Breaking glass is fun. There is no denying it. In fact it can be quite addicting, I did breaking experiments earlier in the week and recorded the process. It was... exciting, dangerous, nerve wracking, and only with the barest hint of trauma.<--- This is what I'm after for the viewer, while trying to make them be very deliberate about what they are doing. Can they shake off their societal programming and complete the piece? I already want to try and make this piece again, away from an academic setting and see how more "normal" people deal with it.
So this helped to prove a few things... that I'm moving in the right direction for the overall wall thickness of the vessels. The teardrop shape in the last video will be the hardest to break due to it's egg like structure. An egg is really good at distributing any force that could potentially break it. Aiming for the lip of the piece is an, almost, guaranteed break. That it is addicting, after breaking about 6 pieces that morning I was looking around to see if I had any left to smash, so some type of limit will need to be in place. That everything is heightened, from the fight or flight response, when your that close to flying glass.
It has been suggested to throw the objects into a corner or a box. Meh. To me by making it so you have to pick up the piece, place it
Now, a few things have come up...
Is there anyway to prolong the breaking? No, not in this project, 10 seconds is an average time to line up the shot and take it... that is not saying it can't be done and I am looking into the opposite of this piece... larger, thicker vessels that would be very difficult to break at all. Other ways of breaking are being entertained as well, but so far nothing seems to be as satisfying as straight up smashing.
Do I have to be so responsible?
Well... maybe I can loosen up a bit. Looking over the design of the breaking box, I think I can strip away a lot of the over the top safe guards and have something that is still works while making the situation as exciting(dangerous) as possible. The possibility of waivers is something I'm seriously considering. Right now, this project is in the same editing phase as my project from the first semester... stripping away everything else to get to the essence.
I have been considering what is the most important thing for this particular project. Things that cannot change are picking the piece, taking it to it's destination, and breaking it... but even then, the most important thing is to break it. The glass has to be handmade, not just off the clearance rack at Pier 1 or World Market. Why? The aspect of these objects being handmade helps to drive home this aspect of preciousness associated with them. There is the notion that handmade glass is a precious material. It's a collected medium, it's used for awards, it's something that is passed down in the family as an heirloom. All of these are very precious attachments that only really came about from machines taking over the more mundane aspects of glass blowing (i.e. making bottles) allowing glass blowing studios to concentrate on other things. So messing with that is important to me, and I think once this is in the gallery some people will have a very hard time doing what is asked of them. Once the viewer becomes part of the display, and is put on display... some will revel in that and others will shy away from it.
Considering the activity, and that this is all that happened with open air breaking, it was a good day.
