1 Column In An Aesthetically Wrong Pod

When I showed my adapted wooden model with the arms to my tutor, immediately Michelle saw the aesthetics were wrong. The aesthetics of a design is dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty, basically it looked wrong - too mechanical. Michelle said there wasn't anything I could about the aesthetics looking at this small model, so the next step was to make a full scale model quickly, with the same proportions as my wooden model -

This is the column made out of 9 layers of hollow grey board discs, the five larger discs measuring 420mm in diameter and 45mm in height and the smaller discs in between measuring 320mm in diameter and 45mm in height, with the top disc at 420mm in diameter and 75mm in height. With a square seat on top measuring 500mm by 500mm and 35mm in height. The total height of the column and seat is 430mm and at the widest point 500mm, I tried to base these measurements on those of a standard school chair for ergonomic reasons

This is the finished full scale model and is blatantly obvious that its looks wrong - the aesthetics need to be improved, it is also interesting to see the scale I am looking at with my chair trap

Ganesha + An Arm...

Now I have a mechanism that is activated by someone sitting down on a suspended column and turning 5 cogs, I need to take this movement and come up with a way that the person is then trapped from this mechanism

It became blatantly obvious that arms should be attached to the cogs in such a way that when they rotate, the arms that are connected on the circumference of the round cogs will move with the rotation and move into a certain position that the user is trapped, confused? here are some sketches of what I mean -

The arms are simply an addition to the previous mechanism. The trap is set with the central column lifted, the cogs in their outward rotated position and arms lay out of the floor. Then as the column falls and cogs turn inwards the arms lift off the floor rotating at the same rate as the cogs. This mechanism will be designed so that then the column meets the floor, the cogs have rotated all they can and the arms are in their upright position all the way round the column with the 5 cogs and attached arms

I then added these arms to my wooden model, using simply foam board so that could quickly and easily see this advance in 3D -

Getting My Hands Dirty

Now I feel my mechanism design is getting somewhere I want to get into the workshop and start working with materials that I could potential use in the final piece. This is something that even the most expensive hi-tech software can't do, the physical making of the piece, something you can hold and tweak as you wish

I learnt a lot about realising this concept as a piece when making this wooden model. You can see from the two photos above how the movement of the column up and down causes the cogs to move inwards and outwards, it is movement that want to use to trap someone in the seat as they sit and push down the column. Also see how the cogs are suspended at a set height and distance from the column and can spin with ease on a metal rod, these are very similar to a Croquet hoops as they are pushed into holes in the base

Google Sketch(ing) It Up

When it comes to making a design sketch 3-Dimensional, a lot of designers don't have the appropriate resources and materials on hand and often more importantly the time to manufacture their piece. So software tailored to help you create a 3D computer model are very useful. A really good free downloaded software available is Google SketchUp

I thought I would give it a try and see if I can recreate my sketches of the central column with interlocking cogs, and take the design further 3-Dimensionally -

A huge advantage with using these modelling programs I can move around my design with ease, making it much easier to judge size, proportion, angles and scale compared to a flat 2D drawing. So it was easy for me to copy a cog that works with the column and rotate it to the angle I need to have them meet the circumference of the cylinder at the correct position

Development

Here are some preliminary sketches of how I could combine the central column of the corkscrew and the graphics piece by Gordon Young to design the basis for the mechanism that will grow and incorporate this Cylinder

I then started to think how the Cog component will sit and be sized is relation to the gaps in the column

Screw It

Obviously I couldn't just make a human size venus flytrap because as I have said, they work with trigger hairs on the lobes that cause the cells in the midrib to pump out ions, changing the shape of the cells allowing the lobes under tension to snap shut. It is very unlikely that I could find a way to make a half mechanical half cellular chair trap! so I will have to make do with a convention pressure pad linked to a trapping mechanism

