Frames V.S. Field
This project explores the world of perspective views in fields, which requires the ability to connect and play with the notations within the space.
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Based on a short extract from "Hidden Cities", the city of Theodora especially, narratives are set, which determines the notated isometric and the two perspective based on the construction of the building, of which the prototype is the old quad in the University of Melbourne.
Theodora is a city which had always under the trouble of the invasive species in one way or another, endlessly. Under the circumstance, a society was formed which was still, recognizable as a human civilization.
People suffer from chaos and disorders, not only from the war with the invasive species, but also from the regulations and revolutions between the change of political power, which was caused by the war with invasive species.
The hierarchy was very obvious in the city, the poor people was despised and manipulated while the higher rank dressed comparatively decent, however they are not quite concerned about the poor people’s living.
The city was broken and fading when they defeated the last invasive species: the rat, they though their battle was finally about to over. However one thing that they did not notice was that they had been observed by the huge forgotten species, a large amount of them woke up from sleep and gathered around the broken city, what was to happen remains unknown...
Context
Footprint
The notions indicate Marco polo’s motion when he passed by the city. When he entered the place, he paced up and down on the high level floating bricks and glanced at the crowds in front of him.
After that he went leftwards, moved faster and stayed still for a short period of time, which mirrors his emotion through the process, shocked and commiserative to the suffered people, cynical towards the up-hierarchy. He went further into the city, speed up a bit, gazed several times then walked out of it.
When he entered the city, it was daytime and when he was on his halfway visit, the sky turned dark, crowds in the middle moved following a flow pattern, several groups of people spread around the city.
Perspectives
In the first perspective, which is the first scene that Marco polo saw when he walked into the city.
It was right after the war with the rats, while the people defeated the rat, there were only a few of them remained. The main army left, tired and injured homeless people were left on the ground. Women with children were scared, either hid behind the columns or was running away from the few remained rats, while they were energetic and walked around freely in the city.
A man tiredly lean on the block fall from the columns due to the war, reflecting his emotion of hopeless, another man laid down at the floor not far away, there were rats around him, but he was too injured to fight back or run away. Young teenagers were more scared, there were two girls still hiding behind the block and one of them was screaming. There was another girl, who was huddling at the ground, covering up her face to avoid being found by the rat.
Meanwhile the decayed and old texture of the vault indicated the civilization had been decadent for a long while, showing the war had been last long and people’s life condition was not satisfying. There were burned and darkened marks on the wall, which indicated that something dramatic had happened in the place. Blocks of the columns were displaced, by the effect of the war. The building was not stable, reflecting that the people were also in danger.
In the background, the broken texture keeps consistent with the foreground, while the grand structure could also be observed, which indicates there used to be prosperous probably before all these disasters.
Higher above the pillars at the back, there was a bird-like deity animal, circled around from a distance, observing all that had happened at the civilization, giving a sense of mysterious, for the future was unknown, and what it was thinking of was also unknown.
The rat below the bird-like deity animal forms a contrast between different level genre species, indicating the more powerful of the bird.
The scene created a broken, distorted world, in which the poor and disabled people suffered, few left defeated side animal still hovered around, meanwhile, not do the people know that they had been observed by huge species, or had they always been in a small part of their world, been neglected by the deity animals all the time, the war attracted their attention to them...
The second scene happened after Marco polo stood at the first scene, watched the people suffered and the animals hovered around, he decided to continue his journey and go deeper into the city to see what he will observe. The time went a bit late people moved around, while some of the crowds stayed still at the same place, too injured to move, or have no place to go to. Marco polo turned towards another direction and continued his journey. The other side of the city had a great view of nature, he saw the flowing river from far behind, and the forests which became small when he see it from his position, the huge rocks, and the shining sky. He started to think that the world outside the city was far more spectacular and peaceful. Suddenly he saw a huge unicorn slowly walked out from the grass, under the base blocks of the city. It did not glanced at the city nor the people in the city, continued to walk further away.
At this time he saw several generals and nobles of the city returned back, dressed decently, probably just went back from a ceremony of the victory or a party. They looked arrogant and happy on their face. Then they saw the people on the ground and the broken wracked building, it seemed that they were reminded that the city was still in a mess. They walked around the laying people on the ground, started to talk to each other, again arrogantly, without feeling sympathy or care about them.
Two generals were talking to each other however they did not notice a rat coming from behind, another general saw it, so did one of the girl laying on the ground, under the shadow of the vault. The general was calm, did not take any actions, while the girl was frightened, raised up her arm to move more inside the shadow.
However, none of them except Marco polo noticed the huge wings and tails of a some certain creature appeared and moved across behind them. Marco polo also witnessed a head of a horse-like deity creature from the blank between the columns. He started to feel cynical, that the people were living in their world, being arrogant and self-satisfied for winning the battle, when the poor people were suffering and there were actually more powerful large creatures looking at them while themselves did not notice; that they were living in their own micro-world, neglecting the stories happening in the sky, in the forest, in the river, in the outside world...
Lighter colour material was used at sun slope, and darkened coloured was use at the back and on the right. On one thing, to mirror people’s hierarchy, on the other hand to enhance the effect of the light from the background, emphasis the importance of the outside world.
The broken and old texture keeps consistent with the first scene.
Reflections
Based on the original model of the old quad I made, I started to think of what changes can I make to make the model suits into the theme of my city, which the broken, distorted and have the huge contrast with the more powerful and huge world from the outside.
Therefore I twisted and disassembled the blocks of the columns and the floor. I reset the floor followed the wave trend, so that the bricks around the diagonal are higher than the others, and some of the bricks near the corner of the floor lay lower than the horizon level, to create the hierarchical sense.
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As for the roof, I separated the elements apart so that it fits with the broken theme, I deleted certain parts of it to make it incomplete. The middle part is lifted to make the level diverse while looking at it from a certain aspect.
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After having finished the basic model of the old quad, try out some of the possibilities for rebuild the city. Broke the columns from the middle, then make changes to the ground.
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Take the roof apart, rotate and move them, delete some of the elements to fit to the scene, also lifted the middle to show the level.
The two shown are one of the experiment for the two selected perspective.
Searched for the source on the internet, make a more detailed selection, abandoned the unrelated ones and the very abstract ones.