Storm-my-brain

Dissertation, its coming. I haven't a scoobie what I'm going to write about. panic! I am looking forward to writing my piece but i just cant seem to think, what I'm supposed to be writing it about... obviously relating to interior and environmental design. Should i chose something obvious?! A topic I'm really interested in, but which doesn't really relate to my degree.

I suppose you could say, its a combination of nerves, fear and drive to do well, that's making me question so early what to write about. If i take 2nd year's tasks into consideration and review my work over the past two years at art college I'm sure ill find something inspiring and exciting to get hooked on.

I have a passion for nature, evolution etc. I am a true activist- wannabe! for example Taiji Japan + Faeroe Islands dolphin drives. The harpooning of whales in a conservation zone in the Antarctic... None of which really relates to my degree. Can i make it relate? Could it relate? Mmmmm...

I could play on the environment and speak about wind turbines and compare the power between turbines in towns to those in the highlands... (to me... this is too obvious)

I need something simple and broad, unusual, inspiring, different. Otherwise i fear ill just get lost, get lost in the vast black hole of dissertation hell. ha, ha.

Hopefully when i am back at Duncan Of Jordanstone i will get help and be guided into the right dissertation path.

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-Catherine

Cai Guo Qiang

When visiting the the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nice, France, I discovered the work of Cai Guo Qiang. He was born in 1957 in Quanzhou (a Fijian Provence in China, He emigrated to Japan for 10 years before eventually settling in New York.

Using gun-powder a lot in his work he has developed these beautiful elegant looking exhibits. Taken from something traditionally made to kill/ destroy, he creates beautiful lines and shapes.

(Unfortunately under glass) I was able to see a lot of his personal style and technique. Without focusing too much on the history behind his work and himself i want to show how his work inspires me as an art student. After seeing this exhibition personally and then doing a little research when i was home i can how really understand why he uses these unusual techniques.

*this videos were playing in the exhibition to explain the process behind the work*

This is like the work i saw in Nice, Explosions precisely used to create patterns and symbolic meaning. As the film says, "its the power from within, not what you see". He truly is an inspiration, not only in exhibition design but in his methods of taking something ugly and making it beautiful.

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He also has famous exhibitions in the Guggenheim Museum. Here is a short video explaining some of his work.

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Holiday Inspiration.

The girls in spain wash their knickers in the rain and the boys in france do the hula hula dance!

Firstly i'd like to say... France rocks my socks.

Wont ramble on about how amazing my holiday/ trip was! I think a summery of pictures will illustrate my time in Nice, Monaco, Ville Franche, Antibes.

(These are my 'arty farty' pictures from looking at nature, culture, galleries & art)

(these pictures are just a very small selection... i spent most of my time looking into bushes & trees, trying to find lots of different abstract inspiration to help me in my 3rd year. I love the green palm leaves... for example, i can see something very sculptural and almost architectural in that. The next stage of my process is to make and design a sketchbook/ scrapbook. I want to have "designs on file", sketches and different bits and bobs ive collected and created. Please comment if you have any feedback for me!)

Viva La Français!

Bonjour ma chérie!!
Just thought id update my blog over the summer holidays!
Im off to Nice, France for two weeks! Lots of stunning architecture, culture and sights to see! Cant wait!
Hopefully be taking trips to Cannes, St Tropez, Monaco & many many more destinations! I think this holiday can give me inspiration for my disertation and also projects for my up-coming third year in my course. A little tan will also be very helpfull in the relaxation process before the start of the semester in September!
Hopefully go and see some exhibitions and museums while im out there!

Interior design Scotland

After a few too many drinks on Saturday night, come Sunday morning i glanced down at the newspaper. It contained as it normally does a home section which i usually have a quick look through! In this weeks edition there was a little magazine which is sponsored by the 'British institute of interior design'. It was actually very good and shows lots of interior's companies all over Scotland. What i found interesting was where these companies have worked and what they have accomplished. Honestly when i started this degree i thought... 'there aren't any jobs in that field but id rather do something i love than something i can just get a job in!' but after recent lectures and reading into interior/ architectural firms throughout the UK i have realised that yes, there aren't many jobs but the jobs out there are looking for something special. I need to stand out. Show my work. Read and research.