A perfect example of such a mechanism is the classic corkscrew. It works on the simple theory that if a central column is attached to free spinning cogs, when it moves down, the cogs will turn in on themselves, the same thing happens but in reverse when the column is raised up - the cogs move outwards, I have shown these movements in these sketches -

First the arms of the corkscrew are put in the downward position and the corkscrew is positioned on top of a wine bottle. The central column has a twist piece at the end designed to screw into the bottles cork through continuous twisting of the central column. As it moves into the cork, disc like rings at even spaces further up the column move down as well, free moving cogs that are mounted at a certain distance from the column so that their teeth fit perfectly inside each of the spaces between the rings turn in on themselves, raising the arms that are attached to them

As you can see my drawing here, that this moving mechanism is very simple and affective at turning downward movement into pivoting movement

Homing In...

It is definitely time to bring all my research together and transfer it into a design idea. As I see it I can either take the route of a material led project or a mechanism led one, each producing very different outcomes. The material one would be more about experimenting with different unusual materials to suit the form or function of the trap - for example taking Crochet further or even playing around with Polyurethane to make a rubbery silk like substance that could be manipulated to resemble a web. Whereas a mechanism led project would focus more on how performing a simple act like sitting on a chair would activate a mechanism that would result in the user becoming trapped. I think that the second route would be more interesting and much more geared towards my interests when it comes to making something

Saw

When asked by someone in our 3D stereo what I plan to make with the theme Weapon, I said a chair that when sat on the user will become trapped, the response was straight away like from the film Saw?

I actually haven't seen any of the six Saw films currently released but I gather that the main plot is that a terminally ill psychopath drugs people that are in some way don't appreciate health and life in generally, usually drug addicts or are linked to him in some way. He then takes them to a secret location where he uses mind games and torture to teach them to appreciate life while they are physically able

From looking at images and reading reviews the torture devises work using a series of mechanisms to trap the victim and them force them to risk their lives to survive, they usually involve physical harm to the victim, which isn't what I want my trap to do but I am interested in the mechanisms involved

This trap is called the Knife Chair, in the film drug addict wakes up the chair with his arms bounds to the armrests and blades jutting upwards into his forearms. To release his arms he has to push a lever level with his face. However a large apparatus is added to the chair, consisting of eight blades enclosed around his head. Jigsaw (the psychopath) then instructed him in what to do, telling him that to release himself from the chair, he had to force his face through the blades to push the lever, matching his internal ugliness by scarring his face, fortunately the chair actually collapsed as he was pushing his face through, releasing him from the trap

Looking past all the torture and cutting, this is actually a good example of where a mechanism is directly linked to what someone does in a chair - be it getting trapped or a mechanism to set you free

These are two other trapping mechanisms from the films, the reverse bear trap (left) and the head trap (right). The mechanism are very similar, the reverse bear trap is helmet that is also attached in the girls mouth, the head trap is attached to a harness that is padlocked shut. They both work by the victims having a set amount to time to retrieve the key to their traps, if they take too long the mechanisms are designed to either fly open or slam shut depending on the trap, obviously resulting in the victims death

Again very disturbing but you can see links in both to much older mechanisms I have already explored, obviously a bear trap for the left trap and a Venus Flytrap for the head trap

Despite being designed to cause intense pain and often death, the mechanisms in this the films, although very extreme are clever in why the trapping mechanism is dictated by the victims actions, which is what I hope to achieve in my mechanism

Brit Insurance - Designs Of The Year

At the end of last week I had pretty much made up my mind for my idea and was working towards a design, this actually proved harder than I had hoped so I went to the Brit Insurance Design of the Year exhibition at the Design Museum in London to draw some more inspiration for what form my idea may take

Obviously I wasn't expecting to find lots of chairs that are traps as well but inspiration to the aesthetics, form for my piece, what materials to use or the mechanism adopted in work there. Now in its third year, the Brit Insurance Designs Awards, "the Oscars of the design world", showcase the most innovative and forward thinking designs from around the world

