IS Public Lecture: Professor Peter McNeil

Queer Space - Privacy & Posturing:
Peter McNeil explores the queer space not in the societal sense but as a strange concoction of ideas. He talks about bringing together different skills from different disciplines to achieve these spaces as well as exploring how in the old society, the wealthy gain more freedom than the working class.
Throughout his lecture, he talks about a lot of different things, possibly to illustrate his topic in the most literal sense. He mixes many subjects to convey the term "Queer" from home decoration to an analysis of the Duchess of Winsor.
He quotes: "Queer describes a horizon of possibility whose precise extent and heterogeneous scope allows principles to be limited."

"To practise a stylistics of the self ultimately means to cultivate that part of oneself that leads beyond oneself"
- David Halperin, Saint Foucault

Peter McNeil then talks about looking at different cultures and times to gain "new ideas". He says that he "likes moving through time. " 

During McNeil's lecture, I was able to absorb many different ideas. He showed us the importance of revisiting the past and appropriating old ideas. He also emphasized the importance of an open mind and that through the use of different skills, a different result can be achieved.

IS Public Lecture: Tom Rivard

Performance Urbanism:
Rivard's lecture explores narrative and fiction as instruments of civic engagement. He draws comparisons between commuting and the act of "reading the city". His lecture helped me understand the perspective shift and marginal differences of the make of the city.
For example, he talks about advertising vs. communication which explores how a commuter travels in the city. A commuter will hardly ever communicate or interact with another commuter. However, through advertising in the forms of posters, signs, shopfronts, the city is able to communicate with the commuter through these mediums, thus the act of "reading the city".
He then points out however that the city than loses its vitality as all interactions are sterile and muted. He spoke of the surreal territory of "the library" and how the silence of the space does not reflect the amount of "communication" (between readers and books) that happens.

IS Public Lecture: Simeon King

Public & Private - Printing & Sorting
Simeon King's lecture primarily explored the idea of the public domain. He talked about finding scale in the city and how miniscule the human self is compared to larger picture.
His believes that as a person travels through the city, mapping and sorting information  becomes something that we are not consciously aware of and that we, as humans are constantly looking and deciphering the information we take in around us.
As a spatial designer, this idea is important as the space we build for the greater community can very well become a part of the public domain and the spatial qualities we create should always relate to how we want others to interact. Only when this is achieved, can we achieve a sense of urban vitality.

Sectional Elevations Of Labyrinth Model

As the title suggests, these are my sectional elevations of my Labyrinth Model. The labyrinth model shown above is a prototype: dual use of balsa and brass rods.
This model was conceived through one of my previous Vectorwork images.

Program used for sectional elevations: Vectorworks

Materials used for model: Balsa wood & soldered brass rods

Vectorworks: Duplicate Array

Type: Diagram/Generated Form

Program used: Vectorworks

Diagrams & Form of Swan Lake video

For this project, our studio used Act II Swans' Dance of Paris Opera Ballet's Swan Lake as reference to produce diagrams of the ballerinas' movements. My diagrams record how the dancers move and interact with both the stage and each other at different timeframes. The grace of these interactions are then processed via Vectorworks to create the start of a 3D form (and eventually an interior space).

The form above is generated through the "Duplicate Array" function.

Type: Diagram/Generated Form

Program used: Vectorworks

The Miracles of Duplication

Spiral

See Vectorworks: Duplicate Array 

Format: Diagram

Program: Vectorworks

Wire Model in the City

Wire Model in the City

A project for our Context: Imaging & Representation class. Using brass and copper rods, we soldered them using pre-prepared sketches as a guide. They are designed to be a space that allows a constant interaction between the structure itself and the people travelling in the city.

We were asked to re-integrate our finished model into the city through a photograph showing the potential possibility of interaction that exists between commuter and structure.

Type: Model

Materials used: Brass and Copper Rods

Geometric Interior with Spiral Staircase

Geometric Interior with Spiral Staircase
A series of "stairways/corridors" made with watercolour paper.

Format: Model

Materials: Watercolour paper

Hats Throughout the Ages

A graphic poster showing the timeline of hats throughout history. The poster uses colour to show the purpose, function and popularity of different hat styles at various stages of history. Very often, the use and significance of these hats change as they fall out of fashion.

