Friday, February 15, 2008
A Photo for Thought
It all started when I was little. I guess you can say I grew up with them. Cameras, they have been shoved all up in my face my whole life. My father loves to take pictures, and started to get really serious before I was born. He even had the camera in the birthing room when I was being born. So, I’m no stranger to the awkwardness of striking a pose for a camera. For this reason, I see bits of the world through a lens. The way the sun can hit a building during sunset or how light can frame a book hanging off the table, I envision the shot. Over the years I put it into my mind, “if it would look good as a background image on my computer, then I probability like it.” One thing that is funny, when I do graphic work I put that same principle into it. I have gotten a lot of responses about my photos and my graphics I might as well share them with who ever wants it. So, here is the first batch. Enjoy!!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Journey of Inheritance
What are VA Prize Competitions?
For those of you, who don’t know about the VA Prize, let me tell you what it is about. Basically it is all the architecture schools in Virginia that host a competition for architecture students. It is an annual event that is presented in the second semester of school (in January). From 1st year to thesis, each student is required to come up with an individual design for the competition. Each year one school will host the completion, last year was UVA this year Hampton University hosted the competition. All the students received the design brief at 5pm on Friday and had until 9am on Monday to turn in the design on a printed 20” x 30” board. Basically to summaries the project, in the 1800 during the time of confederates and union states, slavery was beginning its process of change. 3 slaves traveled to Fort Monroe (located in Hampton Virginia) and ended up as contrabands slaves. They refer Fort Monroe as the Ellis Island for Black Americans. Once other slaves heard of freedom at Fort Monroe, slaves came flocking from all over the US to be free. Of course it is deeper than that, but that was to give you a general idea of what the history of Fort Monroe was as far as slavery was concern.
Introduction to Our Design Brief
Our design problem was to create a temporary structure or exhibit within the fort. The stages that we had to highlight were how the slaves traveled to the fort and how they arrived and then pass through the fort. These types of competition can get very symbolic and abstract, so get that type of mindset for this project. Anyway, one criteria for the project was that the public or tourists of today had to travel to the main entry by a 4 man raft or what the slaves use to call it a 
skiff. Then you had to create an event for visitors inside the fort walls or “casement”. You then had to design an experience once they left the fort walls and into the heart or of the village. This would represent the point of arrival of free slaves. Here is the website if you would like more into it http://www.2008virginiaprize.com/ I suggest you check it out. It has links to interesting articles about Black America and the design brief.
Late in the Midnight Hour
My process for this competition was to start off with a lot of RESEARCH. I knew I needed to really understand the entire context of the time period and design problem. Luckily, Hampton had a lecture from a lovely black activist woman to come talk to us, which help out tremendously. So, once I knew the story I picked out the events I wanted to highlight. Now, for me, I always have had a hard time thinking abstractly on these projects, but I think since being so frustrated on last years VA Prize I think it was a little bit more easer to just let it all go. I may not be an expert on competitions, but I do know that you need to be confident in your abilities and process thinking. Also, what is really important is to understand if you are better at drawing, computer graphics, or modeling? For my project I used all three. Knowing this will save you a lot of time and stress. Anyway back to the project. I started out with an idea that was really abstract and had a lot of symbolism in the board. I worked and I work on that first concept, until Saturday night around 1 in the morning I took a step back and looked at what I had created and saw that……..IT WAS BOO BOO… it was garbage! So, I’m like “Ahh mannn!” and I decided to change my whole board lay out and concept!! NOW, I would never suggest that you ever…ever…ever start from scratch when you have 1 an-half-days to finish you project. But some how God gave me favor and I finished.
Now I can Start
Once I gathered myself together, I started writing a small list of key words such as journey, inheritance, dismal, struggle and so on. Then mimicking that process, I made up a list of key people that help shape slavery such and General Butler and the three slave who first escaped. Then I wrote down the events that the slaves went through to freedom, and then proceed to match them with the criteria of the design brief. So all I had was a small diagram of words. Then it became connect-the-dots. I matched up the adjectives and verbs with the events. From there the words helped me create the abstraction needed for each event. I kind of broke the rules when I chose two different paths for a tourist. The reason for this was that I waned to give the people whose ancestors came from Fort Monroe a special path because it was there blood line that took the risk. So, I had them take a different rout to claim their inheritance, and the public would take a different path then blend back into to the path of the inheritance. I got a comment by someone saying that by making two paths I created segregation all over again, and I agree with that, but history hurts my friends and I think that at least the ones who suffered and scarified the most needed a special commemoration for them. So, that is why I split the tourist, from the inheritance.
How to Tell the Story
The next step was to figure out how I was I going to tell the story graphically. I flipped the presentation board from vertical to horizontal, and then looked at what the criteria fromthe design brief wanted (section, site plan, plan, and perspective). I saw the perspective as a long horizontal element; I thought it resembled a timeline. So, my section showed all the events that a person would take on this journey. I knew the section was going to be an important story telling element. I wanted it to stretch across the whole board to help the reader reference that graphic when they analyzed the rest of the story. That kicked me off in thinking about how to highlight these events, and since it was a timeline all I had to do was put little blurbs of that particular scene underneath the time line. Thus, that would mimic the dates and descriptions shown on regular time line. Once I had my board layout figured out I started to work on how I was going to graphically display those events, which would have had met the requirement of perspective for the project.
