Journal Draft Round 2

ARC30003

Folio Draft 1

Architectural Communication

Ben MacLean 103612437

26th of March, 2023

Benjamin MacLean Credits:

Part A- ideation

Hermes the messenger of the gods, was one of the 12 main gods of Greece. He served his father - Zeus - as to deliver all messages across the realm.

Depicted as cunning, fast and fluent, Hermes was the true depiction of a Greek God.

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Hermes was depicted as a youthful, agile figure who wore winged sandals and carried a staff known as the caduceus. His duties included delivering messages and guiding the souls of the dead to the underworld. He was depicted as fast, a speed runner of the mythical world, being able to travel from Mount Olympus to the Underworld.

Hermes was the son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia. He was considered one of Zeus’s favorite sons and was often given important tasks to complete, such as guiding Persephone to the underworld or helping Odysseus on his journey home. This story is the one I chose to follow and try and depict through my machine. For this, the machine needed to have some fundamental understandings. What, why and how.

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References Images

These images helped understand who and what Hermes was. As well as understand other people’s interpretation of him, including colour ways, text, character development and overall aesthetic design.

On top of that, I understood what direction to ask MidJourney (AI) to produce images that I wanted. When first using Midjourney, the images came out very cartoonish and unprofessional/alien like. This helped narrow down my ideas and exploration.

Experimentation

Asking MidJourney to produce images based off colours, textures and characters resulted in dynamic pictures generated by AI, somewhat like museum sculptures. I liked how this pictures turned out.

Similarly, I asked the AI to create different art style technique, like as seen on the right, with lino printing techniques. I gathered these images to make darker work, in terms of showing a different side of Hermes, a different complexity.

In contrast, sticking with the lighter line work like style, these images were producible. More of a 2D element, I furthered these ideas into antique poster styles, to grasp colours, and textures that I could incorporate into the final design poster.

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Part B: design

Looking at pulleys (muscle), I originally thought up of a wheel pulley system, with the circle suspended in the air to lift an object up. This was made on a simple parallel railway of which the object could be pulled vertically or horizontally.

Exploration of the meaning behind the character, its relationships, as well as creative influences. Hermes was depicted as fast and agile, along with being cunning and intelligent.

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Further Research on Design Principles

The first idea was looking at the automatic garage door mechanism. This would in tale a door being lifted and a message being shown on the other side

I prompted the idea of a mechanical scroll through the AI imagery creator. I followed more with the lifted scroll design as it can be more readable

The next idea was an ancient scroll, used as a device to communicate. This idea inspired a mechanism that would open and close the scroll on a wire/ rope device. The scroll better represents the idea of communication as it would have been used in those ancient times.

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Design precedents

Following previous experimentations, the scroll would be framed so that verticality movement could occur. The design ideas allowed for a piece of parchment to move down via a stepper motor, than traverse upwards to retract, creating movement.

Wooden Frame aided by slits for the axels to travel within

Wooden support s to hold axel straight as well as centred within cylinder

Structural wood screws and glue to hold frame together

Scroll Paper, created like parchment

Angled wooden frame piece to connect sides together

Cylindrical shape to aid the turning of the paper and to form the scroll

Developing the Design

Refining the scroll framework was for the site of the AMDC Building voided space. This allows adequate vacancy, as well as movement opportunities between multiple floors. Students and viewers could gaze across voided areas to inspect text of images printed on the scrolls whilst they moved up and down, counter weighting each other, and moving within the frame.

The First prototype was a piece of paper (combining muscle and skin together.

This model failed to following expand the paper as due to not enough tension. Peer review also suggested adding the paper in, as to incorporate skin into the design.

The second development was the piece of communication (scroll) to be placed within a frame. As shown on left. This created a downdraft of motion as the scroll would be released and dropped to reveal an image or idea.

This was represented via the air flowing around the frame.

Situating the Design

The Story:

The story of Hermes and Persephone involves two of the most wellknown figures in Greek mythology.

Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, and Zeus, the king of the gods. She was known for her beauty and was often sought after by many suitors. However, one day while she was gathering flowers in a meadow, she was abducted by Hades, the god of the underworld, who fell in love with her at first sight.

Demeter was devastated by the loss of her daughter and searched for her everywhere, neglecting her duties as the goddess of agriculture and causing famine and drought across the land. Eventually, she learned that Hades had taken Persephone and went to Zeus for help.

Zeus, who had allowed the abduction to take place, brokered a deal between Hades and Demeter. Persephone would spend half of the year with Hades in the underworld as his queen, and the other half of the year with her mother on earth. This became the explanation for the changing of the seasons, as Demeter mourned the loss of her daughter in the winter months, and celebrated her return in the spring.

Hermes, the messenger god, played a significant role in this story as well. He was tasked with guiding Persephone to and from the underworld each year, acting as a mediator between her and Hades. While there are variations of this story in different versions of Greek mythology, the basic premise remains the same - the abduction of Persephone, her time spent in the underworld, and her eventual return to her mother on earth.

