What If? Metropolis - OGR

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  1. OGR 05/11/2016

    Hey Mike - really like some of those later moody thumbnails you've produced. I think you've identified an important methodological aspect to Kuhn's work, which I think you need to embrace more completely to guard against the temptation to just keep drawing blobbish silhouettes in terms of thinking more structurally/architecturally about your digital set. You make the point that the complexity of Kuhn's work derives from a layering up of very similar simple elements to create these highly organic forms. In this sense, they are 'modular' and I think modularity should be something you adopt. For example, in terms of thumbnails, I can see how limiting yourself to perhaps one simple form in Photoshop and then using layers to multiply that shape one on top of the other etc, to 'construct' silhouettes as opposed to draw them. You start with a simple ellipse shape, multiply it, layer, skew, rotate, and perhaps use the adjustment tools to skew or wrap these modular units to create the variation. I don't think 'drawing' is going to deliver a commensurate Kuhn-esque workflow. I'm encouraging students to adopt as far as possible the methodology of their collaborators - to work as they do - in the generation of forms (as opposed to looking at their artist's work as fancy dress for cities). A related research strand for you then will be to look at modular architecture and modular design in general terms to get a broader sense of how these ideas might relate to physical embodiments:

    https://www.behance.net/gallery/11053107/Modular-Architecture-(-Pavilion-)
    http://inhabitat.com/tag/modular-architecture/
    http://www.archello.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/header_detail_large/story/media/eco_pods_LA_downtown01.jpg
    https://reinierdejong.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/habitat67.jpg
    http://www.evolo.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Endessa-Pavilion-IAAC-6.jpg

    The idea that Daxia would be encountered in some natural paradise makes sense to me in regards to her close association with nature and the organic nature of her material etc.

    So, short version - consider Kuhn's modular approach to the construction of her forms as both a creative method for changing up your approach to visualising your ideas via construction (as opposed to drawing) and think in a modular terms in regards to thinking about actual construction of Kuhn's city. In terms of thinking about the actual assets in your digital set - i.e. which buildings we're looking at why? - any ideas? I would say that your backstory re. the evil church is maybe an imposition on Kuhn's world (remembering that is city is built in her image). Interestingly, Kuhn abandoned utilitarian ceramics in favour of making art, so perhaps this might be a key in terms of determining a hierarchy in the city - that places not associated with work and mundane activity are privileged as the most important. Anyway, while I think you're demonstrating lots of imagination in terms of the rules and regs of Daxia, is it all too much of a departure from your collaborator in terms of the tone?

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