Straight away I was drawn towards the GINA Light Visionary Model. This innovative and eye-catching new concept vehicle was conceived when the BMW design team questioned the purpose of a car's body. Replacing the traditional rigid structure with a hi-tech fabric skin stretched over a moveable wire frame enables the car to change shape and form. Headlights are hidden - revealed by blinking apertures in the fabrics - and the shape of the rear wing can be altered to influence the aerodynamic performance in different situations. The car's interior can also be shaped to meet the requirements of individual drivers, with dials, switched and other interior elements hidden from view when not required. Despite being a one-off concept vehicle, the GINA Light Visionary Model suggests the intriguing possibility of a production car with more flexibility than had ever been seen before

Here is a link to an video of how this amazing car moves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTYiEkQYhWY

I really like how with hidden moving parts the car changes form and and to an extent the function, the function of moving at an improved speed due to the change in its aerodynamic form. This can be linked to a trap in that the true purpose of a trap is always hidden to achieve the element of surprise and will definitely change in form as the function is activated

As good as it would be to use such high-tech materials in my work, I do not think it is a possibility at this stage so I looked around the exhibition for more realistic materials

At the other end of the exhibition was the Typographic Tree, a graphic piece designed by Gordon Young. When asked by architects Penoyre and Prasard to design a site-specific work of

art for their new library in Crawley, West Sussex, he suggested a 'forest' of typographic oak columns installed floor to ceiling like supporting pillars. Fellow artist Anna Sandberg held workshops with library users, to gather information on people's favourite books, places and memories. Young then worked with typographers Why Not Associated to design columns from this user-generated content. Each of the 14 solid oak 'trees' reflects a different subject - from the opening line of the first Harry Potter book to the gothic text of Dram Stoker's Dracula. The final designs were sandblasted into green unseasoned oak by long time collaborator Russell Coleman. This material - with all its cracks and shakes - was deliberately chosen to contrast with the perfection of the new building's interior

On a previous foundation project I made a stool out of solid oak and know how malleable it is and what realistically I could achieve with this material. With wood you can sand, carve, engrave, cut, polish, vanish unlike other materials, so I would like to use some type of wood in my piece

Checking In

Now I have my mind set on a trapping mechanism that restrains your opponent giving you the advantage over them and have undergone a good amount of background research (so far), I feel it would be a good time to check my progress with the timescale I set out at the start of this project, shown here:

Final Major Project Timescale - 2010

Week 1 15th -19th March	Write statements
Week 2 22nd – 26th March ---------- Weeks 3-4	Hand in statements 23rd March ----------------------------Easter Break 29/03 – 9/04 – Research & Development in Sketchbook
Week 5 12th – 16th April	Experiment with materials and potential designs Decide on final idea
Week 6 19th – 23thApril	Start the manufacturing of final piece
Week 7 26th – 31st April	Finish the manufacturing of final piece Clear Studios 30th April
Week 8 3rd – 7th May	Paint Studios
Week 9 10th – 14th May	Paint Studios Work up 14th May
Week 10 17th – 21st May	Work up 17th May Private View 19th May

It is Wednesday evening and I am currently working in Week 5, so according to my chart I should be Experimenting with materials and potential designs and working towards a final idea which I should start making next week. So I am slightly behind schedule but I feel happy with the background research I have done on this blog, ideas for designs shouldn't be too hard to come up with

So tomorrow, during the day (9:30am-5:00pm) I plan to start experimenting with materials and mechanisms in the workshop and in the evening set out ideas and designs...

