Juexin Kong (STARRY)Student No. 625254 Semester 2/2013Group 1 EVNS10008 Virtual Environments

IDEATIONMODULE ONE

IDEATIONTHE SYSTEMS

Skin and Bone system Panel and Fold system

Rhino of kite, Holly Tepper, 2013

The system for what Holly and I chose was skin and bone sys-tem. In this case, kite was the object we exploring.

We found out the bone, which made of timber or plastic, was used to support the whole structure, and the skin system, which made of paper or plastic, was used for creating the appearance.

Coffee filter, Yi Zhu, 2013

Zhu chose panel and fold system in module one and the study object was coffee filter.

This system should be foldable and flexible, because the paper will have functions of both supporting structure and creating appearance.

IDEATIONPERSONAL SPACE

Definition of PERSONAL SPACE

‘Area with invisible boundaries surrounding a person’s body’

‘People are able to tolerate closer presence of a stranger at their sides than directly in front’

‘Personal space acquired daylight phenomenon’

(Sommer, 1969)

From my point of view, personal space has not exact boundary, which means different people have different limitation. It could be divided into relationship space, personal space and social space.

For me, I don’t like strangers standing too close to me, especially standing on my back.

IDEATIONDESIGN IDEAS

The idea on the left hand side was de-signed by myself according to skin and bone system. The back thorns show the thought of keep away from strangers, as well as the definition of my personal space, which I don’t like people stand-ing on my back. However, there are no thorns in the front, therefore I can still contact with other people and the en-vironment.

The design on the right hand side also shows skin and bone system. Because Hol-ly doesn’t want other people touch her neck, hence her design was trying to pro-tect the neck part and shoulder part by spikes.

This idea has similarity with my idea, which all want to create the space on the back part to keep distance with other people.

M1 Design, Holly Tepper, 2013

IDEATIONDESIGN IDEAS

The design on the left of panel sys-tem was made by Zhu. This design shows the idea of protecting the most vulnerable part of individu-als, which are the front part and back part. In addition, the thick and large panels also shows the unwilling of social contact.

M1 Design, Yi Zhu, 2013

DESIGNMODULE TWO

DESIG

NBRIEF &

PRECED

ENTS

According to the definition of personal space and design idea of each person, we combined these elements together finally. In the group design, we want to explore the ideas of protect or defend the wearer as well as deter other people or keep away from them. Therefore, the design will combined both skin and bone system as well as panel and fold system, and it will develop to protect the neck part and back part of wearers.

THE TORTOISE

THE PORCUPINE

THE FRILL-NECKED LIZARD

Giant tortoise, Karl Agre, 2007

The porcupine, Dan Felstead, 2010

Frill necked lizard, Fritz Goro, 2013

The tortoise with strong exterior shell re-flects the panel system, which trying to protect front and back part of the body.

The thorn on the back of porcupine re-flects the idea of threatening strangers who standing on the back.

The spikes on lizard will ex-tended when it feels danger-ous. This notion reflects the willing to protect the neck and shoulder part of the body, and keep away from other people.

DESIG

N1ST D

ESIGN

We found out that there were lots of similarities in our design ideas both in skin and bone system as well as panel and fold system. Therefore, we combined our ideas together to create the design that can protect the vulnerable parts of body and decrease the social contact of wearer.

From the design, it can be recognized that the spikes are used to surround the neck and shoulder, which increase the personal space to other people, and the panel protecting the front and back body parts.

DESIG

N2N

D D

ESIGN

The second design strongly represents the grill-necked lizard and the skin and bone system. The neck part that fortified by thick panels is designed stretches outwards, which significantly increase the distance between individuals. Also, the gap between each panel in the design increases the opportu-nity for wearer to get closer to the environ-ment and other people.

DESIG

N2N

D D

ESIGN

DEV

ELOPM

ENT

To improve the design, we changed the three huge panels into the back folding panels which represents skin and bone sys-tem. We added the spike in the front top part and round panel covers the whole font body, which represent the tortoise shell.

However, we moved the tortoise shell in the final design to improve the virtual effect.

FABRICATIONMODULE THREE

FABRICATION1ST DESIGN PROTOTYPE

The first prototype of panel and fold cape reflects the skin and bone system. The bone was made of paddle pop sticks and skin was made of paper. String was used to at-tach the paddle pop sticks and paper, and it will cause paper to span out when pulled by wearer. The whole big panel includes three small panels, which used paper fold-ed vertically.

