Project 1: Play!
Prompt: The project should respond to the theme of Play. It can be frivolous, fun, serious, competitive, cooperative, didactic, interactive, maddening, imaginative, mythic, epic, poetic, scientific, or ecstatic. It can be an invented game, a game in which the rules have been subverted, a performance, or another idea that you propose.
So I am a nerd, I can admit it, and I’m completely ok with it. Thus, when we were told that we would be making something along the lines and the idea of “Play,” I immediately thought about the kinds of games I played when I was younger. Many of these games would revolve around the idea of playing pretend or board games, and there is one game that is a mix of the both of these topics: Dungeons & Dragons. It’s a game that revolves around the idea of pretending to be someone/something else in a world that doesn’t exist, and there is only one required thing to truly play the game, a set of six dice. This set includes a four sided die, a six sided die, an eight sided die, a ten sided die, a twelve sided die, and a twenty sided die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 as they are referred to in the player’s guide). Seeing as they are what essentially allows the game to be played in its simplest form, I thought it would be perfect for this project.
Part of the assignment’s requirements was that we had to make our objects using some form of CNC (Computer Numerical Control) programming. The examples we were shown and the ideas we had seemed to focus around the laser cutter, and that seemed to be the smartest way to make it. Each die was designed off of a simple paper net template i found for the dice, and I spent a long time trying to make sure that all the sizes on each piece were the same. Once that was done, and the designs for each side were finished and I was happy with them, I had to decide how to to join them together. I had initially thought about doing the pieces in some form of wood or acrylic, because they were sturdy materials that could take a beating. But as I worked on the files and the patterns, it became harder and harder to find a way to join the sides together. It’s easy for the d6, because it’s just a cube, but when you get to the other dice with eight plus sides, you can’t create those smooth joints because the laser cutter can’t cut bevels. I wound up sacrificing the thickness of material by switching to a heavy pressed cardboard. This would allow me to create living joints by simply scoring and gluing the sides together. This lets me create a smoother seam, and allows me to have a more simplified construction. I decided to add a coffee stain to the dice because simply having white paper is boring, and I am a coffee addict, so it seemed fitting. All in all, it has the feeling of being practical and functional, whilst still being aesthetically pleasing.
