Week 5 Capstone

35 days down, 58 days to go! Time is not slowing down at all, and the halfway point in this project is creeping up very quickly. Week 5 had a strong focus on gathering feedback and really locking in on how I’m going to complete my capstone project. Through discussions with lab technicians and classmates, as well as presenting my idea to Gabi and the rest of my class on Thursday, I gained a lot of valuable insight and validation for my ideas, which will be discussed in the action part of this reflection. Looking back at this week, It was pretty straightforward, I was on campus when possible, watched Spain play Sweden on Tuesday, watched England beat Aussie on Wednesday, had a rough Sunday night with the final result, and played football all Saturday. Week 5 was a massive footballing week, and my understanding of the spectating experience continued to grow and develop, as well as my involvement as a player and a coach. I also took more notice of the natural spaces around the pitches I played on this week and began to think about how these could be redesigned/improved through the incorporation of different plant life and terraforming. It’s been a positive week in all honesty, I’m feeling happy with my progress and am excited to start properly experimenting and prototyping!

CARL will assist me with this reflection, as the framework's structure fits my style and approach to reflections the best. In terms of context, this week, the main focus was finalising what I will do and how it will work, as well as gathering feedback and user experience with my concept. I planned to research the development of my idea through an understanding of materials and production. I also focused on furthering the visual message of my project through realistic and metaphorical image generation.

In terms of the actions I took this week to develop my project, I created scaled 3D models for my mechanical stud design, as well as developed a solution to the attachment issues I was having previously with the top part of the stud to be ready for printing and prototyping next week. I also completed a service delivery canvas as part of my Design for Conservation process. This canvas allowed me to visualise and understand the experience of one of my stakeholders with my proposed project while also developing the experience for unforeseen people and wildlife. I gathered further research on the development of my urban space and pitch mock-ups (architecture materials, what it would look like, what would be used etc.) and began to plan how both of my mock-ups could look. At the moment, I’m planning on using artificial turf offcuts to create the bases for both of my mock-ups as it repurposes waste as well as offers a realistic appearance and feel for my final mock-ups. I also researched further into NZ seed bombs which EaglesRest produces in association with Steve Wratten, Professor Bio-Protection Research Centre at Lincoln University and Ruud Kleinpaste. These seedbombs are solid clumps of seeds, dirt, and minerals that are created to be thrown onto lawns and left without any more care. They are created to break down on their own through weather cycles. This, along with stakeholder feedback, sparked the idea for another of my stud prototypes, this time focusing on creating biodegradable stud shells that deposit seeds by breaking throughout the game.

This work resulted in a week where I feel I progressed effectively, although I also created more work for myself moving forwards. My project is well and truly into the propose and validate phase now, and through physical prototyping, I’ll hopefully be able to validate the feasibility of my concepts fully. I’m genuinely excited to get into physical prototyping, it’s always been my favourite part of design, and I’m really looking forward to my ideas coming to life, as well as getting to muck around with creating a seed mixture and utilising 3D printers.

This week I’ve learnt a lot about materials and production, mostly around what sort of metals are used for modern-day studs, as well as why they are used (cost-effective, malleability etc.). I’ve also learned about my stakeholders and the experience of my proposed project through stakeholder feedback and the service delivery canvas. My 3D modelling skills have also improved, as I’ve created a threaded 3D model for my stud prototype. Along with this, I’ve learned about 3D printing and the potential of using a rotary CNC to create my mechanical prototype out of the aforementioned aluminium for the prototype to be strong enough to test vigorously. I’m excited to see where my project will take me now, and I am really enjoying seeing my ideas develop and grow with me throughout this semester.