Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Some progress (by reiko)

I have been working on a rough mock up of my project using part of one of the words, "itte". I cut hundreds of hexagon pieces out of foam core and stacked them to the size I liked. For the final project I would like the hexagon pieces to be made out of wood and there will be different patterns of wallpaper covering the tops of the hexagons. I experimented with the heights of the pieces. I wanted to see what it would look like to have them all the same height (the first 2 letters) and also with varied heights (the last 2 letters). I prefer the varied heights but I'm thinking of doing a more gradual change of heights from left to right. I want the wood pieces to be full blocks without the stacked layers but there is something nice about the look of the layers. These words will be hung on the wall as sculptural pieces without a base.

draft in Photoshop

cut hundreds of hexagons out of foam core

rough mock up

Monday, March 15, 2010

Discussions on Public Art

So this isn't related to settlement per se, but I wanted to share a recent email I got from two elementary school kids, who found my website and decided that I would be a good person to ask about public art for their upcoming project.

It's pretty cool and I just thought this should be shown. It took a while to think of the answers. It was hard because I wanted to talk not just about public sculptures (which is what I think they were looking for) but also about how public art could perhaps be defined as anything that involves the community as parts or a whole - which is stuff we've been thinking about with this project as well.

My answers are below the questions:

Dear Steve Newberry,
We are asking you these questions because we are doing a project about Public-Art at school.
1. What size can a Public-Art sculpture be?
2. What materials can you use to make a PublicArt sculpture?
3. What location can Public-Art be?
4. What color can a Public-Art sculpture be?
5. Can a Public-Art sculpture be any shape or design?

1. Any size. But public art is usually outside and you want it to be noticeable, so it is good if it is not too small. I would say at least bigger than 1 foot x 1 foot x 1 foot.
2. You can use any materials, but because public art is usually outside, it is good to use materials that will last for a long time in any type of weather - so materials like cement, metals, bronze, etc are good.
3. Any location, but public art usually wants to be seen by as many people as possible, so it is often found in busy locations, like in public squares, or in front of buildings.
4. Any color!
5. Yes it can be any shape or design. As long as it is not dangerous for people to be around. For example it would be good if there were no sharp edges in a public art sculpture because people could hurt themselves accidentally.