The assignment of this week is to plan and sketch a potential final project. The main questions for me this week are: what am I going to do? How big will my idea be? What are the possibilities? Is there inspiration from other final projects? Is there inspiration from artists, designers or other exciting products? In addition, I want to make an overall planning where I combine my final project with each weekly assignment. That way I can work on my project during the all the weeks of Fab Academy.

Planning and files

Planning

  • read the assignment and final assessment of the final project
  • write down and sketch my ideas
  • go outside for inspiration
  • visit the Action Reaction 100 years of kinetic arts exhibition
  • make an overall planning with each weekly assignment and how it can be linked with my final project.
  • think about an over-all template for my documentation.

My initial idea for a final project

For my final project I want to make an interactive tree. The seed of this idea was planted a couple of years ago when my niece Coco was born. I thought of making her a mobile for above her crib. While I was thinking about this idea, I notice that she was especially happy when her parents lay her down her under a tree. Or whenever we would walk the woods she would look at all the leaves above. This made me think of my own childhood having tons of fun in the garden, climbing trees, and looking at the clouds and stars in the sky.

As an adult living in a city apartment I realized that I miss this feeling. It’s quite difficult to get a daily doses of experiencing the woods or lying under trees. While its actually one of the nicest ways to dream away while looking at the sky between the branches and the sun or stars shimmering through the foliage. Therefore I want to re-create this experience with my final project.

first sketch of my final project idea

Brainstorm

The development of my idea started with a quick brainstorm in my notebook. I just thought about all the things a tree made me think of like trunk, branches, leaves, the woods, seasonal change.

brainstorm of my first thoughts about an interactive tree

A tree is already interactive of itself so I wanted to have a brain dump of all the interactivity it already has like climbing trees, changing of seasons, and branches moving in the wind. It makes sounds, it changes light, it changes shape, animals use it as a home, it provides food, it communicates with other trees (something I would like to research more). This brainstorm led me to the following question:

“How can I develop an interactive tree in a city home that re-creates the experience of lying under a tree looking at the sky while dreaming away under the foliage and stars shimmering?”

First basic sketch and ideas for interaction

Inspiration

For inspiration I traveled to Rotterdam there was a very nice and inspiring exhibition Action <-> Reaction: 100 years of kinetic art at the Kunsthal. I made a lot of photos and videos.

action reaction Selection of artworks I saw at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam

action reaction Selection of tree pictures made en route to Kunsthal in Rotterdam

Previous Fab Academy project and assignments

I looked into the archive of the Fab Academy to see if there were any interesting previous project. There were quite some CNC and laser cut weekly assignments related to trees. I made a selection of the most interesting ones for me.

previous projects Fab Academy projects and weekly assignments related to trees

  • The Smile Treeby 2017 student Cesar Mariscal from Fab Lab kamp Lintfort
  • “L-system-based Fractral Tree” by Hiro Tanaka.
  • Press fit [‘How to Build a Tree Kit’]by Chikara Inamura(http://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/863.14/people/chikara_inamura/projects/p02.html)
  • [Privacy Seed] by 2018 student Ilias Bartolini from Barcelona (http://fab.academany.org/2018/labs/barcelona/students/ilias-bartolini/2018/06/10/project-final-summary.html)

First planning

I made a first planning for my final project with for each week and each assignment a possible link with my final project.

planning First planning for my final project

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