O2: "Mesh Mashup": Concept Generation
Remix Culture
“Mesh Mashup” Concept Generation
During class we explored examples of remixes and mashups. It became my understanding that the word “remix” has been misconstrued or misunderstood more and more as time progresses. The word becoming synonymous, to me at least, with musical and pop culture remixes. Which meant taking an original piece and changing or making it a new.
After class my understanding of remixing has shifted. Now knowing about the root of it within music and the mixing of turntables and media to create sound. I now know that remix culture is the culture of using and changing others works by improving upon, changing or in other words editing existing work in efforts of both understanding the old piece and making a new out of it.
Planning pages:
During the planning process I wanted to look at objects that remind me of other objects and putting them in those contexts. Examples being a teacup turned upside down resembling a house, and therefore thinking about what other features about a house make me think about it as a house; i.e. a chimney, a window and a door. I was also aware of the objects in the examples and made an effort, while brainstorming ideas, to be original or think of objects to combine based on my own experiences and interests.
Objects:
Fruity Helmet
As seen in some of my planning, I wanted to play with the idea of a fruit hat or helmet. Inspired by the round shape of someone’s head, and the fact that often in imagery we associate round objects with people. I thought more and more about simple, identifiable helmets and hats as well as identifiable fruits and veg. I came to the conclusion of a Viking orange helmet, as I found the visor both identifiable and interesting; and the orange to be identifiable and something I tie to my own preferences.
A Lightbulb Moment
When creating this object I was thinking of the light bulb motif, and wanted to be able to put it into a tangible house hold item. I then thought about Barbie, and the busts that I used to play with, where it would just be her head and shoulders, so that you could do her hair and makeup. From this I thought to combine both an incandescent lightbulb and a bust, where instead of her head there would be a lightbulb.
When designing or brainstorming this object I was thinking about vehicles of movement, and not wanting to delve into something as complex as a car paired with my desire to continue with more tangible items I thought of office wheelie chairs. Thinking about the small wheels that protrude out of usually almost tentacle like forms, I thought to replace the wheels completely.
Office Chair - 2 Parts by Limeguy88 - Thingiverse
tentacles coming through the ground by tonix1234 - Thingiverse
When creating this object, much like the aforementioned Fruity Helmet, I wanted to create another object from identifiable imagery. I wanted to look into the idea of fairy houses, or miniature house models. From this i thought about objects that made a house identifiable; windows, doors, and a chimney, were my first immediate thoughts. From there I looked at images like the one next to my object, to think of how one could turn an unrelated object into a house.
Teacup and Saucer by kylekorn - Thingiverse
Playmo Chimney with Smoke Generator Seuthe by jenssauer - Thingiverse
Biting Tape
This object comes from the idea of the sharp edge of a tape dispenser. When looking at the serrated edge, one thinks about teeth, however, in my opinion, not usually human teeth. But, rather, shark or other carnivorous creatures teeth instead. I wanted to use human teeth as they both combat that as well as play to that human experience of needing to cut tape and not having the dispenser or scissors to do so and resulting to our teeth.
dentures 2 by robkhristov - Thingiverse
Cast 101 by mpalmer360 - Thingiverse
A Mermaid
An inverse take on the identifiable mermaid trope or imagery. I wanted to make at least one creature and I wad motivated by the other objects that I had brainstormed to play with the idea of Barbie and the connotations of Barbie (i.e. conventional beauty and femininity) and turn them on their heads so to speak. I did this by not only switching which part of the mermaid was not human, but also using a typically larger, not as feminine, aquatic creature to splice with the human legs.
Useful Scissors
This object was inspired by the saying, “as useful as a chocolate teapot”, which is a phrase my mother likes to use. At its essence, I found that this saying meant was that something was made to be useless, but still made nonetheless. Originally I had planned to make the blades of the scissors into satin ribbon, which I had thought to be ironic in and of itself. However, I liked the imagery of a banana being the blades, as it expresses utter uselessness I feel more.
Pretty Thing
When creating this object I was motivated by the ideas of femininity in objects. One of the most natural and identifiable objects I found was flowers/bouquets, the second was the aforementioned and previously used Barbie motif or object. I also thought about removing the dolls upper body, as much like the mermaid example, I found that a lot of qualities of femininity came from physical characteristics such as facial features and breasts.
Turtle Basket
Like the other objects I was motivated or inspired by objects that reminded me of other objects. I wanted to look into the motif of a handbag or basket, originally I wanted to use another fruit, like the helmet object. However, when thinking about the typical materials of handbags I started to think about some of them being made of reptile or amphibian skin. From there I thought of the shell and its basket like shape.
Not Dad’s Cyclops
Creating my final object was arguably one of my favourite objects in this part of the assignment. I began reflecting on some of my favourite pieces of art I began to think about films that I enjoyed and the significant objects within them. I then thought of Kat’s Cyclops in Wendyl and Wild and decided I wanted to create a variation of it for this assignment. I felt as though the relationship between the stereo and the eyeballs was ironic (considering no one can hear with their eyes) well as visually striking.
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