Shelby Tse

Collapsible Structures: Connection Through Humor

Class of: 2024

Major: Fashion Design BFA

Medium: Collapsible Systems: Paper, Wire, String

Faculty: Natalia Zubko

Prompt: For this project, my prompt was to create an object off of my body that embodied or expressed a moment of feeling connected or a moment of feeling disconnected using collapsible structures and only mechanical connections.

My project focuses on the feeling of connecting with others through humor. That being said, I really really really wanted to make this project fun. As I started to sketch my initial designs, I found myself being inspired by clowns, jesters, and street performers. My concept, was to make an interactive squirting clown flower top out of colorful paper which extended out towards the viewer. To construct the squirting flower, I combined a collapsible fan, sliding joints, rotating joints, and two accordions with mechanical connections. Next, for my concept photos, I put on clown makeup and shot my project outside with natural diffused sunlight on a plain background and combined the different photos in Adobe Photoshop.