Cabinet of Curiosities

For our final project for the semester, we were asked to design a "cabinet of curiosities" that would house 3 objects that the first years created...

Upon meeting with first years Tarek Baassiri, David Kendall, and Torrey Orlopp, I got a clear understanding of what function my cabinet needed to meet. Tarek had designed a CD holder, David designed an iPod, and Torrey designed a holder for a Led Zeppelin concert ticket; so it was clear to me that the cabinet should revolve around music, both functionally and aesthetically.  I knew I wanted my cabinet to have a speaker so it would function as a way to both play and store music, and David proposed an amazing lighting idea to include music-synching LED lights that would pulsate with whatever music is being played.  With these two ideas in mind, I explored different forms to house the objects.

When I began thinking about music-related forms, I came up with several ideas for a cabinet, which included a boombox, amps, a gramophone, and a jukebox. Although each of these cabinet ideas related to the three objects that would be stored inside, I believed that they were too literal and didn’t fit the exact style I was going for.  Going back to the drawing board, I kept the Led Zeppelin ticket holder in mind specifically as to give me a clue for the feel of the cabinet. I decided that a retro, late 1960’s inspired cabinet would fit the objects well and by researching furniture from this decade, I arrived at my final design.

I came across the final shape of my cabinet through a spur of the moment sketch in class after looking at retro furniture online. I wanted something that was funky and rock-inspired, and the tapered pyramid-like design of the cabinet entered my mind as an edgy, retro design. The cabinet includes a speaker at the base, held on angular, tapered legs, which would play music from the CD rack on the first shelf and from the iPod dock on the middle shelf.  Colored LEDs would be installed under the top panel of the cabinet and on top of the speaker. Glass shelves would allow the light to pass through the entire cabinet, creating its own light show whenever music is being played. The side panels and front cabinet doors would also be glass in order to showcase the objects inside. The bottom shelf holding the concert ticket would be the only section of the cabinet with doors, in order to preserve the condition of the ticket as well as signifying a place of display and importance. The door pulls on the cabinet were taken from a symbol on a Led Zeppelin album, which draw attention to an important object as well as add a fluid element to an otherwise linear cabinet. On the second shelf is an iPod dock built into the shelf which houses David’s iPod. This was placed on an open shelf at a height that would be easiest to access, because this would most likely be the most used object in this cabinet. On the top shelf is Tarek’s CD display, which is fixed onto a lazy susan spinning mechanism in the shelf that would allow the user ease of selecting a disc from any side of the polygonal rack.

I decided to use a dark gray-stained walnut in the cabinet to contribute to the dark, edgy feel of the design. Wood will only be used on the top and back panels of the cabinet and around the speaker in order to hide the electrical components and visually anchor the cabinet. I also chose walnut because of its pronounced grain, which adds a warm, less industrial feel to the cabinet. The door pulls would be molded from recycled aluminum and the glass panels would be held together using aluminum panel fasteners, which is both sustainable and has a modern appearance which complements the retro feel of the cabinet.

I would expect this cabinet to be used in a lounge, bar, or living room setting as a beautiful cabinet by day and party DJ by night. It functions as an entertainment center with a built in conversation piece and memorabilia display for a proud Led Zeppelin fan. This cabinet would allow users the freedom to easily access all of their music in one place, while having a unique lighting experience to accompany each song.  It is a rock and roll cabinet of curiosity! 

DC Speech Powerpoint Slide

While in Washington D.C., I visited the Freer and Sackler art galleries as well as the American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery. I decided to focus on the geometric division of light as seen in the courtyard in the American Art Museum and the stairwell of the Freer/Sackler Galleries. Both museums used natural light as an important feature, but to highlight different types of spaces (a circulation space and a gathering space). In the Freer/Sackler gallery, the light highlighted a piece of art where in the American Art Museum the light was the art itself (having a fluid, sculptural quality).

GHM Exhibit Visit

"Voices" Exhibition

Upon entering the Greensboro “Voices” exhibition, your eye travels across the dramatic curved wall of illuminated photographs that create a timeline of the history of Greensboro.  The repetitive canvases that play off the shadows from the backlighting create a dynamic effect that gives the sense of Greensboro being a very important place with a rich history. The concept of separate photographs with individuals coming together to create one history creates a strong sense of unity, both in the design aspect and as a city living in harmony and paying homage to its past. Further into the “Voices” exhibit, display cases show artifacts from each of the people groups that settled in Greensboro, Germans, Jews, Quakers, and so on. This highlights the diversity rather than unity, and uses concrete objects rather than two-dimensional panels to create depth and interest.  Connecting two main exhibit spaces is a corridor with tall portraits of famous townspeople from Greensboro’s past. These portraits act as architectural elements that divide the space into smaller display areas filled with information about these people.  The panels provide rhythm and balance to an otherwise plain connector space.  The main areas of the “Voices” exhibition open up to showcase several large artifacts that become focal points of the space, such as the covered wagon in one area and the large sewing loom in another area. By placing such grand pieces against smaller displays, it creates hierarchy in the space that awes the viewer, drawing them closer to discover what the important pieces say about Greensboro’s history.

