15/5/2023 - 29/5/2023 / Week 7 - Week 9
Lui Hsiao Hui (Tressa) / 0342003
Collaborative Design Practice / Design Extension
Collaborative Design Practice / Design Extension
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 4: Testing the End Product & Iterative Designs
INSTRUCTIONS
PROCESS
Week 7
Monday 15/5/2023
Fig. 1.1 - 1.3 Removing medicine & organising blister packs, Week 7
(15/5/2023)
We prepared the blister packs during class as we still needed to have all the materials to start our sculpture. We removed the medicines from the blister packs and organised them by size and type.
Wednesday 17/5/2023
Fig. 2.1 Grouped blister packs, Week 7 (17/5/2023)
Luisa helped to count each group and numbered them so it'll be easier for us to tally up the number of blister packs used at the end. Grouping them by size and type also made it easier for us to choose the specific blister packs to use for certain parts of the sculpture.
Fig. 2.2 & 2.3 Preparing the cardboard base, Week 7 (17/5/2023)
In our next meeting, we prepared the layered cardboard base of 2 ft by 6 ft. The cardboard was from IKEA furniture packaging, sourced by me.
Fig. 2.4 & 2.5 Burning clear plastic sheets, Week 7
(17/5/2023)
We bought clear plastic sheets from Popular to make the waves. The sheets were burned with a lighter to create their wavy shape.
Fig. 2.6 & 2.7 Cutting blister packs, Week 7 (17/5/2023)
At the same time, we had Shaocheng preparing the blister pack pieces for the creation of sea creatures. The blister packs were cut into square shapes, with some rounded off.
Thursday 18/5/2023
Fig. 3.1 & 3.2 Cut PVC pipes as support stands, Week 7 (18/5/2023)
Because we wanted to have a tall PVC pipe as the trunk of the tree, we had to find a way to ensure its stability. Devina came up with the idea of slotting the PVC pipe through the cardboard base, and also adding support stands underneath, hence we cut the pipe into shorter pieces.
Fig. 3.3 & 3.4 PVC pipes screwed with L brackets, Week 7 (18/5/2023)
For better stability, the PVC pipes were screwed with L brackets to the cardboard.
Fig. 3.5 Drilling PVC pipes, Week 7 (18/5/2023)
Fig. 3.6 & 3.7 PVC pipe root base, Week 7 (18/5/2023)
The roots are made from cut PVC pipes, secured with wire and hot glue.
Fig. 3.8 Current base, Week 7 (18/5/2023)
Week 8
Sunday 21/5/2023
Fig. 4.1 Blister pack fishes, Week 8 (21/5/2023)
We didn't have enough time to create fishes during our Thursday session, so I took the blister pack pieces home to make them at night. These fishes were made by hot glueing the pieces together in a cylindrical shape.
Monday 22/5/2023
We first started spray-painting the sea creatures and coral reef elements. The spray painting was done by me and Sea.
Fig. 4.3 & 4.4 Spray-painted fishes & corals, Week 8 (22/5/2023)
Fig. 4.5 & 4.6 Spray-painted fishes, Week 8 (22/5/2023)
Fig. 4.7 Spray-painted waves, Week 8 (22/5/2023)
The waves were spray-painted by Sea.
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Fig. 4.8 & 4.9 Making triangular fishes, Week 8 (22/5/2023)
Besides spray painting, I made another fish variant. I decided to make a triangular one, this time cutting the blister packs into shape rather than cutting them into square pieces and glueing them piece by piece. The scraps were used as details for the fins and tails.
Fig. 4.10 Small fishes, Week 8 (22/5/2023)
The smaller fishes were made by Luisa and Shaocheng. They were made by folding the blister packs into shape, while the tails were cut into shape.
Fig. 4.11 & 4.12 Making turtles, Week 8 (22/5/2023)
Luisa and Shaocheng also made turtles using the circle blister pack pieces.
Fig. 4.13 Current progress of ocean elements, Week 8 (22/5/2023)
Tuesday 23/5/2023
.HEIC)
Fig. 5.1 - 5.4 Covering base with recycled paper, Week 8 (23/5/2023)
On Tuesday, we focused on finishing up the base as quickly as we could. My team covered up the base with recycled paper. The papers were sourced from me, they were my high school notes and my father's electrical engineering papers.
Fig 3.3: The air cons broke down again and the sockets weren't working so we had to continue in the hallway where there was one lonely socket for our hot glue gun.
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Fig. 5.5 Spray painting jellyfishes and small fishes, Week 8 (23/5/2023)
While my team worked on the base, I focused on finishing up the spray painting of the sea elements.
