angies-creative-world27

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DIMENSIONS SPACE (3D): MIDTERM INDEX

1. THE FOREST: SUPPORTING THE BODY (RESEARCH)

2. THE FOREST: SUPPORTING THE BODY (RENDER)

3. THE FOREST: SUPPORTING THE BODY (PROCESS)

4. THE FOREST: SUPPORTING THE BODY (FINAL)

5. MINIMAL ACTIONS: FRAMING THE BODY (HOME DEPOT AS SITE)

6. MINIMAL ACTIONS: FRAMING THE BODY (RENDER)

7. MINIMAL ACTIONS: FRAMING THE BODY (PROCESS)

8. MINIMAL ACTIONS: FRAMING THE BODY (FINAL)

9. 1:1: MEASURING THE BODY (FINAL)

10. THINGS THAT PERFORM: COVERING THE BODY (PROCESS)

11. THINGS THAT PERFORM: COVERING THE BODY (FINAL)

12.  THINGS THAT PERFORM: COVERING THE BODY (IN THE WORLD FINAL)

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Things that Perform: In the World

By: Angelina Couto

Title: Bound by Chaos

Medium/Materials: iPhone camera and editing software (iMovie).

Dimensions: 1014 x 588 (Video clip), 4248 x 5712 (Photos)

Bound by Chaos explores anxiety, loneliness, and the invisible cost of separation. The piece, which was made from recycled trash, represents the physical and emotional remains of what is left behind. I created a structure that seems both stable and about to collapse. The disorganized construction, held together with glue, is a metaphor for how we insecurely maintain our unity in the face of internal conflict. It examines the conflict between presence and invisibility through performances in brief, impersonal locations, such as the hotel hallway, elevator, and parking lot. By integrating the sculpture into these commonplace settings, I challenge the ways in which we conceal ourselves while feeling cut off from the outside world.

As a transitional area that is limited, detached, and sometimes uncanny silent, the hotel hallway (first location) made sense in the setting of Bound by Chaos. Hotels are transitional spaces where people come and go but seldom develop deep relationships. This is similar to the feeling of loneliness, which is the ability to be among others without really being seen. Being a liminal space-one of mobility, change, and fleeting encounters-—the elevator (second location) made sense in this setting. Similar to loneliness, it symbolizes a small yet transient setting where one is surrounded by people but separated from it. Because moods rise and fall, just like the elevator's movement, the elevator also represents behavioral issues. The parking lot (third location) made sense since it is a transitional, in-between area that is neither a real location nor a place where one can stay. It frequently reflects feelings of loneliness that arise in the voids of daily life by being lifeless, impersonal, and expansive. Like garbage left behind, people may feel ignored or abandoned in these areas, wandering aimlessly. In addition to serving as an indefinite waiting area, the parking lot's chilly area complemented the piece's themes of isolation by highlighting the fleeting nature of both abandoned items and moods.

In the video, I decided to put all my three clips together and form a mini movie relating to my topic about how society under values individuals making that person feel like "trash".

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Things that Perform: Final Documentation

By: Angelina Couto

Title: Bound by Chaos

Medium/Materials: Hot glue, box, small and big plastic plates, plastic bags of different colors, pink, yellow, and blue ribbons, plastic red cups, reused white fabric, water bottle, water bottle caps, and cut up paper towels.

Dimensions: 35"(L) x 29"(W) x 16"(H)

My piece Bound by Chaos uses recycled materials to explore belonging, chaos, and metamorphosis. The sculpture creates a congested, chaotic mess out of boxes, plastic plates, bags, ribbons, red cups, fabric, water bottles, caps, and shredded paper towels using hot glue as an adhesive and a metaphor of fragile connection. These components, which are frequently viewed as trash, reflect societal sentiments of wastefulness. Vibrant hues surface from the debris, upending ideas of worth and trash. The piece reclaims abandoned pieces and transforms them into something powerful in this orderly chaos, illustrating the conflict between acceptance and rebirth. The conflict between being subjected and hiding is reflected in the layering of textures and hues, which echoes the sensation of being viewed as "trash" in society. This piece tackles the natural beauty and resiliency found in things that are frequently disregarded or ignored while also speaking about mental health, namely the desire to hide away from it all.

I really enjoyed making this project out of recycled items and as well, make its purpose out of it which relates to society's point of view. I hope that my piece stands out in some way as to understand the feeling of hiding away for your own peace.

