Constructing Worlds PART 2

PART 2

Design my own Box

To begin the process of designing my own box, I needed to find the similarities between all the studies of various boxes I had done.

Common Elements


















1. Color
2. Interacts with user and other things
3. Materials either opaque or transparent
4. Holds something or used to view something
5. Large or small
6. Almost anything can be a box given the right context
7. Mobile
8. Stationary
9. Solid

After finding these common elements I decided which ones I found interesting for a box of my own.

1. Opaque vs Transparency
2. Color
3. Size
4. Light

After reviewing all these ideas I wanted to find a box already in my environment that had similar traits as the box I wanted to create. I decided that a candle fit this description perfectly. I then begun to research candles.

Questions:

1. What is a candle?
2. Why do people buy or use candles?
3. What type of users are there for candles?
4. How do candles look?
5. How can I recreate or reinterpret a candle for this project?

I looked up a general definition of a candle and then brainstormed some characteristics of a candle writing down anything that came to mind.

Candle: A long piece of tallow or wax with an embedded wick that is burned to give light. A unit of luminous intensity, equal to the luminous intensity of a wax candle. A solid usually cylindral mass of tallow, wax, or other fatty substance with an axially embedded wick that is burned to provide light. A usually molded or dipped mass of wax or tallow containing a wick that may be burned (as to give light, heat, scent or for celebration or votive purposes)

Characteristics of a candle

1. Light
2. Flame
3. Wax
4. Burns
5. Decreases
6. Glass
7. Contained
8. Scented
9. Unseasoned
10. Circular
11. Square
12. Various shapes
13. Uncontested
14. Romantic
15. Emergency
16. Hot
17. Colors
18. Floating
19. Covered
20. Big
21. Small
22. Heavy
23. Light
24. Liquid
25. Flashing
26. Decoration

With all this research I was able to decide the preliminary characteristics I wanted my box to have.

My candle





















1. Flashing
2. Opaque
3. Liquid
4. Transparent
5. Scented
6. Small scale

I asked my self these questions...

1. What type of experience does this create?
2. What user would buy this candle?
3. Is it romantic, entertaining, decorative?
4. How do we create a candle like this?
5. What materials do we use?
6. How do we build it?
7. What is the message we are trying to convey?

My final challenge was to decide how to produce my box with the limitation of time and budget. I decide that going against the literal interpretation of a candle would be far more interesting while at the same time challenging and workable within the time period.

I decided to build a light bulb within a plexi class box. Each side either differing in color or texture, or transparency. The box was originally to be left open on the top but after thinking I felt it would be better closed. A candle dissolves, it is not a object that can be used forever. I felt the best way to achieve this idea with my box was to close it, so the light bulb can't be changed. Thus making this box unable to be reused as well.

The materials I decide to work with are listed as follows:

1. Black foam Core
2. Light Bulb
3. Light bulb socket
4. Clear Plexi
5. Rice Paper
6. Colored Plexi
7. Frosted Plexi
8. Potpourri?

Photographs of box will be added soon!

posted by Megumiaraki @ 8:05 PM