Fig. 5.6 Spray-painted small fishes, Week 8 (23/5/2023)
Fig. 5.7 Current progress for ocean parts, Week 8 (23/5/2023)
Fig. 5.8 Branches, Week 8 (23/5/2023)
We made the branches by twisting the paper together. They were secured with tape and then wrapped with wire to solidify their form.
Wednesday 24/5/2023
Fig. 6.1 Attaching branches, Week 8 (24/5/2023)
The next day, we attached the branches to the trunk using tape and wire. We encountered an issue with the branches drooping down, so we used clear nylon string to pull them upright by tying the string to the trunk.
Fig. 6.2 & 6.3 Covering the base with blister packs, Week 8 (24/5/2023)
After settling the branches we covered the bottom part with blister packs. Root details were also added with twisted paper rolls.
Fig. 6.4 Base covered with blister packs, Week 8 (24/5/2023)
This was really time-consuming and took the whole day to do.
Fig. 6.5 Folding leaves, Week 8 (24/5/2023)
While my team were covering the base with blister packs, I prepared and spray-painted the leaves. The leaves were made by folding the blister packs. They were spray-painted with dark green, light green and yellow. This was also extremely time-consuming, painful and not as satisfying to do compared to making the sea creatures and corals.
Fig. 6.6 Current base progress, Week 8 (24/5/2023)
Once the bottom was covered, we covered the tree with aluminium foil to simulate the texture of wood. We ran out of aluminium so we had to complete it the next day.
Thursday 25/5/2023
Fig. 7.2 & 7.3 Sea spray painting the base, Week 8 (25/5/2023)
Fig. 7.4 & 7.5 Spray-painted base, Week 8 (25/5/2023)
Fig. 7.6 & 7.7 Crumpled paper for leaves, Week 8 (25/5/2023)
The leaves were attached to crumpled paper for more volume before they were attached to the tree. It was quite a struggle to do this because we weren't sure of the direction and placements, thus the tree didn't look as good in our final outcome. But at this point, we were really rushing so it'll have to do.
Fig. 7.8 - 7.10 PVC pipe & inhaler corals, Week 8 (25/5/2023)
I made the majority of the corals since it was my idea to incorporate them into Wave of Waste. First I took the scrap PVC pipes and hot glued them together, then did the same for the inhalers. Initially, we wanted to incorporate the inhalers with the tree by either hanging them or making them a part of the leaves, but we weren't provided with enough. Due to the small amount, they would've looked weird and incomplete if we were to incorporate them into the tree.
Fig. 7.11 Spray-painted PVC pipe corals, Week 8 (25/5/2023)
Fig. 7.12 & 7.13 Spray-painted paper cardboard corals, Week 8 (25/5/2023)
Besides that, I used paper cardboard recycled from packing to create other forms of corals. The fan corals were made by Shaocheng, and the flower-like corals were made by me. I chose to spray paint them with neon yellow as an accent colour to create a divide between the ocean floor and sea creatures.
Friday 26/5/2023
Fig. 8.1 Connected clean wave, Week 8 (26/5/2023)
Luisa assembled the waves together. She also hot glued the small fishes inside and outside the waves for more dimension.
Fig. 8.2 & 8.3 Marking & hanging the clean wave, Week 8 (26/5/2023)
Sea and Devina marked the height of the wave by using tape to suspend the wave temporarily. This made it easier to tie the clear nylon string.
Fig. 8.4 & 8.5 Attaching the waves, Week 8 (26/5/2023)
In Fig. 6.4 we were figuring out the placement for the dirty wave.
Fig. 8.6 Spray paint bottle caps, Week 8 (26/5/2023)
On this day I also worked on creating more corals. We had a lot of emptied spray paint and I thought of using the caps instead of throwing them away.
Fig. 8.7 & 8.8 Corals, Week 8 (26/5/2023)
Besides the spray paint bottle caps, I used acrylic paint bottles and caps, as well as yoghurt cups and other plastic recycled from packaging. These recycled materials were sourced by me and Shaocheng.
Fig. 8.9 & 8.10 Spray-painted corals, Week 8 (26/5/2023)
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Fig. 8.11 Spray-painted corals, Week 8 (26/5/2023)
It was really fun to spray paint these corals because watching the colours form was quite satisfying.
Fig. 8.12 Spray-painted seaweeds, Week 8 (26/5/2023)
Sea and Devina also made more seaweeds. I helped to spray paint them as well.
