My collection has grown a further few head gear.
Green Beret – Possibly from the Falklands
M1 Helmet – World War 2 United States of America Replica with Easy Company Para Regiment Badge
Deer Stalker – As seen famously worn by Sherlock Holmes
Flat Cap – Harris Tweed belongs to a Joe Taylor
Sailor Cap – Replica bought from the lake district probably used for fancy dress
Images follow:
My Collection
Throughout history exists hundreds and thousands of different designs for headwear. From Helmets and hairnets to Fedoras and flat caps, the simple ‘hat’ can change a person’s stature. I have decided to start a collection of historic headgear, which brings iconic connotations and takes its owner back in time.
Starting with the classic British army standard issue Beret, part of the British military uniform popularized by Field Marshal Montgomery as a badge of elite units in the British army during the 1920s.
I found this a challenging brief. I approached the project similarly to the last ‘Sheet Material’ Project and looked at the social aspects. I wanted to address the issue of social awkwardness. I explored social conventions and adult games, I did not want to take path of a drinking game, as I did not find it challenging enough so I looked at festivals. My outcome was ‘Venice Carnival in a box’ a game-involving Masquerade used to eliminate awkwardness by creating a something everyone could relate too. I was pleased with the outcome. The Product was but I found the overall idea worked. It is a project I would like to continue and craft into a beautiful one off piece to keep on my mantle.
I started this project fascinated at the strongest shapes you could create with sheet materials, so I created a segment from the NASA solar sail out of paper using a guide on the Internet. After working with strong triangular 2 dimensional shapes I came across a documentary on the BBC ‘Human Planet’ which had a segment about natural bridges. I began exploring into ‘building integrated agriculture’, ‘green walls’ and ‘hydroponics’. I then came up with the idea of an ‘urban hedge’. This is my conceptual idea to create stainless steel structures in dense urban areas and allow vegetation to dominate the structure to benefit the surrounding areas. If I were to continue I would look into creating emergency makeshift farms to provide a continuous source of food for disaster hit areas.
Storage of excitement causes the explorer to discover this over elaborate design. Once the function is discovered you celebrate with a spring of joyous excitement yet slight disappointment, as ultimately the function is simple but the design is complex. As if NASA quit their day Job and designed an Ashtray…
An over designed over elaborate range of simple products as if designed by NASA. The idea is to create a form of design which evokes the consumer to discover the product. The Product is shrouded in mystery due to the complexity of the design although its task is simple.
Over Elaborate Over Engineered contraptions and inventions.
Rube Goldberg is best known for his series of cartoons depicting complex gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. These devices, now known as Rube Goldberg Machines. the internet is filled with rube Goldberg machines. The Band ‘Ok Go’ famously realised this music video of a rube Goldberg machine ‘http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w’ w’
W. Heath Robinson was an Enlgish cartoonist and illustrator also best know for drawing s of eccentric machines, like Rube Goldberg. In the UK the term “Heath Robinson” has entered the language as a description of any unnecessarily complex and implausible contraptions, similar to “Rube Goldberg” of the United States.
“Springing” (Action)
1. To move or jump suddenly upward or forward.
2.To move rapidly or suddenly from a constrained position by or as if by the action of spring.
Spring… An interesting word at the least. In mechanical terms a spring is a device that stores energy when a force is applied and when the force is released so is the energy. The same quite goes for the action too for example ‘You wake up and check the time, you realise your late for work by quite some time so you ‘spring’ out of bed and rush for work.’ the action is a sudden release of energy in a person.
I want to create something that will induce the action of springing. Wether it be by scaring people rapidly forcing them loudly and upwards or it be by creating a feeling of rushing to see something. I plan to study people to see what makes them ‘spring’. Hopefully for the exhibition I will have a ‘Rube Goldberg’ Esq over elaborate machine over engineered to spark the action of springing.
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While exploring the internet about cooperation through communication in the animal kingdom, i came across the popular maxim about the three wise monkeys. The three monkeys are Mizaru, covering his eyes who sees no evil. Kikazaru, covering his ears who hears no evil and Iwazaru, covering his mouth who speaks no evil. It originated from 17th century Japan. It was carverd onto one of the 8 panels of the ‘Tōshō-gū’ shrine in ‘Nikkō’. The panels may have been carved by ‘Hidari Jingoro’ a japanese scupltist/artist. it was beleived that he carved them to explain a code of conduct by a chinese philosopher called ‘Confucius’ which represent mans life cycle. it has many different interpretations but the main idea is about being influenced by evil. if you do not read listen or speak about evil you cant be influenced by it.
I am thinking about adapting this story or idea into a toy or form of game involving communication and cooperation. 
Cooperation is the process of working together, in its simples forms it involves things working in ‘Harmony’, side by side, while in more complicated forms it can be something as complex as muscles contracting and relaxing in the human body or even the innards of a computer to the social pattern of a nation. Cooperation is seen as the alternate as working competitively or even working independently.
I have decided that my toy will involve cooperation. You must work cooperatively to achieve a universal goal. Similar to games such as Charades and Pictionary to communicate to one another through a certain means other than talking.
I am going to look into how animals use cooperation in their lives, They use cooperation to achieve survival. for example an ant colony has different types of ant all working together using their individual skills to keep the colony alive. worker ants are the backbone of the colony making up the majority they are the ones who carry the food to and from the nest. scouts source the food for the worker ants who leave a scent for the worker ants to follow, and finally the queen populates the colony and survives off the food the worker ants supply. This is one of the most obvious forms of collaboration in the animal kingdom. I want to look in paticular at how animals Communicate to each other and use communication to pass important infomration to one another. 
