First week at University of Tsukuba

My short term exchange study at the University of Tsukuba has started this week. 

It was very exciting to explore the huge campus with big research buildings, food courts, and a lot of greenery with moskitoes. 

The first week the weather was great (28-31 degrees with huge amount of humidity) but these last few days have been less (18-24 degrees with rain). The turn of the weather was quite extreme.

Central square near the library. A food court is in the building at the back.

A park near the square. Everyday I traverse this park when cycling to the Art & Design Tower.

The school territory has three residence areas: Oikoshi, Hirasuna and Ichinoya. As a foreign student, I am staying at the Ichinoya residence area. It is said to be the cleanest spot with toilet and shower/bath tub in each room and a shared kitchen and coin laundry. 

My front door.

My room upon entering.

There is a small balkony in the back.

A bed, closet, chair and table are already present.

The small bathroom.

When I first looked at the syllabus, there were too many subjects I could choose from. But when attending the classes, from half of them I was told that they were only for the fourth years (I am third) or that they were on another day at another time during another class I had already planned. My University in Holland had told me to get 20 credits, but in Japan 15 will do. Never imagining that it would be this hard to scrape interesting subjects together, I finally managed to get a working schedule for 20 credits. And after that I got a message from my home university that 15 credits would be sufficient... What was I doing?

641 paged syllabus from which I had to choose my subjects.

Most of the courses are given in japanese. Sometimes I have some trouble understanding certain words, but during artistic classes like sculpture drawing or colour understanding it is not a big hindrance.The powerpoint presentations of most of the theoretical classes are in english and some teachers speak english and that makes it easy for me to understand the classes. 

During the first colour lesson the teacher showed a few examples of compositions with colours. The excercises where based on optical illusions, systematic arrangements, dividing in equal surfaces, etc. The examples were all drawn by hand because the intention was to learn to use colours without the help of a  computer. 

Colour lesson

The classroom for Sculpture drawing has a lot of white sculptures varying in different sizes. Almost forty  students gathered around three sculptures to draw them with pencil or charcoal. For the first time I used a scaling window (plastic sheet with horizontal and vertical lines) and a scaling stick (piece of metal wire for measuring). Another experience of that day was that although the ceiling of the room was very high, everyone was sweating because of the heat. 

Sculpture drawing

 Often after lunchtime, I have an "after dinner dip" which means that I fall asleep at around 1 pm or 2 pm. It happens especially now because I have not yet fully adjusted myself to my new environment and lifestyle. I feel really guilty towards the teacher and find myself stupid each time it happens. But when I look around, it seems that I am not the only person dozing off during class!

A small relief that there are others like me!

Blok 4, year 2, (Apr - May 2013)

TKO

Technische ontwikkeling: Kennis en Ontwerp -  Technical development: Knowledge and Design

Assignment: 1. Create a series of tiles with patterns. 2. Create a 3D ball consisting of tiles.

Product: 1. Multiple tiles that are made out of gips and have a shape like a bird with a small pattern. These are made by laser cutting them out of wood, creating a mould by vacuum packing and then pouring gips.
2. Multiple triangular tiles of gips that are glued together. The shape is formed by making a ball out of pyramids and cutting away some parts. The gips was poured into foam moulds.  

Reflection: Making patterns in AutoCAD was a new way of using this software. 

ABO

Algemene Beeldende Ontwikkeling - General Expressive Development

Assignment: To do research about colour and composition.

Product: a series of paintings.

Reflection: Perspective can be created by letting the colours fade out to white at the horizon. Also placing large (close by) and small (far away) objects gives a sense of deepness.

Paprikas, my favorite

Composition

Collection

PRO

Project

Assignment: Design a cemetery with the measurements of 15 x 17m for the village of Boskoop. 

Product: A cemetery in which the experience of the longness of the site is important. Because of the limited space, the environment should be felt already when entering the parking lot. Ancient japanese and italian graves have been the inspiration for some of the forms. There are family graves, ponds with urns and individual graves.

Reflection: To be sure not to focus too much on one aspect or detail of the design and keeping an eye on the whole picture was very difficult. Even the slightest changes have an effect on the rest of the site. The context (the environment) is also playing a role in the design process. In this case the village has a lot of orchards.

Entrance with family graves

Second halve of the cemetery

The far end with urns and individual graves

Map of the cemetery

Blok 3, year 2 (Feb - Mar 2013)

TKO

Technische ontwikkeling: Kennis en Ontwerp - Technical development: Knowledge and Design

Assignment: create a 3D object with double curved surfaces out of sheet material using 3D software.

Product: round sitting element made out of polypropylene (PP).

Reflection: a form that is too complicated can not be made 

Model printed on paper

Paper model

Simplified product in PP

AKO

Artistieke ontwikkeling: Kennis en Ontwerp - Artistic development: Knowledge and Design

Assignment: create layers with information about the school building. 

Product: An open box with layers consisting of different types of materials. 

Reflection: information can be divided in two types: hard (something visible, measurable) and soft (to sense it, a mood or a feeling). 

Poster presentation

ATV

Artistieke ontwikkeling: Techniek en Vaardigheid - Artistic development: Technics and Skills

Assignment: create a scale model of one of your existing projects with a maximum of two types of materials. 

Product: the Transformatorhuis from Blok 1 has been made out of plexiglass. The walls are completely translucent and the furniture (three blocks) is matte. 

