Visuals
Project Statement
This project was another collaborative effort and focused heavily on changing the narrative of chess. My partner and I both came into it not knowing much about the game, which ultimately led to some of our creative decisions. The way we went about learning to play was via an app. The digital version of this classic game was certainly more accessible to us but gave the crutch of suggesting what your next move could be resulting in neither of us ever fully understanding the strategic moves you could make to win. We took this realization and applied it to our chess set making a commentary on if advanced technologies and digital versions of things mask the tradition and beauty behind them, especially since chess has such a deep-rooted history. Our pieces include a flipping mechanism utilizing jump rings which allow you to flip to a pixelated version of each piece or have the traditional version visible. We were able to rasterize on the reverse side of each piece using precise Illustrator files and we tried out a technique of painting the matboard so that the core shows through a different color when rasterized. You are never able to see both sides of one piece at the same time enhancing the notion that the digital world may completely hide tradition.
Process
View detailed project process at Checkmate: Process
Reflection
I am very happy with the results of our project. It required a lot of testing with materials, re-sizing, and precise flipping in order to rasterize correctly on either side of the same shape, but we were able to make it work. In my opinion, after executing everything, our concept could be a bit more apparent or stand out in a bolder way possibly with the addition of color to represent the pixelated and technological side. However, I think that our flipping mechanism was a unique way to alter the existing pieces and effectively portrayed our concept. It was extremely successful considering the many iterations we cycled through. I like that our set doesn’t inhibit actual game play but still makes a statement. This project required perseverance but I can appreciate that. Above all, I learned valuable lessons about testing more than you think necessary, and double checking that files are correctly formatted as to not waste precious time with the laser cutter.