Period Rooms and Pottery Display

On the mezzanine level, period rooms show the lifestyles of some of Greensboro’s founding families, such as rooms from the Tate family home in the early 1900s.  Replicas of a bedroom, dining room, parlor etc. show how furnishings and materials have transformed over time. These rooms are all connected by a series of interior doors which not only function for museum staff who have to walk through these spaces, but make the rooms seem more realistic as if they are leading into another room in a house versus being separate compartments.  Vignettes of items such as children’s toys on the floor and a “magic” image projector and other items on a parlor table show how people spent their leisure time.  These items also give the rooms a very lived-in quality, so the viewer can envision people of this time interacting in the space.  The period rooms wrap around the exhibit space and are shown as recessed nooks off of the interior wall, which helps with circulation and creates a clear path around the pottery display.   The colorful pottery finds its identity through contrast against white display blocks and bright overhead lighting, which reflects off of the pottery glaze and draws attention to the exhibit.  The varying heights of the display blocks creates balance in the exhibit, so groupings of pottery do not compete for visual attention.  A clear glass wall surrounding the display does not subtract from the art itself, and allows the viewer to only see the pottery as they walk into the exhibit space, emphasizing its importance.

"Gate City" Exhibition

The “Gate City” exhibition takes interactivity to the next level as the visitor experiences a schoolhouse, pharmacy, fire house, theater, and phone operating booths and is able to participate in activities relevant to these locations.  The façades of these mini exhibits differentiate the type of location through use of material, such as clapboard on the schoolhouse and brick on the firehouse façade.  Because each storefront is unique, it sparks curiosity in the visitor as to what is beyond the varying entrances. Use of material on the inside of these attractions stay true to the era as well, such as dark wooden desks in the schoolhouse and antique-looking glass display cabinets in the pharmacy. Cutouts of people in the space, like the schoolteacher and pharmacist are focal points that actually teach the important information through recordings. Circulation also plays a major role in the experience of Gate City, meant to replicate a town square. The visitor is forced to move around a tree and benches in the center, which creates an illusion of being in an outdoor space. The arrangement of the attractions around this square rather than simply in a line in front of the viewer keeps the eye constantly moving and creates a more encapsulating experience.  Inside each of the “buildings” lighting plays a role, from the open schoolhouse with lots of natural looking light to a dark pharmacy and even darker theater.  The recapture of this bygone era is a charming way to show history and leaves a lasting impression on the visitor.

"Down Home" Exhibition

First walking into the “Down Home” Exhibition about Jewish life in North Carolina, you see that the exhibition as a whole is broken up into smaller display areas. In the first area, flags and other religious artifacts specific to our state are configured around the model of a synagogue, creating a circular pattern of circulation around this area and highlighting the model as a focal point. White display cases draw more attention to the artifacts themselves and do not detract from the information.  In the second area, you see a 1940-50’s style interactive kitchen with a refrigerator that visually teaches about kosher food, artificial challah bread laid on the counter with directions on how to make it, and an oven that tells a personal story of Jewish and Southern cooking when you open it. The interactivity aspect again plays as a visual and auditory learning tool and creates a memorable experience. The kitchen brings a playful quality to the exhibit, and resonates as a very Southern quality of Jewish history-- the kitchen being a symbol of the South.  In the third display area, glass cases show items such as draydels and menorahs and teach about Jewish traditions. The division of this exhibit into three distinct sections starting at the door gives the museum visitor a distinct path to follow and helps the flow of traffic through the exhibit by providing multiple options for destinations. The organization of the sections of this exhibit from the basic background of Judaism to food to traditions allows the visitor to learn the information about Jews in North Carolina in the most logical sequence, building from basic to more complex knowledge.

My Studio Project Preference

I believe that I can most contribute to the Industries of the Blind project. I was the most inspired when visiting this site because the story this business and all of the people working there tell is amazing. There are so many opportunities to tell their stories through displays, and I have already thought of several ideas to showcase their history, products and employee bios. I also see this project as a great opportunity to incorporate design for all senses, especially using texture to create a unique experience. I think my vision for the displays as well as my ideas for materials, color and an easier circulation paths could contribute to the group.

Industries of the Blind Diagramming

To document my experience at Industries of the Blind, I created a circulation diagram that is color coded to show the entering path, main activities, and the departure path.  I believe this type of diagram is best to communicate the experience in Industries of the Blind because once inside, I felt disoriented due to all of the barriers between the front door and my destination, the conference room. The small spaces separating the entry and second floor lobby space make navigation difficult and somewhat labyrinthine. 

Greensboro Historic Museum Diagramming

For this diagramming process, I chose to do an exploding axon to clarify the path one travels up the three floors of the Greensboro Historic Museum. Arrows show the areas of display that are discovered when viewing the Museum in a sequence starting from the reception desk to the display areas of the mezzanine level and top floor.

Thumbnails capture the experience as one wanders throughout the museum, stumbling upon nodes and main focal points.

Weatherspoon Diagrams

Documenting the experience of a visit to the Weatherspoon Art Museum is important to understanding how we move about the space. This began with a written narrative of the travel sequence of a typical visitor in the museum. 

With a sequence established, I could then represent the experience in diagram form...

 I created a circulation diagram that illustrates the sequence of movement the student makes while going to a certain gallery in Weatherspoon. The size of the circles reflects the scale of the space and therefore the feeling of openness one experiences while circulating through the space.

In my first diagram, I used arrows to show the direction of travel through the museum, the green arrows showing the path toward the main activity (viewing the gallery) and the orange arrows showing the path away from the main activity.

In my second diagram, I used the same method to document the circulation experience but annotated the diagram with Rengel's facets of a circulation system.

In my third attempt, I further clarified the diagram by adding a title and labeling the main spaces of the museum. In this diagram, I showed the circulation path in a more true, organic form in which one would travel in the space. 

In this revision, I used the same method as in diagram 3, but color coded the circulation experience into an entering path, a path for main activities, and a departure path. 

In my final diagram, I refined the line quality and also used rectangles to illustrate connector spaces.

Thumbnail sketches further illustrate the experience of a visit to Weatherspoon.