Touch by Diane Ackerman

Touch is very important to the senses. It gives objects there sense of reality. Touch can be physical or emotional and can be different and have contradictory effects on people. For infants, touch is a vital component of developing. Being held as an infant can have lasting affects. Children who were held and touched as infants were found to be healthier than those who were not. Touch has the ability to decrease levels of stress. Being touched and held has the ability to help someone grow.

Touch has a great effect on our view of the world. It allows us to feel objects and even how they are made. It gives us the ability to determines objects weight, strength, softness, and density. It is often imprinted in our memory. Touch is a strong component of our daily life. Without it, much appreciation for the arts and life would be lost.

Momento

Rubbed in coffee grounds

This project is based off of an important memory we have using only three materials. Mine is based off of my memory of a road trip I took last summer with my mom and dog Thor. I used coffee grounds, a piece of a pollo shirt, and fourteen pieces of turquoise. 

During my road trip we drove through and visited fourteen different states. Which is why I used fourteen pieces of turquoise. I also left the thread loose in the back to represent all of the adventures we went on. The reason for the turquoise is that for much of the trip it rained which is also why I used the pollo shirt. My dog is afraid of rain and thunder so we would wrap him in my stepdad's pollo shirt to comfort him. The coffee grounds are symbolic of all of the mud and waterfalls I remember as well as the large quantities of coffee we drank to stay awake. 

Human Body Wrapped

Added loose leaves onto the ones wrapped around the model to give it the appearance of being untamed

Began by tying the leaves together and the wrapped it around my model

Using twine, palm fronds, and miscellaneous foliage I was able cover my model. I wanted my model to appear human as well as natural. I placed him in this location because of the barred fence looking out over the palm trees and greenery to make it appear similar and yet separate from the greenery.

Marble Run

This project required us to create a pathway for the marble to run down into. I used pieces of styrofoam, balsa wood, the spine of a drawing pad, cardboard and styrofoam board. The whole run is made up of two pieces. The first piece stand on the table and the other on the ground. I tried incorporating negative space into my piece while also making it outlandish. 

Shoes Masking Tape

Final Shoes

Made three layers of rolled up tape

Made the patterning of the bottom of the shoes using a scan of the bottom of the shoes and tracing over it onto a slab of layered tape

Prototype Shoe made of paper

Using a pair of shoes we made a pair of identical shoes out of masking tape.It was a challenge creating something 3-dimensional using a material which is flat. It is much more challenging than using something such as clay. I created my shoes with many layers of tape. By putting the shoe together in sections I found the process to be easier. 

3D to 2D Image

Created using a close-up picture of my marble run and an in-process picture of my beaver soap carving. I made it this color scheme so that the object within would appear defined.

Soap Carving Part 2

Original carving

1) Flattened face from being dropped from the third floor of a building

2) Cut tail into triangles which then disintegrated

3) Put a line of green icing down the back and burned the icing with a torch

4) Made little balls of crayon and soup mixed together and attached them to the beaver using toothpicks 

The toothpicks and balls of crayon and soup were then torched

5) Soaked a piece of string in vegetable oil and wrapped it around the carving. Then I torched the piece of string

6) Placed an ice cube on it and melted it with a torch

7) After torching the back of the carving I inserted leaves, pine needles, and sticks

8) Torched the bottom of the carving so that it would melt onto the base. The base is made up of a piece of palm tree and a piece of cement

Soup Carving Part 1

    For this soup carving project we were had to choose a plastic animal and create two carvings that look identical. I chose to carve a beaver because I thought it would be something unique and interesting to carve. This was a difficult project simply because of the difficulty of carving with soup as well as the accuracy of it. However, I feel like I learned a lot from this project.

The best of the two final carvings was then left alone. The other carving was transformed to appear completely different from the animal it originally was meant to resemble.