Making/Shaping III: Hurricane Lamp

Assigned:10/18/99

Working in teams of 3, design and build a hurricane lamp.

The light source is a single candle.

The lamp should allow the candle throw as much light as possible while keeping it from being blown out by the breeze blowing from a small 12" box fan.

Materials:

• Candle (8-9" tall, provided by us)
• Chip board, poster board, or Strathmore board (no corrugated cardboard)
• White paper
• Hot glue or white (Elmer¹s) glue
• 12" box fan (several provided by us, you may need to find others)

Caveats:

The lamp itself may be fastened down to prevent it from blowing over.

A basic solution may use all the materials listed above. A more elegant solution might use only paper.

A basic solution may simply cast light and protect the flame. A more elegant solution might celebrate the flows of light and heat in unexpected ways.

Suggestions and Considerations:

Even simple materials are dignified by studied workmanship. Cuts should be clean and smooth. Folds should be scored (board) or creased (paper). Glue should not spill out of joints onto surfaces. Joining should be neatly and economically done. The whole should be clean and free of smudges and fingerprints.

Map out your design process. Map out your schedule. Share ideas. Don¹t make snap judgements about what will or won¹t work. Use the Express/Test/Cycle model described in Experiences in Visual Thinking. Use tracing paper. Document your process and make it part of your presentation. Make study models. Include them in your process record.

Do your research! What kinds of historical, cultural, technical and structural precedents exist for this kind of work?

Consider the nature of flames, natural convection, laminar and turbulent flows and gradients of pressure and heat. How will you celebrate these things?

What criteria will you judge these works by?

Due Date:

Lamp presentations and testing will be in the last hour of Design Studio on Tuesday, 10/26/99.

A Final Requirement:

Eschew banality! Your hurricane lamp should be memorable (and not because it went up in flames!).

Notes on Design Process (ETC)

Graphic Ideation is generating ideas through seeing, imagining and drawing.

There are 2 modes: Exploratory and Developmental.

It's Iterative, that is, it repeats.

EXPRESSION of idea is the Tough Part. It requires:

1. Fluency (Quantity) & Flexibility (Variety) of Ideation
2. Deferred Judgement
3. Unhesitating & Immediate Response
4. Skill in Drawing

TESTING

1. Display Everything
2. Recenter –Become a constructive critic with new eyes
3. Compare
4. Evaluate with Existing Criteria
5. Develop new Criteria

CYCLE

1. Assess, then revise or change your idea-generating strategy with each cycle!