I’ve put quite a bit of time into refining and reworking my design since it’s ideation stage. I’ve moved away from a lot of ideas that I realized weren’t going to work well for my final design and refined some of the features I already had.

To start off, I was going to have this be a “floating” mask since I had recently seen sneakers displays and lights that used magnets to give the illusion of levitation. After doing more research into that I realized the technology is MUCH more advanced than I was initially led to believe. It also would be much harder to get to work with the geometry I was going to which was the mask. I still wanted this to be more than a mask that sits on a generic stand. I remember recently seeing a common street performance were individuals would route a strong metal piece from the base of their platform through their clothing to give the illusion of levitating. I decided to do something similar here. I will route a piece of flat aluminum through a strap of the mask and into the mask itself to support it. I will leave the other strap dangling off the mask to give the illusion that it is floating.

For the case I have a fairly simple design. I was originally going to do a 3D printed top and base which would allow for more sleek integration of LED lights with a 4 sided box made with acrylic that would be laser cut to be inserted into slots designed into the base/top. However, I am starting to move away from the 3D printed components as those do not necessarily NEED to be 3D printed and the cost would not be worth the return on investment. I still plan on keeping the dimensions but I am leaning towards making them out of wood and keeping the name and date but stenciling them on by hand and painting them. I still think it would look just as good while being able to conform to the modern museum aesthetic with the proper coat of paint. Along with that, I plan on using a cheap and simple LED light strip that I acquired online. It is flexible so I can conform it and stick it wherever is best.

Finally, arguably the most important part, the mask. I attempted to conjure my own model in SolidWorks and while it looked fine, there are much better models out there for me to use. I found a model on Thingiverse which is essentially a website where people share 3D models for printing to the public. This mask is much cleaner and more well polished than anything my skill level would be capable of doing. I am planning to 3D print this model so that way I can customize it and get the rugged look I want. I wanted to add a “battle worn” aesthetic to the mask. This will tell more of a story that is representative of who he was as an artist or person and stray away from the clean unworn look that is often seen when pieces are preserved in a museum. I do like that a lot of artifacts almost look like pieces of art when preserved well in a museum but I thought I could add the art aspect, and make it more personal, by painting it the way I would want. By default, his mask is usually a shiny silver look, but I think keeping a grey or silver and given it a battle worn look will be a lot more intriguing while still holding true to the artist. I plan on doing this by painting the mask by hand with a combinations or brushes and sprays.

For some logisitics. I have attached a screenshot of my planned schedule. I plan to meet with Pat Maguire to ensure I use the best filament and printer for the mask plus talking about the cost since I don’t have a great estimate of that at the moment. Outside of that, it is simply gathering the materials and getting all required items together before the final design. I put some time in there for me to rework and tweak the design as I go since I am sure as I start to build it I will run into challenges and aspects that I failed to consider on paper/in design.

Attached is my presentation, however it has changed quite a bit since I gave the presentation so take this post as a more updated version to what the final design will look like.

References 

1. https://www.relativelyinteresting.com/how-do-levitating-street-performers-work/?utm_source=org
2. https://sobump.com/products/pirHCnVG6i-Selling-Hand-Welded-Mf-Doom-Masks-
3. https://twitter.com/veracausa9/status/905234150902423552

3D Model Reference

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:526854