Hi all....

Background

I’m Marj, from Singapore. After high school, I became a nurse, but back home, nurses are treated like, I don’t know,

sewer cleaners, so decided to come to the States to study to be a neurosurgeon in '02.

Halfway through pre-med, I ended up changing my major to Film Productions.

Got an A.A in that, considered culinary school (still am), somehow decided to transfer hereinto the media program.

My favourite class was VIS 147A-- electronic art, where we got to build cool circuits and stuff ; I'm a hands-on person, so I'm ecstatic about this class .

WOOHOO!

~*~*~  

Below's my practicum proposal...

                     ~Function of Art In Architectural Forms That Promote Social Interaction and Communication~

              I chose this project because I am interested in understanding how do people react to the designs of architectural space and their surroundings. Since transferring to UCSD two years ago, I have always observed the vast unused greenery around campus and often wondered what could be placed there to attract more interaction amongst students and/or faculty. The lack of seating around the Price Centre areas, especially during lunchtime, further aroused my inquisitiveness towards what else can be done in those spaces.

            Personally, I have a strange attachment to the eucalyptus plot between Mandeville and Geisel Library; the way the light falls in there is as surreal to me as a Monet painting, and I have always wished that there was something there, like a skate ramp, hammocks, swings or benches that would bring people there to enjoy that space that everyone only walks through to get to places, but rarely appreciate. At the same time, I am also curious to find out if certain colors, shapes, textures as well as placement of particular objects within an architectural space would encourage or discourage social gatherings.

                                          (The following images are from my VIS 111 Project for Architectural Interventions)

           The goal of this project is to track, measure and record the usage of architectural interventions in these unused spaces using interventions like a small half-pipe and mobile benches. The usage of a half-pipe would serve two functions, 1) allow skaters to ride between classes, while preserving the concrete pavements and stairs on campus, and 2) to continue with the theme of making use of seemingly unused spaces on campus. The mobile benches would be made of different materials, some with textiles, some painted of varying colors. Some benches would have a built-in IPOD filled with a large selection of music in it, encouraging the user to actually interact with the bench itself. A pressure sensor would be fitted into these benches and the half-pipe, which would record the number of people using it, the time of day and the length of time it was used.

          The student and faculty body at UCSD would be impacted by this project because it would (temporarily) relieve them of the lack of seating situation. The study of what sort of seats appealed most to the subjects could also suggest what designs could be considered, should a more permanent seating arrangement be built in future. At UCSD, the students are known to be rather anti-social.The half-pipe could be a place for skaters at school to socialize, inter-mingle, and meet different students outside of their dorms, majors and colleges. However, since there is another group that is going to work on the tracking of mobile bench research project, and since my ideas are rather similar, Derek suggested I collaborated with them;or another possibility would be to team-up with Sarah McClelland, who would be doing her project on the built-in IPOD in the benches. Either way, I had assimilated both the group's, as well as Sarah's ideas into my above proposal as the decision has not been confirmed.The end product of this project would be a research paper that will show the seating preferences of the general UCSD population, and/or a study of social movement and interactivity at the half-pipe, that will enable a clear understanding of how art in architectural forms, can function as a tool to promote social communication and interactivity.