The main objective I had in mind when creating this project was to do everything with the most accuracy I could. I wanted to master the construction of the cube and my polyhedron, and then build on that mastery to create something intriguing yet precise. I aimed to better my skills of craft, including cutting, scoring, template making, etc.
Ideation
The first exercise we did to begin this project was creating “the perfect cube.” In this process, we learned the basics of what 3d forms look like in a 2d template form, scoring, gluing, and the importance of accuracy of measurements when creating forms.The second exercise we did to begin this project was creating a trapezoidal prism. This introduced us to more complex shape-making in the templates.We were given the challenge to come up with one to two different ideas for each complex project option. This exercise was really beneficial in that it stretched my brain to ideas I wouldn’t have otherwise thought of doing.The next day we were to come to class with five unique ideas for our polyhedron final and these were the five that I sketched up on Adobe Fresco, and I eventually chose to go with a variation of the complex tubing idea.
Production
As I was researching the polyhedron that I wanted to use for this project, I actually changed my mind from the one I initially chose. The top two images show the octahedron shape template – the original vs. the one that I sketched up in Adobe Illustrator. I found this shape to be too simple in that it wouldn’t be able to hold the ideas I had for negative space. I wanted to find a polyhedron that could hold my ideas, but also would add to the overall intrigue just by its natural form. The bottom two images show the shape template I ended up going with, a square trapezohedron, the left being the original and the right being my recreation. I chose this polyhedron over the other because it was interesting enough to accomplish what I was going for but simultaneously simple enough to easily reproduce over and over. My recreation includes a legend and a directions panel. BOTH templates found at https://www.korthalsaltes.com/This group of images shows a few steps in the process of creating my final polyhedron. The image to the left is the template I carefully drew of the repeated shape used in the form. I did so by finding the measurements of the height and width based on my digital template and drawing the lines in the specific locations they intersected in. I made this template so I could easily trace around it to create my full template with less frustration. The middle image is the template all drawn out by hand. The right two images are two productions of my form, the first vs. the last.This shows all of the polyhedrons I created in my exploration. The left form is the octahedron, and the other two are the square trapezohedrons, all increasing in production quality.After I created my main polyhedron, I began to play around with the forms I wanted to put on the inside. This process was much more difficult than I anticipated. The creation of the main part of the tube forms was simple but finding the angles at which the forms intersected with the “shell” was the difficult part. I basically “guess and checked” them as I went – I made the form straight, then held it against the side to get the angle, cut it as many times as necessary to get it right, deconstructed the form, and then used that as a template to create the form again with the correct angles. Both images above show the process of doing this with my angled triangular tube form (the tube on the left side of my final form). The image on the left shows the rough cut version vs. the new version I created from that. The image on the left is my template in process before I accurately achieved the correct angles.These are the final digital templates I drew on Adobe Illustrator for each of my tubes with all the correct angles and cutouts. The image on the left is the L-shaped tube you can see on the right side of my form (the rectangle with the stick figure is the cutout I have on my top right tube where you can see into the tube), the image at the top is the angle triangular tube, and the bottom is the straight rectangular tube you can see at the bottom of my final form. The solid lines are cut lines and the dotted ones are score lines.I then had to line up my tubes to the outer shell in order to make the cuts to see into the ends of the tubes as you can see above. I aimed to make them smaller than the tube just to be sure there were no gaps like in the prototyping shown above. I also completed this process through “guess and check.” I held the tubes inside the form to the most accurate position possible, traced the shape of the end, then carefully cut the shape out of the outer form. I then used tape to secure the tabs so they could easily be deconstructed or moved around. The image on the far left shows this process. After I had secured my tube forms, I then began to play with the surface illusion aspect and how it could play into the dimensionality of my piece. This is also when I decided to add my third tube in which I really wanted to play with depth and make it look like the tube was coming out at you. Overall I aimed to create contrast, between not only the inside and the outside of my tubes but also between the inside of the whole polyhedron and the outside of it. I did so by changing the line direction, the width between the lines, and the line angles. I made the lined versions of the tubes three times, one just to test if I even liked the idea, the second to test widths and direction, and the third for the final product. I also decided to create surface illusion on the outside of the form as well and I aimed to make it seem like it was organized but starting to burst at the seams almost, which I explain in more detail below.These are all of the iterations and templates I created to get to my final product, including forms from very early exploration, line experimentation, and angle discoveries.
Here is a timelapse I captured of me designing the outside of my final polyhedron and gluing the tubes into place.
The main thing I was going for here, as you can see in my final piece, is to create a deeper meaning/narrative for a seemingly average piece. The outside lines are equally spaced and organized but lead you to these openings that you can see inside. These openings only let you see so much of the inside of the form before you see through to the other side. The inside is messy and complicated, and the intersections between the tubing and the outside form are seemingly bleeding out and starting to “break character” from the straight and even lines of the tubes. This, to me, is like humans, the outside world can only see so much of our lives and personality through what we decide to show them. On the inside, though, many of us are breaking and desire to get help but have trouble doing so. The silly little scribble on the bottom of the form says “save me” and provides some kind of inner dialogue that this form may have given its breaking.
Reflection
While this project was enjoyable for my problem-solving brain, I found myself to be quite ambitious in my ideation and struggled to make my ideas a physical reality. I wanted to create things outside my time frame and ability and I think this project gave me the opportunity to be patient with myself and allow myself to explore my boundaries, which included failure and frustration. I was able to come to the conclusion that precision took priority over complexity and that moment of realization changed my whole frame of mind. In the final moments of creating this project, I was frustrated. Things weren’t lining up correctly, my surface illusion didn’t look the way I had planned, and everything just seemed to go wrong. But I put my head down and worked through each problem that came along and produced a final product that I didn’t completely hate and I think that was what was important. This project also taught me a lot of skills that I think will be useful in my future career, including accuracy of measurements, template creation, precise cutting, gluing, etc.