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Things that Perform: Process

By: Angelina Couto

This is my process of my Things That Perform: Covering the Body. I decided to cover my head and chest to hide away from everybody and the universe. I like to be alone and at peace most of the time. I wanted the box to be the base of my piece so it can hold all other recycled clean trash from my house and reused materials from past projects. This piece emerged from an intuitive and chaotic approach since my past two projects were neat and tidy. I also want to focus on vibrant colors like plastic bags to grab the audience's attention to the piece.

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Minimal Actions: Framing the Body (Final Submission)

By: Angelina Couto

Title: The Fort Shelly

Medium/Materials: Wood, screws, hot glue, white fabric (5 yards), blue and white lace fabric, cardboard, pillow, plushie, blanket, towel, Doritos chips, M&Ms, a book, artificial mini plants, artificial seashells, LED candles, star lights, & square mirror tiles.

Dimensions: 2 ft x 3 ft

It is a wooden fort that serves as both a practical structure and a private haven. Constructed from wood, screws, and hot glue, the fort has small shelves to hold both cute miniature items and abstract ideas. The pillow, blanket, plushie, and towel provide warmth and a feeling of comfort, while five yards of white cloth surround the fort, providing a soft, welcoming barrier. Seashells, blue and white lace fabric, and fake miniature plants all help to bring the beach motif to life while capturing the tranquility and spaciousness of beach settings. The serene ambiance is further enhanced by the soft, surrounding illumination produced by LED candles and star lights. Personalized touches like a book, M&Ms, and Doritos chips combine the fort's fantasy retreat with normal convenience. Reflecting the environment and the self, square mirror tiles and a cardboard mirror framed in them encourage reflection. This fort's construction was a practice in placing my body in an area that felt flexible and preserved, which is what I exactly imagined.

By emphasizing the verb "to store," my project investigates how physical spaces may house not just objects but also memories, feelings, and facets of identity, establishing a private haven that unites the material and eternal. It serves as a real and figurative refuge for ideas, recollections, and feelings in addition to tangible items. The more I worked on my piece, I realized that there is another verb interpreted, “to enclose”. It is enclosing my entire body by entering through the space of the fort criss-crossed.

I truly enjoyed making this project. The challenges made it more fun to make!

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Minimal Actions: Framing the Body (Process)

By: Angelina Couto

This is my Framing the Body (Process). I am finished with the wood section but not finished adding together my additional materials. My additional materials have been purchased but will be set up on my next working session day. My idea is to create a fort with shelves to store items. The main material being wood to hold as the base. My additional materials including white fabric, led star lights, led candles, blankets, plushies, homemade mirror, seashells and tiny plants for decor, etc. These add ons will definitely make my piece come alive and really give the presentation a comfy, relaxing, "store your thoughts" fort along with storing cute items on the wooden shelves with hot glue to keep in place.

So far, this project has been fun to create. It was my first time ever using wood to make a structure and using a drill with screws to keep the wood pieces in place. It was a challenge at first since I was new to the material but as soon as I got the hang of using the wooden machineries and drill, it got easier and more exciting to put together.

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Measuring the Body (Final)

By: Angelina Couto

Title: Measuring the Body in 3 Ways Representing Childhood Nostalgia

Medium/Materials: Suitcase, paper towels, cleaning bucket, hat, water bottle, two boxes, tin can, vacuum, & Christmas wrapping paper roll (Video #1). Backyard chair, plant, spray can, small rake, big rake, & basketball (Video #2). Snoopy plushie (Video #3).

Using items as memory routes, this study investigates the relationship between one's past and location. In the first clip, my garage, which housed everything necessary for my previous travels and everyday routines, blends recollections of my early childhood with the present. Items like my household supplies, hat, and suitcase evoke feelings of duty and remembrance. The smell of lemon cleaning solutions reminds me of my mother's continual cleaning, and the luggage connects the past and present. In the second clip, I'm in my backyard, a place of pure delight. Three silent reminders of summertime family time are a rake, a basketball, and a patio chair. My creative courts were made by my father's raking, and my secret hideaway was marked with spray paint. In the third clip, I go back to my childhood comforts in the CVS toy and painting aisles. My item of choice, Snoopy, represents the purity of play and imaginative dreams of a child. By using perspective, I highlight Snoopy's importance and bring him up to my level. This project connects with personal history inside familiar surroundings by transforming commonplace things into remembrance of time.

