Opus #3

Scale- Scale is the measurement of an object in which you take its actual size and you recreate it exactly, except in a bigger or smaller size. In my studio class we deal a lot with scale. This week we had to recreate a wall section in a one inch scale so instead of the wall being 9 feet tall it would be 9 inches tall. My drafting class is where I use scale the most; we do a lot of house drawings and furniture drawings in which we have to recreate things in a specific scale. In my history and theory of design class we used the term scale in a different form. In this class we used scale in terms of size, like the pyramids we talked about how big they are. Scale of things can be used to change our view of things Roth explains it here “For the most part, there are many clues in a building as to its size- windows, doors, steps- but even all these may be enlarged so that our sense of scale is distorted.” (Roth 76)

Unity- Unity can be defined as something that is uniform and equal that can be tied together by its different parts. An example of a place where unity can be seen is in ancient Egypt. The prime examples here are the columns. The columns were built the same and they were spaced evenly apart. Blakemore talks a lot about how unity in space was used in ancient Egypt and then passed on to Greece, “The role of the orders was significant in defining spaces of the Greek interior; not only did they divide spaces horizontally but they were also instrumental in creating visual interest.” (Blakemore 28) Another example of unity in Egypt is the pyramids. They are evenly sided structures that come to a point that directs you to the heavens. The pyramids at Giza were built in groups of three (the power of three). The power of three is a strong statement of unity these groupings of three tie all the pyramids together.

Section- A section is a “part of something”, in the architecture world it often times refers to the view of a house or an object. In my drafting class we do section drawings. This week we drew sections of our furniture piece from the Pat’s chair assignment. Also in my design drawing class we often times have to take a section of something and draw it, this is basically what a vignette would be, a section of a whole that you choose to draw. In my studio class we had to build wall sections to scale. We built walls to house our artifacts that we made. In Egypt the columns again can relate in this instance to section Blakemore explains it here. “The cross section of the shaft imitated a cluster of reeds, resulting in a parallel series of narrow convex semicircular molding or, conversely a series of parallel channels.” (Blakemore 12)

Boundaries- A boundary is something that is used to keep people out or in or direct people where to go. In my history and theory of design class we talked about different types of boundaries. One of the main things we talked about was the pyramids. These huge structures were there to keep people out of the graves of the kings they are boundaries. “The pyramids are virtual mountains, at the time the largest buildings in the world” (Roth 197) One great example of boundaries that we studied in history and theory of design is the temple of Hatshepsut it was built before the Valley of The Kings so that you will see them on the way to the pyramids it is a boundary to the Valley.

Vignette- A vignette is a part or a section of something that is shown through a drawing or through literature. The vignettes that we have been focusing on are picture or drawing vignettes. The class that we have really talked about this in is my design drawing class. We have done some assignments where we had to draw vignettes of the teachers and of our studio and of a number of other things. In Egypt they used a lot of vignettes in there furniture and on their walls. “Paintings included geometric arrangements, religious subjects, plant patterns, and animal life.” (Blakemore 9)

Synopsis- All of these words are tied together in some way or at least play off of one another. Section and unity are a lot of times related as well as section and vignette. The section and vignette are related because a vignette is a section of something or a little view of something. A large topic this last week in History was Egypt all of these terms were seen in Egypt the rest of the world and today’s way of life came from Egypt.