Traps

I am now set on making a trapping mechanism for my final piece, the form of which I haven't decided on but will be the product of my previous post and some to come

I looked at how spiders catch their prey in its web, carnivorous plants that have evolved their trapping mechanisms over time due to their surroundings, explored how a caterpillar and baby feel safe when all their limbs are wrapped up and how the idea of trapping is one that carries torture and abuse

Traps have been designed and used by humans since there were humans, to an affect we owe are existence today as a race to the ability we had to catch food, when hunting was a means of survival. There are six main trap devices, these are traps that are designed to catch something and only cause harm and not to kill the victim straight out, but due to the damage caused death isn't uncommon. They are Booby trap, Animal trap, Heligoland (bird) trap, Insect trap, Man-trap and Mouse trap. For this project I think the animal, man and mouse traps are the most relevant

Animal traps were developed and used for hunting reasons and pest control. This form of trapping is the oldest and can be dated all the way back to 5500-22750 BC! Today most of the traps used can be easily divided into five types, foothold traps, body gripping traps, snares, cages and glue traps. Probably the most well known trap and relevant to this project is the Bear trap, an example of a foothold trap. It is made up of two jaws, one or two springs, a trigger in the middle which is usually a round pan. When the animal steps on the trigger the trap closes around the foot, preventing the animal from escaping. Usually some kind of lure is used to position the animal

Looking at this standard bear trap you can definitely see a link between how the jaws mechanism works and that of the Venus Flytrap I looked at earlier. Body gripping traps is similar to the foothold traps but is designed to kill the prey quickly

A deadfall trap is a heavy rock or log that is tilted on an angle and held up with sections of branches, with one of them that serves as a trigger. When the animal moves the trigger which may have bait on or near it, the rock or log falls, crushing the animal

Cage traps are designed to catch live animals in a cage. They are usually baited, sometimes with food bait. Cage traps usually have a trigger located in the back of the cage that causes a door to shut; some traps with two doors have a trigger in the

middle of the cage that cause both doors to shut. In either type of cage, the closure of the doors and the falling of a lock mechanism prevents the animal from escaping by locking the door shut. This has proven to be the most popular as it is seen as the most humane to the animal

Finally, probably the most used and known is the mouse trap. The classic Spring-loaded bar mousetrap was designed in 1894 and is very simple with a heavily spring-loaded bar and a trip to release it. Cheese is placed on the trip as bait, then the spring-loaded bar swings down rapidly and with great force when anything, usually a mouse, touches the trip. The design is such that the mouse's neck will be broken, or skull is crushed

Crochet-ing It Up

After looking at those baby Crocheted cocoons, thought I would give it a try. I wasn't too bothered about getting the classic spokes/spiral effect, just a piece of fabric with holes in, similar to that of a web - like this one:

I went to a knitting shop in Kingston to get the appropriate materials for my web. I very quickly discovered that there was a lot more to Crochet than I had first thought. First I had to choose the right thread, I went for 50g white to get as similar to spider web as I could. Next I had to choose the right Crochet needle, for this project I was advised to go for a relatively large needle as I was making more of a net than a dense jumper and chose a 5.0 needle

I also got a Basic Guide to Knitting and Crochet book to help we grasp the basics. Despite the clear diagrams and relevant annotation, the book very quickly proved in effective and I had to look to the internet for tutorials. I found the best place for the help I needed was on YouTube. My simply typing in How to Crochet I found a video lasting just under 7 minutes that went through how to do a simple Granny Square, after a few views I was able to achieve this first step. The next part of video went through how to make a Round on the granny square, this proved too confusing despite having the women go through it on the screen, so I left the crochet for a few days

If you are fancy I try heres the link to the first video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVBnFHGbeK4

On returning to University after our two week Easter break, I happy to find that a girl in my class called Benji had done textures prior to the foundation and knew a lot about crochet. So that afternoon Benji gave me a lesson in how to crochet

As you can see it wasn't too successful but this is the product of a first attempt, with no real experience with thread so I am quite happy with the experiment. I'm not going to completely disregard the use of crochet in my final piece but as an exercise it was very interesting

Peas In A Pod

Unlike most adults and even children, babies find themselves most secure and safe when wrapped up tight whereas we feel safer being able to move our limbs if we need to

