Research
I began this project by thinking of signs and symbols that represent me. I researched words and synonyms of things relating to exercise, traveling, sports a. I also researched different fonts and letters for the exercises associated with this project.
Exercises
For the first exercise, I learned to utilize the Pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. I did this exercise and followed the instructions to accurately outline the different curves and shapes.
For the next exercise, I used my initial to reveal negative and positive space to hide an image that represents something about myself. I experimented with several different fonts and words to find the best fit. I began by using symbols of things I like; philosophy, exercise, aerobics and puzzles. I experimented with both white and black backgrounds. This assignment was going to be cut out using a laser printer.
The laser printer cuts at a continuous line so all the parts had to be outlined with a line. I didn’t know that at the time I was constructing my piece so my final ended up missing the smile part of my composition. This was a good learning lesson for the project. After testing several iterations, I chose this one as my final.
This is a picture of me in a cowboy hat, smiling. Im a very happy and positive person so I thought it would be the best representation of my personality. I am from Texas and the cowboy hat accurately represents that. to make the pdf file for the laser cutter, I used the pen tool to outline the composition using the skills I learned in the first exercise.
Iterations
For the Project, I began by making a list of homonyms (words that have different meanings but sound the same).
Rock, rose, bat, sun/son, see/sea, plane/plain, whole/hole, brake/break, express, Lie, spring, bear, night/knight.
After picking my word, I started brain mapping the different definitions and words that represent those definitions.
Initially, I was going to use Instagram symbols to represent the “Live” performance definition of the word. So much of are lives are living in a virtual reality, and that is going to be the future of our society. Nothing escapes the eye of artificial intelligence because everything we say and do is recorded and stored as data without us knowing. Sometimes people neglect living their real life and compromise living in the moment to make their virtual life look appealing.
But I didn’t like the disconnection between the ideas so I decided to take a different approach with the definitions. I stared thinking about what living means to me without the social pressures of social media.
I started extracting parts of a drawing I made on illustrator of a person living their life on a mountain. This representation focuses on living in the moment and experiencing what the world has to offer.
The darker parts of each step represent a new layer. When I got to the construction of this version, it was really hard to cut the small pieces, and they were not lining up like I intended when I first made this idea. I also made it out of printer paper so it was falling apart as I was constructing it.
Then I started to approach it differently and made full layers and used line distance to represent the contours of the mountain.
The reason I decided to go with a person in the distance instead of a person with his arms out and looking like they’re having fun is to give the viewer anticipation about whats to come. The person on the mountain doesn’t look happy because this is all just for show, a live performance that is not yet revealed. The empty space where the sky is also a cause for anticipation, where the viewer doesn’t know why there is nothing in that area.
Concept statement
This project is an exploration of how a single word can have several definitions. The word “Live” means to be – in a state of existence and to be part of a performance. In my composition, I use form and space to differentiate between the two meanings. I will use the front layers to show the organic version of the meaning as being more dominant in our lives than the recorded. I will portray the actual real time life version struggling to escape the performance- being trapped in the background, only being visible when light is released. Before light is introduced, the living version of the word feels dominant, but the shadows exposed by the light reveal that the live performance is actual dominant theme. the Bristol that I use for this composition and the 1/2 inch space between each helps create shadows. The person on the mountain is emphasized by the shadows, even though he is in the back layer. As a whole, the composition relates to the metaphoric comparison between a real and virtual life. The relationship and contrast between the two opposites is portrayed in a harmonious way, bringing the two together with light and exposing the truth.
Production
Since I’m not on campus, I couldn’t use the laser cutter for my assignment. Instead I printed out the illustrator file and cut it out in layers. 
Then when I traced it on to the Bristol, I thought about inverting the parts that I cut out to see which one would look the best
I ended up using the positive spaces for my final.
As for the live – I had to decide on something else that is easily identifiable. I was going to use a video play bar. but since the majority of the mountain already uses layers, the bottom of the box wouldn’t be visible behind them. So I went with a youtube play button instead.
Final
