Friday 29 June 2012

Human Hardware


Hard drive parts including platters, spindles, heads, actuator arms, motherboards, parts from cases and all manner of bolts from a 1.8” hard drive, 2.5” hard drive and multiple 3.5” hard drives.

                This piece began with my exploration of Merleau-Ponty’s position on our experience of our senses. In particular the notion that what we can’t see is often what we can best describe. For example Merleau-Ponty states that it is easier to pick from a selection of walks, our walk that we can’t see than the back of our hand out of a selection of hands that we can see.
                I choose the platters as they offered a double reflective surface that would enable the wearer to interact with the world and be aware of it. The use of the hard drive platters as hardware, lead me to examining the notion of glasses as hardware. Therefore I decided to design a pair of wearable glasses completely out of hard drive components.
                The platters are 2.5 inches in diameter, the nose piece is a composition of two spindles, heads and actuator arms held together with a threader bolt and nut cut from a hard drive case. Four more nuts were cut from the cases to attach other pieces around the glasses. The arms of the glasses are made of motherboard parts whereby I tried to use pieces of motherboard where existing holes could be used to attach the ear pieces. The earpieces were made out of the case decoration of one of the hard drives. The arms are attached to the platters with two actuator axis bolts this allows the arms to spin almost 180 degrees, adding a new dimension to the glasses. The mother board pieces are attached to two plastic components with existing holes that could hold the actuator axis bolts.
                In my tests I had been able to successfully drill through the platters without them shattering. However I had only trialled on 3.5”platters as I only had one 2.5” hard drive. My fear of the thinner disks shattering persuaded me to use a two part steel glue to glue the actuator axis bolts onto the platters. If I would have had a back-up set of 2.5” platters I think I would have drilled the holes into the platters and found a way to attach them to the arms using only parts from the hard drives. Never-the-less in this piece I attempted to alter the hard drive components as little as possible to highlight the individual beauty of the machine made pieces and I think I have been successful in this sense.





Thursday 21 June 2012

Final piece 3: Bone and Flesh (Muscles and Skin)


These pieces are inspired by Gijs Bakker’s pieces focusing on the body and jewellery’s relationship to it. Does the body influence the jewellery or the jewellery the body? To reflect on this I wanted to replicate the wrist and have it wrap around the wrist, forcing this part of the body to become a bracelet that reflects the positioning of a bracelet: falling and resting around the forearm and hand. To examine this concept I would create this in 3 different materials and hopefully communicate 3 different things but in the same form.


Forton MG, RTV silicone, silicone pigment, nylon thread and sterling silver wire





The materials influenced one another and they evolved one after the other. For example, I used the shape of the resin slices in the second piece and the laser cut file in the third. This highlighted the connection between the pieces. However the different materials gave the pieces their own unique sensations. 

forearm-cross-section ice-cube tray


Final piece 2: The Structure


                These pieces are inspired by Gijs Bakker’s pieces focusing on the body and jewellery’s relationship to it. Does the body influence the jewellery or the jewellery the body? To reflect on this I wanted to replicate the wrist and have it wrap around the wrist, forcing this part of the body to become a bracelet that reflects the positioning of a bracelet: falling and resting around the forearm and hand. To examine this concept I would create this in 3 different materials and hopefully communicate 3 different things but in the same form.


Acrylic Perspex, nylon thread and sterling silver wire

The Structure of the Arm and Forearm and how it changes throughout the Arm and Forearm.






Tuesday 19 June 2012

Final piece 1: Veins and Blood

These pieces are inspired by Gijs Bakker’s pieces focusing on the body and jewellery’s relationship to it. Does the body influence the jewellery or the jewellery the body? To reflect on this I wanted to replicate the wrist and have it wrap around the wrist, forcing this part of the body to become a bracelet that reflects the positioning of a bracelet: falling and resting around the forearm and hand. To examine this concept I would create this in 3 different materials and hopefully communicate 3 different things but in the same form.

             
Resin, cotton thread, resin pigment, nylon thread and sterling silver wire

             



Resin Ring-perforated form

Epoxy resin, sterling silver, pearl powder pigment and resin pigment

In attempt to stay true to form and function, this piece encompasses the finger. Resin was used in the place of silicone, as a more durable material. 







Monday 18 June 2012

Final Silicone Rings


RTV Silicone, sterling silver, pearl powder pigment and resin pigment

These pieces aim to show the movement of the silicone as it sets, how it flows in and around the perforated, cast, sterling silver, circular form. After many trials I found the right ratio between the two parts of the silicone and resin pigment. Therefore I was able to incorporate some crazy fluorescent colours to make my little worlds ;)

pearl pigment powder

resin pigment

resin pigment