Like the straitjacket, it must also be to do with safety, to prevent the baby crawling away or putting objects in their mouths. My guess is it has a lot to with the way in which babies are carried, in the cradled arms of someone - in the same way I felt comfortable and at ease in Ron Arad's chair the Restless exhibition at the Barbican

This idea of wrapping up your baby has founded the idea of little pod-like cocoons, shown above. The two green ones were made using Crochet, the process of creating fabric from yearn or thread using a crochet hook. This fabric as you can see is thick but unlike most manufactured fabrics like cotton has some stretch in it, allowing the baby to feel cocooned but also allowing them to move around a bit

I cannot help but think the cocoon that the babies feel safe look a lot like the pod-shape of this bee or wasp thats been wrapped up by a spider, not just the shape but texture, the Crochet looks a lot like that of a spider web...

Restraints

Staying with the idea of trapping I want to see how us humans restrain someone to gain a physical advantage over them

The obvious example is a Straitjacket, typically used in mental asylums to restrain the inmates from causing harm to others and mainly themselves. So this is actually an example of when people have needed to gain an advantage just for safety reasons, defence rather than potential offence. The garment is shaped very much like a normal jacket but with extra long arms. The sleeves are typically sewn shut at the ends - a significant restraint in itself because it restrains the use of the hands. The arms are then folded across the front, with the ends of the sleeves wrapping around to faster or tie behind the back. The straitjacket can cause tremendous pain as blood runs to the elbows, as circulation and movement is limited and can cause swelling. Due to the reputation of being hard to escape from, it has become a favourite of escape artists, with the current record at 18.8 seconds

As you can imagine the idea of restraining someone provokes exploitation and often torture. An example of which being the shocking images leaked from Guantanamo Bay, a detainment facility of the United States located in Cuba. Mainly complaints have been published by former detainees about the traumatic time spent in Guantanamo. Three British prisoners, now known in the media as the Tipton Three were released in 2004 without charge, The three have alleged on going torture, sexual degradation, forced drugging and religious persecuation being committed by U.S forces. Detainee Mehdi Ghezali have claimed that he was the victim of repeated torture, Omar Deghayes alleges he was blinded by pepper spray during his detention, Juma Al Dossary claims he was interrogated hundreds of times, beaten, tortured with broken glass, barbed wire, burning cigarettes and David Hicks also made allegation of torure and mistreatment in Guantanamo Bay but as part of his plea bargain Hicks withdrew the allegations

Looking at these two very extreme examples of restraint I want to take the route of simple restraint, that given by a straitjacket - a means of restraining someone with the potential of offence but not the physical act of harming them

Metamorphosis

Now for a little detour just still staying with the natures amazing mechanisms

After looking at the traps seen in the spider web and the carnivorous plants, where mechanisms are designed to attack the prey when they are not expecting it. I began thinking of mechanisms in nature where something puts itself into a state of disadvantage by restricting their movement and thought of the cocoon that caterpillars makes when they transform into a butterfly

A caterpillar spends most of its life crawling around on the ground and leaves, but when it strong and ready it sets about the process to become an adult. They find a sheltered, safe spot in which to Pupate, or transform into an adult. This happens inside a shall known as a Chrysalis, but the specifics differ between species

This the Monarch caterpillar. After wandering for a while, the caterpillar makes a simple silk pad on the underside of a branch or twig. It uses a hook-covered appendage called a Cremaster to attach itself to this pad. It twists around, embedding it cremaster firmly in the silk.Then, it sheds its skin, revealing the chrysalis. The chrysalis hangs upside down from the cremaster until the butterfly is ready to emerge, or eclose

Other caterpillars adopt different processes when they pupate. Some make a silk hammock from a tree branch and pupate right-side up, others make a sling. The chrysalis starts out soft and skin-like, but gradually hardens to form a protective shell. Alternatively moth caterpillars spin a cocoon to protect their chrysalis, which starts soft but gradually hardens. The moth caterpillar may also disguise the cocoon with leaves or other debris