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Minimal Actions: Framing the Body (Render) 

By: Angelina Couto

These are my 15 sketches of structures that Frame the Body. It was a challenge to gather my ideas and see which verb fits best for those thoughts. I mainly sketched out the basics of each idea but I really want to focus on the verb "to store". I want to create something to not just store stuff but to also store your thoughts in a safe, relaxing place. My first sketch is exactly what I'm talking about. It'll be kind of like a fort but with storage organization on the top. The bottom will mainly be the comfort of the individual. Along with outside materials to enhance the piece, I believe that this will be a cool project to complete. The other materials will create things that are in a bed or in a room, feeling the safeness and comfort of your own place.

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Minimal Actions: Framing the Body (Home Depot as Site)

By: Angelina Couto

For my Minimal Actions project, I was instructed to visit Home Depot and construct 5 sculptures in 5 different situations meanwhile using the materials within that area. I went and experimented with different items and visualized what would fit best. I explored inside the store and outside section (gardening isles). As I was experimenting, I had realized how hard it can be to just gather random items and create a sculpture that looks interesting and hopefully have a purpose. Though I had some sketches with ideas, I noticed that being at the store and looking at so many different items was better to investigate what I was really looking for. My first piece was utilizing sample paint cards to create rainbow petals and used a stick for the stem to create a flower. My second piece was gathering paint brushes with buckets to represent the idea of what materials are required to paint. My third piece was to mainly focus on shapes; it looks like a window or towers seen in a midget perspective. My fourth piece was to represent a fort that a child made (seen in green) as to represent nostalgia. My fifth piece was collecting different size pots and make a snake slithering out of it.

It was a challenge to gather these materials and form interesting shapes and meanings to portray something. I did feel a sense of awkwardness as I started creating my first sculpture but by my last sculpture, I felt a little more comfortable within the public area. This project really pushed me to go out more into the real world and not be scared to show my talent to the public.

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The Forest Project: Supporting the Body (Final Submission)

By: Angelina Couto

Title: The Leafline

Medium/Materials: Cardboard, utility knife, additional utility blades, & measuring tape.

Dimensions: "40 1/2"L x "7 3/4"W x "10 1/2"H

Through this project, cardboard is reimagined as a structural component that can support weight theoretically and in reality, rather than as a material that can be thrown away. The design strikes a balance between fluidity and stiffness, reflecting the conflict between natural vulnerability and human contact, and is motivated by the inherent durability and curve of the long leaves. I investigated issues of adaptability, change, and durability by putting my body weight on a temporary framework that seemed impossible to hold. At the center of sculpture, where mistakes is just as revealing as achievement and creation turns into a demonstration of confidence in materialism, the piece was a success to not just for myself, but for my audience. This technique focuses on change, diligence, and support for my body.

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The Forest Project: Supporting the Body (Process)

By: Angelina Couto

This project consists of creating a structure that will support my body at rest (in this case, seated). My natural structure is a long leaf seen in the forest. Leaves have cool and interesting shapes and sizes. The ends of my leaves are teared to allow for texture since leaves rip from time to time. I think this project was interesting and challenging to make. It was required to not add any adhesives. That was my biggest challenge. I wanted to create something not so big to hold its stability and at the same time, look abstract and intriguing. My main focus was to make sure the slots weren't cut so wide so it can be more secured. It took me time to cut the bigger pieces as well as figure out how many pieces I needed to hold the stem in shape of the leaves. I used 1 1/2 pieces of cardboard which the class supplied me with. I also focused on making my shapes simple and eye-catching. The measurements are exact for each leaf and stem. If I had the opportunity to redo this project, I would scale it bigger on width and height and allow for two seatings rather than one individual. Though this project was a challenge, it was still fun and cool to experiment with a new medium and expand upon ideas I never knew could work.

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The Forest: Supporting the Body (Render)

By: Angelina Couto

These are my 10 sketches for supporting the body with a natural structure. Each sketch shows some visualization of how the cardboard pieces will be in place and its structures. I am mainly thinking of going with #5. It is a longer leaf with its unique style. Thinking of making it medium sized for one seater.

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The Forest: Supporting the Body (Research)

By: Angelina Couto

"The Changing Butterfly"

This piece is representing all the beautiful, unique colors and patterns every butterfly has. This project is based on 50 research images relating to nature and structure. As all the 50 butterflies are showing, it reverses back to where it started. Nature, which embodies phases, variety, and harmony, is the linked network of living and non-living components that support life on Earth. We have a mutual and transformational connection with nature, both influencing and being influenced by its processes while also relying on it for existence. The complex interaction between form and purpose in a butterfly's life cycle is highlighted by the fact that certain structures, such as a flower, serve vital purposes like protection during transformation, in which connects to nature.