Fig. 8.13 Leaves, Week 8 (26/5/2023)
We also had to make more leaves because we ran out. We also ran out of foldable blister packs, so we cut the blister packs into the shape of leaves instead. The leaves were made by me, Sea and Shaocheng, spray-painted by me and Sea.
Saturday 27/5/2023
Fig. 9.1 Red blister pack corals, Week 8 (27/5/2023)
On Friday, I took some red blister packs home to make more corals at night. Since they were red I decided to use them in their natural state. These corals were made by wrapping them into sticks and hot glueing them together. I really liked how they turned out.
After creating these red corals, I figured out the placements of each ocean element before hot glueing them onto the sculpture.
Fig. 9.2 & 9.3 Contamination, Week 8 (27/5/2023)
The contaminated part includes clear plastic bottles and silver blister packs. We thought of adding more litter but it was already looking very dense and we didn't want it to become messy. The plastic bottles were sourced by Shaocheng.
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Fig. 9.4 & 9.5 Waves & ocean, Week 8 (27/5/2023)
Lighter fishes and jellyfishes were attached with clear nylon string, while the heavier fishes were hot glued to wooden sticks and then glued to the sculpture. This was done by Sea and Luisa.
Fig. 9.6 & 9.7 Attaching leaves, Week 8 (27/5/2023)
Once the waves were attached, the final step was to add the leaves to the tree.
Monday 29/5/2023
Fig. 10.1 Final presentation day, Week 9 (29/5/2023)
I represented my group for the final presentation.
Fig. 10.2 Viewing of art installation, Week 9 (29/5/2023)
GSK representatives asked us a bit about our sculpture during the viewing. They were mainly questions about the materials used for the base and the stability of the sculpture (concerns of transport). One representative asked why didn't we use plywood instead of cardboard for the base. I thought it was almost ironic since it was the same representative that was concerned about the percentage of recycled materials used. Overall, they liked how our installation looked even though it wasn't the exact message they were looking for.
Fig. 10.3 Nutquacker - group photo, Week 9 (29/5/2023)
Fig. 10.4 Nutquacker - group photo, Week 9 (29/5/2023)
Final Art Installation
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Fig. 11.1 "Wave of Waste" - front, Week 8 (27/5/2023)
Blister packs: 1351
Inhalers: 14
Time: 9 full days
Size: 6 ft x 6 ft x 2 ft
Cost: Broken nails, fingers, forearm, arm, neck, back, sleep, brain, our Week 8 & other modules
Fig. 11.2 "Wave of Waste" - front left ¾, Week 8 (27/5/2023)
Fig. 11.3 "Wave of Waste" - front right ¾, Week 8 (27/5/2023)
Fig. 11.4 "Wave of Waste" - left side, Week 8 (27/5/2023)
Fig. 11.5 & 11.6 "Wave of Waste" - waves, Week 8 (27/5/2023)
Fig. 11.7 "Wave of Waste" - ocean, Week 8 (27/5/2023)
Fig. 11.8 "Wave of Waste" - contaminated wave, Week 8 (27/5/2023)
Fig. 11.9 - 11.11 "Wave of Waste" - contamination (waste), Week 8 (27/5/2023)
Fig. 11.12 - 11.15 "Wave of Waste" - sea creatures & coral reef, Week 8 (27/5/2023)
FEEDBACKS
Week 9: Our work doesn't clearly express the topic of Wave of Waste and GSK's focus. It is difficult for the audience to grasp the meaning of our art installation. The use of inhalers as the corals also creates a disconnect from facts as inhalers don't end up in oceans. The contaminated wave was also unclear at first glance, need more of a distinction between the clean and dirty wave, as well as the contaminated part of the ocean. Dead fishes and corals would've better expressed that. Overall, it's still good work and the sculpture is beautiful.
SUBMISSION
REFLECTION
Experience
This (major) project was a test of our practical and problem-solving skills. It was very stressful, and demanding and caused us to sacrifice our other modules. If it wasn't for the independent learning week (Week 8) our sculpture would be unfinished. I'm very grateful for the team I had as everyone did their best and contributed to the outcome of this art installation. I expected to feel happy once our sculpture was completed, but I felt numb instead. Personally, the only fun part about the creation of our art installation was the coral reef and some sea creatures, especially the spray painting as it was satisfying to see our creations come to life.
Observation & Findings
I have a renewed perspective of objects that we often throw away without a thought. This project has allowed me to use and practice my creativity to make these unconventional materials work. It was a good exploration and experimentation, albeit could've been done in better circumstances.
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