Format: Graphic Poster

Programs used: Adobe Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5

Map of Hermes

Map of Hermes

A semester-long project for my Studio class. 

A map of the city but also a map of the many different journeys I explored throughout the semester. A montage of different experiences and a map of the city through my eyes.

This map also shows:

• The threshold between nature and the man-made
• The intensity of nature's influence on the structures of the city
• The ideal location for my imaginary city of Hermes

Format: Illustration

Materials: Watercolour paper, pencil, graphite, ink, watercolour

Sketch: The Fawn

The Fawn: Doodles on the Train

Utensils: Copic liners

Experimentations: Pipes

Experimentations with industrial wires.

Format: Miniatures

Materials used: Soldered Brass Wires/Tubes, Industrial Nickel Wires 

Illustration: Medusa

Medusa
Doodles on a train.

Format: Illustration

Utensils: Pencils, Copic-liner, red paint

Hermes' Helmet

Hermes' Helmet Pavilion

A pavilion idea inspired by the helmets of Hermes, the messenger of Zeus from Greek mythology. The wings of this architectural form in particular was greatly influenced by Hermes.

Format: Model

Materials: One Postcard

City of Beersheba - Golden Lindt

City of Sheeba - Golden Lindt Pavilion

A model replicating the golden city of Beersheba from Calvino's Invisible Cities.

Format: Model

Materials: One Lindt Box

Programs used: Adobe Photoshop CS3

The Many Layers of Cockatoo Island

The Many Layers of Cockatoo Island

When asked to use the materials provided to produce a map of Cockatoo Island as we see fit, we decided to make a layered 3D map.

Through the exploration of Cockatoo Island, we noticed 5 primary components that make up and define the island. These features are: the land, the unused spaces, buildings, nature and machinery. In order to represent this is the most simplistic way, our group constructed this 3D map showing 5 different layers each of which represents one of the features. Our goal was to communicate the idea in the easiest and most fool-proof way that can be easily interpreted when need be.

Expo Space: Cockatoo Island Mould Lounge

Format: Model (Collaboration)

Collaboration with Shelley Javier, Jacqueline Pham, Andy Mai, Daniel Malik

Material: Cardboard, Coloured Paper, Wires, Ribbon and Pins

Experimentating with Natural Texture

Birch

Revenge of the Greens Series 01

Revenge of the Greens Series 02

Birch

Format: Journal sketches and experimentation

Material: Black ink, Brown crepe paper and Cardboard

Revenge of the Greens Series 01

Format: Journal Sketches/ Concept Sketches

Revenge of the Greens Series 02

Format: Journal Sketches/Concept Sketches

Experimentations: Shrubbery

Shrubbery

Experimentation with material manipulation.

Format: Experimentation

Materials: Recycled Shakespearean Playbook (rescued from trash)

The Nature of Friendship

Click to enlarge!

The Nature of Friendship (2010)

Expo Space: St George Girls High School 2010 Art Exhibition
Materials: Ink, Coloured paper, Collage material, Cardboard and Pen on watercolour paper.

My Year 12 Graduation Major Work for Visual Arts. This is only one of the three panels that I presented.

Exploring  friendship and dependency through nature.
In the three panels, three stages of a high school friendship (and possibly all friendships) are explored. The first panel (not shown here) is set in a Wonderland-esque rainforest, portraying two friends emerging from the plantations in an Adam & Eve fashion. This marks the first stage of a friendship, outlining the fresh and sometimes surreal moment when you first learn about one another.
The second panel (also not shown here) depicts a yellowing tree as its central element with two girls in the center, also withering with it. Around them are scenarios of exams and other miscellaneous scenes plaguing them all around. As the pressure builds towards the end of senior year, that's when the strength of your friendship really gets tested. It is inevitable that your first real fight with a good friend will always leave a mark in your memories.
Which then leads us to this panel (the one above). The main theme in this panel is harmony. By going and growing through your first fight (and all the pressure and stress from leaving high school), you reach an understanding with your other half. You've been through both the good and the bad and in a way, this is how a true bond develops.
Nature is always resilient, like how a tree grows stronger after a bush fire. Like nature, friendship works in similar ways.