In the future, carnivals are illegal due to the countless lawsuits, labor violations, and unsafe rides/games. Carnival enthusiasts have to find a way to keep carnivals alive but in secret, without getting arrested. This invention is a vest that is sleek on the outside with a matte finish. Once the coat is opened up, there is a world of a miniature carnival inside with two classic carnival games, the drop disk game and the ball toss game. This coat allows people of the future to secretly play carnival games without attracting unnecessary attention. During this time in the future, box-y coats and clothing have become the new trend because people steered away from comfortable clothes and moved onto fashionable, statement pieces. Whoever is wearing the vest has to discreetly attract carnival enthusiasts to play their games and continue to spread the word to more people. There is a group of enthusiasts who have an underground carnival, similar to speakeasies in the 20th century. This group calls themselves, “Carni-Pals” and they all play carnival games in their secret location. Every member of the “Carni-Pals” has their own vest that they walk the streets in to attract new group members.
Ideation
To start off this assignment, we were instructed to perform individual research on carnivals and record our findings. Within our research, we had to find the definition of a carnival and the history of carnivals. After our research of carnivals, we were instructed to conduct research on body augmentations and masks. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R1e_SxYmYRaw2gSJW4FaivSGxYZaouk0Y81WRiYbnPw/edit?usp=sharingAfter our initial research, we were given a scenario in which we had to make a rough body augmentation of. The scenario my partner and I got was carnival food, being worn on your head, with the theme of political problems. For this scenario, we made a popcorn hat that had different political issues inside to replace the popcorn pieces. In addition, we were instructed to start brainstorming possible body augmentations for our final project.
Iteration and Production
To start off our iteration for this project, we spent a day making a rough prototype of our coat. We used a variety of materials found around our classroom including rolled scrap paper, fabric, pipe cleaners, and drawing paper. Our goal for this prototype was to get an idea on the size of our coat and the sizing of our games inside the coat. We found that after this prototype that we needed our base of the coat to be a sturdy material because the scrap paper was too flimsy.One of my many jobs for this project was to make the coat which was later changed to a vest due to the time and material constraints. With the help from my teaching assistant, I was able to make a stencil of a vest I had at home from only scrap paper. Making the stencil allowed me to make quick alterations to the structure of the vest without having to manipulate any cardboard.Once I completed the paper stencil for our vest, I was able to trace the stencil onto cardboard that I acquired. I had to make each side of the vest twice to make sure each side was equivalent lengths. After all the cardboard was cut out I started taping the sides together, but only on the inside because I wanted to make sure I would still be able to bend the coat to allow it to fit on my body. I also taped a majority of the sides to cover up the holes from the cardboard to create a more cohesive look.Images of the structure of the vest standing up, rather than laying flat to show the additional tape to cover holes and adding additional support to the structure to certain spots.Originally, we were told to come to our Tuesday class with our final product and due to the lack of help with this project, the vest did not look like my best possible work. I loved how the inside looked with the classic red and white stripes but the exterior looked unappealing. The splotchy spray paint brought down the production of my work and the straps didn’t work well with the rest of the vest due to the blue stitching which didn’t match anything on our vest. Also, due to the many layers of both acrylic paint and spray paint, the build of the vest began to bow and bend.Inside view of our ‘original’ final product. My partner’s job was to create the games on the inside and did not test out how the games would work and how they would sit on the coat. Due to the lack of testing on his part, the pegs for our drop disk game kept falling off due to the lack of glue and the length of the pegs. In addition, the ‘disk’ for the drop disk game wouldn’t fall into the slots at the bottom of the game. Rather, the disk would just fall off the sides. In regards to the ball toss game, the holder for the ping pong balls was too bulky so I was unable to get the coat closed when it was on.Since we were given a two day extension on our project after we were critiqued, I made a lot of changes to our final product… specifically seven hours worth of adjustments. On the exterior, I painted over the spray paint with acrylic paint to cover up the patchiness and to create a more ‘sleek’ aesthetic design.As for the interior of our final product, I made sure to touch up on my paint job and add new straps to the inside. With the straps, I made sure to use a seem ripper to remove the blue stitching and I added three straps on each side to make it sturdier and match the aesthetic better. My partner trimmed down the pegs on the inside of the drop disk game and I removed the ping pong ball holder from the ball toss game to reduce the bulkiness.Images of the vest on in a full 360 degree view.Images of the vest on and how it sits on the inside.
Color Choices and Reasoning: We chose to make the inside of the vest red and white stripes because a ‘classic’ carnival has/had red and white striped tents. We wanted to make the inside of our vest resemble a carnival to the best of our ability.
Sense Beyond Sight: Sound from the disk hitting the pegs and the ping pong balls entering the cups.
Advancements: New to me techniques (building a vest by building a stencil) and my design illustrated an unconventional use of a material (the use of cardboard to make the vest).
This project was by far my hardest and most mentally draining assignment yet. Although this was supposed to be a group project, I found myself doing 90% of the work and spending countless hours in the studio completing the work for my partner and I. I am a working that likes to get my assignments done early and not wait until the last possible moment, but my partner was the opposite unfortunately. So, to be able to finish the project on time, I had to do most of it. Although this project was very draining, I did find myself learning new techniques such as making my own vest out of cardboard and making my own stencils for the vest. In addition, I also found new ways to interact in group projects and learned to not be so uptight with my work. My greatest achievement with this project was deciding on a ‘costume’ and incorporating the hidden aspect into the vest. For future projects, I hope to continue to improve my craftsmanship. Overall, this project was very difficult, but I persevered and ended up finishing on time with a handmade vest that I made from scratch.
