Plastic Perception

The past few weeks have been tougher than I had anticipated, but I have no regrets in the time that I've spent on these projects. It's been difficult making the transition from my daily routine of doing absolutely nothing, to having complete one project after another. The annual vellum competition is right around the corner and I'm starting to feel the pressure of having to produce something. Since we have a week to design and build a piece of furniture, our teacher isn't putting as much emphasis on this competition as we anticipated because of the time we've spent on these material experiments.

As the vellum competition approaches, I plan to build upon my second experiment in trying to prevent the air bubbles from bursting by reversing the method of construction. Instead of having the bubble wrap inside the plastic bags, they'll be the material inside the bubble wrap, providing the necessary resistance when grouped together. The ironed bags would then create a finish to the bubble wrap that will conceal the strips of plastic bags being shown from behind. I guess the only decision that I have left to make is the type of pattern I want to create. Since I'm essentially designing a blanket that could be used as a sleeping bag, it would be wise to have these stuffed bubbles in higher concentrated areas that would receive most of the pressure. It would also be nice to have the bubble wrap form to the shape of a human body when the person is at rest. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know! Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

First Attempt

Material Experimentations 1 + 2

First Experiment: Mobile shelter that was made out of accessible materials such as a shopping cart, string, a piece of wood,and plastic bags that were ironed together to provide a sense of enclosure.

 

Second Experiment: Insulating blanket made from bubble wrap which was then wrapped with foil to help retain heat within these plastic bags which were also ironed together.

Homeless Experience

Tonight I'm planning on spending the night at a homeless shelter so that I can hopefully gain a better understanding of those people those who live on the streets and experience what their everyday life is like. Even though I've been lucky enough to have had a place called home, I've always been interested in experiencing the other part of life. All throughout my life, I've always felt a certain level of comfort, whether it be at home or out camping in the woods and knowing what to expect, as opposed to a lifestyle that's mostly uncommon to those who've had the good fortune of never having experienced living on the streets. I hope that by the end of the night, this experiment will help put things in perspective and wash away the fear that clouds my mind about this unknown environment.

Hobo Haven

Once again, another one of my idea's didn't float too well with my professor. I think for now on, I'm just going to keep my ideas to myself till the day of our presentations. Once again, I pulled another all nighter due to my inability to persuade and convey my approach to this experiment, which I admit was a little too symbolic and literal for its intent. But after laying in bed for hours on Wednesday night, trying to figure out what I was going to demonstrate for the class on Friday, I came upon the idea of building a portable shelter that would be made out of materials accessible to those who are currently homeless. The main building component is a shopping cart that has a piece of mdf wood attached to the bottom, front rail of the cart, which is then enclosed by plastic bags which I ironed together. Now I'm sure there aren't too many that have an iron, but I'm just assuming that that one lucky person who has one, knows how to share. But the idea of attaching the mdf to the rail is so that it creates the ability to pivot in either direction, allowing the extension of the cart for someone to sleep on, which would then be enclosed by the ironed plastic bags that act as a protective covering around the cart.