The transformation within the chrysalis is truly amazing, the caterpillar is affectively recycled. Most of the body is broken down into imaginal cells, which can then become any type of cell. Theses cells are then rearranged into a new shape, parts like the caterpillars legs are left more of less unchanged during this process. This process is known as Holometabolism and depending on the specie it takes around two weeks, however often it remains in the chrysalis during the colder winter mouths

The Dionaea Muscipula

After looking at how the spider uses its web to catch flies, I started thinking about how mechanisms are used in nature when "Gaining an advantage over something else". Then I remembered the Dionaea Muscipula, the Venus Flytrap to most people

The Flytrap is actually only one of 630 species of Carnivorous plants, these are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. These plants are typically found in areas where there are poor levels of nutrients in the soil so these plants have evolved to survive. There are five trapping mechanism that these plants have evolved to perform, they are the Pitfall trap, Flypaper trap, Snap trap, Bladder trap and Lobster-pot trap

The Pitfall trap works in a very simple way, they trap prey in a rolled leaf that contains a pool of digestive enzymes or bacteria. These plants live in area of high rainfall in South America and consequently have a problem ensuring their pitchers do not overflow. To counteract this problem, natural selection has favoured the evolution of an overflow similar to that of a sink - a small gap in the zipped-up leaf margins allows excess water to flow out of the pitcher

The Flypaper trap works by simply getting the insect pray to stick to

the leaves. The leaf of the flypaper trap is studded with mucilage-secreting glands, which are short and nondescript. Once trapped the blade leaf rolls (to prevent rain from splashing the prey off the leaf surface) or dishing of the surface under the prey to form a shallow digestive pit

The Snap trap is characterised by the famous Venus Flytrap. Its trapping mechanism has also been described as a Mouse trap or Man trap based on their shape or rapid movement. Each trap has two lobes that are hinged along the midrib. Trigger hairs on these lobes are sensitive to touch. When a trigger hair is bent, stretch-gated ion channels in the membranes of cells at

the base of the trigger hair open, generating a an action potential that propagates to cells in the midrib. These cells respond by pumping out ions, which may either cause water to follow by osmosis or rapid acid growth. Changes in the shape of cells in the midrib allow the lobes, held under tension, to snap shut, flipping rapidly from convex to concave and interring the prey. This process takes less than a second! Once sealed the lobes act as walls of a stomach in which digestion occurs over a period of one to two weeks. Leaves can be reused three or four times before they becomes unresponsive to stimulation

The Bladder trap works by the plant creating a partial vacuum inside the bladder by it pumping ions out of the interior. The bladder has a small opening, sealed by a hinged door. Aquatic invertebrates such as Daphnia touch hairs on the leaves and deform the door by lever action, releasing the vacuum. The invertebrate is sucked into the bladder, where it is digested

Finally a Lobster-pot trap is a chamber that is easy to enter, and whose exit

is either difficult to find or obstructed by inward-pointing bristles. A Y-shaped modified leaf allows prey to enter but not exit. Inward-pointing hairs force the prey to move in a particular direction. Prey entering the spiral entrance that coils around the upper two arms of the Y are forced to move inexorably towards a stomach in the lower arm of the Y, where they are digested. Prey movement is also thought to be encouraged by water movement through the trap, produced in a similar way to the vacuum in bladder traps, and probably evolutionarily related to it. Above is a sketch of an actual trap made to catch lobster, as you can see the design is heavily inspired by this plant mechanism and is probably the source for the plants name

I really like this idea of a hidden mechanism to trap your prey and how it ties in to my title Weapon

