From Work In Progress

a (very belated) wallpaper update

So… I’m just all-around terrible at posting the end results of projects. That’s partly the nature of the things I’ve been taking on recently; they’re often experimental, and don’t always have a fixed end point or (at their worst) a decent outcome.

That being said, the bat wallpaper I screenprinted out of the bats I had been drawing all semester long came out pretty nicely! It was a little sloppy, but I ended up embracing the aesthetic; it was a byproduct of the unorthodox way I had to use the silkscreens, but it makes it look kinda aged and awesome.

PS, “unorthadox screenprinting” = picking the screen up and moving it down the paper like a stamp. I think I might actually make some stamps- either hand-carved or with a laser cutter- for better results. This was kind of a stupid way to go about it, but I was pressed for time and had to work with what I had on hand.

I want to print it again on fabric or real wallpaper; I think it would look awesome printed white on a dark Victorian-patterned paper, covering an entire room, with bat-inspired furniture and framed bat illustrations on all the walls… sigh. <3

The design itself could also be a little less boxy, I was rushing and the layout isn’t really at it’s best. But! Rearranging the bats would be easy enough, thanks to the way I made the transparencies.

Each bat is it’s own individual transparency, so they can be re-arranged whichever way I want next time I shoot a screen (because I’m a genius).

Just imagine…

Infinite bat possibilities!


Till next time- same bat time, same bat blog.


<3


a digital-fabrication update

Dear internet,

I realized I’ve been talking about my digital fabrication project without posting any sort of in progress shots or sketches! That is simply not decent blog etiquette, so without further ado, here’s an image-heavy explaination of what I’ve been up to.

so

I’m making a wall-mounted, motor driven kinetic sculpture of a rat king

+

in the form of a (sort of) mandala,

inspired in part by The Rat King two-player flash game I made with Timothy Sherman last semester in Paolo Pedercini’s experimental game design class - if you collect enough rats, you end up with these wriggling little rat-mandalas that I thought were too cool. I’ve had a running fascination with rats & the lore around them since keeping them as pets back in high school, so… this was really just another excuse to make something ratty (and a break from the recent bout of batty, heehee). Why are all my favorite animals so spooky? (Although I like aardvarks and big fluffy dogs too, and those aren’t all that spook-tastic.)

I’m in the process of making a small(er) scale version right now in an attempt to figure out the mechanics of the piece - the final work will be roughly 3 feet in diameter. The sculpture features nine small rats rotating slowly right, and nine larger rats rotating slowly left; all the while, their 18 little pairs of legs run in place- all of the parts, both sculptural and mechanical, are cut out of 1/8th hardboard, since it’s cheap and takes paint nicely.

In a perfect world, this would be made out of acrylic plastic, but that’s pricey and I am a student who likes to be able to go grocery shopping. Maybe in the future I’ll make a shiny plastic version, like my Wild Family Dog .

Last night I cleared off my big studio work table and put all my currently known pieces into piles, before beginning the assembly process.

that guy on the far right is a screw up, the back of the board had some etching on it. whooooops.

and I know the driving gears behind the turning mechanism- a set of planetary gears inside of an internal gear;

kinda like

but I think I’m going to have to get everything put together and working before I can wrap my brain around what I need to add to get the legs moving. I know each rat is going to need it’s own-something or other- to get this running, which means more layers, which means figuring out how to get it both mechanically stable and aesthetically pleasing… and also have the ability to stay on the damn wall.

I’ve currently got little to no idea how to do this.

So… that’ll be fun.

And that’s what I’ve been working on.

(completely unrelated but I have to share)

I will leave you with a picture of a Mountain Goat with a wombat.

If that doesn’t give you warm fuzzies then you are broken inside. I bid you adieu, internet.

<3

caitlinkillsinnocentanimals

I did another sketch for our Downhill Derby theme while I was running the 3D scanner yesterday.

We can see a few developments here;

1.What started out as a costume design/concept sketch for me turned out looking like Clara Bow. if only.

yeah, no. sigh.

2. I don’t think we’re going to find any pop-guns that look that convincing.

3. That deer looks really funky around the center of the torso. Whoops. Let’s chalk that up the fact that they’re gonna be big stuffed monstrosities made out of the ugliest of the things we can find at goodwill.

4. I’m getting way too excited about these big stuffed deer- the fabric’s not going to be a problem (hellooooo, goodwill!) but I’m drawing a blank on what to stuff them with- if I remember correctly, stuffing is pricey. Old Pillows? Too bad it’s not dry leaf season.

The next step is to actually plan out the layout of the truck, which Tara wants to basically duct-tape together… I’m thinking we’re going to need to be a bit sturdier in our design if we want it to keep together all the way down the hill, especially once we stack all of the stuffed deer (x4 or x5) on top and then perch on it. That’s roughly 250-300 lbs the ‘truck’ will have to hold up- I’m really hoping we can find something with wheels that can already hold the weight, and then build our derby car around it. Speed is not an issue- it’s just gotta stay in one piece.

Derby is in early April. Let’s do this thing.

i got you - you got whatever’s left of me to get

Last year CMU was home to visiting professor Pat Oleszko, whose “Cunning Stunts” class brought a time honored artsy-fartsy tradition to Carnegie Mellon- an artsy Downhill Derby. I didn’t get to compete last semester, but I got to watch grad students hurdle around with trash cans, a giant pinata, and tinkerbell all mosey down the cut- slowest wins. Professor Bob Bingham is bringing the derby back for a second year, and Tara Helfer & I are going to race- as the Huntin’ Hunnies, a pair of plaid-wearin’, stuffed-deer totin’, pop-gun shootin’, truck drivin’ sweetie-pies. We’re both from rather rural areas, and we figured we’d embrace out roots- and, in Oleszko style, go overboard in the process.

The truck will probably be a modified wagon off of craigslist, and the deer will be sewn out of ugly dresses and sheets from goodwill- we’re going to perch on top of our conquests, shootin’ off our pop-guns, waving our plaid confederate flag, and trying not to steer the truck into the crowds. Plaid is more brawny paper towel guy/lumberjack than it is hunter, but we’re looking for pattern OVERLOAD and we ARE at Carnegie Mellon… & so, plaid it is. MORE. TO. COME.
<3