Investigating Normal is a course that explores disability studies through an art and engineering lense.
I collaborated with New York based artist and person of short stature, Laura Swanson to design and build a prototype fountain art installation. We sketched with Laura until she came to the idea of "Sad Fountain," and then we worked independently with some consultation to build a functioning, half-scale model of the installation. |
Client: Laura Swanson
Title: Designer, Mechanical Engineer Course: ENGR 3230 Investigating Normal: Adaptive and Assistive Technologies Date: Fall 2016 Team: Elizabeth Sundsmo, Claire Beery Roles:
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Laura describes herself as “an artist examining the behavior of looking at physical difference. Her visual language is simultaneously playful and serious, simple and intricate, inviting and disruptive."
Laura’s work centers around a critical examination of the visual depiction, exploitation, and objectification of different bodies in culture. Laura is short statured, so much of her work focuses on size mismatch "to unravel the dominant cultural bias toward sameness, especially in the size of adult bodies." |
Laura approached our professor, Sara Hendren, to have the class sketch model ideas for fountain installations within the themes of Laura's art. She expressed surprise at the breadth and depth of ideas she received from the exercise, and decided to engage some students in a project to design and prototype the fountain.
We were tasked with co-designing a fountain installation for a gallery showing in England in 2018. We started by sketching and exploring concepts of size mismatch, danger, and the use of hard, industrial materials, or materials that look soft. |
Our sketching helped Laura decide on the form of the installation she wanted, and she developed "Sad Fountain." She was intrigued by the anthropomorphic nature of the U-bend pipes that can be found on many city streets. The U-bend has a sad, droopy quality to it, like a person with their head bowed and shoulders sagging. Additionally, we liked the futility of it; water is pumped up the pipe, out of the ground, just to go right back down into the drain.
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Laura wanted a very large fountain, with cast iron pipe diameter of eight inches and a height of four feet. When we tried to source pipe of that diameter, we found it difficult to find. We decided to construct a half-scale model of Sad Fountain instead of attempting the full scale.
Additionally, sourcing four inch diameter, cast iron U-bends proved to be impossible with our budget, so we decided to use PVC from our local hardware store and paint it to look like cast iron. To construct the concrete base, we constructed a frame out of wood, wrapped it in chicken wire, and used mortar to create the appearance of a solid concrete base. Finally, we purchased a pump and shower head and constructed an inner copper pipe system within the PVC to pump water from a basin under the concrete base. |