Tourism Package - Change of Plans

After thinking about the amount of work that would go into creating assets for my Silo tour package, I've decided to do something a bit more personal.

I'm going to do a detailed tour of Yosemite, in particular the Panorama Hike. My husband and I did that hike on our honeymoon last year and got some great photos. I was shooting with my panasonic t3 most of the trip, so I have detailed location information embedded in the metadata of the images.

I am still working on the main illustration for my poster (which will be a line drawing illustration) but have been playing with text ideas. I'm using clipping masks in Illustrator to fill my text with photos that I have taken. This is nowhere near the final version, but this is what I have been working on so far.

Just a tip, if you are going to do the Panorama hike, might I suggest the alternate route of the John Muir trail to the valley. The Mist Trail is panic inducing, even if you aren't afraid of heights. Imagine a stairway with a rickety handrail that is wide enough for one person to be on at a time. Now image dozens of people trying to go both up and down the stairway at the same time. All while on wet, slippery rocks.

Poster ideas

My tourist package ideas have been largely centered around one of my favorite series, The Silo Series (WOOL, SHIFT & DUST) by Hugh Howey. Taking place in the future, humanity has been relegated to living in underground silos. The world is closely controlled, with "cleanings" looming over the society as punishment for dissent and any thoughts of (or initiation of) uprising or questioning authority. "Cleanings" are a death sentence where the accused is sent out into the inhospitable world (or so they have been told for generations).

If you haven't read these, I suggest you do so immediately (or at least as soon as school is out because I couldn't stop reading when each volume came out!). I downloaded his new series, SAND, as soon as it came out but I haven't had a chance to sit down and read since I have so much shitty reading to do for school).

My ideas are as follows:

1. A tour package from the lowers (where the mechanics and workers keep the silos running) to the mids (the middle class - farmers, couriers, etc.). Perhaps it's what we would consider an eco-tourist package where people pay to go have the "farming" experience (check out WWOOF - It's a thing). Though now that I type this idea out, it seems more like something that folks from the uppers would do (uppers are the upper class - IT, government, etc).

2. A tour package based on the stories of old (the people of the silos have never been outside, nor were they aware of the existence of anyone outside of their world). A level of the silo has been developed to have a viewing station that presents images of the old world. People can save their chits (currency) to take virtual tours of a world that no longer exists.

3. Tourism between silos. The silo world began with 50 silos (for 50 states). Over the years, some have been eradicated (gassed by leadership due to insurgency and dissent) or through human nature. Eventually some silos began to communicate and create tunnels underground to move between silos. Each silo may have retailed details of the culture of the state they sprung from.

4. The outside world has recovered enough to venture outside. The silo dwellers can tour the dilapidated, vegetation covered ruins of what used to be the United States (eventually they may be able to venture "international travel" but knowledge of vehicles and mechanized travel has largely been lost over hundreds of years of no travel aside from up and down endless flights of stairs).

The Art of Tourism

Our final project is actually one of the more exciting (though it will be time consuming) of the semester. I can't wait to design and print my souvenir! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I did a bit of research on artists that utilize tourism or some aspect of tourism in their work.

The first thing I came across was a blog post from 2008 about an exhibit in Frankfurt at schirn-kunsthalle called All Inclusive:A Tourist World. The post had me intrigued.

Ho-Yeol Ryu, Airport, 2005

Ho-Yeol Ryu's Flughafen is a great digital compilation of images supposedly taken at Hannover airport. I did find an interesting "debunking" of the image components from an aviation expert but the image is pretty cool nonetheless.

Another image featured was Crowd by Eva Grubinger.

Eva Grubinger Crowd 2007

This installation separated portions of the exhibit hall and people were forced to walk through the queue as though they were moving through a crowded area. 

NL Architects  caught my attention because their work is playful and fun. I normally can't stand architects (they are so smug - a lot like graphic designers, but that is for another post another time). Their actual architectural work isn't super awesome, but they have a series of "virtual realities" that are pretty cool. 

