Work in Progress Show
After the project of the Memorial Garden ended, we soon faced one of the biggest shows in our course, the Work in Progress Show.
The show was out of my plan because I didn't check the schedule cautiously. Additionally, I can't exhibit my work in the Memorial Garden project directly because we don't have finished work like other projects, what we have were concept pictures and rough models. However, I was too eager to present a relatively high-quality work to the audience, and the time left was not long, which made the situation of the show even more tricky for me.
At first, I had a rough concept for the WIP Show, and I told Simon my plan. I want to make a display screen to demonstrate my periodic research results on brutalism, and one of the aims was to discuss brutalist ethics and aesthetics in the contemporary context. After the tutorial, I started my work immediately without any experiments. However, it was also where all the errors began.
The design is composed of three concrete panels and a metal rack. I imagined the panel should demonstrate some features of the 'as found' principle. Therefore, I tried to maintain some traces on the concrete panels about how it is being processed.
My first step was to laser-cut a pattern on boards and use them to cast concrete panels. Unlike traditional methods, for example, the natural wood patterns on the walls of Unite d'habitation, I tried to create a digitalized fake wood pattern to discuss and question the position of brutalist architecture today. However, the process was not ideal.
The pattern carved is too delicate and dense, making the pattern hardly cast on the concrete perfectly, and it also made the process of demould more difficult for concrete panels. Moreover, the progress was delayed significantly due to various unexpected reasons, like material purchase and workshop booking.
The finishing quality of the metal rack was another problem. Although I meant to make it look raw and rough from the beginning, apparently it has a different meaning from a bad process quality. Because lack of experimentation and welding experience, the making of the rack was slow and clumsy. For example, I was hesitant about how to fix concrete panels on the rack. By bolts, I'm afraid panels would be cracked; by claws, I'm afraid it would be aesthetically unpleasant.
All these elements delayed my work in the WIP Show and prevented it from meeting the expected effect. However, the experience taught me the importance of execution, which is equally significant to design ideas. As a student in the Designer Maker course, I think I'm more like a designer rather than a maker. It is the problem I should fix for the rest of the course.
