Peer Review 4

Today I crit the laser cutting group for the final time.  This time I crit group  3 again but it was the first time in which the workshop they were working on was something that I had already done before in the first workshop.
For the laser cut group this week, they had to map out 12 stops for a train and choose one of the places as their tram stop and create a design for it.

Sam Peters - http://spet559.blogspot.com/
Sam's group decided to create the 12 tram stops in a way of alfresco dining where people could eat surrounding the tram.  I thought that it was a unique idea that unlike most who laser cut their models, he used the laser cut to engrave the facade of the railway station in which the tram stop is situated in front of.  The actual tram stop itself is a transparent object so that the attention is not taken away fro the old railway station.  It has been created by cutting different shapes such as triangles and gluing them together to create a unique form.  It is a tram stop that doesn't stay on one level but there are stairs on the other side of the railway tracks which lead downstairs to the alfresco dining.

Matekitatahi Rawiri-McDonald
Tatahi wanted to take the idea of traditional Maori gifting in the way a gift is presented - wakahuia.  The 12 tram stops that Tatahi and his group mapped out were places in which buses weren't en route to go but they were still places in which people would like to be able to access. He chose the park by Vector Arena.  He wanted to take the idea of weathered wood, how parts can be taken away and added. The laser cut layers represent weathering and resemble a piece of drift wood.  There is an entrance within this piece of 'drift wood' in order for a train to enter.  I liked the idea of the traditional Maori gifting being incorporated.  There was only an entrance for the train but no exit was visible.  I think in order to take the weathered wood idea further, there could have been a different type of wood used other than mdf but the form of the tramstop was reminiscent of a ship which once again connects with the idea of weathered wood.

Sulin Wang - http://soupii.wordpress.com/
Sulin chose a site in the park next to Beach Rd.  This spot caught her eye because she was captured by the grafitti.  At first she was thinking about the idea of weathering, however after seeing the grafitti she decided to develop her idea furhter and think about man-made weathering which related back to the grafitti.  In terms of the tram stops, her tram route went around to the art galleries around the City.  By choosing this site, she wanted to portray art, but not usual art.  She wanted to portray street art (grafitti) which people often overlook.  The shape of her tram stop was inspired by the ways in which grafitti is written where it consists of both smooth curves but also sharp edges therefore she has created a tram stop which is almost skeletal with smooth curves on one side and sharp edges on the other.  Inside the tramstop there are panels which allow grafitti artists to portray their work and to be acknowledged and by people.  Although there may have been forms produced from lasercutting before similar to Sulin's form, I thought that she had a great development process from her starting point which addressed and backed up her form and made the relationship between her idea and form of the model understandable.