More Ceramics and Patterns
So here are some more ceramic paintings I have done. Im working on some plates I wish to commercialise.
Nae patience......
Nae patience......
PATTERNS
Here are some patterns I made for the M&A project, but i have started a pattern book so I can archive how they develop - At some point I would like to use them on ceramics/fabric/more engravings.
TESSELLATION WORKSHOP: Round 1, year 9, 210 students
On the 7th of October 2011 it was Ada Lovelace day at Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls.
ADA LOVELACE, the 'Enchantress of Numbers' worked with Charles Babbage, categorically speaking she was the first computer programmer ever and she was a woman (it is debated that she was in fact the first theoretical computer scientist as opposed to a programmer).
This was the first a series of workshops I am co-running with community artist Darcey Williamson which aim to encourage creative practice and thought in schools, emphasising the use of maths and science in art, design and music and creative collaborative practice and thought in science. The workshops demonstrate the value of science, maths and creative thinking across disciplines and how they feed into each other in many vocations. The workshop took place in the school hall, with all 210 surprisingly responsive year 9 students. They interpreted the pattern making maths task really well and we were frankly amazed with the patterns produced by the students. And with their seeminly nonchalant genius. We talked about tessellation in nature, design, art, architecture and engineering pointing their attention to the fine work of Olafur Eliasson among others and to last (school) year's STEMNET project 'Dome Build' with 2010-2011's year 10s. We wanted to convince the students that maths and geometry were beautiful, communicative and fun. So the workshop incorporated a geometry lesson about WHY it is impossible to tessellate a regular pentagon (or any other regular polygon with any MORE THAN 6 sides), in a regular way, on a plane (on a 2D surface).
N/B: A regular tessellation is a tessellation made up of the same shape- like a bee hive is made of hexagons.
N/B: A regular tessellation is a tessellation made up of the same shape- like a bee hive is made of hexagons.
Here is a hint: A circle on a plane measures 360 degrees......Think of interior angles.
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| IRREGULAR TESSELLATION |
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| REGULAR TESSELLATION |
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| http://www.olafureliasson.net/index.html |
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| http://www.olafureliasson.net/index.html |
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| Façade for Harpa Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre, 2011 © Portus ehf, Olafur Eliasson, and Henning Larsen Architects via//// http://www.olafureliasson.net/index.html |
Ceramic drawings etc
Some tests using ceramic paints and pencil. Im not crazy about this but its a start. Large plates afoot to be exhibited with at the MOSS CREST PROJECT.
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| Some wax under the glaze! |
MOSS CREST PROJECT!
I have been commissioned to create a coat of arms, having been give full licence to do as I wish with this single specificity I have gone a little nuts with it. I will continue to do so. Will need a good framer for it. The Moss Crest Project will be finished and exhibited in the new year! 2012 y'all!
Geodesic Dome, STEMNET workshop, Buckminsterfuller,
The 12th of July was Buckminsterfuller's birthday!
Hello Buckminsterfuller and D O M E !
This summer (July 14th to be precise) as part of the STEMNET volunteer program I helped to build a geodesic dome. With 10 students from Elen Wilkinson School for Girls (located in North Ealing), artist and friend Darcey Williamson, the guidance of Mr Hayes (their Chemistry teacher and Science co-ordinator), Miss Idros (maths teacher) and her husband (who kindly took a day off work) we embarked on the building endeavour- which took 4 days. The girls also got a fabulous talk from Sumita Sinha (Course leader, MA Architecture of Rapid Change and Scarce Resources London Metropolitan University) who brought to light the importance of both male AND female perspectives in architecture, how women (a rare thing is a female architect) have access to perspective a male may not have in mind (and vice versa) but she highlighted that there is a lack of women in the field among other very interesting ideas and truths about WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE.
Using marshmallows and toothpicks for a demo to test the structural integrity of squares VS that of triangles, we quickly established and verified that indeed- TRIANGLES are 'better than squares at holding things up'. Your intuitions may have been quite accurate in supposing that 'sides facing in' from a base and that meet near or at each others tops provide reliable support.
Discussing the purpose of maths in design, technology, engineering, architecture and the arts, brought us to BUCKMINSTERFULLER amongst others and helped in avoiding the many a snooze situation we feared. Indeed mathematics is a surprisingly far reaching discipline and while a 15 year old human may protest 'whats the point?' it becomes painstakingly obvious that its useful. FACT. It is almost well nigh impossible to prevent a 15 year old in gravitating towards thinking of this kind- 'whats the point' is an utterance to be expected from a 15 year old but really its just another way of saying 'WHY?' (unless what is meant by 'whats the point' has some kind of symbolic rhetorical meaning- which is possible). I digress. More to the point (FACT!) if you want to build things for your self, if you want to do something in or to your environment, if you want to DESIGN if you want to MAKE you need to know something about the material nature of reality; the height of your wall for instance and the fact that triangles are strong structures (albeit that many good shelves can be made without triangulation however few durable structures are made with out measurement and accuracy.)
We wanted to emphasise the significance of contributing to your environment. Contribution, collaboration and importantly the absolute necessity for creativity in engineering- "where and how can I apply 'this' principle to a problem that effects a lot of people?" 'This' i.e. BUCKMINSTERFULLER'S geodesic Domes. Of course there are troves of applications and the interdependency of creativity, design, maths and engineering is undeniable.
Hello Buckminsterfuller and D O M E !
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| Squares collapsed |
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| And the intermediate solution of the tetrahedron (square based pyramid) was found by all through triangulating the squares. |
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| The girls arranged all the struts in the correct configuration, with the copings placed where they meet each other. |
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| Different sized copings, make different shapes.... |
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| That eventually fit like this! (Credit to Solardome for this plan) |
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| Darcey and the girls. |
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| The cement foundations had already been set, here is Mr Hayes. |
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| D A Y 2: I T B E G I N E T H ! |
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| Placing the base plates |
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| Almost |
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| D A Y 3: Awkward stances, chairs on top of chairs. |
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D A Y 4 : GLAZING and SEALING! Here is Leila using silicon for sealing the glass.  |
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| And the end is nigh! |
EXAMPLES OF THE GEODESIC DOME
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| Geodesic Dome as emergency shelter post Hurricane Katrina |
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| Hurricane Katrina |
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| Releif dome in Haiti |
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| The Hayward |
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| Yes, these are made from quadrilaterals, but imagine that they are squares with triangles on either side, you still get strengthening 'angles' (Ecological Silicon Valley in China's Miaofeng Mountains) |
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