Download - Becoming Brief...Portfolio Sheets
Becoming Brief...Seth De Silva
This project required myself to take a
journey into another practitioners shoes.
Through this brief I had to investigate, re-
search and emulate the people I was look-
ing into. The project was split into two seg-
ments, initially we had to work in groups in
order to research contextually as well as
through practice our given designer/artist.
My group was given the artists David Fis-
chili and Peter Weiss also known as the duo
Fischli and Weissinteresting brief as the two are not design-
-
tion into their practice proved fascinating.
I began my investigation by research-
ing the contextual side of their work. I
online however the bulk of my research
came from books such as Fischli Weiss
and
.It was incredibly helpful to read about
their practice and to understand the con-
ceptual ideas behind their often mun-
dane at a glance work. The key things I
understood about their were for one: they
tend to have a very banal aesthetic, for in-
stance their work titled is a col-
lection of post card sized photographs
of airports. It is with this mediocrity that
they achieve a sense of playfulness and
nonchalance, not being entirely serious.
On the other hand their work
revealed a more philosophical side yet
tainted with their trademark child like ap-
proach. They ask big questions in a very
playful way. I thoroughly enjoy this piece
come of this project. Furthermore I looked
deeper into their most famous piece The
of mechanisms setting of one after the oth-
er. This piece introduced to me the artists
tactile approach to their work; constructing
things with the objects around you. It also
revealed or rather caused me to examine
the idea of cause and effect and the idea
1
Practical Research
After my process of contextual research
Rube Goldberg
The Way Things Go.
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Synthesizing Ideas
After the group work came to an end it
In order to clarify my direction and to map out my path to an outcome I began to de-
-pects of Fischli and Weiss work that I en-joyed and felt could be incorporated into
I took to designing the poster was also -
tire poster is created out of objects that
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poster was composed using tactile ma-terials; they were scanned into a program
Fischli and Weiss
The Way Things Go caused me to think -
incorporate a philosophical element to my -
Eastern artwork as I felt I needed more of
-spired by Fischli and Weiss creatures Rat and Bear. I enjoyed how the two were
Fischli and Weiss element; to debate serious is-
the phenomena described my Asian cul-
Outcome Development
The idea for the outcome as I mentioned earlier developed through my readings on Eastern culture. I was intrigued by the idea of a Mandala and what exactly it means. A Mandala is an essential part of Hindu and Buddhist religions, it is supposed to rep-resent the physical and the metaphysical world, as well as the connectivity between the two. It is a tool often used during medi-tation to focus the mind. Mandalas consist
ignorance, yellow, sensation, red, motion, green, karma and blue, cognizance. Man-dalas often have a concentric form and are found in much religious art throughout Asia.
I wanted my work to utilize the idea of using banal objects as well as communicating a
-ings. Much like Fischli and Weiss, I wanted to communicate a very serious message but without using tools of overly artistic value.
Therefore I turned to the kitchen as my studio; using food colouring, washing up
-pressing my idea. I used the same colours found in a traditional Mandala, through the video the colours intertwine, signifying the connectivity of all these elements. At the
-duced by mixing washing up liquid with he food colouring, causes the colours to ex-plode. By this I was trying to communicate what I had learned through my investiga-tion; the idea that destruction can be beau-tiful and is almost inevitable. This is anoth-er key inspiration from The Way Things Go.
the environment around Epsom. I did this as to draw attention to literally the everyday sounds people hear in an at-tempt to ground the piece. To let people know that it is about life, thus not simply
-thermore the music (composed by my-self) at the point of explosion is again to bring attention to the beauty and ac-ceptance of destruction, suggesting that collapse is inevitable and a part of life.2
Sources
1. Fischli and Weiss, Questions.
Fischlie and Weiss, Airports.
Fischli and Weiss, The Way things go.
Bice Curiger (2007). Fischli Weiss: Flow-
ers & Questions: A Retrospective. Lon-
don: Tate Publishing.
2. Mandala
Thames and Hudson (1995). Mandala
(scared symbols). London: Thames &
Hudson Ltd.