Finished Dada Box

These photos were meant to be spread out across a couple of posts, but my computer has been having issues with my camera so I had to wait and upload them all at once in Carnegie. So, some of these are work-in-progress pictures, but most of them are of the finished product.

 Above: the plywood "cards" (for lack of a better word) that go inside the box.

 The backs of the cards, which help to keep them in order and also feature dada-esque imagery.

 I love this picture. And I was amazed at how much detail transferred over!

 Look at the detail! All the gradients and little lines and everything came out just about perfectly!

 I'm so happy with how the transfers look on the metal, too. They came out looking naturally aged and worn and I think it looks great.

 There are a few smeared areas, but I was as careful as possible and largely avoided any serious mishaps.

 Here's my system for leading the reader around the outside of the box... I painted on little "rust" marks. I wanted them to blend in and not immediately catch the eye, but still look intentional and directional so that the reader can follow the text as it was written.

 The little hanging tag, which has the title, author, and then the first sentence of the manifesto on the back.

 Here's the finished box!

 The inside turned out nicely as well. There were just a few issues with fitting the paper in some areas, but with some trimming and careful maneuvering it turned out all right in the end.

 I tried to "age" the text a little bit and make it look worn down. I think I will try and find a way to stain the paper a little and make it look older, because it still doesn't quite seem to fit with the outside of the box. For now, though, I think it looks fine.

 Wood cards inside the box.

This is how I'll have them displayed. They're meant to be read left to right, top to bottom, but the letters on the back are there to help!

Sorry there were so many pictures! I'm just really pleased with how it turned out and very proud of the work I put into it. There are a few small things I plan to tweak in the future, purely for my own satisfaction, but I'm still really, really happy with it right now.

Toolbox

I finally have my found object! After much deliberation and angst, I finally settled on this antique metal toolbox. I really like the look and feel of it, and the idea that it's sort of a "working man's object," not an object one would ever associate with fine arts (which of course the Dadaists would have completely rejected). My only concern is the size of it (about 18 inches long and maybe 7 inches high) and being able to fit the (very) long manifesto onto it, but I think I have a solution for that as well. I'm going to take the second-to-last section of the manifesto and print individual sentences or thoughts from it onto heavy paper cards, incorporating some Dada-esque clip art collages onto these cards, with the idea that such cards would be kept in the box and distributed to the public in order to spread the ideas of the movement. The final, emphatic section of the manifesto will go on the inside bottom panel of the box, so once the reader has removed and read each card, their reading will continue back onto the toolbox. It all makes sense in my head, at this point... now comes the hard part of making it all happen!

(Also, sorry about the horrible and blurry picture quality... I want a new camera so bad...)

More Project 2 ideas

I abandoned the toilet idea for a few reasons (difficulty to transfer print onto, used toilet grossness, non-historical toilet, etc) and now I'm leaning towards large wooden found objects like a door or a chair (or both! or something else). I really want to use the wintergreen transfer method and I think it'll work very well on these wooden surfaces. My plan is to go to the Restore store sometime between now and Wednesday morning and take pictures of objects (or purchase them if I find things I like and really want to work with). I think the door would be effective in conveying the Dada ideas because it is something that could feasibly be seen by large numbers of people and others could post ideas onto it (nailing pieces of paper on, painting on it, etc--other things I want to consider doing). Right now I've been laying out the manifesto and highlighting/emphasizing bits that I want to do certain things with in the layout, and also looking for period images for use in collaging.

The manifesto itself is both interesting and frustratingly complicated at the same time. I found myself falling into a pattern of which parts of the text I chose to emphasize, but the whole piece is so emphatic and strongly-worded that it's hard to tell if the Dadaists would have agreed with all of my emphasis or not! I plan to lay out the text based around these strong words/phrases, which will be larger and bolder (and possibly in color, I haven't decided on that yet). I'll definitely be using a number of different typefaces from the period and trying to use them to guide the reading of the manifesto (light vs bold vs delicate vs emphatic, etc). I can already tell this project is going to be a challenge...