cootie catchers

Some of the shots from the photo sesh with Niall this morning. It's all terribly a bit more professional than my gekken or diana could manage and I'm really quite pleased with them.

This is the starting point for this term's work, the fortune tellers, cootie catchers, flexagons that you make out of paper in the playground at school with stupid things written inside; things like 'you're going have seventeen billion children and be really really fat yeah,' or 'u eat poo and you like it'. I wanted to change the qualities of them. When you make them out of paper they are always imperfect, disposable toys, meant for a moment's fun and nothing else. I wanted to make them become visible, tangible, definate objects; objects that display the geometry and become an aesthetic sculpture.




The latter images are of the 2nd and 3rd attempt at a cootie catcher in aluminum, the larger being 800mmx800mmx400mm using 0.8mm aluminium sheet. The next one will be approx double that.

When the smaller one was actually made the overall feature became not the surface or aesthetic qualities, but the sound that it made when the faces banged together. Being only part adult and still mostly child, continual loud banging noises and being just generally irritating are still a phenomenally fantastic way to spend time. (I think Alessandro and Ish can testify this after showing them my skill with a microphone and portable amp, otherwise known as 'The Feedback Sessions 2009') The bigger one makes an amazing clang sound, especially if you clang it in the lift at people who ask what it is. It takes up most of the lift space as it is, so when it bangs people tend to shut up, or go 'argf'.

Anyway, this is where I am going now, exploring the qualities of sound against a sculpture. I would like the sound to be heard or noticed before the work is seen. And for the work to be placed within a context where it can be mistaken for something else. I will be looking at sound within cause and effect, small actions that make big noises, big actions that make small noises. The destruction of sound also, what happens when you take away something's natural sound? The vinyl massacre of last year is something that I am still very interested in, even if it doesn't fully develop within this work.

Alongside this, creating a mechanism for the larger cootie catchers to create noise and sound without need for the deliberate human interaction of picking it up and smashing it around. This will be done by harnessing the power of Maplin to make a swinging arm for one of the sections. I'd ideally like it to still have some element of interaction but an interaction that is unavoidable and unintentional on the part of the viewer, so far this has indictaed somekind of motion sensor. All ready to change though.

Ann says it's too dominating and aggressive to work within a shared space, which I guess is true. But I at least want to see it chase and scare someone before I tame it.

so, in summary, purely for my own benefit:
paper = no
aluminum = yes
still = no
moving = yes
noise = yes yes yes

to try:
sound cause and effect
bigger one
context/space
amplified small sounds
hushed loud sounds
destruction of sound