And now for something completely different:

      I'd like to take this opportunity to interrupt our regularly scheduled programming with this brief color theory interlude.
      So the other day-- more like the other week actually... well it was Tuesday, February 13th to be exact, we had a brief overview of color interaction during class. After garnering all the knowledge, we were then asked to construct several examples to demonstrate what we learned about color interaction.

      Below is my best attempt at the bezold effect, in which one color will appear different when placed next to different colors. In other words, strips of two different colors on the same background color make the background appear different on the two sides.

      And here is my effort at demonstrating color vibration, where two colors of the same chroma become hard to focus on

      Last but not least, we have simultaneous contrast, where identical colors appear to shift when framed by different backgrounds.

      I thought it was very interesting that you never see a color as it truly is; you see it in relation to something, like what color it is next to. 

Measure twice, cut once

      For the second part of this project, we were allowed to cut the cardboard as much as we wanted, but still no glue or adhesives were to be used. Also important to note is that this chair was meant to be based off of our relationship with a particular individual we were to choose, which helped give us some direction and a foundation to start from. I chose my grandpa, but I think I should elaborate and talk about this choice more in a future post... But for now, back to the chair!
      After making a plethora of unsuccessful models, I finally settled on a design that I thought would work fairly well. Here is the cardstock model:

      Below is a picture of the cardstock model deconstructed. The chair had seven pieces running across (labelled 4,3,2,1,2,3,4) and had eight pieces in depth (labelled a-h).

       I then drew out a grid pattern (if I remember correctly, each square was 6"x6") on the giant 4'x8' cardboard corresponding in scale to the grid I drew on the much smaller cardstock model, so as to accurately transfer over the same scale despite the size difference.

       As you can see, I made maximum usage of space in this sheet of cardboard! (Though it turns out I STILL didn't have enough, and had to rummage through the basement to find cardboard large enough- I stumbled across a box that once housed a dishwasher.)

Then I cut out all the pieces. As you can see, it made a bit of a mess... 

      Once the pieces were all cut out into their proper shapes, I then had to measure and cut out all the slits with an X-acto knife, but unlike the paper model, I found out that I had to account for the thickness of the material; so each slit had to be the thickness of a sheet of cardboard. 

 And here it is in the beginning stages of its construction:

 More photos next time!

On to Project #2!

      So, for our second project we began with a single 4'x4' piece of corrugated cardboard which then had to be transformed into a functioning seat, made to support human weight, but without cutting out or removing any of the material, and using not a single adhesive. Sounds easy, right? No. No it doesn't.
      I began by making a multitude of models, the majority of which failed. Turns out I had my head in the wrong place. I think I can safely say a career in engineering is not in my foreseeable future.
      For some reason, when one of my paper models actually worked, I became so excited that I decided to go straight on to the cardboard. Looking back, this was not as wise of a decision as my past self, excited by the small taste of success, thought at the time. I failed to consider how differently paper and cardboard perform as materials. While the paper held the shape I folded it into, the cardboard had to be scored and was much more difficult to mold and conform to my will.
      So, here is a picture of what I mistakenly thought at the time to be a brilliant idea:

      I figured if the paper model could support a full cup of coffee and a semi-full bottle of Pibb, surely my body weight on cardboard would be proportional to a full container of liquid on paper! Seems not though...

       The cardboard had no problem holding up all my art supplies. Heck, I even threw my backpack, laptop, and a few more things on there after I took this picture just to test it.

   
      The cardboard then became very angry when I attempted to seat myself upon it, and blatantly refused to hold me up, falling to the ground with a stubborn "thud". I didn't take a picture of that due largely to the shame.
      But seeing as how the size parameter was 4'x4', and the shop sells their cardboard in 4'x8's, I had one more chance to make an attempt at achieving success. So, I began again at the paper model stage. THIS time, however, I got thick cardstock paper to attempt to account for the thickness of cardboard.
      Here is what I came up with:

      However, this time around I failed just as epicly as the first, if not more. I attempted to weave the back of the seat for extra support. Perhaps I ought to have practiced weaving cardboard a bit more first, because it was much more difficult than I had anticipated it would be. In short, it broke. And because a few strips broke clean off of the cardboard, even if the chair HAD supported my weight (which it didn't, by the way, to add insult to injury) it still would not have been a success since one of the requirements was that it be able to fold back out into a flat 4'x4'.
      In short, I was unsuccessful in all of my attempts.

On to the next big thing

    I thought I'd post a few more photos of the collage being finished, just to show the progress it underwent, and the final product. 

     I think this particular photo greatly embodies the utter chaos that surrounded the formation of this collage. At times I felt like I was assembling an extremely complicated puzzle!

 It was a long process, but finally, it was finished.

       Over the past week I have gone back to the park again twice, for a grand total of four visits to the lovely Watson park. I have also become extremely well educated on the various photo-printing locations throughout Lawrence. In case you were wondering, neither CVS nor Walgreens allows you to order matt prints online. Although, ordering online still has the lovely perk of not having to wait half an hour in the store while they queue and finally (eventually) print your photos. I have also discovered that dorm rooms are not ideal locations for laying out a giant foam core board and attempting to collage.
       Now I have the challenge of trying to cohesively compile these 70+ odd photos I have acquired. So far, so stressful. It seems to me that the more photos involved in a collage, the more difficult it is, because some of them just don't work, especially having gone back to the location four times, the perspectives and angles are not similar enough.

Chillin' on the floor, doin' my thing. (Hope the roommates don't mind...)

I'm not quite sure how I feel about the changes yet, but there isn't much time to mull it over what with the project actually being due tomorrow and everything.