Perspective 1
I started off with the Great Dismal Swamp. For those of you who don’t know this, the three slaves had to travel at night through a dark and dangerous swamp to get to Fort Monroe. I blended different medias for this graphic because I wasn’t comfortable enough to draw a swamp, so I decided to make a model and fix it up in Photoshop later. The model only took me like ten minutes to make, so, it was a time saver and that was what I needed. As you can see it went trough different stages to get to the final project. The poles coming up out of the ground symbolized millions of slaves running to Fort Monroe and the slaves luggage carrier "if you will" (look at the first picture) blended in with the swamp. So, the number of poles are a representation of the number of slaves and gave a re-presentation of trees in the Great Dismal Swamp the swamp.
Perspective 2
From there I used the same concept of the wooden poles and put them into the “casement” (the exhibit). The catch would be that a specific amount of poles protruding and hanging from the floor and ceiling would be added. The meaning behind that was the visitor would have a specific interaction with the poles symbolizing something else which I’ll explain later. hu hu hu Ha Ha. Anyway, my twist to the project was that I would recreate and abstraction of the process the slaves took to freedom. In “laminas term” it’s a historical reenactment with people playing historical characters. Once visitors inter into the casement they are greeted by an actor who plays General Armstrong, and asks them to find their ancestors names on a very old and dusty book. Once they found their ancestors name there was a place to sign their own name next to it. This symbolized that our generation has not forgotten their struggles and sacrifices.
Perspective 3
For the last “perspective” I knew I had needed some element to put all this together, and looking at the board from last year winner I noticed he had told his story with a narrative. So, why not? I told the story from one of the inheritances point of view while going through each stage. This way it would give the audience another description of my ideas that my graphics couldn’t do. I had a Fort More militia soldier confront the narrator which end result was that he received a metal plate with the number 585 engraved on it. The meaning behind this was that he would represent a 1 contraband slave out of 585 slaves who built Fort Monroe. The narrator would continue through the different stages of the journey to the casement, until he got to the wooden poles that I had mentioned earlier. The purpose of the poles was meant for the narrative to place his number on one of the poles and to place slavery on a temporary structure (the exhibit) and live without the bondages and chains of that hardship.
The only thing left to do was put all of the components together. What I can say is that it is a tremendous advantage to know how each media can cater and lends its self in the design process. It will say you time and headache! Although I started my concept from scratch at the last minute, it just proves that these techniques can and do work. Overall I am proud of my work and it showed me how i process and produce and idea.
This board won on the local level the award of “Excellence”
I GIVE ALL THE CREDIT TO GOD
For those of you, who don’t know about the VA Prize, let me tell you what it is about. Basically it is all the architecture schools in Virginia that host a competition for architecture students. It is an annual event that is presented in the second semester of school (in January). From 1st year to thesis, each student is required to come up with an individual design for the competition. Each year one school will host the completion, last year was UVA this year Hampton University hosted the competition. All the students received the design brief at 5pm on Friday and had until 9am on Monday to turn in the design on a printed 20” x 30” board. Basically to summaries the project, in the 1800 during the time of confederates and union states, slavery was beginning its process of change. 3 slaves traveled to Fort Monroe (located in Hampton Virginia) and ended up as contrabands slaves. They refer Fort Monroe as the Ellis Island for Black Americans. Once other slaves heard of freedom at Fort Monroe, slaves came flocking from all over the US to be free. Of course it is deeper than that, but that was to give you a general idea of what the history of Fort Monroe was as far as slavery was concern.
Introduction to Our Design Brief
Our design problem was to create a temporary structure or exhibit within the fort. The stages that we had to highlight were how the slaves traveled to the fort and how they arrived and then pass through the fort. These types of competition can get very symbolic and abstract, so get that type of mindset for this project. Anyway, one criteria for the project was that the public or tourists of today had to travel to the main entry by a 4 man raft or what the slaves use to call it a 
skiff. Then you had to create an event for visitors inside the fort walls or “casement”. You then had to design an experience once they left the fort walls and into the heart or of the village. This would represent the point of arrival of free slaves. Here is the website if you would like more into it http://www.2008virginiaprize.com/ I suggest you check it out. It has links to interesting articles about Black America and the design brief.Late in the Midnight Hour
My process for this competition was to start off with a lot of RESEARCH. I knew I needed to really understand the entire context of the time period and design problem. Luckily, Hampton had a lecture from a lovely black activist woman to come talk to us, which help out tremendously. So, once I knew the story I picked out the events I wanted to highlight. Now, for me, I always have had a hard time thinking abstractly on these projects, but I think since being so frustrated on last years VA Prize I think it was a little bit more easer to just let it all go. I may not be an expert on competitions, but I do know that you need to be confident in your abilities and process thinking. Also, what is really important is to understand if you are better at drawing, computer graphics, or modeling? For my project I used all three. Knowing this will save you a lot of time and stress. Anyway back to the project. I started out with an idea that was really abstract and had a lot of symbolism in the board. I worked and I work on that first concept, until Saturday night around 1 in the morning I took a step back and looked at what I had created and saw that……..IT WAS BOO BOO… it was garbage! So, I’m like “Ahh mannn!” and I decided to change my whole board lay out and concept!! NOW, I would never suggest that you ever…ever…ever start from scratch when you have 1 an-half-days to finish you project. But some how God gave me favor and I finished.
