Concept

The aspect of power that I chose to explore in this assignment is the physical power that both of these women (Helen Keller and Miranda Kerr) hold. In the case of Helen Keller, her physical condition took power away from her as a child, but ultimately empowered her as an adult, as she learned to harness it. On the other hand, Miranda Kerr's power peaks in her youth, declining over time as her physical state becomes less powerful.

I have tried to represent this juxtaposition through the loop in my bridge. Read from the pointed end to the open end, it follows the lives of the women- from birth, when they have equal power, across the fountain (representing youth) to where they will end up at the end of their lives. Crossing the bridge is like a physical exploration of their journeys through power. One could interpret the crossing of their paths as their realisation of their own power, and how they can control it (Helen Keller) or not (Miranda Kerr). I think that this could be one subject that they could discuss on top of the fountain below.

Axos!

strength, gender, control, subliminal, contained, influence, status, force, decline

3D Warehouse

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?uq=1639570686820063549125311&scoring=m

FILEFRONT

http://www.filefront.com/16760553/z3288134LEVELS.zip

http://www.filefront.com/16760561/z3288134OBJECTS.zip

NOTE

I highly doubt that this will effect my marks, but I just want to say that I will be updating this project over the next 2 days, even though I understand this will make it late. The key reason for this has been the difficulty I experienced trying to upload my completed Sketchup map of Sydney (partially supplied by Fruzsi :) ) into Crysis. Upon learning that this would be absolutely impossible, I had to start all over again. I can't find any contact details for my tutor, Fruzsi, but I'll ask some of my class mates tomorrow.

As you can see below, I have recreated a map of Sydney using buildings from the previous complete map. Frequent computer crashes whenever I was dealing with too many bits of geometry made this a somewhat unpredictable task, however I am quite pleased with the result. I will be making changes to my bridge, to try and make it solid. The elevators work; their keys are K (down) O (back up), and L and P for the other one. I will put my Crysis environment as it is into filefront now.

Screen shots

Major computer issues loading the city map into Crysis. Have had to do it all building by building.
Will be done tonight!

Textures

Bridge Idea Progression

My first idea was an infinity symbol, to represent power as being cyclical. Further inspection led to the realisation that this did not effectively tie in the two women I have chosen (Miranda Kerr and Helen Keller), and could be re-worked to better represent the relationship between their power.

My core idea is that the power that both of these women hold is related to their physical bodies; Helen Keller's body limits her, but she finds power within herself to overcome those limitations. Miranda Kerr, on the other hand, uses her body directly as power- seen in my article mash up about posing nude to save the koalas.

With Fruszy's help, my infinity symbol progressed to a loop- a sort of diagrammatic view of how each of the women rise and fall through power over their lives. The first thought was to have the meeting place in Hyde Park, but I think that it would be difficult to find two points to 'bridge' over Hyde Park, so I instead intend to use Martin Place. The two paths of the loops will cross at the fountain in the middle, which has a stage above it that would be ideal for a meeting place. The fountain symbolises youth, and how important a time it was for both women to discover their power.

At the moment, I am developing my model of Sydney (a daunting task!) to include the Martin Place area. I hope it will all come together effectively.

Article Mashup

She does not need to rely on charisma to win over voters, because she is a pragmatic politician who inspires confidence, and is known for her ability to compromise. Rising through the ranks, she was chosen to lead the party in 2000- just 5 years before being elected Germany's first female chancellor.

"Literature is my utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised." Thus, she proved she could communicate in the world of sight and sound- and showed that the disabled can be independent, using language to liberate the blind and the deaf.

On the front cover of Rolling Stone magazine, she tells the world "it's a sad thing- there are only about 100 000 koalas left in Australia. Something like 80 percent of the koalas' habitat has been destroyed since Europeans arrived in Australia", sending a valuable message through her notable change of heart towards posing nude.

Note: the last paragraph possibly needs reworking. Will discuss in studio

Experiment 3

The Valley

I chose to model the Ka'a'awa Valley in Hawaii, being part of Helen Keller's home country, the USA.
As a volcanic valley, it strongly shows the issue of power.

Below are some preliminary Fraps images:








This next imagine is a professional crysis wars model of the valley

Final Axonometrics

Here are axonometric drawings for my final design.

I needed to change it from previous options, because there were too many blocks.

The lab on the bottom left/top right (with two platforms) is meant for Stephen Hawking, reaching out towards the sky in the open air. The other lab will be embedded in a cave, to show Darwin's return to primitives as a subject for his study.

Textures

Please note: the texture below (on the left hand side) has one extra texture (second from the top left). I thought it would be interesting to look at how to create shading that tiles well to create something more interesting. It's not part of the 6 light-dark variations.

Axonometrics

Link to FileFront

http://www.filefront.com/16339169/z3288134.zip

Textures

Labs and the Landform- explanation; link to the scientists

The lab designed for Charles Darwin is not a very exciting model, but is made so by the landform that surrounds it. I chose this particular landform (a cave) because of Darwin's particular interest in fossils, and how observing the past through geology can give us key insight into how we have evolved.
Although the quote I selected from him does not reflect this, I feel that I have used it in my model through my personal perspective on it; which is that Darwin is being a bit sarcastic and jovial in his self-abuse of limiting his career to merely churning out facts and figures. I think that he knows that there's a lot more to science than that, and I feel that this lab, embedded within the earth, would be a good place for him to feel a deeper connection with what he is analysing.

The lab for Stephen Hawking is less complex in meaning; I took his quote more directly and felt that he should be able to look out at space- both for inspiration and scientific experiment. His fondness for the 'human spirit' would, I feel, be explored well in an outdoor place such as this.

The ramp is part of the natural landform, linking to two scientists in a place where they can look out over the sea and the land. It also creates a cyclic path between the two labs, representing the shift in ideas from Darwin to Hawking; the latter being inspired by the former.

Black Box

I chose this slide because I feel that it explores the idea of the 'shadow' in great depth. I particularly like the interplay of shadows on adjacent blocks, and how the shadows create very different areas in the piece- for example making the passageways between the blocks very scary.
Rather than creating the blocks and then drawing in the shadows, the shadows have been taken as the base of the composition, with white lines forming the shapes over the top. This process leads to a more interesting exploration of what a shadow is.

I also like the use of texture; particularly the use of more or less dense cross-hatching to emphasize perspective, but also to allow bits of the background to show through. Overall, it is a very interesting composition, and I hope to use ideas from it in my final model.

Quotes

Stephen Hawking

“To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.”

Charles Darwin

“I am turned into a sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions.”

Aggregation:

When we look further than our Earth, we engage the human spirit; becoming something more than a machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions.

Importing into crysis

This was my first attempt at putting an object into the Crysis Editor (in the FBE labs). I couldn't quite get the texture to project properly.

Experiment 2

Stair Brainstorming

Some ideas for 'mechanical' stairs

Below is a very rough concept for a spiral staircase that could be used for a number of words

I particularly like spiral staircases because they can be used very emotively- e.g. spiralling down into a dark space, or creating a grand entrance in a more open space- depending on how tight the spiral is made.
Below is a concept for some stairs to match my 'juxtaposition' model. Even though I didn't end up using the model, I really like these stairs; they're bold and striking.