Sculpting Movement
a recreation of the movement of a potato peeler and an iron
CMU School of Architecture
Collaborator: Yoojin Kim
tectonics
This project focused on the movements and motions of a given utensil, utilizing the notion of "tectonics". The utensil's movements were first observed, then translated and abstracted into drafted drawings on vellum. The drawings were, again, abstracted into two different sections and finally transformed into 3D wooden models using minimal glue and effective joinery. The utensil given to me was an iron.
After careful measurements and survey of the functions and idea of the given utensil, in my case, an iron, an "Object Drawing" was created, mimicking the horizontal movement of an iron as well as fully displaying different elevations and sections. This was done by the overlapping of elevations at the locations of the section cuts.
A "Motion Drawing" was then drafted. The drawing consists of three major elements: the pivoting of the arm, the pressure of the iron, and the movement of the cloth. The pivoting of the arm is expressed by the simple lines that branch from the pivot circle. The pressure of the iron is clearly depicted by the major iron-shaped figures as well as the circles that denote the level of pressure. Finally, the movement of the subject is exhibited by the vertical lines drawn in gradients--an abstraction of wrinkles on clothing.
My partner for this project, Yoojin Kim, was assigned a potato peeler for this project. After a couple of motion studies, we found that the two tools both exhibited a notion of pressure and a forward movement. This led to the idea of using thin strips of undulating to portray the idea of uneven pressure.
The model was created through bent-lamination. The materials consist of poplar wood on an ashwood base with piano wire "pins". After bandsawing a plank of poplar wood into approximately 1/8" strips of wood, the strips were sent through the planer to "sand" down the wood into 1/16" pieces. The strips were then drumsanded down paper thin, enough to be bent, and glued into 4-8 piece thick "ribbons" which were clamped down onto molds. The dry ribbons were then sanded down to 1" wide strips to fit the orginial design. The final model features a heavy base as well as light and airy ribbons to highlight the difference in weight and structure of the iron and the potato peeler.