Saturday, January 9, 2010

Project 1.1 - Surveying and Mapping You


Project 1.1 is the first part of two exercises. It will require you to perform an
extensive study of measuring and documenting the human form, and anthropometric study of your being.

Include the following information in your drawing:
+ Height, Width, Depth, Length & Diameter of every part of your body (be thorough and obsessive!)
- Torso
- Arms
- Fingers
- Legs
- Toes
- Head
+ Indicate the distances between joints and their subsequent ranges of motion
+ Provide metrics that include:
- Length of Stride
- Height of Jump
- Extent of Reach
- Distance of Sight
- Range of Hearing
- Acuity of Smell
- Sensitivity of Touch
- Speed of Reaction to Stimulus
- Awesomeness of your Superpowers
The Human Body is also an amazing example of mathematical proportions. Discovering the proportions that exist within the dimensions of your own body can prove to be fairly interesting. Compare your own measurements to see if you can find any other interesting relationships.
Here are a few examples:
+ The height of your head is approximately 1/8th of your total body height.
+ The length of the wingspan of your arms (fingertip to fingertip) is equivalent to your total body height.
+ The length of your foot is close to the length of your forearm.
+ The ratio that exists between the distance between the top of your head to your navel compared to the the bottom of your feet to your navel produces the golden ratio or phi (roughly 1.618)


You've been given the specifics of how you shall present this information during our studio session, now it's up to you to choose how you want to present your survey graphically.

There are many methods for representing this information. Below I've included a visual collection of other mappings of the human body for inspiration and consideration, but you should seek your own inspiration too, be aware of how people map human bodies.

Ask yourself:
How was this representation of the human form created?
What information is being translated?
Is this representation effective? If not, why?




Albrect Dürer - Investigate his book "Four Books on Human Proportion":




The next entry will begin to address different method of representing the human form where we'll investigate the combination and usage of different visual techniques to document and map the human condition.

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