When beginning the creation of my sculpture, I arranged another meeting with Adam to discuss more about 3D printing my brain. He gave me some advice on using the software fusion 360. Initially, I wanted to hollow out the brain in order to put the plant inside, however, Adam explained that it would be tricky to do, due to the number of facets and complexity of the brain. For this reason, Adam suggested that I could cut out pipes to go through the brain, for the plant to grow into.
He demonstrated this by creating a straight pipe, in which other pipes would feed out of this for the plant to grow out from.
I did spend time considering this, and doing my own experimentation with the Fusion 360 software. However, I found that the plant did not grow in that structure.
As the Bacopa Monneiri plant was already growing and had developed a rigid structure, it would be difficult to mould the plant into a tunnel structure.
Photograph of Bacopa Monnieri
Experimentations:
I started importing my brain model into Fusion 360 and then reduced the number of facets so that it would be easier to 3D print and also edit.
After reducing the number of facets to 300, I turned the mesh object into a solid object. I did this by right clicking on the mesh body, and selected the function mesh to BRep. I ensured that the whole object was selected and transformed into a new body.
After this, the brain turned into a solid object.
Once the object was solid, I attempted to make a large hole inside so that the plant had room to move around. I did this by going to the modify section and selecting the hole function. I inputted the measurements and ensured that there was a hole at the bottom so the the roots could spread out of the brain.
After creating the main hole for the plants, I wanted to have an escape from the top of the brain. To do this, I thought I would create pipes leading from the main gap, towards the top of the brain.
When creating pipes I started making a sketch of the lines that I wanted the pipes to follow. After doing this, I went into the create section an included a pipe for the plant to grow through.
Once making these pipes, I came to realise that their rigidity would not work with the intertwining growth of the plants. I felt that making holes would be better to allow the plant to grow through from the large hole, instead of fitting through a narrow pipe.
From this initial experiment, I found that hollowing out the brain would be easier, as the plant could move around the brain space. However, due to the complexity of the brain, I would need to consider another method.
Feedback Session from Virtual Exhibition:
I then had a meeting with Mark to discuss my project and its progress. Mark advised that I should hold a feedback session based on my first virtual exhibition. He made some suggestions about holding a focus group with some selected participants, or creating a survey.
When considering this from an ethical perspective, I found that doing a focus group would require a higher level of ethical approval, as I would be inviting individuals to have an open discussion, in which I may find difficulty controlling, due to the conversational tone.
Instead, I realised that doing a questionnaire, may be more beneficial in generating more responses, due to the low commitment and online accessibility.
After making this decision, I consulted the ethical decision tool, which claimed that I only needed minimal risk ethics.
So, now I need to consider what questions I want to ask and what feedback I’m looking to get.
After visiting the Walker Art Gallery, and viewing the John Moores Painting Prize, I found an interesting element regarding the curation. Before entering the exhibition, they provided a virtual tour of the exhibit and provided several questions for visitors to ask themselves. I found this to be quite a useful element, and something I may consider in my exhibition, and questions for the survey.
Based on visiting the Walker Art Gallery and reflecting on my virtual exhibition, I began to construct my questionnaire.
I first started to do some research into questionnaires in order to design some insightful questions. I found one interesting statistic, that email questionnaires have higher return rates, according to Museum Educator Jennifer Foley of Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
After writing out some basic questions for the survey, I sent the sample questions over to my tutor for review.
However, upon sending these questions, I found out I tested positive for COVID. So, I might have a little set back…