After verbally presenting my proposal for Project 2 I felt there was something lacking. It was just too simple and straightforward. There needed to be more context and more of a message that the viewer could conversate. A couple days passed after my initial proposal and I knew I still wanted to do a 3D modeling and printing project but I also needed to make a change to my proposal. Please let this post serve as an update to my initial proposal.
Research and Inspiration
I think there are two components of inspiration (possibly motivation) for me in this project. While one is positive and about adding new techniques to my practice the other is negative and I feel like I must do something about it. That being said I’ll discuss the more optimistic elements first.
Gilles Azzaro is a French digital artist who, in 2013, was able to bring President Obama’s State of The Union Address into the physical realm by modeling the waveform and then 3D printing it on a rather large scale. While there are a couple other components to this piece this is the element that really stood out to me as a technique I wanted to try. This work has been presented as a potentially new way to analyze rhetoric in our society.
One journalist wrote “Speeches make people immortal. No one will forget Churchill’s “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat” or Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream.” Now these monumental dialogues will become literal monuments.” I feel that this statement is very true and that some individuals deserve that immortal stature. However, some do not and that is what brings me to the more pessimistic motivation of this proposal.
Earlier this year President Drumpf (I mean Trump) decided that it would be beneficial to our country, specifically the residents of Utah that size of the Bears Ears National Monument (a status given to this area in one of Obama’s last presidential decrees) be shrunk on a massive scale. With a single stroke of the pen Trump was able to remove approximately 80% of this precious environmental gem. His justification is that the land will know be cared for by the people who know it best. Unfortunately, what that really means is that he has opened this land up for privatization and companies will now be able to come in and buy it up for monetary gains. In other words, the mining and fracking is about to begin in another part of the country. Two activites that have been proven to be extremely detrimental to the planet and are actually less profitable than their renewable energy counterparts.
Now that I’ve vented, I feel better! Thank you. Back to the point of speeches making people immortal; I feel that it is necessary to create a “small-scale monument” to the atrocity that is Trump’s decree. Something that will show the damage he has ignorantly done to one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
Other inspirations include some of the work that one of my classmates did for Project 1 as well as some of the topics we have discussed in a class I’m a TA for.
Proposal
What
I intend to create a 3D print of Bears Ears National Monument but this “monument” will be a little bit different. It will pay homage to the stupidity of the latest presidential decree and attempt to show a physical representation of the detriment it has caused to the landscape. It will be printed from a model based on the height map data from Bears Ears National Monument along with a model based on the waveform of Trump’s speech in which he removes 80% of the monument. His speech will be transformed into a “scar” on the landscape that has the potential to last forever.
There is a desire to include an animated component, also created in blender. The final form of this animation has not yet been determined but I intend to provide additional context to this conversation with the animation. To determine what the animation will be more research is necessary into some of the important facts in this most recent presidential decree as well as potential forms of environmental destruction that may be involved.
Why
What does a Presidential decree really mean? According to some it has the force of law, but does that mean one can be overturned…? For instance, I’d like to think that as soon as a parcel of land is deemed part of the National Park System that it should not be, at any point, removed from that system. Apparently, in our current political climate it seems that everything is up for grabs – even public land. In my opinion, one of the most horrendous things our new president has done is re-appropriate 80% of Bears Ears National Park (in Utah) to be sold to private entities that will eventually begin to mine and frack it. With that being said, I think it is important to create an artwork that stirs up this conversation. There have been many efforts to rally around this atrocity and I’d like to do my part any way that I can. I’d also like to think that time hasn’t run out on protecting an incomparable part of this nation’s land. Land that everyone has the right to enjoy and learn from.
Aside from this conversation I want to ignite, I’m also curious in the techniques necessary to turn this idea into a reality. I’m finding more and more that I have a desire to quickly increase my skills with 3D modeling and 3D printing and I feel this will be an excellent opportunity to do just that.
Skills Needed
- Statistical Research (Skill to be improved upon)
- Data Gathering
- 3D Modeling (Skill to be improved upon)
- Blender
- Meshmixer
- 3D Animation (Skill to be learned)
- 3D Printing (Skill to be learned and quickly improved upon)
- Z-Suite / Cura (Skill to be learned)
- Zortrax
- LulzBot
- Ultimaker
- Joining methods
- Project Presentation (Skill to be improved upon)
Resources Needed
- Software (Blender, MeshMixer, Z-Suite, Cura (LulzBot + Ultimaker))
- GIS Data / Topographical Data
- Audio Files
- 3D Printer Filament
Deliverables
- 1 3D Print
- Potential for 1 3D Animation to accompany the print
Sketches
Goals + Schedule
Week 1: | Goals/Tasks: |
2.12.18 |
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2.13.18 | Class all day |
2.14.18 |
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2.15.18 | Class all day |
2.16.18 | Grad Critique |
2.17.18 |
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2.18.18 |
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Week 2: | Goals/Tasks: |
2.19.18 |
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2.20.18 | Class all day |
2.21.18 |
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2.22.18 | Class all day |
2.23.18 | Grad Critique |
2.24.18 |
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2.25.18 |
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Week 3: | Goals/Tasks: |
2.26.18 |
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2.27.18 | Class all day |
2.28.18 |
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3.1.18 | Class all day |
3.2.18 | Grad Critique |
3.3.18 |
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3.4.18 |
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Week 4: | Goals/Tasks: |
3.5.18 |
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3.6.18 | Class all day |
3.7.18 |
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3.8.18 | Class all day |
3.9.18 |
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3.10.18 |
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3.11.18 |
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Week 5 | Goals/Tasks: |
3.12.18 |
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3.13.18 |
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3.14.18 |
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3.15.18 |
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3.16.18 | Grad Critique – Project Due |
Process and Progress
Most of the progress that has been accomplished this week was in the pivot to my proposal. There was a lot of thinking done to figure out a better way to move forward. And once I was able to discuss the viability of the new idea I began to put together the written proposal and move on to the next steps.
Since I have updated my project I had to pivot in some of my research. Over the past few days I have begun to compile a list of tutorials (video and written) on how to convert an audio waveform into a 3D model. As well as tutorials on how to import height map data into blender to create a 3D model of a desired location.
Next steps involve compiling and completing additional tutorials in this space and acquiring all the data components for this project (presidential speech audio file and height map data of Bears Ears) as well as transforming that data into the required forms and models.
Reflection
I think the biggest revelation I have had in updating my proposal is that I need to level up the steps I take when formulating an idea. I have always been a person that gets an idea for something and I just make it without putting much thought into the context of the why and the potential conversation I want to create. That being said, I have sought out advice from various experienced individuals to learn from their practice and I know that just having those conversations has been helpful. Obviously, I need to put that advice into practice so that I can gain experience and begin to evolve those skills.
Another element I’m working on is being open to the project evolving on its own as I’m working on it.
I have also realized that I’m at a point in my practice where I need to talk through ideas with others to get their perspectives and to have them help spark even more possibiities within my mind. I’m grateful that I’m in a space where there is an abundance of those types of people!
Excited for Project 2 to come to fruition.