VII. Floating Intention

We were asked to create a "boat" design using limited materials.

1 Sheet of plywood 8' x 6'
4 2x2x8 pieces of wood or equivalent
60 ft duct tape
1 lb of fasteners


My teammates were Devan Budhna and Steven Ray. We decided to create a Viking ship, and called ourselves Team Viking Quest.



Kevin Dillon as Johnny Drama on HBO's Entourage




We drew out scaled plans for our boat and created a paper maquette to test out the design.



After we were satisfied, we got to work on the boat.



Devan grinding down a screw


Final Product




For more pictures of the boat's construction, please visit my classmate Devan Budhna's blog.

VI. Toy, Game, or Invention

After considering a few choices, I decided to create a board game. This board game would draw upon all the things that frustrate you about current board games, combining them into one, intentionally bad game appropriately called "The Worst Game Ever".

play - to exercise or employ oneself in diversion, amusement, or recreation.



The object of The Worst Game Ever is to travel around the game board collecting as many 90's Television Star cards as you can. Before the game starts, 1 of the 90's Television Star Cards is secretly drawn, randomly deciding the outcome of the game before it even begins. This mechanic is hilariously random, making much of what you do during the actual game pretty pointless as the best player does not necessarily win. This was taken from my favorite card game of all time: Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot.


Killer Bunnies packs


Killer Bunnies in progress (note the complexity and tiny pieces)


Magic Carrots (Replaced by 90's TV Stars in my game)



Killer Bunnies is ridiculous amounts of fun, but the main frustration is the randomness and sheer amount of time it takes to learn. I incorporated these two frustrating elements heavily in The Worst Game Ever. The more complex and messy the game ended up, the happier I was with my design.


Examples


Risk (So many rules. Tiny Pieces)


Hero Quest (millions of rules, cards, dice)



For the player pieces, I wanted 2 really boring pieces and 1 exciting piece that everyone would fight over. So I decided to go with charcoal drawings of U.S. Vice Presidents for the crappy pieces and a full color badass painting of Chuck Norris for the awesome piece. To make them 3D i mounted them on cardboard and cut them out.


Reference Images:
John C. Calhoun

Martin Van Buren

Chuck Norris


Game pieces (drawn by me)






I created some animal pieces out of sculpey and painted / covered them to add some extra pieces and randomness to the game.






For the game board, I wanted something huge and cumbersome, making play and storage frustrating. The board simulates a town, with 8 "locales" for the player to visit in hopes of collecting 90's TV stars.


Preliminary design





Finally, for the packaging, I wanted something humongous. I had a really big printer box in my apartment, so I used that. I wanted it to be apparent that the packaging did in fact used to be a printer box, adding some crappiness and humor to the final product. I created the front box image in Photoshop.




Game board








Additional pieces





Sample 90's TV Star Cards

V. Form Follow Function? Foam Subtractive Project

After compiling my reference images, I chose to combine two designs to create my non functional object:



This perfume bottle


And the snake handle of this sword



Using a large block of styrofoam, we carved out our forms. I used the bottle design as the bottom half and attached the snake head on top. Alone in the lab one night working on the project, I realized that the piece would benefit from a story, even though this was not part of the assignment. It fit so well that I could not resist. This is the story behind my piece, entitled "Slitherella".






"Once upon a time, there was a man named Prince Charming. This was not his real name, as he was no prince. He was charming though, at least to snakes. He was a snake charmer, and Prince Charming was his stage name. He was so good at his job, that all the snakes he performed with fell madly in love with him. They did everything they could to get his attention, in hopes that he would choose them for his daily performances.

However, there was one snake that was never chosen. Her name was Slitherella. Slitherella was not beautiful, and not talented. All the other snakes would laugh hisss-terically at her for being the Prince's least favorite.

One night, Slitherella broke down crying, for the Prince could never love her, not the way she was. Suddenly, a magical golden insect appeared out of thin air. Startled, Slitherella asked 'W-Who are you??' The insect replied, 'I am your fairy broodmother!' The broodmother comforted Slitherella and vowed to help her. 'I am going to turn you into a beautiful human woman for one night,' she said. 'Hooray!' Slitherella exclaimed. 'The Prince can finally see what a great perssssonality I have!' The broodmother politely kept her silence at that one.

'Slitherella, this is very important. You must be back by midnight or you will turn back into... well, you.'