Links And Connections

Two years ago I was given the title Links And Connections for an AS level product design exam module. For this project I also rooted a lot of my research and inspiration in the structure that makes up a spider web. The basis that this design was created was the idea of a spider web spread across a metal frame that sags in the middle. I designed it around a photograph I took of a web that was spun around the rim of a metal pole. Seven chains run from the metal frame to a central suspending ring, in the same way the first strong silk threads are constructed by the spider. And by using rope I could thread it round the chains loops like the second part of the spiders construction creating support as a seat and backrest

By relaxing my eyes, I then started looking at the standard spider web spiral in other ways. The crisscross effect does not have to be limited to spokes and spirals, they can extend all over the place creating interesting gaps like those seen here in the Vegetal Chair by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. This new Vitra chair is made of dyed polyamide and took the designers three years to perfect

8 Legged Freak

Last night I was browsing through BBC iPlayer when I stumbled across the third episode of Richard Hammond's The Invisible World - Off The Scale. This series consisted of three episodes, exploring the world that we as humans cannot see but shapes our lives. The human eye takes about 50 milliseconds to blink, but it takes the brain around 100 milliseconds longer to process what can be seen. We might not be conscious of this time lag going on but, in those milliseconds, there are a huge number of happenings that pass us by. With state of the art cameras you can see for example, the shock wave emitted by a bomb simply by slowing footage down or learn that the fasted thing in the world lives in cow pat. For me the most fascinating feature of this series was the part about spiders and their webs

Through the use of amazing macro photography we understand how a spider sets about constructing its web. First the the spider uses one several different types of silk, this one being particularly strong and sets out the primary stands including the 'spokes' of the web. Next the spider turns back on himself using a different type of silk this time very sticky, to spin the spirals and setting the lethal trap for the insect to touch, making sure to leave the centre of the wet sticky silk free where he sits and waits for his prey. I really like this idea of a trap and can see a huge range of ideas that use in it as a weapon! Through very detailed photography we can see how this silk is produced

On the abdomen of the spider are four organs called Spinnerets. Each of these spinnerets are dotted with mobile finger like spigots. These squirt

out liquid protein, which dries when coming into contact with air forming a super strong thread. With all these thread twisted together you end up with an even stronger one. A spider can produce over 700 metres of silk in one continuous strand. This strand is 30 times thinner than human hair and if it was as thick as a pencil it could pull an ocean liner with ease. This is an image taken from the episode, showing the four spinnerets and there finger like spigots squirting out liquid protein

Scientists also believe that the strength of a spiders web is down to the water droplets found at every junction. Inside each droplet are strands of web that are tightly curled, so when a fly hits the web the strands unravel and make the web flex and stretch

This technology has been applied to man made objects such as a bullet proof vest. The harm inflicted from a bullet travelling at 600mph is dramatically lowered by the presents of a vest. The vest is made from many layers of densely woven or laminated fibres that spread the energy of the impact. There has been a lot of work done on the idea of carbon fibres, a strand 5 times thinner than a human hair is 10 times stronger than steel! Each fibre is made of more than 1 million tubes of carbon just 1 atom thick

I am now really interested in the idea of incorporating a trapping component into my weapon design. If you want to view this episode click on the link below, I strongly recommend you do!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl9kt7-Q7-M&feature=related

Ron Arad

I have for a while been a huge fan of Ron Arad, an Israeli industrial designer, artist and architect. And so when I heard he was exhibiting at the Barbican in London I was quick to go and visit to get some inspiration for my project

At the exhibition I had the opportunity to experience sitting in one of his chairs to see how they differed from ones in my everyday life. I found I was intrigued to sit in them like a fly is to a Venus Flytrap, not by the scent but to explore how I will interact with the form of his chair. I was drawn to one chair in particular, shown below based on the concept of how a mother holds a baby in her arms, and I would like to use this as a possible means to lull someone to sit in the chair, giving me the advantage over the restrained victim

As you can see from from the image you lie on your back, on a cleverly formed piece, then you can rock forwards and back, up and down in all directions with little effort