Wind cup style wing and a chaos

generator.• Process: I liked the double wing design of

my last iteration but felt that they didn’t work with my developing narrative because they were too much alike, both in appearance and performance. In order to have more control over the direction that the wing rotated in I decided to try a wind scoop design. My goal was that it would be more likely to move clockwise. If I had success I could make the smaller wing scoop move in the opposite direction. Two wings connected but responding differently to the same air currents was becoming one of my central ideas. Inside the wing I placed a rough draft of my narrative so that you would catch glimpses of text on the ribs as the wing rotated. The lower object was a prototype for what I call a random chaos generator. My goal was to have a third object that influenced the over-all movement of the piece, after the springs and wings.

• Conclusion: The wing responded well to the wind but wasn’t made well, too heavy and fragile. I was working on other chaos generators that were of a double or triple pendulum style but realized the piece already had plenty of movement.

Increasing my craft skills

• My wing designs needed to be stronger and lighter so I started building a model airplane with Seth to increase my skills. While we were working I was noticing the way he would approach a challenge, get frustrated,but keep trying until he got the piece to do what he wanted. He didn’t take the whole project too seriously. I was reminded of myself, working with tools at his age.

• While I was building the next mobile iteration I couldn’t help but think about how I could express our conversations in my work.

Sixth Iteration• Intention: Double wind cup upper wing• Process: Because of craft issues with my

last iteration I decided to take Jerry’s advice and build a model airplane with Seth. I had already decided that this piece was about father and son and building together informed my future designs. This wing was lighter and sturdier that the last one. My goal was to have two wind scoops on the same wing so that it would rotate mostly in one direction. In order to keep the asymmetrical felling of the past designs I made one scoop larger than the other so that it took up two-thirds of the wing. I was careful to match the dowels with the inner support triangles in a way that the weight was balanced and the sharp tip of the wing wouldn’t droop forward or rock back.

• Conclusion: I thought this piece was very informative to my final project. The triangular wind scoop design was sturdy but this particular shape, being two-thirds one direction one-third the opposite really tossed this piece around like a broken kite ( see second photo). My goal was to have more control over movement and I liked the esthetics of the past asymmetrical designs so I decided not to pursue this style again.

First site selectionImagine the possibilities with wind, light, and moisture in the courtyard. Thedesign challenge will be to create a piece that seems weightless, flowing, inmovement, but also sturdy enough to weather an unforeseen storm of rain andwind. I would like to incorporate the idea of time into my piece, the past,present, and future. This will be achieved in the size, shape, and grouping of myconstructed shapes. Also the colors and translucency of objects can come intoplay. One way to achieve this might be to use smaller see-through piecesclustered tightly together to represent the past while the present is bold,colorful, and in greater motion while the future is the most abstract andexpressive.

When we walked around as a class to identify possible areas to display our workI was immediately drawn to the wall in the courtyard. I would like to take an oldbolt out of the wall and see if I can locate something with the same threads thatsticks out about three feet from the wall. If I’m unable to locate a larger bolt thenI’d like to fashion something that clips onto a bolt that can protrude far enoughfrom the wall to hold my work, in which case the possibility of the large clipbecoming a part of the piece, and not just a holding device, creates new designpotentials.

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Another possibility would be to hang a cable from the over-hang above thestudios over to the top of the wall or to one of the higher bolts.Whether I locate a suitably threaded long bolt or hang a clothesline type cable Iwould like to include my classmates in the process. Not only will we accomplishmore as a team in finding parts but also in the physical installation and creativeprocess. I can imagine several long extensions of uniform length protruding fromthe higher part of the wall or several pieces hanging from the same cable, oreven multiple cables, creating an enclosure similar to a partial roof. This willprovide the most direct contact with the open air and bring continuity with someof the works grouped together creating a whole.

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Final site selectionAfter much consideration I have changed my site from thewall in the courtyard to the corridor outside our classroomwindows. This new site makes more sense to my projectphysically as well as to the development of my narrative. Atfirst the courtyard seemed like the perfect place to display apiece of work. On the other hand it’s a little too safe andobvious with a fixed, almost stagnant feeling. I chose thecorridor because I like the way it frames the view of mywork from inside the classroom as you look out the window,where it makes a bridge between the inside and the outsideworld. First you notice the mobile and it’s movements andthen your gaze goes to the soccer field down bellow. Afterthat you eyes travel up and down the hills covered withtrees and houses, finally noticing the east bay off in thedistance. As your eyes come back to the piece a sense ofconnection to the community is achieved. The mobile is aninteractive part of the lense that the viewer observes andconnects with the outside. When you leave the classroomand walk outside you approach the piece at the northernend of the long corridor where it’s motion and energy isconnected to the movement of the path.

