Process

Process: Ideation and Sketches Design & Fabrication Prototypes Mentoring Notes

Learning how to Make Calder-Esque Mobiles

_Think of upload

Cantilever Mobiles:

Ideation & sketches

ing your hand-drawings, "frankenstein prototypes", pictures with notes, everything that shows your thinking process and initial development of your personal project. Giving inside in your process, will help the mentors to assist you further in your development._

research papers can also be linked through an online link or when optimised, PDFs of research papers can be added to your repository and credited to the writer or researcher

Design & Fabrication

once you start designing and fabricating your first tests, you can link both at the bottom of the page with footnotes

"This step of the process was important because i learnt to draft my own pattern digitally. The first tests of this can be seen here on the right, find half- or test-fabrication files here¹"

Prototypes

prototypes are your first step towards shaping your final piece, product, material et cetera

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Mentoring notes

Mentors in all sessions may share with you their comments, notes, advise, projects and technical equipment to check out. This is good place to share those, so that you can find them later on when you need them the most!

Thanks so much to stephanie.vilayphiou for all of the reseaources below on artists and designers who make mobiles!

Hello Alex, as promised, here are the references I wanted to share with you:

1) Isobel Leonard is an alumni from last year. She made wonderful mechanical installations which were moving when you would approach them found here

2) Manoah Camporini made an interactive installation also based on the proximity of visitors. The structure would move using brake strings, motors and conveyor belts found here

3) Bruno Munari was an Italian designer. He made mobiles which were used within the Montessori pedagogical methods. I really like the fact that things are not centred, but it is balanced anyhow, found here

4) Livingly, a very nice brand of contemporary mobiles found here

5) Other nice contemporary mobiles found here

6) Crochet Coral Reef Project. A collective project to warn people about the pollution of the oceans and the death of corals Corals are fractals, super interesting link between maths and textile! found here

7) lastly, an installation I saw in Brussels from found objects from the sea. I really like the way it is presented and the aesthetics of those found objects

Feedback from Mentors, January 27

Feedback From Aristarco Cortes

Engineers, can go deep into the data, make sure to close the argument with more than data

Installation: Museum or in some kind of interactive space
Recycling, call of plastics in the ocean, how to connect with fish in the space?
Reflection: Why want to do it? Workshops as performance; engage with people to connect Fish—how to connect with the recycling part?
Connect with textiles/ and plastic bottles In Columbia: cutting plastic bottles; making weaving bags/accessories. They connect old tradition with recycling
Mobiles: bring liveness and structure. Piece of art/how to distribute in a space—put as a mobile

Bauhaus: connected elements

Which material should you use? People can start to weave, perhaps using metal pieces

Fish—how they navigate—fish as an object. Present as a figure. Interactive project—fish, skeleton important figure in Greece

The story—what is the story? Arguments, pieces, take the time by myself to think about the most important part. How can you organize this story? The more clear it is for me the more clear it will be for others. Story telling, my main concepts, how will I integrate them into my story.I want to put in a museum—argument about recycling/upcycling, and the sea.

This is the first part—how to navigate fish in the ocean. Soft robotics—moving fishes. Don’t add more for now.

When collect things and concepts, find the constraints. Nice elements: more of an experience.

Feedback From Stephanie

Great to have other references, more examples. Levels of mobiles for babies. Balance. Simple to complex. Isabella –made robots with woods, articulated sculptures—interactive—very smart mechanical techniques. More concerning ocean and recycling: crochet corral reef project. For depth of color in the oceans.

Feedback from Adriana

Great project; good ideas.Show the path. Need to focus. Narrow to one idea. Doesn’t matter. Will 100 Years of Solitude: Focus: potential. More references. Countries have traditions of mobiles. Interesting to see how they approach. Fish leather: --resources; stretched. Library of materials. Fish leather—make it into quilts.

March 2 Storytelling Tutorial

Katrina Biliouri; Melissa Fleming Story Telling Outline Nancy Duarte: What is…contrast with what could be…the shape of a great talk http://www.speechinminutes.com/#google_vignette

THE HERO’S JOURNEY: in storytelling. The problem becomes human. Make it the audience’s journey or your/my journey

Start in a way that captures attention: how do you make your audience listen more? First 30 seconds are the most important. How do we capture people’s attention?