'Yeah, OK!' Slitherella interrupted. 'Turn me into a human already!' So she did.

The night went very well. Slitherella and Prince Charming went to a ball. Um, actually, it was the Snake Charmer's Union trade convention. They ate macaroni salad and drank lemonade. It was magical. Slitherella forgot all about the broodmother's one warning, and suddenly, as the prince was about to kiss her....."




The piece:

IV. Degrees of Dimensionality - Alter Ego Mask project

In class we created stories and masks representing our "alter-ego". My alter ego was a Mexican wrestler named "El Judeo Jr". Here is his backstory.

Little is known of El Judeo Jr’s life outside of the lucha libre ring. A reclusive, devout orthodox Jew, El Judeo Jr leads a life of unwavering discipline. He resents the fame and notoriety that comes with being a celebrated luchador in Mexico City, believing such things to be roadblocks on his path to retribution. On October 2, 1989, El Judeo, our hero’s father, was famously unmasked after facing defeat to a young unknown by the name of El Fantasma de Oaxaca (The Ghost from Oaxaca). In the lucha libre world, being unmasked is the ultimate shame for the wrestler and his family, whom he is honor bound to defend. Twenty years later, El Fantasma is entrenched as the most famous, or more appropriately, infamous luchadors of his generation. El Judeo Jr has taken up arms, aided by his sacred mask which legend states was molded and baked by the holy light of Adonai himself. He has vanquished all opponents so far in his quest to avenge his father by defeating and unmasking El Fantasma.

For the Mask, I used a plastic halloween mask as the base. Then I covered it with Super Sculpey, creating relief designs of Jewish symbols. I attached Hassidic payos to the sides using strands of a costume wig. After baking the mask to harden it, I painted it with acrylics.

Progress shot:




Finished Mask:

IV. Degrees of Dimensionality - Research

Exemplary Work



Low relief


1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

1. "Akhenaton and Nefertiti" Egyptian
2. "bas-Relief from the Angkor Wat" Cambodia
3. "Bas-Relief" by Salvatore Fiume
4. "Gentlemen's Club" by Sarka Radova
5. "Victory Stele of Naram-Sin" Akkadian



High relief


1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

1. "Winged Bull" Assyrian
2. "Javelin Man" by Olbram Zoubek
3. "Mother's Song" by Chidi Okoye
4. "Mount Rushmore" by Gutzon Borglum
5. "Springs of Life" by Chidi Okoye



Alter Ego

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

1. "Alter Ego" by Gareth Christopher Jones
2. "Alter Ego" by Tony Dow
3. "Merging Ego Installation" by Judith Kindler
4. "Superhero Alter Ego" by David Chien
5. "Winifred" by Sarah Crow



Geometric Abstraction


1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

1. "Bridges" by Ivan Mares
2. "Butterfly" by Ivan Mares
3. "Comet" by Ivan Mares
4. "Stormwatch" by Laurie Monblatt
5. "Surface of Time" by Laurie Monblatt



In-the-round


1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

1. "African Lady" by Salvatore Fiume
2. "Ifigenie" by Olbram Zoubek
3. "Sisyfos" by Petr Kavan
4. "Two Figures" by Tony Dow
5. "With Feathers" by Magdalena Abakanowicz



Non-representational


1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

1. "154" by Rebecca Fox
2. "Adamor Circle" by Owen Morrel
3. "Moebius Three" by Donald Wright
4. "Nuk" by Lawrence Argent
5. "untitled" by Donald Wright



Anthropomorphic Abstraction


1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

1. "Children of the Sun" by Hannu a Leimu
2. Dogon Brass Anthropomorphic Sculpture - Mali
3. Senufu Bronze Anthropomorphic Sculpture - Mali
4. "The Lion Man" Paleolithic
5. "The Young Family" by Patricia Piccinini


Mask

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

1. Gere Wooden Polychrome Mask - Ivory Coast
2. Goddess Mask - Nepal
3. "Lucy" by Chidi Okoye
4. Painted Wooden Mask - Nigeria
5. "Spaniard Mask" - Nicaragua



Abstract

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

1. "Candy" by Matt Proctor
2. "Driven" by Roberta Daar
3. "Strider" by Ben Carpenter
4. "Tranquility" by Casey Horn
5. "Wonderland" by Eileen Shahbazian