The Semantics of 3D Form — Hybrid Model
I started the ideation process by making a chart of adjectives for my mouse and my shell. I then chose three common and words and one uncommon word to drive the creation of my hybrid form.
I then began sketching out some ideas for a possible model, but I did not want this to bound me to any one idea as I also wanted to explore as I started making. My medium of choice for my hybrid model is clay, as I am not recreating a form that already exists, and I want to be able to change aspects of my form as I go.
As I started to make my model I took the characteristics from the mouse and shell that aligned with the common adjectives I came up with. This led me to take the outer curve of my mouse and the wide, sweeping edge of the shell and combine them.
The only big change I made in the form of the shell/mouse was flipping the side that the large curve was on. My next step from here is to add the knobs/spikes onto the form to represent the spikes on the shell.
Soft Crit:
The feedback that I received (and that everyone else received) was that we should be less concerned with the existing forms of out shell and mouse, and more focused on using out adjectives to create an entirely new form. After hearing this, I realized that I had almost subconsciously taken specific forms from my existing shell/mouse, and replicated them. After intensely studying these form, I had become so fixated on how my adjectives were associated with them, and not how I could take these concepts and make something entirely new.
Iteration 2:
After hearing the feedback from the soft crit, I modified my existing form and focused more on word association instead of mimicking form. To do this I changed the orientation of the form so that it was not grounded in the same way as my mouse. By turning it on its side I could also bend the form so that the previous bottom was now concave. I also added knobs along the front of the form but did not make them too sharp so that I did not completely copy the spikes of the shell.
Final Model:
In making my hybrid model I learned a lot about taking existing characteristics and pulling out the concepts behind them. By taking a step back and moving away from the exact forms that already exist, I can create a new form that holds the same general properties as existing forms but is its own unique shape.
