Project #4 - Option 2 The Post-Industrial

Objective: To create a large scale sculpture which can be defined as post-industrial; through use of an architectural and/or machine-like composite form (possibly invented) which reflects a nostalgic view of the industrial age past. To further explore and use mold-making as a technique to produce part of the sculpture.

Required reading:
“Postmodern Ceramics”, author Mark Del Vecchio, Chapter 12, “Post Industrialism”
You will be responsible for participating in the class discussion of the chapter.

Artists of Reference:
Paul Astbury, Raymon Elozua, Dan Anderson, Steven Montgomery, Steven Welch, Kevin Waller, Hideo Matsumoto, Eric Van Eimeren, Keiko Fukazawa, Barbara Schmidt, Margaretha Daepp, Marek Cecula, Lynn Duryea, Jeremy Jernegan.

 Conceptual Key: Post Industrialism is defined by Del Vecchio in the following ways:

“The blue collar world, that traditional bridge from the working -class to middle-class prosperity, is shrinking as we focus less on making products and more on selling intelligence.

This means that younger artists in the post-industrial countries are looking at industry in a very
different way to their modernist predecessors.

In the nineteenth century the Industrial Revolution was viewed with fear and distrust by the art world. (i.e. the arts and crafts movement and William Morris)

Now, nearly a half a century later, younger artists feel an altogether different emotion, namely a nostalgia for an era that is in its twilight”.

 Form Type: Architectural or Mechanical Construction and/or Assemblage
Architectural design can be described as design essentially based on forms of geometry like the cube, the cone, the sphere. Mechanical and machine parts often include forms of geometry which are made to be linked, bolted, hooked etc. joined in an apparent physical fashion. You are to express your ideas and perceptions through the organization of architectural and/ or mechanical forms or parts. These elements will be formed or constructed and assembled into one sculpture. The organization of architectural and/or mechanical elements which reference the industrial; for instance, columns, machine parts, pediments, windows, their relative scale and placement will allude to your ideas about you point of nostalgia and the Post Industrial.

 OptionalTechnical Demonstrations -
Removable Armatures; Internal and External
1. exterior planar foldout; Rhonda Thweatt
2. form expanded through dies
3. stuffables; battening, sand, sewn forms, pantyhose
4. found objects; tires, mailing tubes
Rubber Molds and more on plaster sectional molds

How to begin

Step 1: Listing ... an excellent method of developing the idea is to create a "free associative" listing of words that indicate architecture/architectural forms, mechanical and industrial forms. My architectural list includes: caryatid, threshold, corridor, banister, flying buttress, cornice, gable, vaulting. An industrial list might include: silo, stack, factory. And a list of machinery might include: turbine, engine etc.

Step 2: Library research ... Please the FAA library and the web as resources for visual images as well as books which illustrate and given information about the industrial revolution and historic scenery of the time period.

Step 3: Make a clearly visualized model that is 6"-8" in size. Balsa wood and Oil clay can be used in addition to pottery clay for the maquette. A maquette is required prior to beginning. A planning critique will be required prior to building.

Molds from found objects ... there are many plastic toys, cake ornaments, dolls house accessories that might be purchased and cast in molds. The molds will permit multiples of an element to be made quickly and used within the assemblage.