the first exercise of the semester was designed as an introduction to understanding infrastructure, in all its complexities. the exercise was called studioblock, a block 8" x 8" x 4" with 12 varying geometric volumes all containing ruled surfaces, was developed by catie in rhino3d and distributed democratically throughout the studio.
the mission was to develop an infrastructural language within our own piece to then attach to the larger block, these attachments were to be negotiated between neighbors and fellow community followers. the infrastructure we were to develop had a single stipulation involved, a marble had to either be contained within your system, or had to travel through yours and into a neighbors; somewhere, somehow, marbles were to move from place to place and experience the infrastructural changes and degradations.
for my project, playing with marbles reminded me a childhood favorite, kerplunk. a game consisting of a clear chamber with plastic sticks running throughout creating a base where as you pull the sticks out of the chamber the marbles begin to fall through. this idea was carried through into my parasite. i call it a parasite, cause thats exactly what it is. my take for the assignment was to keep all my marbles in my basket, no one gets out, no one gets in. for some of my neighbors this was a saddening moment, for they would not be able to implement their motives for marble passages/movement, for me this was a success!
i used eight marbles, all of which were captured within the basswood sticks as though they were in their own pods. in order to make a connection to my neighbors, 3 sides, vaughn, john, and chris all got stabbed by me, no joints were created, no locking mechanism invented, simply put, i shoved some of the sticks protruding out of my model into me fellow studioblockers. in this regard i am the parasite, i am the one who wants to intrude into the other spaces, but not negotiate, leave no room for talk, no room for motion, nothing. there is no give nor take in this game for me, i latch on and enjoy the ride!
near the end of the exercise i began to think of this project as an inhabitable space, pavilion like, sculptural, interactive, yet static. i wondered what it might be like to crawl through the criss-crossing sprawl found within the system, and to meander in and out of the structural members planted firmly in the ground beneath our feet, like weaving through pylons outside on rollerblades, it could be quite something if planned appropriately for the human scale.