Attaching the design

For the final model design, I used AI generated images to involve into the skin of the machine. These pictures were aimed to depict a story of Ancient Greek characters and myths that would pop out when the scroll was opened, revealing themselves. The scroll would need to flex, and roll back into self, so the popups needed to have folded springs behind to give the ability to jump out.

The first design was a stand-a-lone fork, with a pulley wheel system placed on top, that would act as the muscle of the machine. This pulley would be anchored to another pulley wheel, (a design iteration later added to the final) to create a dynamic scroll system.

However, I found this idea complicated, as it would add another dimension to the machine that would need to be fine tuned so that the scroll could still open successfully.

Therefore, the design I ended up going with was the stable, frame set-up, that allowed the scroll to open and close through a track made in the hypotenuse like beams. This design still needs more refining, but overall portraits the concept of what the machine does.

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Part C - Designing the posters

I peer reviewed poster iterations to understand how best to communicate Hermes’ allegory in a visual form. I chose the story of Persephone as it best described a; Hermes’s role, and b; the characters and significance of the mythology map, as it spanned many characters, places, and ideas.

I liked the curve of the first poster, as it showed a clear line from start to finish in a reading order, as well as giving depth and flow.

As seen in the final poster, the idea for the line stayed. However, symbolism was used to represent characters and locations, whilst staying simplistic and minimal.

I would have liked to spend more time on this poster, as I don’t think it fully grasps the idea of the story. I also feel as though there might be too much white space, as to make a bland poster that would not grab attention, however I added a gradient background that overpowered the poster, so I decided against.

Alterations of the poster was aided by feedback regarding text hierarchy, as well as readability. I decided with the idea of creating alternating pages of colour, creating pattern and unison.

Reflective practices

Part D: Conclusion

To conclude: I feel as though if more time was added to the design, it could have been something quite well made. The concept was there and the characters did create the ability to explore design principles and concept correctly and with impact as well.

However, in saying that, the model could be more expressive and not so lateral, made of different materials and be more flamboyant. I liked the aspect of exploring both AI’s and incorporating the drawings and details into the project was exciting and refreshing.

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List of figures Credited work

See figures:

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Bibliography

Text cited -

ChatGPT - Open AI Source to understand allegory and related characters

Zelazko, A. (no date) Hermes, Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/HermesGreek-mythology (Accessed: March 15, 2023).

+Greekacom (no date) Persephone, queen of the underworld - greek myths: Greeka, Greekacom. +greekacom. Available at: https://www. greeka.com/greece-myths/persephone/ (Accessed: March 15, 2023).

Astma, A.J. (2017) K14.9 Persephone & Hermes, Persephone & Hermes - Ancient Greek Vase Painting. Available at: https://www.theoi. com/Gallery/K14.9.html (Accessed: March 15, 2023).

Mackie, C. (2023) Explainer: The story of Demeter and persephone, The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/explainer-thestory-of-demeter-and-persephone-110898 (Accessed: March 15, 2023).

Appendices

Photo references

Staff of Hermes Caduceus as a symbol of medicine rod of asclepius, doctor, text, people, Logo PNG PNGWing. Available at: https://www.pngwing.com/en/free-png-yshzg (Accessed: March 15, 2023).

Ninidu Hermes doodles by Ninidu on DeviantArt, by Ninidu on DeviantArt. Available at: https://www.deviantart.com/ninidu/art/Hermes-doodles-441475238 (Accessed: March 15, 2023).

Leadbetter, A. (2016) Hermes, Battlestar Olympia | Obsidian Portal. Available at: https:// battlestarolympia.obsidianportal.com/wikis/hermes (Accessed: March 15, 2023).

CDNA (2018) Pin on gods and goddesses, Pinterest. Available at: https://www.pinterest. com.au/pin/226657793733082968/ (Accessed: March 15, 2023).

Joao (2022) Pin on mythology, folklore and other epic stories, Pinterest. Available at: https:// www.pinterest.com.au/pin/174444185557922060/ (Accessed: March 15, 2023).

Pin on illustration and drawing (2022) Pinterest. Available at: https://www.pinterest.com.au/ pin/273241902383506405/ (Accessed: March 15, 2023).

Yliade (2019) Hermes ~ Greek mythology by Yliade on DeviantArt, by Yliade on DeviantArt. Available at: https://www.deviantart.com/yliade/art/Hermes-Greek-Mythology-817434906 (Accessed: March 15, 2023).

Szac, M. (2017) The adventures of hermes, god of thieves: 100 journeys through greek mythology (paperback), Hooked. Available at: https://www.hookedlansing.com/ book/9781782691303 (Accessed: March 15, 2023).

Hermes Hermès bust Greek mythology sculpture, Greek god, stone carving, arm, Boston PNG PNGWing. Available at: https://www.pngwing.com/en/free-png-cjizs (Accessed: March 15, 2023).

Hermes (2023) Google search. Google. Available at: https://www. google.com/ search?q=hermes%2Bmythology&rlz=1C5CHFA_

Parkjisun, Parkjisun, Noun Project. Available at: https://thenounproject.com/naripuru/ (Accessed: March 20,