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I was thinking about puzzles and how the cutouts are so often like snowflakes, all a little different but generally the same outlines. I then thought about how a laser cut line drawing could convey opposing messages to the imagery on the puzzle.
I found an image of my mom and dad holding me as a small child and thought that the joy on their faces and their memories of this moment gave the exact opposite feeling that my depiction of dispair has. I made a line drawing out of it and laser cut the image which I had printed on wood.
This dichotomy represents the problem and the solution and how a simple adjustment of perspective can bring in an err of light and joy in times of need. It also made me consider how my own depressive episodes affect my parents and consider how hard it has to be to watch your child suffer with no ability to help. By bringing an empathetic lense into viewing this piece, you can uncover several rather complex and hard to grasp emotional responses that lead to an uncomfortable feeling.
I then created the document for laser cutting so I can have a tangible outcome that represents the emotional disarray that I seek to convey.
Next I enlisted my good friend Zoe who has significan experience with the laser cutting machine. This saved a lot of time and money with experimentation while I also learned a lot so I can now do this process again on my own without help.
This was my first time laser cutting and my first attempt didn’t turn out exactly the way I had envisioned. Some of the pieces were too small and got sucked into the ventilation so I lost some of the puzzle.
I wanted to try one more time and see if I could get it closer to right. I ended up printing a vinyl sticker and sticking that to some chipboard to cut. We had some issues with the laser and it ended up going over everything twice, burning it a little. Despite removing the super small pieces, I still ended up losing some of them to the ventilation system again.
I wasn’t able to get a perfect cut within the time frame and budget I set for myself, but I got two cuts that were almost there and a lot of knowledge out of the experience. I hope to find more ways to utilize the resources at pratt as I continue into my thesis and think this was a worth while exploration regardless of outcome.
I also made this little box to put the puzzle in and am happy with the way it turned out. This piece feels like a solid culmination of my research, emotional explorations, and material experimentation, combining them all to make something that I think represents the idea of dispair and finding your way out.
This image will be used as the reference for cutting out the puzzle pieces. This will be the image that is made from the outline of the puzzle pieces themselves, hiding within the image that appears upon completion of the puzzle.
This is the image that will form upon completion of the puzzle.
This is the file I made to laser cut out the puzzle pieces.
File ready for laser cutting.