Progress:


The structure of the cones is built from wire mesh and covered in paper-mached strips cut from a phone book. I chose this material on purpose, to represent all of the people outside the realm of the cone and the conversation that the user wishes to block out. I am going to paint the inside of the cones a solid color - perhaps different colors to match the character of the person wearing it.

After adding velcro straps, neck padding, and painting the inside:

Consumption and Waste - An Extension of the Body

The first project in this class is to create an "extension of the body" using recycled or everyday materials. The extension must serve some purpose, whether utilitarian or conceptual. It should not appear costume-like, but rather be an enhancement of physical human functions.

The following is a description of what I intend to make:

In our society, we are constantly bombarded by distractions. How often do we get the chance to interact with someone one-on-one without being interrupted by our phone buzzing, by someone calling out our name, by our ever-growing To Do list taking over our thoughts? I personally believe that one-on-one conversation is one of the most powerful forms of connection, and that we do not place nearly enough value on it. Therefore, I’d like to construct a bodily extension that would allow people to interact in this way, one-on-one, without being hindered by any outside distractions. I’m thinking something along the lines of those collars they put on dogs to prevent them from licking their wounds; they resemble a kind of sideways lampshade. I plan to create a similar version for humans. A bit like horse blinders, they will block a person’s peripheral vision, allowing them only to look forward at the object or person of interest, and if the person they are looking at is also wearing one of the collars, they will be forced to look (more or less) straight into that person’s eyes, greatly improving the degree of communication. Moreover, the collar will fan outward from the face, which will act as a sound enhancer; each person’s voice will be magnified, and it will also create a funnel to channel the sound right into the other person’s ears. I plan to make this contraption out of circular rings of some hard material increasing in size, and then glue strips of fabric or flexible material across the rings to create an opaque surface. I might think of some extra additions that would further enhance the act of having a conversation with another person, but I think those ideas will come to me as I move along in the project.