NL Architects Flower Power: Power Plant 2006

Outside Event - Autodesk Gallery/3D Hubs Meetup & Mixer

For outside event #1 for the semester, my husband and I attended the 3D Hubs mixer at the Autodesk Gallery at 1 Market Street (2nd floor).

We have been working with 3D Hubs for a while now (though their print on demand system is not the most user friendly and presents problems with getting paid for work) and they had an afternoon of software presentation and a panel of speakers in the evening to celebrate their collaboration with Autodesk 123D products (essentially the Autodesk API has 3D Hubs as an integrated print source allowing users to print directly to a 3D Hubs user).

Personally I don't use most of the 123D apps because they are limited to iPad platforms (which I think does a huge disservice to the community on the whole because most of the time "makers" are big on open source (running linux homebrew machines) or PCs and a lot of designers don't use Mac products because there have been limited comprehensive design software for Mac until recently).

I do use TinkerCAD (as does my husband) for a lot of design work, which was acquired by Autodesk last year. There are a number of reasons I love TinkerCAD and when I was teaching, I was working on a curriculum to teach it to elementary school kids.

The afternoon consisted of TinkerCAD and MeshMixer presentations (TinkerCAD is a web based CAD program and MeshMixer is sculpt/paint/print program I haven't played much with but it's on my list of explorations).

We didn't attend the afternoon tutorial sessions (but we did print a bunch of swag for 3D Hubs).

Ultimately the most interesting part of the entire event was the Autodesk Gallery itself. As an artist with a background in industrial design, I feel that products can be art. The process of developing an idea is just the same as developing artistic ideas. They had an amazing range of things from 3D printed objects (and an Objet SLS printer), giant Lego sculptures, various prototypes and mock ups of vehicles and products and more. You really should check it out. They are open to the public on Wednesday and Friday each week.

Augmented Bodies - Project and Thoughts

First I'd like to comment on how interesting it was to discuss augmented bodies with the group and hear others thoughts on ideas and current body modifications.

A few things I found interesting was the reaction most had to the idea of men getting muscle implants or having ball bearings inserted in the penis. Most people seemed really disgusted at the idea of the modifications that men are currently undergoing, yet no one really gives a second thought to the ways that women have been "augmenting" their bodies for hundreds of years. Consider foot binding and corsets among the early ways that women augmented their bodies to fit the fashion of the period. Fast forward to the modern era and now we have breast implants, butt implants, lip implants, cheek bone implants and more. And that is just the list of augmentations in the realm of plastic surgery.

No one seems to think twice about how "gross" it is when women are inserting foreign bodies into themselves to create a more perfect appearance, yet there was much discussion about how it was lazy of men to get muscle implants instead of hitting the gym.

An interesting observation.

There was also some discussion about the appropriation of various "traditional" body modifications by the western world such as tattooing, branding, the filing of teeth, gauging of lips/ears/septum, etc. It brought up some interesting thoughts on appropriation of another culture's tradition and ceremony, but it was hard to really take a stance on is it wrong or is it right. I'm not entirely certain where I stand on the thought. I have some tattoos, most of which are related in some way to life events or rights of passage. I admit I have a few that I got "just because I could" but most of them hold deep meaning to me.

On to the assignment!

The idea I ended up working with was the idea of a parasitic relationship between humans and the earth. As the host, the earth began working to rid itself of the parasites (humans) through excretion of toxins that is triggered with the presence of a human.

Working with the idea of gene splicing and genetically modified organisms, I took the idea one step further. What if the modification of genetic material could allow "shape shifting" to be utilized as camouflage from triggering the release of toxins?

Parasite
par·a·site
ˈparəˌsīt
noun 

1. an organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense.

Consider the parasitic relationship between humans and the earth. Imagine a world where the Earth (host) begins working to rid itself of the humans (parasites) through excretion of toxins triggered by the presence of a human.

Working with the ideas of gene splicing and genetically modified organisms, what if these ideas were taken one step further? What if the manipulation of genetic material could allow for "shape shifting" to be utilized as camouflage from extermination/detection?

Original Image

Modified Image

Modified image placed in scene