My idea was to incorporate an object that has gone past its basic primary design functionality and evolved into an elaboration of that original object through society’s demands or a specific institution’s desires for it and once it has reached this point to incorporate a communication device within the object. This would take the form of a projection unit which would fix onto the object and be able to display its history through a combination of film, audio and imagery. This gives the object a new dimension, the ability to tell its own story about its origins, development through history and its eventual evolution into its current form. The object I'm thinking of would be something like a chalice due to its historical and religious significance as an object.
Def. "chalice [Lat.,=cup], ancient name for a drinking cup, retained for the eucharistic or communion cup. Its use commemorates the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper. Celebrated examples are the Great Chalice of Antioch (Syriac), of embossed silver, excavated there in 1910 and attributed to the 1st cent., and an elaborately ornamented chalice found in 1868 at Ardagh, Ireland, and believed to be Celtic work of the 9th or 10th cent. See Grail, Holy..."
When I first started thinking about and visualizing a chalice or goblet my first thoughts were that of a very ornate and expensive looking object encrusted in jewels. The Catholic Church’s use of such chalices was probably my visual inspiration very much like the one pictured below.
My original ideas for my 3D chalice model were centered on its basic form. Looking at the physicality of the object in crude way I noticed the obvious form which was consistent in the earlier examples of the Chalice or Goblet. It is fundamentally a cup on a long, usually exaggerated stem. The development of the cup from that of its functional, plain and inexpensive object status to pretty much the exact opposite is centered on religion and religious ceremonies.
The general form of these chalices is very similar to one another with the exaggerated stems reaching toward the cup at the top.
These very ornate and exaggeratedly designed chalices are common in the Catholic Church and are used specifically during ceremonies and for display purposes. Both of the above chalice examples are very similar in basic appearance. The cup at the top of the chalice could quite easily be removed from the stem and still be used for that very purpose, as a cup. This means that the chalice has developed far beyond its primitive, practical purpose that it was primarily designed for – to hold liquid. The stem is the most decorated part of the chalice. The base is commonly larger than the cup, which is its surface area is larger than that of the rim of the cup making its appearance that of being bottom heavy. This also gives the chalice an appearance of being an ornament or object with a greater significance than that of just a cup. From the base of the chalice the stem usually has a bulbous area before it reaches the cup at the top. These are usually the most decorated part of a plain chalice (the most decorated chalices are ornate throughout).
Most ornate chalices and especially those found within the Catholic Church have these basic form designs and although they are very similar in structural design, aesthetically they are rarely the same. This is usually dependant on not only the artist designing the intricate motifs but also the eventual owner’s preference, namely a representative of the church. Now the object has a much more elegant purpose, to celebrate important rituals in religious ceremony.
To be able to describe an object using this amount of detail would be the crucial of the historical projection unit. The microchip would store all the information like an encyclopedia and the projector would display the information in the form of an audio/visual storyline.
I'm wondering if this can be expanded, I need to forge a link between this idea and my Simulacra, otherwise I'll scrap it...
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