CLUSTER 4: WIRE PROSTHETICS
Tentative schedule/timeline: Approx. 5 weeks
Week 1
Mon, 11/12: VETERAN'S DAY, NO CLASS MEETING
Wed, 11/14: Debriefing on color projects/collaboration/camouflage; introduce this project with drawing figure studies for wire garments.
Fri, 11/16: Visiting Artist sampler: knitting, embroidery, sewing machine overview, wire working demonstrations
Week 2
Mon, 11/19: Discussion of samples (proposal 1, as below), view Alexander Calder, Circus.
Wed, 11/21: NO CLASS, THANKSGIVING
Fri, 11/23: NO CLASS, THANKSGIVING
Week 3
Mon, 11/26: Studio work, garments. Soldering demo with Rob (to be confirmed)
Wed, 11/28: Studio work, garments, view Matthew Barney, Cremaster 3 (excerpts)
Fri, 11/30: Class meeting at Frye Art Museum, with drawing intensive
Week 4
Mon 12/3: Studio work, garments
Wed 12/5: Studio work, garments
Fri 12/7: Visiting lecture TBA
Week 5
Mon 12/10: Studio work
Wed 12/12: Critique/discussion—projects completed for this class. Group to develop discussion model.
Fri 12/14: Final class TBA
PROPOSAL 1: ADHESIVES AND MECHANICAL FASTENERS
This exercise consists of open-ended experiments resulting in three (3) surfaces or forms. You will be creating a continuous surface from individual (modular) parts found in commonly used household goods.
Proposal Requirements
These experiments have to do with exploring textures and building/designing visually and conceptually compelling surfaces while learning about adhesives and mechanical fasteners. Each experiment needs to be a minimum of 5" square and can be done on a flat surface, although you may choose to build-up into a form. These are studies for surfaces that may be used in your garments (see the next proposal). Some things to consider in your design process:
Meaning/ content
Metaphors of materials; what "baggage" do the materials you've chosen already have associated with them (what meanings are mapped onto the forms)? What are the implications of the processes you utilize to work with the materials? Does weaving together plastic garbage bags mean something altogether different than cutting them apart with an exacto and gluing them together again?
Forms
Do the materials and processes create a form that is rigid or fluid? Is it angular or organic? Is the pattern regular or random (or both)?
Fasteners
Please don't limit yourselves to these fasteners and adhesives & don't forget to have fun! Thread, nails, staples, brads, screws, pins, bolts, swivels, jump-rings, clamps, pliers, etc.
Adhesives
Wood glue, hot glue, latex paint, gum, silicone, tapes—how does one thing attach to another?
Our next project will be the construction of a garment or prosthesis. Explore ideas in your process book. Cut out images you find. Make copious sketches, take notes, or even write stories. Explore many options. Be sure to come prepared with ideas ready, but refrain from making extensive unchangeable plans; allow your process to be mutable and change with your new discoveries.
PROPOSAL 2: WIRE GARMENT (A LINEAR STRUCTURE)
Proposal
This project uses line to define a three-dimensional form in relationship to the human body. Using wire to "draw" the form, you will construct a garment, prosthesis, or body extension. This construction will be life-size and presented appropriately to the concept (i.e. either animated by the body – you're wearing it, a model is wearing it, or it's somehow enacted in a space--or supported in a way that speaks to the absence of the body).
Concept
This construction will be the manifestation of an idea you have about the human form. Consider an expression of who you are, who you wish you were, or who you might like to be. The garment could explore your ideas about the body in relationship to particular social issues. Or you could construct a useful addition to the human body. The nature of the concept is open for your consideration, but the focus of this project is to develop a concept and then develop a way to express it. What kind of message does a particular line give? How do these choices support your idea? How does the work change if it is worn or not? If it's not worn, where does it reside? Does something replace the body?
Process
Test connections, bending lines, building form, making mass with lines. Experiment with different types of wire or other linear material. Gauge and metal content will determine how flexible wire is and how it will hold a bend. Other things to consider when choosing wire are coatings or multiple strands joined together (twisted, knotted, overlapping). If very straight elements are needed, consider using rod, which is very hard and can't be easily bent or other stiff materials. Likewise, if organic elements are needed, perhaps something very soft (rope, twine, paper cord?) may be employed. Although you may choose to add a covering to your wire garment, consider that the primary exploration in this work is how wire can grow into a mass, hold weight, support itself, and support you.
Process requirements
Samples of miscellaneous wire connections, soldered connections, and wire weaving. In your process/drawing book, make lists of your interests in making this work. Make sketches of your ideas. Write about your idea.
DRAWINGS OF ALL BUILT FORMS MUST ACCOMPANY YOUR WORKS
To speak to this a bit more, these drawings may very well happen in different ways; drawings as preliminary studies, as responses to works, as research (maybe observational drawings of things you see that you want to appropriate or assimilate into your work), as word lists, as notes, as stories.
NOTES ON METALS
The smaller the guage, the thinner the material; 24 gauge is thinner than 8 gauge.
Types of Metal
Aluminum – very easy to bend, not strong
Copper – easy to bend, can be soldered, patinas, stronger than aluminum
Brass – stiffer than copper, affordable
Mild Steel – great variety, fairly strong, bendable but not as flexible as copper
Music Wire – very stiff and springy
Stainless steel- very expensive, won't corrode
Alloys* – mixing metal content to achieve particular properties such as:
Improving corrosion or abrasion resistance, balancing strength and brittleness, increasing flexibility
*To alloy may affect what you can do with a particular wire, especially if you are trying to solder. Only certain metals can by soldered, and alloys may be impaired or debased by the admixture.
Wire vs. Rod
Rod is made by compression and therefore holds its shape
Wire is extruded and remains easy to bend unless it has been treated by another process (see below).
Multi-layer wires
Braided wire shield – wire that is sheathed in a braided mesh of another thinner wire
Insulated wire – wire coated in rubber or plastic
Twisted wire – individually insulated wires twisted together in an outer covering.
Stranded wire – inner portion made of very thin wired twisted together
Ribbon cable – wires laid next to each other and coated (household appliance cords)
Coaxial cable – one wire with several shields and insulation in between each shield
Altering the properties of wire
Tempering - heating and cooling
Yielding– stretching or compressing (without return)
Both processes make wire stronger (less easy to bend) and more brittle (breaks easily). These are treatments that are done in manufacturing to create particular properties in wire. These processes can also be done in the studio. If wire is heated with a torch and plunged into cold water is will temper. If wire is hammered it compresses and is yielded.
Here's a list of the books I brought in today (with Library of Congress call numbers):
The Artist's Body NX 456.5 B63 A78 2000
Alberto Giacometti N 6853 G5 A4
Honore Daumier N6853 D3 A4 1982
Out of Actions NX 456.5 P38 S35 C2
Lucy Orta N6797 O78 P56 2003
