Architecture 101

Learning Portfolio

By: Alexander A. Resler

Instructor: Jerry Lum

Monday & Wednesday 3-6pm

03-14-12

Ice breaker: Bare Bones (Iteration 1) 1-20-12

In our first week iteration I was confused on what item I would use to represent our bare bone design. I wanted to choose an item that I enjoyed and used often. The item that immediately came in mind was a guitar pick. Its simple shape and its curvilinear attributes caught my attention.

Ice breaker: Bare Bones ( First Iteration ) 1-20-

12Materials: The materials I used to construct my design were toothpicks. The design intension to use toothpicks derived on the cost of cheap material. In the design process there were effective procedures and ineffective ones. The stiffness of the toothpicks made it difficult to give it its roundness shape, so I preceded to soak the toothpicks for an hour to achieve a more flexible bend from them. For adhesives I used crazy glue to allow the sticks to hold faster. What I learned from our first iteration is that my design should have been larger in scale and by doing so the complexity of the design increases in parts. Also, if the designer does not commit to the design the outcome of the project wont be effective to viewers. Most importantly I learned that design hierarchy is a good element in ones design process.

Second Iteration (1-25-12)This week I changed the materials being used, the toothpicks in last weeks iteration were too stiff and unattractive. For this weeks design I

used colorful paper clips to catch the viewers attention towards the design. The paper clips were more forgiving in bending and shaping into

a curvilinear shape. To increase the boldness of the paper clips I twisted them together for the scale to be larger. This design I felt wasn’t as

complex as I would of liked it to be, but I did succeed in making the scale of it larger. In areas that I can improve in, I would like to see my

design develop in greater specificities in design intentions. Also, the rhythm of the design feels too boring and slow paced. The journey of

the design needs to be more complex and branch out like different routes on a freeway. On my future iteration I would want my design to

have more regularity and patterns in it, so it can develop a rhythm throughout the design.

Third Iteration (1-30-12)This week we started to incorporate gesture drawings into our design process. At first, I was hesitant on the drawing process

coming from a back round of zero drawing abilities. I thought it would be problematic for me, but the gesture drawings helped

capture the energy and movement within my thought process. This week Jerry wanted us to apply dynamics into our design, so

the design can perceive as if it was in motion. We talked about applying motion through vertical, horizontal, parallel, right

angles and vertical spiral aspects. By responding to motion the design gets a sense of energy of chaos, explosiveness or even

attributes of slow motion. From my iteration this week I discovered new materials to use within my design. I stumbled across

12 dozen egg crates in front of a market and analyzed the shape of the egg crates. They had a concave shape within the inside

and thought it could be used to show motion within my design.

Fourth Iteration (02-01-12)

Fifth Iteration (02-13-12)This week Jerry showed us a video clip of Philip Beesley and his exhibit on hylozoic ground it was one of the most interesting and inspiring

videos we’ve seen in class. Hylozoic is defined as life coming out of materials. In this weeks iteration I applied hylozoic attributes into my

design. Within this design I was trying to show qualities of motion from the repetition of the pick moving downwards. Also, another

attribute that I liked in my design was the space within a space. What I didn’t like of the design, was that the proportions of each level

came out different than each one. The materials I used made it difficult to make each level proportional and that’s something I will keep in

mind for future iterations. This week we applied narratives to out design process, I feel that the narratives helped on directing my work to

be more specific within the design.

Fifth Iteration (Narrative)You walk into the room where your guitar stands tall, like a worthy adversary . You find yourself scattering around your room looking for

your main weapon against your guitar. At last the pick of destiny is in your hand and ready for battle. As the pick rests firmly between

your thumb and index finger your heart begins to race with anticipation. From your creativity a single note of E minor rings out, you

visualize the pick slowly hitting all six strings in a downward motion. As the pick hits each string, the front end of the pick bends with the

motion of the downward strum creating a beautiful note.

Sixth Iteration (02-22-12)This week I feel that I didn’t commit to my design. I was trying to interpret music as a journey and how it can take you to different distant

memories. Music for me connects all individuals together, no matter where you live or any physical appearances. I feel that my ideas were

on point, but the materials I worked with held down my design. Also, the literalness of the design is keeping it from flowering into a new

complex iteration. My design consists of paper clips on an elevation of a guitar pick body, within the body there are four spiral motions.

The four spirals represents different journeys that music can take you on. This weeks iteration we started to apply tracing paper into our

design process its been helping with visualizing different idea concepts.

Seventh Iteration (02-27-12)In this weeks iteration I changed my materials from paper clips to wooden skewers. I feel by using wooden skewers it helped me

regulate lines better and achieve proportion through triangular figures. Also, I used the Fibonacci series to symmetrically order

the thread to expand in diameter by doubling as each division occurs. In this weeks iteration some ideas on improving are, that

the joints in the structure were to tight and were leading to too much tension within the design. A new idea Jerry told us to do to

help our design process was to create a timeline of all our iterations to show a process of growth. By doing so it visually shows us

on what ideas we had in past worked and what design process’s didn’t work.

Eighth Iteration (03-06-12)

Ninth Iteration (03-08-12)This week were incorporating skin into our design, by applying a new idea into our iteration many new ideas will brew up in our creative

process. In this weeks iteration I concentrated on creating a spatial experience by creating a vertical elevation through my design. I feel

that this week has been the most time consuming and stressful class meetings we’ve had in the entire semester. Iterations are becoming

more complex in ideas, structures, patterns and organization. My new iteration at the moment is unknown to me, from feeling so stressed

from my other class’s, inspiration has been difficult to find. The new tectonic language we’ve gained from the course has been changeling.

The changeling part of shaping our vocabulary has been, when we present our iterations we need to use specific transformative actions

to describe our design.

Learning Portfolio Timeline