Project 2 The Artifact.pdf - College of Environmental Design

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Project 2: The Artifact
ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN 4 Spring 04
Professor: W. Mike Martin
GSI: Tadd Andersen, Howard Blecher, Laura Boutelle, Karen Mauney-Brodek
Collage:
1. A technique of composing a work of art by pasting on a single surface various materials not normally associated
with one another, such as newspaper clippings, theater tickets, fragments of an envelope, etc.
2. A work of art produced by this technique.
Assemblage:
Fine arts: a sculptural technique of organizing or composing into a unified whole a group of unrelated and often
fragmentary or discarded objects.
Ben Nicholson from The Appliance House
“A trained collagist requires the act of collage making to be contemplative, they know that there is something within
the soul that longs to come forward, so they engage in collage making to advance it. To express this longing all
the printed ephemera, forming the mirror world of modern existence, is mustered for use. Thousands of pictures of
things varying in scale and perspective are conscripted to trigger trains of thoughts, comprehensible or not.
Bibliomaniac safaris, considered off limits in respectable scholarship, are taken through trashy magazines, highbrow
periodicals or well-loved books. Pictures are snipped without care for their actual context, and splicing
together of this unique selection of things can begin.
Acts are turned against pictorial depictions, recognizable or not. Things are done to pictures that have always
wanted to be done but, because of circumstances, they never took place. Fifteen handles can be attached to a
frying pan with a few deft strokes of a knife. Fingers can be repositioned so that they grow out of ears. Then
depending on the interest, skill, and dexterity, thoughts can be articulated. When the work is complete, a map of
hunches exists and, due entirely to the act of making, the soul temporarily exorcised of what appeared to be
coagulating within. Like all maps, collage can exist as a guide to what exists on the ground or it can prompt a new
set of thoughts suggested by interconnections of terrain and cities. The activity of collage, like every visual activity,
can profoundly alter the way things, places, and ideas are viewed.”
In this project you are asked to work within a spirit of collage or assemblage to produce an artifact that
communicates an understanding of a site (chosen from the selection of sites on the accompanying map.) This
analysis of a site should be engaged through the production of an artifact in multiple modes.
1. A critical analysis of observed relationships, circumstances or issues regarding the site.
2. An interpretation or your experiences, impressions and ideas regarding the site.
Requirements:
1. Documentation of four aspects of a site through sketches, diagrams, materials, etc. Material should be
presented on 8.5” x 8.5” sheets of paper.
2. Produce two translations based on requirement 1 on 8.5” x 8.5” sheets of paper. You may want to explore your
aspects individually, or in combination/juxtaposition to reveal relationships within your site.
3. The Artifact: should be of a base dimension 11” wide x 11” long x a dimension thick enough to support your
collage. The final artifact must be three dimensional and have a minimum height of 1” from the base.
4. For Final review: Assemble requirement 1 and 2 on a presentation board, you may want to put additional text,
captions or other material gathered to explain your artifact.
Deadlines:
February 17/19 Be ready to discuss Requirement 1 in section
February 24/26 Requirement 2 and a sketch of Requirement 3 due in section
March 2 Project 2 due in Wurster Lobby!

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ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN 4 Spring 04
Professor: W. Mike Martin
GSI: Tadd Andersen, Howard Blecher, Laura Boutelle, Karen Mauney-Brodek
You may think of an Artifact as something based on what is uncovered or revealed at the site. It is not an invention or a
designed object necessarily. The artifact is shaped by the site and those that inhabit it. For example, consider a line of
movement which potentially reflects directionality, speed, density or accessibility of a site. How can this non-physical
phenomenon be realized in a physical form? How can a material and its properties (through its thickness, grain,
reflectivity, transparency, etc.) be used to represent these lines of movement? How can you represent the physical
aspects of a site through a different material? How does your artifact enable new understanding of your site?
Sites:
1. North Gate
2. Free Speech Movement Café in Moffitt Library
3. Strawberry Creek (section near Stephens and Moses)
4. Café Milano (2552 Bancroft Way, Berkeley)
5. Berkeley Art Museum Garden
6. Telegraph Avenue between Dwight and Haste