Reflection: this type of material seems to be quite hard and cold. Depending on the purpose of the model, adding colour or another type of material could soften the mood.

Model of plexiglass

PRO

Project

Assignment: create a working space for your idol. You must make a route which takes the user from the entrance to the working area. The size of the available space is 7x11x7m.

Product: The japanese animator and film director Hayao Miyazaki is my idol. His love for nature and sarcastic view on the humans and their industry/technology are the base of my concept: the nature is freeing itself from the humans' grasp. 

Reflection: getting carried away with the steel plates and lighting, I forgot to pay attention to the route and the interior. Next time I should make the sketching models bigger to have a better look at the space.

Miyazaki Atelier

Steel plates control the incoming light

The tree frees itself

Schouw 3, Blok 1 + 2, 2012

At the end of December was my second Schouw at the Spatial Design department.

A few reflections and advises I got from my teachers to break my head on.

AKO: when making compositions try to use more different types of materials. It will deepen your knowledge of expression, colour and space.

TKO: even if the assignment is a technical one, do not forget that there is always a conceptual part as well.

PRO: When designing something, do not focus too much on the details, but try to look at the whole picture. Even when the concept and form studies seem fine, try to experiment more with them, just to make sure why this is the best solution for your idea. 

My work seems to be played a little too safe. By searching and experimenting with abstract pictures and objects, the concept gets a very good base to start from. The form follows naturally from a good substantiated base. It has to start a discussion. 

The Schouw presentations are held in classrooms. Usually there are two students per classroom. Because of the limited space, it is quite difficult to arrange your work properly and often we help each other make the preparations. During our first year we had to show literally everything we made, but from the second year we had to make a selection by ourselves. 

Presentation, PRO blok 2 in the front 

PRO blok 1

Technical and artistic excercises

Blok 2, year 2 (Nov - Dec 2012)

TKO

Technische ontwikkeling: Kennis en Ontwerp - Technical development: Knowledge and Design

Assignment: make a chair according to technical drawings of someone else. 

Product: an uncomfortable chair that would fall over if you don't divide your body weight properly over the seating area. 

Reflection: Reading drawings and understanding the idea of someone else is very important. Your own drawings should be as clear as possible as well if somebody else is making your product.

Uncomfortable Chair

ABO

Algemene Beeldende Ontwikkeling - General Expressive Development

Assignment: make a Portable Home.

Product: A foldable frame of a house consisting of bamboo and 

Reflection: A home is a place of your own. In this case, the boundaries created by the frame are enough to keep strangers out of your territory.

Portable House

Folded state of the Portable House

ATV

Artistieke ontwikkeling: Techniek en Vaardigheid - Artistic development: Technics and Skills

Assignment: create an A1 sized poster presentation of one your projects. 

Product: a poster of the Transformatorhuis from Blok 1, with different types of pictures (hand drawn, technical, photographs).

Reflection: the cohesion between photographs, drawings and text should provide all the necessary information. The layout must draw attention and express the concept of the idea. 

Poster Transformatorhuis

PRO

Project

Assignment: design a watchtower for the Java Eiland in Amsterdam.

Product: A waving object that expresses the strong wind and water present at the Java Eiland. 

Reflection: Research about abstract pictures and three dimensional compositions are important for developing the concept before I start with form studies.

Watchtower

Scenery from Watchtower

Form study 

Panoramic view with multiple Watchtowers

Blok 1 (2nd school year)

I survived the re-exam and continued to the second year of Spatial Design. Already Blok 1 has ended. 

AKO
Artistieke ontwikkeling: Kennis en Ontwerp - Artistic development: Knowledge and Design

Assignment: create a box with an object inside it. By making a lot of models out of abstract forms, you will experiment with composition. 

TKO
Technische ontwikkeling: Kennis en Ontwerp - Technical development: Knowledge and Design
Assignment: create a tower out of beams for placing billboards. Take in account the vector active structures. 

ABO

Algemene Beeldende Ontwikkeling - General Expressive Development

Assignment: create a fence. 

PRO

Project

Assignment: rebuild a dutch "transformatorhuis" (size: 3x5x4m) into a house for a single person. The theme of this project is functionality. A "transformatorhuis" is a small (power) house where electricity current is ended. 

Re-exam

At the end of the last blok, the teachers told me that my work is still too flat. I was lacking three dimensionality and they gave me an extra assignment in which I had to prove that I can work more in space instead of surfaces.

Assignment: create 10 models or sculptures on account of a news item.

Initially I wanted to make models in relation with the newly built EYE Film Museum in Amsterdam because of its intriguing architecture.

EYE Film Museum, Amsterdam

But I could not easily find an article, so I did my assignment about the exposition that was held at the EYE at that time. The work and life of director Stanley Kubrick were displayed at the exposition. By watching his movies and reading books about the productions I got inspired to create the following models/sculptures.

Sculpture 1 "Anxious", inspired by "Lolita"

Sculpture 2 "Spacious", inspired by "2001: Space Odyssey"

Sculpture 3 "Uneven Triangles", inspired by "2001: Space Odyssey"

Sculpture 4 "Thick Walls", inspired by "The Shining"

Sculpture 5 "Transparancy"

Sculpture 6 "Transparant Uneven Triangles"

Sculpture 7 "Irregular Shapes"

Sculpture 8 "Floating Roof"

Sculpture 9 "Linear and urved Shapes"