Now I can Start
Once I gathered myself together, I started writing a small list of key words such as journey, inheritance, dismal, struggle and so on. Then mimicking that process, I made up a list of key people that help shape slavery such and General Butler and the three slave who first escaped. Then I wrote down the events that the slaves went through to freedom, and then proceed to match them with the criteria of the design brief. So all I had was a small diagram of words. Then it became connect-the-dots. I matched up the adjectives and verbs with the events. From there the words helped me create the abstraction needed for each event. I kind of broke the rules when I chose two different paths for a tourist. The reason for this was that I waned to give the people whose ancestors came from Fort Monroe a special path because it was there blood line that took the risk. So, I had them take a different rout to claim their inheritance, and the public would take a different path then blend back into to the path of the inheritance. I got a comment by someone saying that by making two paths I created segregation all over again, and I agree with that, but history hurts my friends and I think that at least the ones who suffered and scarified the most needed a special commemoration for them. So, that is why I split the tourist, from the inheritance.
How to Tell the Story
The next step was to figure out how I was I going to tell the story graphically. I flipped the presentation board from vertical to horizontal, and then looked at what the criteria fromthe design brief wanted (section, site plan, plan, and perspective). I saw the perspective as a long horizontal element; I thought it resembled a timeline. So, my section showed all the events that a person would take on this journey. I knew the section was going to be an important story telling element. I wanted it to stretch across the whole board to help the reader reference that graphic when they analyzed the rest of the story. That kicked me off in thinking about how to highlight these events, and since it was a timeline all I had to do was put little blurbs of that particular scene underneath the time line. Thus, that would mimic the dates and descriptions shown on regular time line. Once I had my board layout figured out I started to work on how I was going to graphically display those events, which would have had met the requirement of perspective for the project.
Perspective 1
I started off with the Great Dismal Swamp. For those of you who don’t know this, the three slaves had to travel at night through a dark and dangerous swamp to get to Fort Monroe. I blended different medias for this graphic because I wasn’t comfortable enough to draw a swamp, so I decided to make a model and fix it up in Photoshop later. The model only took me like ten minutes to make, so, it was a time saver and that was what I needed. As you can see it went trough different stages to get to the final project. The poles coming up out of the ground symbolized millions of slaves running to Fort Monroe and the slaves luggage carrier "if you will" (look at the first picture) blended in with the swamp. So, the number of poles are a representation of the number of slaves and gave a re-presentation of trees in the Great Dismal Swamp the swamp.
Perspective 2
From there I used the same concept of the wooden poles and put them into the “casement” (the exhibit). The catch would be that a specific amount of poles protruding and hanging from the floor and ceiling would be added. The meaning behind that was the visitor would have a specific interaction with the poles symbolizing something else which I’ll explain later. hu hu hu Ha Ha. Anyway, my twist to the project was that I would recreate and abstraction of the process the slaves took to freedom. In “laminas term” it’s a historical reenactment with people playing historical characters. Once visitors inter into the casement they are greeted by an actor who plays General Armstrong, and asks them to find their ancestors names on a very old and dusty book. Once they found their ancestors name there was a place to sign their own name next to it. This symbolized that our generation has not forgotten their struggles and sacrifices.Perspective 3
For the last “perspective” I knew I had needed some element to put all this together, and looking at the board from last year winner I noticed he had told his story with a narrative. So, why not? I told the story from one of the inheritances point of view while going through each stage. This way it would give the audience another description of my ideas that my graphics couldn’t do. I had a Fort More militia soldier confront the narrator which end result was that he received a metal plate with the number 585 engraved on it. The meaning behind this was that he would represent a 1 contraband slave out of 585 slaves who built Fort Monroe. The narrator would continue through the different stages of the journey to the casement, until he got to the wooden poles that I had mentioned earlier. The purpose of the poles was meant for the narrative to place his number on one of the poles and to place slavery on a temporary structure (the exhibit) and live without the bondages and chains of that hardship.
The only thing left to do was put all of the components together. What I can say is that it is a tremendous advantage to know how each media can cater and lends its self in the design process. It will say you time and headache! Although I started my concept from scratch at the last minute, it just proves that these techniques can and do work. Overall I am proud of my work and it showed me how i process and produce and idea.
This board won on the local level the award of “Excellence”
I GIVE ALL THE CREDIT TO GOD
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