However, the problems were the connection of sticks was not strong enough, as well as the mechanism did not work very well.

FABRICATIONMECHANISM To improve the effects of expansion and con-traction, we need to work out the mechanism of the bones.

We explored the bones of umbrella and tried to work out the principle of connection and folding. We found out the bone was formed by several parts, and each part was connected together.

Umbrella, Holly Tepper, 2013

FABRICATIONAfter we worked out how the bone works of umbrella, we tried to make our own bones.

We cut balsa wood into small pieces as our bones, and we used buckles to connect each bone. Although the system looks a little complicated, the mechanism worked finally. We sticked paper to explore how the fold works.

Mechanism, Holly Tepper, 2013

FABRICATIONPANEL FOLDING

After we figured out the bone system, we started to explore the skin system.

In the first model, we used three separate panel, thus we tried to use one big panel as our skin. After we tied many types of folding, we decided to use the vertical folding that same as the original one since it can perform the fold very well. Then we had to consider the bended parts of skin, which match the folding place of bones. We cut half of the paper in diamond and folded another half part in the same shape, then the pa-per could fold smoothly.

Paper folding, Holly Tepper, 2013

FABRICATIONFINAL PROTOTYPE

We tried different colors and different materials to make the panel.

After comparison, we found out white has better effect than black as the white color can show the shad-ow obviously.

Also we tried cardboard and paper for the skin. It was too hard to fold if we use cardboard, and it was easy to break. Therefore we decided to use paper in white.

FABRICATION

Final model, Yi Zhu, 2013

The panel will expended I pull the top ring, and it will contract when I loose may hand. We changed increased the diameter of the ring, therefore it became much stronger than last time. Also, we add-ed the back sticks as well as the shoulder baldric to supporting the whole model.

REFLECTIONMODULE FOUR

REFLEC

TION

Comparing with Designing Environments that I learned in last semester, I feel like Virtual Environments is more difficult and has higher requirement. Basically, I learned more skills on designing processes, designing software, model making and problem solving.

Firstly, designing processes is significant for a designer to achieve any goals. Designing processes include defining a brief and agenda, exploring original design ideas, testing, improving, making models, etc. I think no one can be a perfect designer, who can finish a master piece in the first design. Maybe to some design-ers, the original design was not good enough, however they still can create a good work finally, because they may redesign and improve their work in the designing processes.

From this subject, I learned a lot of skill relating to computer soft-ware, such as Photoshop, InDe-sign and Rhino. Especially I can use InDesign expertly now. Al-though I may feel very difficult somehow, these skills will signifi-cantly help me in the future study and career.

I think the most difficult thing for me is the designing by using the Rhino. Sometimes I will choose to avoid this process because I am afraid of it. Therefore, I think I need to practice more by watching online tutorials, asking friends and searching books.

REFLEC

TION

For the entire project, I spent the most of time and energy on model making part, therefore the skill of hand making models has been improved a lot. In this process, I have to be patient and careful, or the prototype would not have the effect that I wanted. Also, we should do the model in order, otherwise we would waste a lot of time.

In this project, I think the most difficult part was the back big panel since I have to do it by my hand instead of cutting by Fa-blab. We made many mistakes on measuring and calculating the fold at first. In addition, half of the diamond need to be cut and the other half part need to be folded.

Finally, I got a lot during the group works. I learned how to communicate with partners, how to due with the different thoughts and how to work together with them. Moreover, we solved a lot of problems together. As everyone has their own idea and own methods, we need to lis-ten and think carefully.

Besides, we should sep-arate the works equally, and that will be more ef-ficient.

REFERENCES

Sommer, R. (1969). Personal space: the behavioral basis of design / Robert Sommer. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, c1969.

Agre, K. (2007). Giant tortoise. [On-line]. Available: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21475135@N05/8394570455/

Felstead, D. (2010). The porcupine. [On-line]. Available: http://woodandpixels.blogspot.com.au/2010/07/dont-get-to-close.

html

Goro, F. (2013). Frill necked lizard. [On-line]. Available: http://www.allposters.com/-sp/The-Frilled-Lizard-of-Australia-Opening-

Its-Frill-to-Ward-Off-Intruders-Posters_i3596693_.htm