Virtural Environments M2: Design

Student No: 639492, 641728 Semester: 2/ 2013 Group: 5

Kevin Huynh & Sarah Chan

Idea Development - Research

Idea Development - Sketches

Development of the design was the main goal this week for our journals. The best ideas that came from both our individual works were put forward and combined in such a way that both ideas were still present, however creating some-thing completely unique from the original.

Defining what a second skin is, required person-al critique. Lectures and readings had ideas of how others perceived a second skin, however we wanted to include our own interpretation and reflect our ideas of a second skin.

A combination of differing ideas gave us a chance to question what we wanted to achieve through the design and furthermore gave us the opportunity to critique, analyse and reflect on one another’s ideas.

Idea Development - Sketches

Initially, we researched the concept of skin and bone and a second skin. However sometimes only one aspect of skin and bone was shown, so we decided that in some areas of the design only skin will be present, and on others just bone. Additionally, we also decided on areas with a combination of them both.

The brief wanted a second skin that reflected skin and bone and a sense of personal space. After es-tablishing the form, we wanted to define our ideas of personal space.

Idea Development - Sketches

Most of us function well with our sense of vision, however when this disappears, we become less comfortable. Therefore we came up with an idea where our face could be partially covered to hide ourselves, yet also permitting us to see past it.

Having a boundary and stopping strangers from entering our personal space is necessary, especially areas behind us and to our left. Both of us are right handed and we agreed that it is our dominant side in comparison to our left.

Our initial idea was a ‘bubble’ that surrounded the body with protective spikes that protruded from the surface, evoking an emotion of fear for the viewers, but also arousing the emotion of fear within our-selves due to our fear of strangers. Yet this did not reflect one of the themes we were aiming for which was discourse.

Idea Development - Sketches

The feelings we established were, fear, dis-course and truth. The context of truth was showing real emotions behind a personality, not caring what others thought about them and not holding back.

Discourse can be established due to the vari-ous perceptions of second skin and its changes. Fear is including as a measure of personal sup-port as we both fear the outcome of this de-sign but also fearing the judgment that comes along with it.

Through research and personal reflection, we established the emotions we wanted to evoke, which were later transferred into our design. We wanted to establish and evoke contrasting feel-ings that changed from one person to another.

Idea Development - Rhino

Discourse was a problem we faced in answering the brief; discourse is the communication or debate of a matter or object. We wanted to reflect this emotion in the design but we questioned if the second skin should be skintight or lose fitting, used geometric or organic shapes and portable or fixed. This gave us a good foundation to develop our initial ideas.

Idea Development - Rhino

We changed the form and made it simple, yet a sense of complexity was still evident. We settled with an asymmetrical aesthetic, however the juxtaposition between the spikes and the curved form of its exterior still portrayed some sort of balance between the two.

Blurring the boundary of skin and the design may be another path we might pursue, and also establishing a hierarchy through the use of colour and tones.

Idea Development - Rhino