Final

Vida Bailey and 2 OthersEsther Cohen
Adut Ayuel

The studio focused on creating wearables for a future when habitable land is scarce and humans have to live in harsh environments.  Our design was made for future humans that might be living on steep mountains. Humans are not naturally adapted to be comfortable in this environment so we made a wearable tool to help them be hands-free. We wanted to create a belt with legs attached to help the wearer climb a mountain more safely and easily and to be a fashionable accessory someone in the future would want to wear.

We got our inspiration from Doctor Octopus a legendary villain in the comic books, who has four arms attached to his back. Each of these four arms is capable of lifting several tons, provided that at least one arm is used to support his body. The reaction time and agility of his mechanical appendages are enhanced far beyond the range attainable for normal human musculature. The arms allow Octavius to move rapidly over any terrain and to scale vertical surfaces and ceilings.The four legged belt would go around your waist making it easy for one to hang on to high steep hills or just to reach things that are heavy and out of reach. We used a simple but wide black belt as a base for our design. We had 20 pieces attached to the belt, separated by spacers to serve as a structure for the legs to attach to. The four legs were evenly spaced, two on each side and the front and in the back. They were made up of two pieces which made them movable.  

This project was important because its always necessary to be thinking about and planning for the future. Although many have guesses no one knows for sure what it is going to be like. Especially with the climate changing because of global warming we have to start preparing for the future now. Although we may not live on steep mountains in 1,000 years this project is looking forward and could help future civilizations.  

Process

Vida Bailey and 2 OthersAdut Ayuel
Esther Cohen
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The goal of this studio was to create a wearable tool to help future humans living in extreme conditions to survive and thrive. Our environment was steep mountainsides and we wanted to make something to help people climb up, move around easier, and grab onto things.

Iteration 1: Our first iteration was just a piece of cardboard that we cut out free hand with pieces sticking out. We got our inspiration from Dr. Octopus in the Spiderman series. It looked very spidery and was basically just a very rough idea of what we wanted to accomplish. 

Iteration 2: For our next iteration we made a corset shape around a manequin and attached legs to it through slots. This looked very interesting with the legs all spaced out and we really liked the basis of it. Obviously with this there were some attachment issues and we would have to work more on the range of motion and asthetic of it. 

Iteration 3: Next, we started thinking about different materials that the idea could be made out of. We expirimented with tubes on a miniature model and attached them to another piece of cardboard with holes in it and some hot glue. We decided to steer clear of the tubing idea for visual and assembly aspects. 

Iteration 4: Our next iteration was a belt on a miniature manequin with three legs coming of of it. Our idea was that the legs would be able to move up and down and there would be spikes on the end to help climb. This is the protorype that started to resemble our final the best.

Iteration 5: We then made a bigger version of the 4th iteration with hinges so that it was movable and attached to a belt. While the idea was strong the look of the design lacked asthetic so we decided to revamp it a little bit by adding some cutouts and extra things sticking out of it. Adut and I really liked the look of this and just thought it needed some more dynamics to it.

Iteration 6: We looked at some claw models and decided that the cutout idea was a good fit and we looked at some different shapes. We made these movable by separating them with a divider. We then decided on the triangle look and made it a little visually better. We then cut this out of wood with a claw piece on the end and really liked how it turned out. We just wanted to make the top part a little more interesting and the cutouts also. 

Iteration 7: Our final iteration took many little pieces strung around the belt spacing out the revamped top pieces. Some of these have legs coming off of them and the size gets bigger as it goes around the body. We had to play around with the number of little pieces many times ranging from 7 to 10. We decided on 10 and also played with a design with string going through the holes of the project. We didn't like how this worked so we decided to ditch that idea. 

Our final product will allow future people to live on steep mountains so they can climb up and down, lift heavy rocks and grab on to the mountainside.