today in the studio

think I finally got together a method of working with this foam material to carve and detail buildings for the BPNY Sziget project. I’ll say this now. I really don’t like this foam. It’s insulating material for ceilings, actually. It’s coated on both sides with some sort of foil to dispense heat, in between which is 3/8″ of this foam material. it cuts okay but it’s just shit. it’s not easy to draw or paint upon even. it’s light as hell, has no significant structure, hot glue can actually melt it (or burn your fingers if you forget you’re holding the heat-dispensing foil!), and it’s generally just not fun. but it is getting the job done. my primary concerns with this project are variations of scale. although the foam is limited by its thickness, which oddly renders some buildings somewhat two-dimensional, at least I can quickly move between 1cm tall buildings and 8cm tall buildings and worry about their installation later. the only other people currently working on fabricating buildings are limited with solid blocks of carved plaster about 3/4″ x 3/4″ x 1.5″. all of their buildings are more like row-houses than individual units or standalone complexes. not that that’s bad, but it just doesn’t sit well with me. I want the option to place a one-story building next to a twelve-story building.

Getting back to the point. Method: carve building with breakaway blade; spraypaint with base coats (also figured I can use large thread spools like spray hoses, to better direct the spraypaint, or to let me coat just the roof of a building without the spray going elsewhere! great!); detail with markers, paint pens and pens/pencil; apply flocking material to give the impression of hanging gardens, rooftop gardens, patio foliage, etc. These will be assembled into community areas and blocks, abundant with flocking foliage and backyard collective garden spaces.

now, I only need to make around 1,192 more! . . . . . . . . . . shit.