Slot Shelters Installation Studies Continued

Yet another rough idea for the installation for launching Slot Shelters. This design would make use of a variation of materials for the modular units. I would like the roof units to be translucent material. I am wondering if it is possible to embed led lights in the roof material and have mood or motion sensors below for people to interact with and have reflected in the action of the lights. There would be additional sections of the structure connecting and extending outward. I envision sparse use of pattern and color. Large scale colorful student slot cards with their pattern designs would also be printed and will be available to the public to build additional structures near this one.

more pattern studies below: 

Seeking Shelter/Slot Shelters continued brainstorming

Engage shelter would have some pinwheel pieces spin in the wind or by hand. Refresh shelter would collect water and it would musically collect down rain catch chains.

Seeking Shelter/Slot Shelters Installation: I have been thinking more about the connecting unit shapes for structure installation of Slot Shelters. This structure will be an exclamation point and question mark inserted into the public landscape to excite people about the possibilities for what a bus shelter can be.

A design challenge for youth will launch at the same time.  
The challenge will invite youth to envision the bus shelter as more than a waiting space.
How can the bus shelter function in replenishing/refreshing, engaging and enriching the community? How can the space be designed to invite community connection, gathering and sharing? How can it be a node in environmental and community needs such as solar collecting, water collecting, digital device recharging, food growing? This challenge will be hosted on the Slot Shelters website.

The installation will playfully introduce the general themes: refresh, engage, and enrich. I will design and install a shelter in which each wall represents one of the three themes.
The Engage Wall will have units which spin by touch and wind.
The Refresh Wall will collect water from the slanted roof and the water will descend musically through rain catches (made of the building units cut from metal and folded into cones).

The Enrich Wall will have the building units printed with elementary student pattern art (from this academic year's Slot Shelter participants) along with their statements describing how their patterns reflect their neighborhood. Perhaps people could add to the art – so that it is an ever changing piece.  They could draw or leave notes & messages. Perhaps it is poetry they are writing down. It is a way to connect to people you may never meet.

very rough concept sketch of what a basic shelter might look like using the new slot units.

Two alternative shapes for the basic unit shape. One of these will be selected to work from.

The unit pieces I am creating (and still refining) will fold and connect to build the structure. The main basic unit shape will integrate both angular forms and organic shapes.
The organic shapes within it reflects on identity and place... cells and aerial view of Bay (together referencing a large span in scale).
The angular shape in the pattern unit is the standard pinwheel. It references green design and the  ingredient of playful experimentation necessary for innovation design in Silicon Valley. As a basic quilting pattern, this angular shape also references the quilt work of cultures pieced together to form our unique community.

The basic shape design will have several variations or slight "mutational" forms that will be laser cut so that resulting pattern has a dynamic texture of variation within the repeating pattern. Two examples below:

These new pattern shapes will be used in conjunction with the original patterns created for the classrooms. There will be a free issuu book for students to download and print the card pieces.

Ideas for installation of Slot Shleters/Seeking Shelter

paper model of slot shelter units assembled into a structure with a roof using new card designs.

I am exploring the creation of two new pieces that will be repeating units in a Slot Shelters installation. The above model is a early prototype of what these two units might look like. I would scale up the large piece to be twice the size of the square connector piece. The tab connection here works great so I won't be modifying that much. I will also make a test unit that looks more like the top quilt-like pinwheel pattern unit. These designs were inspired by designs I saw posted by students at this site: http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/news19027.html

I hope to create the final designs as a CAD file at the TechShop and then have these two units laser cut from cardboard. 

A pyramid-like building is under construction in the square of Fujian University of Technology, Fuzhou, East China's Fujian province on May 10,2011.[Photo/CFP]

Student Patterns for Freeway Art

Two pattern designs for concrete form lines. The designs will be used as concrete impressions along freeway 101 and bike and pedestrian overpass at both Tully and Capitol Expressway exchanges. These student designs are by Noemi V. and Raquel V. at Renaissance Academy in San Jose, CA. Below are the original art by the students. Project supported by the San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs and the VTA. Landscape Architecture firm is HMH.

Below are three sets of designs for the laser cut pillars.

Pattern set above by Anagolis R., Dung P. and Alyna C..

Pattern set above by Ayana J., Dominque W. and Alexis R.

Pattern set above by Jacqueline C., Vanessa C., and Jacqueline A.

Studies for Mural Fence Wrap in Japantown San Jose

I am beginning to create studies for a digitally printed fence wrap mural in San Jose, California. I am one of several artists invited by Rasteriods Design to contribute art to this fence which surrounds what was once San Jose's last Chinatown, Heinlenville, and what is today a part of Japantown. We are also looking to incorporate large bold graphics inspired by Studio Cochae.

Incorporated into the pattern designs above are images of actual artifacts (Japanese porcelain bowl and cow bones) dug up in an archeological excavation behind the fence. The cow bone slices are examples of how Chinese re-cut Western meats smaller to incorporate into Chinese cooking. Many fragments of both porcelain and re-cut cow bone were found at the site and graciously lent to me by the Sonoma State Anthropological Studies Center.

Tonight I submitted an application for a Donor Circle for the Arts Grant with Next Vista for Learning to engage youth of the Japantown community in contributing poetry, spoken word and interviews to the project. I envision student works being QR code linked on posters and on the fence wrap itself to connect public with student reflections online.

In this mural concept I am attempting to metaphorically bridge the past with the present and bring the artifacts to life in a modern day context. The girl is dressed in clothing of today and is blowing on a bowl of soup. The bowl in her hand is the pieced together bowl from the bowl fragment in the pattern behind her. The soup she is cooling contains beef broth and it is echoed in the bone pattern visible in the steam and in the child as she drinks it. The steam itself is a connection to the past as it references the incense burned to honor and remember ancestors. On this steam I will be illustrating floating objects representing the life of this community past and present.

The several blocks of fencing that the fence wrap will encase. Most recently this area was a municipal bus yard. Before that it was Heinlenville, a walled Chinese enclave.