created by Gustavo Abbott, Esther Hersh, Emmanuel Klein, Angela Perrone & Regina Vetka

After 7 weeks of studying the art of illusions, we came together to create one of our own. Between Brunelleschi, linear perspective, the rules of the visual system, and Pepper’s Ghost, narrowing down our concepts to one idea took several design meetings.

We toyed with an illusion based on the artwork of Patrick Hughes and made a small prototype. We then move on to working with the deception of color, using blue and red acrylic. Gustavo put together this prototype.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At last, we settled on a sculpture of optical illusion, inspired by this statue of Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From one specific perspective, the audience can see exactly what is meant to see, but from every other vantage point, the image would be distorted.

PROTOTYPING

A) Testing on big sticks

B) Making a small version of sticks in a single line.

 

 

 

Deciding on the image for the sculpture took us on a journey to our wise old friend, the elephant, a character with a distinct front back and sides – which led us to tackle a 4-sided sculpture design that would hang from the ceiling.

SKETCHING THE PLAN

 

 

 

 

 

CREATING THE STRUCTURE
We needed the installation to be big enough, but not too big, to hang from the ceiling of hallway between the workspace and the kitchen on the 4th Floor of 721 Broadway. Instead of doing a straight line, we decided to create a grid system on a 3’x4′ top base for 3′ long, 3/4″ square thickness sticks to be hung from.

The sticks were cut and primed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then cut the holes using the CNC machine and drilled the holes where each peg would sit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And we screwed in the pegs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

DESIGNING THE IMAGES

With the help of Esther’s magical illustrator skills, we transformed four sides of an elephant into Andy Warhol style images.

PROJECTION MAPPING

In order to get the image to appear flush but with depth, we used Isadora to projection map the images of the elephant onto the structure. The outlines were painted, the areas were filled, and the designed came to life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FINAL PHOTOS TBD