While looking through this little 40'ish page booklet i found nicely designed homes and hotels. Companies such as Malcolm Duffin in Fife, who have worked throughout Europe and America!

It was also very inspirational to see a snippet in titled, "the expert view, Iris Dunbar, Knowing interiors inside and out". Iris has been the president of the British institute of interior design... She has had 40 years of experience in the feild and now provides professional courses at the interior design school in north London! She also studied at Duncan of Jordanstone! Its good to see that people who have done my course in the past have moved on to achieve great things. I'm sure there are many more people to look up to but to see in a magazine a woman who has been in my position move onto teach and be so successful, its really promising!

If anything it has made me want to do better! and achieve greater! Whatever i decide to do after my degree is mine to achieve! I cant wait!

Carbonmade, Some first year projects.

This is a quick website i created which includes project presentation boards for our S.H.E.D project. It also shows my CAD class presentation, which shows my design for a new public seating which can be used in a mannor of ways.

Have a look! i achieved an A3 for my S.H.E.D project, which was inspired by drMM architects sliding house...

Portfolio website- http://catherinemyles.carbonmade.com/projects/2412282#1

Sliding house- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEUMVDEBea4

Assignment 5B

Relating back to semester one furniture project!


In this task i was asked to write a bit about how i would change a recent studio project by adding skills from semesters one and two if had the chance to it again.As this year we have mainly focused on group briefs i was unsure which to write about but i think i shall go with the furniture project of semester one.
For this project we were put into groups of three and asked to design a piece of furniture. After awhile we came up with a concept for creating a chair. we researched different kind of chair designs and loved designs by droog so decided to incorporate the idea of mobility with a seat. Our main idea was based around the idea of sitting next to someone. We designed 3 stools which can be connected together or become totally isolated. this was our main idea behind it. The idea was that if you wanted to sit next to a friend you could connect to them. if you didn't want to sit next to someone you could take the stool away and connect to someone else. We were also asked to incorporate colour and show what that colour represented and what mood we were trying to portray.
Observation skills were used a lot during this process so i would be lying if i said that we should observe people to see if the sit next to strangers willingly... On a bus for example people try to find a seat by themselves, they don't want to be sat next to.
Using the pictures could work from assignment two as we could ask people what emotions different chairs bring or different colours make you feel... there could be a series of photos and we could ask them to write their own imaginative story based around them.
Maybe we could have done more research into how people sit and want to sit for example we designed our stools to be based in a shopping center, ideally they would be tagged and let loose almost to see where in say the overgate they would end up. We found this really interesting how people can move their seats in public. its a fun game. As they are on wheels its very simple to move them.
We might have been a lot more aware about the design of the product for the public through what we have learnt from design studies. Perhaps we could have thought more about the durability of the product, oak is a good, strong material to use but is very expensive also, would this be possible in a cheaper form? will it still look good? do the job its made to do? We might have designed different sizes, different styles, different personalities for our chairs i think. I personally would have liked to see a "family" of them. Taller stools, shorter stools, thinner stools, longer stools... the possibilities are endless.
I think the main thing Design Studies has shown me, (without sucking up too much!) is that blogging is what we need to do today to get ourselves seen and heard by the world. The world is too huge and without blogging how will anyone hear of your work? blogs are brilliant! i have found different blogs i am really interested and am loving! For example Ric O'barry's 'save japan dolphins' blog is really inspiring and i really look up to his conservation efforts. I think the blogging process makes you more laid back about writing also. Its not as formal as an essay, its almost like your notepad its somewhere for you to connect with your friends in the world of design/ the world! Get yourself heard!!