“Line” Design Project: Construction Day

So after frantically trying to gather all my materials, I finally began and nearly finished creating my art piece! This work is totally interactive and the pipes slide in and out so anyone can create their own version. In the photo below, it is missing one tube because it cracked. It will soon be replaced and the entire box will be filled. It was a long, cold day in my garage but with some help from my dad, I completed the construction! Now all I have to do is clean it up and decide on whether I should paint or stain it tomorrow.

Though the design is somewhat simple, making this piece took a lot more consideration than I originally thought. Because I had rendered it out on SolidWorks, it was already scaled out. But because I was using a 1/8 circular saw blade, the loss of 1/8 of material had to be taken into account for the measurements of all of the cuts I made. So if a plank was supposed to be 11.5 inches, I had to add .125 when I measured, knowing that the .125 would be removed in the cutting process. I also had to take into consideration that I did not want the pipes TOO tightly packed so they could easily slide around one another, so I left a small space inside the frame (meaning I made the bottom and top horizontal pieces of wood a tad bit longer than necessary.)  Since it had to fit six pipes across, I measured the diameter of the pipes, multiplied by six, added .125 for material loss, and another small fraction for the extra space.

Another measurement I made included the exact diameter and length of each pipe because though they were supposed to all be the same, there are always going to be some small variation in size. Because my smallest pipe was  almost a half inch smaller than all of the other ones, I had to base our final cut length of pipe off of the smallest pipe.  I only had enough pipes to make the EXACT amount of tubes, so it was crucial I use the pipes in the most efficient way.

(Almost) Finished Piece

Materials

Safety First!

Full Length Pipes and Circular Saw

Pipes

Wood Planks

Cutting the Pipes

The Wooden Frame

Constructing the Wooden Frame

Math

Measuring Pipes

“Line” Design Project: CHANGE OF PLANS

So after a few hours of critiquing other studies and seeing what my classmates had to say about mine, I noticed a lot of my peers attention was directed to the straw study inspired by Tara Donovan. The fascination wasn’t just with the material used, but the fact that it was interactive. When holding the study, one could push the straws through in either direction. (Shown in previous post.)

After reflecting on the critiques and thinking about materials and concepts, I rendered an image in SolidWorks that realistically represents what I plan on constructing for the most part. I originally planned on using thin vacuum piping, but am currently looking into cardboard mailing tubes to decrease the weight of this piece. Each tube will be individually placed within the wooden frame and will be able to slide back and forth from either side.

The idea is that the “artist” will stand on one side of the sculpture while the viewers watch from the opposite side as the tubes are pulled and push to create an original version of the piece. This interactive art allows different interpretations and encourages others to create their own art.

I have been playing with the idea of adding small lights or reflective material to enhance the effect of the different tube placements.