For my first post I'll bring you up to date on a current brief I am working on, entitled "Comic Sans Destroyed".The brief is essentially this: We are to make 2 different 3d representations of a letter we are given (in my case, lowercase 'n') in the comic sans font. One is to be made of wood and taken to a photo-shoot, and one is to be made of any material, that we will destroy and have pictures taken of it's destruction.
Both are to be painted brilliant white, and to be a perfect reconstruction of the letter given at a size you choose.
The first wooden 'n' was fairly straight forward, and was more a matter of getting used to the workshop and getting to know the technicians for future projects. Mine came out around A2 in size, and is currently being painted white.
The second 'n' took a lot of thought and exhaustive brainstorming. My original plan was to make a burning letter. This required (in order): making the letter in wood first to get a shape I could cast from; coating the wooden shape in acetone to prepare for making the rubber mould; making the clay base to prepare for hot rubber to be poured onto the shape and therefore make the mould; after the mould is complete, sourcing a wax or gel that would burn but could still set.
In the meantime I experimented with Freezing/Melting:
After numerous discussions with Nigel and peers from my class, I decided not to go with the burning idea, and instead started brainstorming again. I had already made the rubber mould, so I thought around the subject of what you can do with a mould. I strayed away from substances being poured into the mould and looked to what impact a mould could have on something else. Late on in the brainstorm I came across the idea of building a sandcastle with the mould, and I loved the childlike nature the idea had, I couldn't wait to try it out. One problem though, no beaches around for miles.
I discussed the problem with my friends and I heard rumors of there being sand right here in London, on the banks of the Thames. I went to investigate.
After walking around the Thames for a good few hours, found about 2mx2m of useable sand near Vauxhall station. The pictures above show Embankment, Westminster and Vauxhall.
The photos above are some of the various experiments I tried out while there. Since it has to be brilliant white, when I next go out to take photos, I'll spray paint the 'n' while it's set in sand. For the destroy picture, I aim to catch the sea at high tide and get pictures of the sea washing the sand away. That's all for now.
