Visual Narrative–3D Retro Device–Research

At the beginning, I came up with 3 ideas. The first was a bamboo washing machine, a square human powered washing machine made of bamboo. The second was a sundial watch, which is based on the same principle as a sundial, where the sunlight shines and the time is determined according to the angle of the shine. The third is the jade drinking fountain, the whole of which is made of wood, while the jade inside is what purifies the water.

So I opted for a second idea, the sundial watch. However, due to some of its limitations, it can only be used in daylight and requires some skill to tell the time, not applicable to most people, so it was discarded. I came up with another idea, a VR headset that would allow me to watch animations.

And then I thought about the mindmap about the animation VR headset for the Function, period and appearance.I took the shape of VR glasses and the principle of clip books, and it become a stop-motion glasses. This VR animator is used for leisure and entertainment. The users can rotate the paper in the glasses by turning the rotating lever next to it, so as the principle of clip books and watch the animation.

https://artslondon.padlet.org/ywang022020171/75d68s9pop59pp1b

And then, I searched some information about the history of VR, the flipbook animation, some elements of Tang Dynasty and so on.

I also visited the British Museum and took some photos of the gadgets that relate to my work, such as the jade, carvings and golden texture.

Finally, I drew up what I imagined the animated VR headset would look like and a schematic of the middle. It has the overall appearance of a one-piece wooden helmet structure. A metal lever is installed next to it and shaking the lever turns the paper with the drawing in the middle, thus creating an animation.