COGITATION
VIRTUAL SKETCHBOOK
This virtual sketchbook is a record of the stages of the design and making of Cogitation and is intended to summarise the process. It includes photographs and videos of some of the various samples I made. The samples themselves, as well as more detailed information, are in my physical sketchbook.
As a starting point for this piece, I used a photograph of some old bell mechanisms which were in a church in Venice. First, I drew the cog shapes and then made some paper cutouts which I scanned and manipulated in Paint Shop Pro. Then I cut out more and added some texture with gesso, gold spray paint, crackle medium and black paint. I combined this scan with a background that originated in my earlier work with pylon patterns (rubbings from folded paper scanned in and given a new colour scheme). I filled a layer with a metallic gold colour and masked it with the cog shapes so they took on that colour and are slightly transparent.
The second picture is the result of playing with preset displacement maps. I like the way the shapes extend out of the background in this one.
Finally, a black and white study to look at layering the shapes. This is just the scan copied and pasted on top of itself, offset and cropped, with the layers given different amounts of transparency. To make the shapes clearer and give more depth. I added drop shadows.
I used this design to develop ideas and samples for a wallhanging but then decided not to pursue it for this project as it was too similar in style to my first assessment piece.
After going back to my earlier notes in the sketchbook, I started to think about making moving pieces and applying them to combinations of the black and white study. Mounting them on brass fasteners, I played with the movement and experimented with placing the pivot off centre, allowing the cogs to overlap as they turned. I considered whether to make the cogs 'real', i.e. able to turn each other once the first one started moving, but decided that this would limit how I could make them, because of the need for them to be accurate and robust. My decision was to use clock movements to power the cogs individually. This was also the point at which it became clear that this would be more suitable for 'a piece using metallic effects', as required in the syllabus, than a hanging.
For the background, I used a sheet of copper rescued from a skip. It is about 31cm by 48cm in size (a little longer and thinner than A3) and came to me already scratched and slightly bent. I left it outside for some weeks so that it became even more distressed and edged in verdigris. At this stage I was still thinking of using the black and white design over the background, and tried various layouts with my original textured card cogs on top, but I felt it made the design too busy and opted for keeping the backgound plain.
I initially hoped to make all the parts from metal, but experimenting with mounting shapes on the clock movements and letting them run convinced me that it would either be too heavy for the hands to turn or, if thinner, too floppy to keep its shape.
I also spent some time working in my sketchbook considering how to treat the edges of the metal and used time-lapse photography to record how the cogs move over time - as they would be mounted off-centre, I needed to be sure they would not collide. This first video of a card mock-up is only a few seconds long but it gave an idea of how it would work.
At this point, the design was interesting but did not include any stitch and the background was not right so, for a second time, I needed to take a step back and rethink where it was going. I made some samples using soluble fabrics and threads and then tried lutradur to make additional shapes for the background, but it was still not right. Eventually, I realised that the moving cogs could be broken fragments, and this provided the inspiration I needed to carry on.
The moving parts are made from layers of stitched lutradur and pelmet vilene. I made a large piece with lines of gold stitching and various paints and dyes (detailed notes are in my physical sketchbook) then cut out the shapes and distressed them with a heat gun, burning back the lutradur. Finally, I added a lot of handstitching for texture. The background cogs are made the same way with lutradur but no vilene backing. I pinned them onto soluble fabric and joined with machine stitching, then laid them on the copper sheet before dissolving. I did not completely dissolve the fabric, leaving enough to let the lutradur stick to the metal, and also brushed some of the colour off the cogs onto the spaces on the background.
The pictures show how the clock movements were fitted to the back and battens applied so the metal stands away from the wall when it is hung. The clock movements have spindles of different lengths to allow the parts to overlap without touching as they turn. Each cog is turning as a minute hand.
I made another film as I worked on the piece, again using time-lapse to show the movement over the course of an hour. In reality, you can hardly see the movement unless you stare at the cogs. Watching this film, I realised that although I liked the way the cogs converge and separate, it lacked a focal point, so I added a line of red stitching which joins into a circle at certain times in the cycle. Below is the final film of Cogitation mounted and running.
My idea is that this is a very old piece of machinery that is just slowy running until it finally dies, achieving nothing. The cogs still working have worn through less than the ones underneath that have stopped, but bits have broken off over time as the metal has worn and flaked. Who can say what the purpose of the machine is or the significance of the red circle?
Conclusion and Ideas for Future Development
Although I am very happy with the finished piece, there are always ways of improving and devloping ideas. Using the recycled metal makes this a one-off piece, however if I were to make something similar in future I would consider the following points
1) using a different way of making parts move, for example handles, springs or motors, and ways to vary the speed.
2) sourcing clock movements with a higher torque so that I could use heavier materials, e.g. metal shim, or ones which run in reverse.
3) quieter clock movements - I like the ticking and it fits the idea of the machine running, but it does limit where it can be hung as some people find it irritating.
As mentioned earlier, the preliminary sketchbook work generated a number of designs which could be developed into a series of finished pieces on the same theme.
January 2010