Narrative My project was originally inspired by a pathway in time. As Ifurther developed my ideas, conversations with my soncame into focus and eventually became the main focus ofmy work. This piece represents my relationship with him,how we are very similar in some ways but different in others,independent yet connected. He is now a major focus of myproject.

Starting from inside the classroom the first view of the north end of the corridor is through the middle windows of our studio. From inside the window the corridor frames the view of the soccer field, the hills covered with trees and houses, and the east bay beyond. After walking outside along the edge of the courtyard to the north end of the corridor a long pathway comes into view. The mobile sits at a place that can sometimes be busy with people walking but is more often used as a long observation deck to stare off into the distance or down at the field below. My mobile will be at a crossroads from the classroom to the outside world and also between the courtyard and corridor

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From inside, the mobile will be right in the viewer’s line ofsight when they look out the window. Wind traveling up thecorridor will cause the piece to move, giving an idea of whatwind and weather conditions outside are like. The differentwings and arms of the mobile will be shifting and swivelingaround the fulcrum. That will be the first glimpse of themoving sculpture. After walking outside its possible towander around the piece as it dangles from a long springattached to the third story platform railing above. Two chairswill be placed near the object for viewing, one facing easttowards the city and the other facing south so that the longcorridor behind the work will provide a vanishing point andadd depth to the space.

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Designing with intension • My final piece consisted of two groupings of

objects, one representing me and the other Seth. My objects were on the top and middle levels, supporting the third level, which was all Seth.

• We both had a wing that was of the same design but facing in opposite directions so a shift in wind would cause them to respond differently from each other.

• I made spring loaded chimes to represent our love of playing music. Mine were larger with a deeper tone and had a square wind catcher to represent being solid, while his had a higher tone and a round catcher to imply movement.

• He and I each had our own wire cluster to express ourselves with. I wanted to use mine to represent the past,or a starting point, so I used pieces of my icebreaker from the beginning of the semester and shaped it into a classic Calder style mobile.

• With all of the main ideas and mechanics settled I decided it was time to bring Seth into the final design process. He was full of great ideas, and added a life and death saga into his grouping. He wanted wire shapes that were repeating, getting smaller and smaller to represent infinity, some sort of time piece, a tiny hanging plant and a working light to represent life, and a dark, sharp object that was life's perils to be avoided. I cut a metal sheet into a jagged shape and surrounded it with dark wire to represent danger. To represent life I used a photo of Seth in a tree from my icebreaker collage. It was mounted on orange paper so when I cut it into a circle it looked like the sun from one side and a tree from the other.

Framing the view• The view from the classroom and the

corridor were both important. I had two specific angles that I wanted the viewer to experience the piece from. My idea was to place chairs at those two points but I didn’t want to obstruct the flow of the pathway. Jerry suggested marking those two spots with chalk or tape to guide the viewer to the place I needed them to go. I choose orange duct tape because it matched some of the pieces of my mobile. In the photo Jerry is standing on the x that puts the corridor in the background. The vanishing point at the end of the pathway helps to convey a sense of travel. I’m presenting my work from the spot that looks out towards the east, into the open view of trees and houses. That was the space that felt like a launching pad from the classroom out into the world.

Learning new crafts• One of my favorite things about ARCH101

has been learning to use new materials and tools. I had so much fun making springs, wind chimes, and giant paper wings. The pipe cutter was easy to use and I’m sure Seth and I will be making wind-chimes for Christmas this year. The grandparents are gunna love it! To make springs I wrapped wire around cans, a broom stick, dowels etc. to get all kinds of shapes and sizes. The wings were a nice place to post my narrative, which could be seen in glimpses as the wing rotated, added a little mystery and depth to the piece.

Hair caught in a spring again?

• Luckily my girlfriend has been pretty patient while I worked many late nights filling our apartment with large objects that are easy to trip over. Yay Liz!