Opus Week 2

Illuminate
Webster's online dictionary defines illuminate as being intellectually or spiritually enlightened. This is apparent in our opus and in our drawing class. We are learning to illuminate objects and spaces by using vignettes to show them in their natural environments. But, by using color, texture, material, as well as, fading out we are able to put emphasis on the main focus. The Egyptians also used the idea of illumination t put emphasis on the points of the pyramids. “ In other words, the pyramid was the King’s launching place, the mountain whose gilded summit would catch the first rays of the sun, from which the soul of the pharaoh would rise to greet Ra in his eternal endeavor to ensure ma’at, the never-ending rightness of all things for his living subjects below.” (Roth 201) They accomplished this by placing limestone on the summits so that the sun would shine on them and bring attention to the importance of the afterlife.


Viking Tours


Idiom
When searching the Internet for "idiom" the first results that come up are common English sayings that we understand but when translated into other languages and cultures would make little since. For example, in English "apple of my eye" is a saying that steamed from Eve being tempted to eat the apple. thus, this saying is interpreted to mean that something or someone is fancied by another and is wanted. But this may not be interpreted the same in another culture or religion because they do not understand the meaning behind the saying. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics are another example of idioms but we are on the other end of the interpretation and do not understand. The hieroglyphic below illustrates a headless bird and it would be easy to assume that the image is literal in its meaning. This assumption would be wrong and thanks to the Rosetta Stone we know that it actually means "knife." Without the Rosetta Stone would would be close to clueless about the true meaning of most hieroglyphics.


Hieroglyphics Dictionary


Commodity Firmness Delight
Commodity is when an object or space accomplishes the task it was designed for. In drafting we were given the assignment of creaking a workspace/table/chair/server. We were asked to incorporate as many uses for the object as possible. In my model I was able to give commodity to three of the four aspects.



From what we have learned from History of Design we know the Stonehenge is an example of firmness. Although the structures have been altered in past history it is apparent that firmness has existed within the structure for the past 4,500 years.


Stonehenge

Today many designers see delight as being aesthetically pleasing along with the utility and durability. But earlier designers thought "delight in architecture had no independent existence, that beauty resulted automatically through maximizing functionality and the expression of structure" (Roth 67)

The pyramids relate to commodity, firmness and delight together. They have commodity through their use as tombs which hold mummified remains and the riches of the pharaoh that built them. They have firmness because they have lasted for over 4,000 years without too much structural damage or damage to the artifacts on the interior. Finally, they are delightful in their appearance and in their utility and durability.


Material
Material's roll in design began in the isolated communities that had limited amounts of resources at hand. Depending on the materials, the people of the community adapted and evolved their tools to accomplish their design goals. We practiced with this when we had to design Pat's Chair. Being limited to only one sheet of MDF and only the basic of tools forced us to make the design simple but function in more than one way as well as studty. This sdhowed us furst hand what it was like working with limited resorses and still creating something that had utility and firmess.