The audience’s journey:
Old versus new reality—
Our solution:

Tell stories—not just facts…

STRONG OPENING:

Write your opening—write your ending—to feel prepared

3 best practices for the perfect pitch: Key thing: content—too much/too overwhelming. Keep things minimal Who/what/why—3 aspects

All boils down to: how/what/why

Common problem—straight to solution/future, no problem today Preparedness vs passion Receptivity vs confidence No storytelling/why of the idea People presenting to—they are investing in YOU Every time: public speaking

THIS IS A TOOLBOX—find the tool that works best for you Identify/build/rethink/restructure

CLARITY: storytelling/persuasion/delivery/inspiration/design

Persuasion: how do I tell my audience that what I’m bringing forward is different How will your idea stand out? Why should people care? How did you begin? What is my story? What is my goal? What comes from your heart? What is AUTHETIC to you?

WHAT IS YOUR BIG IDEA/THROUGHLINE in one sentence? If you had one sentence… Throughline needs to be there throughout the narrative. When it is more than one idea, it is confusing. Every pitch: has one main sentence… The audience must be in the center of your communication…ABC…Audience before content—who am I talking to? What is their experience? Depending on the audience, adjust your content to your audience so you can INSPIRE them.

Narrative: how to teach students: my project is about teaching students how to do this—make the students understand the problem—students learn these things/realize the problem The techniques: part of design of a workshop. Structure the workshop. https://youtube.com/shorts/isVPW_WU1cA?si=4lo7sAlL97Qk07WL DIY keychain rings https://bauhauskooperation.com/wissen/das-bauhaus/koepfe/biografien/biografie-detail/person-1444

Feedback From Adriana

Mobile: as a teaching tool. Have a demonstration. Fish and mobiles—an installation/presenting in a space Finish the object through which I can teach. Showing people how to have fun and to learn.

Decide what exactly I’m trying to do Interesting: something with the dress Interesting: embedded grids in the bioplastic: contrast with the story

Because final project is coming: start to think about the integration. Sense of building these; go from the paper; integrate the fishes with all the elements Somehow reflect the story I’m talking about. Need a video; story; visually; the key points; plastics go to the sea Make It very clear— Transparency—in the sea you have the foam; work with foamy materials; Bauhaus: Oscar Schlemer—worked with transition from dancing/movement to clothes/geometric/work with organic shapes; pictures are artists are balancing; harmony in the design I’m doing.

Now: shapes Color palette/shapes/different mobiles

Feedback from Aristarco

Mobiles: remove walls from junk people. Let them play with the thing. Beautiful images, paly with the materials in a light in a garden.

Message: through this piece of art. Communicate about recycling/biomaterials/building schematics; learning; Try to present three strong concepts

When communicate it/present it/clear/help Try to focus on/while doing biomaterials/another layer of sustainability in my lectures/kinematics/visual effects with the lights with the material/building

Anastasia: orient the project not as mobile of bioplastics/the project is workshops to the community.

https://bauhauskooperation.com/wissen/das-bauhaus/koepfe/biografien/biografie-detail/person-1444

Feedback March 10, 2026

From Cecilia

Project ideas: Send to Chattanooga see what it does to people: Mobile assembled/prototypes assembled/holding them/showing them/seeing students making from waste
GOAL: contribute/entire room/create something that grows

Feel:younger students get to do something about the problem. Usually, people just talk about the problem.
Start with— change happens by doing something about the problem—shaping it together/ecosystem forms a new picture

Pitch THE HOPE. Do you want to be a part of the change??

Museum social media channel/loopback/go to check how your piece changes once it’s treated with bio resin, if your fish has been incorporated into the project. Messages to “keep checking our social media!”—advertising opportunity for a museum

Bio resin to dry it faster: industrial dehydrator, buy one used, 2nd hand, professional

Essential to prepare: the metal wire, the pieces, arches, so people can quickly add the fish. Ready made pieces, have the ingredients ready for a modular creation.

Feedback from Louise

To do: Printed version of the documentation/booklet/outline to follow with expectations A bit of work— Use as documentation/depends on what I’ve been working on A lot on the different recipes/visual effects/at the end what is the end, what is the or two recipes I[m using, with a photoshoot and video

Advance in the research, look at the feedback table. Mattermost. Put the comments in with the parts/headlines. Microplastic issue with scientific facts/bunch of links. Great start. Read those.

Two links: Tutorial on how to make a mobile. Simplicity, going for, need reflection on fish shapes how to integrate fish shapes into the mobile.

Getting back to the basics of the mobile. Bio materials: How can I present in a systematic scientific way. Visual as a reference as what type of visual I’m looking for and how to achieve it with the materials. Have the experimentations already/ more about why What are the parameters of what I’m looking for? Characterize the experimentation, what I’m looking for, the emotion I’m looking for

Half-fabrication files

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1. Test file: 3d modelling test ↩