We know we’ll be working with video and physical material for this project to tell much larger stories/threads about the site. Joining the two is a fun challenge. Here is a thought:
Videos should try to show how we stumbled on the object/story/material at this point in its lifecycle(s), and then how much of our understanding of the material is by association of knowing the thread history.
It would be great to make people feel something for these found objects. Maybe the videos can create more meaning for the material and processes used to make the design models. There is the ability to humanize inanimate things in film (see Wilson from castaway, Robert from Rubber) – it would be fun to kind of do that but not all the way where it makes a mockery of things. But these materials do kind of live – we say they have “lifecycles” they are part of processes over time, they’re created, they age, they die somewhere, their matter is reorganized into other stuff.
Thinking in terms of this in a video timeline format – we could show the discovery of the thread character/model material in the recent past. The model making is kind of the present, while the design is the future? All of the stories about how the material got to where it is in the opening “discovery scene” are flashbacks.
For 4.24, we could show a 2-3 minute video for each thread. These videos really just introduce the model material, the most prominent processes/history, and then transition to the design.
We could then put the longer shows online (director’s cut) that really explore these threads. Maybe the materials have some costars, could definitely go more in depth in the processes and history, and we could let the day in the life of the steel box (for instance) breathe more. This might help our deconstructions/abstractions (characteristics and processes) relate to these big stories.
BASICALLY WE NEED TO MAKE WILSON FROM CASTAWAY
Other similar precedents:
Robert from Rubber
The carved boat from Paddle to the Sea