EXP 2: Final Post

"Lightness of Concept:

(mass mu) transience

of fragile nothingess"

Lightness in concept - represented by both the lightness of the mass, and the lightness of the materials against the dark volcanic rock.

The transient connection to the obelisk in the distance which fades and appears throughout the day.

The appearance of the obelisk.

The two centres, both light (in mass and colour), with a vast nothingness (mu) in between.

Fragile nothingess.

The object maintains its lightness at night through the lamps.

Lighting the way.

Broken symmetry of the moon in the distance.

The broken symmetry of the sun.

Oku - the mysterious, unattainable spiritual centre.

Disappearing into the night.

Lit path for the students

The students gorge, to lead the students through layers of oku, mystery, depth and a forward compulsion

Lit up at night by lamps in the deep interior.

Download level here: http://www.gamefront.com/files/21661917/FinalAssignment2.zip

EXP2: Textures

Mandelbrot Set  - z_n+1 = z_n² + c

Julia Set - Mandelbrot formula with different starting value/iteration

Shades of wood from around the farm - from balsa to coal

Metals in various stages of oxidation

Voxel Generator

Complexities of fibre at different zooms - pen and paper

EXP2: Setting the setting

Having played around with CryEngine and creating some beautiful paradisiac scenes I felt it was time to reflect and decide on what sort of environment my monument should sit in. I wanted it to convey the concepts I was trying to explore in my electroliquid haiku:

"Lightness of Concept:

(mass mu) transience

of fragile nothingess"

I found the idea of fragile nothingness particularly poignant. It reminded me of a scene in the movie El Topo, an acid western by Jodorowsky from the 1970s (if you haven't seen it, don't watch it because it is scarring). Nihilistic and melancholic, the perfect atmosphere for my monument.

In the meantime I was googling ancient Japanese paintings for landscape ideas, came across the important idea of oku - the Japanese word for depth and centre. In Japanese cities, painting, theatre and architecture there are two centres - the real/commercial/material centre at the fore, and the mysterious/spirital/unnatainable centre in the distance. The space between these centres is one of my original concepts - mu/ma. So I spent some time sketching out a "Japanese" style drawing of my setting with my Sundial as my first centre, and my obelisk as my oku - spiritual centre. What came out was some sort of mountainous, lifeless space which was still full of movement and energy.

Environment Sketch

I then set about modelling this scene. CryEngine allows you to play with the diurnal which I loved and I wanted to incorporate the idea of "broken symmetry" by cutting the suns circularity by the obelisk. The continuous circle is a representation of infinity. The break in its bottom reminds us the "nothing is infinite." I can design infinity/nothingness in the same way that I understand the concept - through a paradox or series of paradoxes, which I tried to sketch in my original axonometric for Mu and Lightness (of Mass).

We join spokes together in a wheel,

but it is the center hole

that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,

but it is the emptiness inside

that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,

but it is the inner space

that makes it livable.

We work with being

but non-being is what we use.

Tao Te Ching Ch. 11

EXP2: Final Electroliquid Aggregation

I decided to do my final electroliquid aggregation in three ways. First I let fate decide, spreading the words around face-down into an order then turning them the right way up - this allowed me to let go of any assumptions or structure and maybe come across something entirely new or creative. However it just seems to make no sense.

Randomised electroliquid aggregation

I then got a friend to come along and rearrange the cards in any way he found interesting. I really liked what he came up with so I decided to base my own idea on that.

A friends advice

I decided to settle on a Haiku structure for two reasons. Firstly, it is in keeping with the Japanese theme, provides a poetic structure and appeals to my personal aesthetic interests. Secondly, the English Haiku is derived from the original Japanese via a sort of eletroliquid aggregation - when you consider that the original Haiku (or hokku) was developed in medieval Japan, and the modern Haiku was an adaptation by the imagists (Ezra Pound, Jack Kerouak) who lived in a post-modern/consumerist industrialised West, it is a blurring of the material (the natural focus of original hokku) and the immaterial (the imagist).

The structure of a Haiku is:

• Use of three lines of up to 17 syllables;
• Use of a season word (kigo);
• Use of a cut or kire (sometimes indicated by a punctuation mark) to compare two images implicitly.

I obviously do not have a literal "season" word but as I'm in a post-modern mood, I guess you could take both the meaning of lightness and transience as kigo. Lightness as a representation of the day, and transience as a representation of the relationship between space/time and therefore the seasons. The colon : for the kire was an obvious choice. After playing around for a while I came up with a short statement. I love the rhythm, I love the blurring of meanings and I love the way that after reading it you feel your mind simultaneously empty and full (the very purpose of mu: the concept of nothingness).

My Haiku electroliquid aggregation

With this statement in mind I went back and pulled and played around with my ELA models. Oddly enough I settled on a design which was almost identical to the original "nothingness/lightness" ELA I came up with in class. Combining the two I ended up with a two part structure. One I call the sundial, while the other is the obelisk. They are joined by the void which cuts them into two.

Original Sketch

The Sundial

The Obelisk

EXP2: Electroliquid Aggregation Sketches

These are my axonometric sketches combining the two themes. I have decided to develop the Mu/Lightness combination because I think it is the most interesting and yielded the best result when combined.

EXP2: Axonometric Sketches

Mu: Concept of Nothingness (fragile transience)

Freedom of Discipline (freedom of spatial composition between floor and ceiling)

Repetition of form

Minimal/elegance/simplicity

Wall-less Separation (implied separation)

Lightness (of mass)