Anna – Seeing Environment 2022 Fall

December 11, 2022December 11, 2022

Assignment 11 – Visual Thinking | Anna Finn

At-home exercise:

For this assignment, I decided to analyze single-family residence entrance gates in my neighborhood. I first organized them based on material.

Single family residence entrance gates, organized by material

Recently my upstairs neighbours dog escaped through a hole in our gate, and this made me more aware of perhaps why there are so many gates in the area. I then reorganized the entrances that I had taken photos of based on how inviting they looked and whether or not they would keep pets inside.

Single family residence entrance gates organized by more/less inviting

From this analysis I started to notice that some of these gates seemed more inviting than others, and that the entrances with a more visually permeable gate, or no gate at all, and those with more planting, seemed more inviting to me. Additionally I found gates that were wooden as opposed to metal were more appealing (this is very subjective, of course), however, the entrances with metal gates would all be successful in keeping pets inside. Another observation was that the gates that lined up perfectly with the front door of the house seemed more formal and intimidating in some way, while entrances that were offset from the front door were more engaging.

From this I designed my own simple gate, with visually permeable wooden slats that has integrated lighting. On either side tall shrubs act as “bollards” to keep with the style in the area. A stone wall then acts as a “fence” which hosts small shrubs, which allows semi-privacy while still keeping pets inside safely.

typical entrance gate sketch – gate aligns directly with front door which seems very formal / intimidating

entrance gate sketch – gates offset from front door seem more inviting

entrance gate design for semi privacy, lighting, and safety for pets

Entrance gate design for visual semi-privacy and safety for pets

In-class exercise: course summary

December 10, 2022

Assignment 8 – Tuning In & Windplay | Anna Finn

At home exercise

Part 1 – Tuning In

For this exercise I was sitting at the gate in the Vancouver Airport waiting for a flight. I wasn’t intending to do the exercise at this time but as I was waiting for my flight I noticed the sound of birds chirping. I looked up to see if I could find the sound source, expecting to see one or two birds who somehow made their way inside the building, but couldn’t see anything. The noise continued and I never did see any birds, which brought me to the conclusion that the chirping was artificial and being played over a speaker. This was intriguing as I assume there is a psychological affect as the sounds are played as a kind of “white noise” to make waiting more pleasant for people. This is when I decided to draw a sound map of the different noises going on around me. I used colours and paint brush styles to depict the impression of the different sounds I was hearing, while intensity of colour marks how loud or soft the sound was.

Sound impressions overlay on photograph of Vancouver Airport

Part 2 – Windplay

For the windplay assignment, I made a Japanese-style wind chime. A piece of paper is tied to a washer, which hangs inside a glass jar. When the paper blows in the wind. the washer hits off the jar and makes a clinking noise. I imagine chimes of different jar sizes making higher or lower pitched sounds depending on the size and intensity of the wind

Japanese-style wind chimes of different sizes and materials

November 24, 2022November 24, 2022

Assignment 10 – Taste Rave + Design a Drinking Object | Anna Finn

In-class exercise – The taste of Granville Island

Drinking Object: Glass-Half-Full

November 15, 2022

Assignment 9 – Smell Notes | Anna Finn

In-Class Exercise

These photographs were taken during our in-class site visit to the seawall and Stanley Park. I tried to take photos of places and things that either had a definite smell or things that I thought added to the overall smell of the specific place.

Top Row: wet rocks, seaweed, ocean air, crab leg

Bottom Row: Leaves on trees, rotting wood and moss, raindrops on tree branches, lichen on cedar tree.

At-home exercise

Drawing smell and memory of the Pacific Ocean at Spanish Banks beach, using sea water

Drawing smell of leaves and memory of Stanley Park

While at home, I attempted re-visualizing the smells from the site visit of the sea wall and the park. The first painting is using sea-water from Spanish banks beach, which I thought might somehow show smell through texture. For the second photo, I added raked leaves from my lawn to the water, which didn’t give much colour but made the water a bit gritty and dirty. Watercolour paint was added to both paintings to enhance the visualization of my memory of “smell” through colour.

November 3, 2022November 3, 2022

Assignment 7 – Movement | Anna Finn

At-home exercise

body movement on stairs: slow, medium, and fast

extracted movement lines: slow, medium, fast

October 27, 2022October 27, 2022

Assignment 6: Tactile Body Space | Anna Finn

In-class exercise

Material + Body heat sensation on outdoor bench

At-home (road trip) exercise

Material textures inside car, drawn from low to high detail

This week I was on a road trip and spent some time analyzing a few material textures inside my car. The first was a fabric material on the seat, which I hadn’t really noticed before. It felt different touching with my whole hand versus tracing the stitches with one finger.

The second material was the hard/smooth leather covering the dash. At first glance the material doesn’t have much of a texture but close up it becomes more evident.

There were many mountain views throughout the road trip. Here I tried to depict the different textures created by the mountains, trees, snow, and sky.

Trying to analyze the changing views while thinking about light, texture and detail became visually over-stimulating after some time.

October 10, 2022November 3, 2022

Assignment 4 – Above, At, and Below Ground | Anna Finn

In Class exercise: Beaty Biodiversity Museum

Beaty Biodiversity Museum and Courtyard – First Floor plan

This overall plan of the museum and courtyard shows movement patterns of people (blue lines) and air movement through the courtyard.

East elevation of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum courtyard showing sun direction

Beaty Biodiversity Museum – Axonometric view

Using the cube method to draw and describe the museum gives a better understanding of the space, and allows sight into the blow-ground level of the museum which is hidden to pedestrians.

At-home exercise: redesigning views

Beaty Biodiversity Museum – Section showing whale skeleton

While analyzing the environment outside the museum and in the courtyard, I had no idea that there was a whole museum space underground. I also didn’t see the hanging whale skeleton until almost right up to the glass. Walking into the museum was an interesting phenomenon as there is so much more to the building than what is above ground, which I assume is placed so that the artifacts don’t degrade in UV light from the sun. However, I can see why the museum might not get many passerby visitors as there is no visual cue that there is anything of this size going on underground.

Design proposal – placing the whale skeleton in a way that looks like it is diving down underground to the museum.

Here I’ve proposed a repositioning of the hale skeleton, start well above ground and be ‘diving’ down into the museum. This way it is more visible from pedestrians and those lounging in the courtyard. This will hopefully give the idea that there is more going on underground than what is first seen, and attract people into the space.

October 9, 2022October 9, 2022