Final Project Thoughts

As I’ve gone through all the workshops in this class I feel like I’ve gotten a start on so many of the skills I’ve always wanted to explore and really expanded my view of some of the work I was already making.

I originally came in to this class thinking I wanted to get a headstart on my thesis exploring woven reed structures but I have such a clear idea of my thesis that I feel like I would be making waste of this opportunity to try something different. If anything, I want to make something in this class that can inform my thesis rather than begin it.

Throughout my time at MICA i’ve been extremely interested in using Grasshopper for my architectural projects, and just recently discovered that I enjoy using it to create art as well. I’ve also really grown an interest in weaving using architecture to inform the few pieces I’ve created.

Something I found myself thinking about a lot during our last class was that I would like to explore the intersections of fiber, parametrics, and coding in some way. Having a process that goes between the 2D and the 3D, the digital and the physical has always been part of how I make work and I feel would mesh well with these components.

I would really like to continue using the TC-2 and possibly even the floor loom. My thesis revolves around rigid weaving, more in the style of basket-making, and I’m really curious to see what I could do with a more flexible weaving. Laura Devendorf showed us how she uses weavings as sensors, as inputs, but I’ve been interested in the thought of having the weaving embody an output. Could I program a weaving to move? To physically respond or communicate to its surroundings? Could I make it go between the 2D and the 3D fluidly?

Or perhaps I could delve into using grasshopper to output a design to be woven. Grasshopper can create so many different outputs with the same script, is there a way I could incorporate that variation in a weaving?

I still don’t have clear thoughts on the final product I want to make but I know what I’m eager to explore. I think using my architectural background to inform my work whether by process or visually is most intriguing to me right now, along with the TC-2, Grasshopper, and coding.

Some of my pieces that I feel are guiding me in the right direction:

Riso prints of layered grasshopper-generated pinchgrids

Weaving of a topography abstracted

grasshopper-woven bus structure

First draft of a woven reed structure