✹ Fan project - final presentation
27th February 2021
               
I have been working with Fan project for more than 3 months now. The initial deadline for presentation and the residency to West dean University was in December. But due to the Covid-19 restriction and the difficulty we have at the moment, they had to postpone it to this month. Yesterday - 26th February 2021 was the day that I had the final presentation to the judges from the company. I had to present my project with the students from the 2nd year product design course at Chelsea University. The last time I saw some of their works and it was an amazing and interesting idea.

From the presentation schedule, I found my name at the bottom of the list. I was the last person to present, which was much more nervous for me because I normally go first or second if I can choose - to get the excitement out as quick as I can. Even I have seen some of the 2nd year’s work before but didn’t know much about their context. The mock-ups and mechanism of the fan were interesting - new materials have been used, many unexpected contexts have been referenced. In this meeting, I had got a lot more details about their work and seen many potentials in them.

Ayesha - the villain character from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, 2017 (film)  

For my project - I finally contextualise them properly after making mock-ups and keep developing the prototype for more than 3 months. It was a fun project and I have come up with many more prototype after the first one.

So to conclude the contexts of this project, so far, I started by looking at my main project in the way of studying material - Shiny objects like jewellery and their relationship with human body. I found that they not only imply luxury, power, status symbol and superiority through the value of the material but also it involves the essence of bringing attention to the wearer. Because the human body moves all the time, when we wear shiny object like jewellery - the glimmering light reflection will be created by the movement of the body. That way it appears to the eyes of people by the principle that human attracts to the glossy surface because it reminds us of water, the resource of life.

 
(L)  https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/the-secret-language-of-fans
(R)  SALLY RAND - Fan Dance (1942) via youtube

For this project of Fan Making - I see the similarity of Fan and Jewellery. Both of them imply status symbol and luxury. As well as involve the user movement- for fans, the force from the user's hand create air circulation and also force create the fan movement. From that principle, I observe the fan when used and found that it is fanned in loop movement - flipping over in the same direction. And from the wind spinner that I found from Camden market when loop movement created on a reflective object, it appears to be an eye-pleasing effect as shown below.

 (L) First prototype - made from mirror card board and PLA filament. Study movement and refelction on the material (R) Wind spinner I bought from Camdent market

By that principle, I come up with this prototype And develop it further as I have been updated in previous blogs - joint pattern, motif trial, material exploration and handle options.

Some of the development throught out the project - pattern development, joining trial, material trial, etc. 

Besides, I want to push the concept further through different material like Lenticular sheet. It can change from one picture to another by flipping the sheet. The idea is to cut the material into smaller pieces and connect them back together with rivets to allow them to move a bit - the same mechanism as the one before. I want to explore if this material can change the image from more than one direction? Can it behave differently by being a fan? And how can it interact with the user and surrounding space through the form of handheld fan? These are the ideas I have so far for this project.

  (L) Lenticular sheet - picture change from one direct movement (R) Circle pattern trial - the idea is to cut lenticular into smaller pieces and connect back together with rivets


Actually, I have other 2 ideas which I will write about it Later on. I just cut them out at the last minute being afraid I wouldn’t have enough time to talk about it. Briefly, the idea is about how to turn the form of turbines into a handheld fan. This project is inspired by the foil windmill I ordered from Amazon earlier. It would be fun to think about and make.

I think I did the presentation quite well, this was the first time I presented my project to people outside my course. I was excited but everything went smoothly. The judges were so kind and encouraging. This was indeed a good practice for my presentation skill.