Plastic

Arts in NTUA

By George Kalakallas

Sculpture in the Round and Architectural Space

In the subject the methods are analyzed and the conclusions as well the experience are utilized as regards the installation of a sculpture in the round in an open-air space and a free natural environment. During the installation study a particular effort is made for the thorough understanding of the harmonic relation between the sculpture in the round and its environment, so that the inhabitants of the town/ city could get a correct concept of plastic modeling. Finally, the relation man -sculpture- space ( an indicative reference to Modulor's climax) obtains a special importance for the education of students and the completion of subject.

Cylider

The subject of this exercise aims at the development of the students initiative and their compositional and modeling ability.
The cylinder as a subject, observed from different position, is a unity of mass and voids which must be composed in the space by the student. The outer, surface of the cylinder confine the composition of form, in its interior (introvert shape). By studying this composition and acting dynamically the student can break through the envelop of the cylinder. In reality, from the moment that geometric limitations are overcome, a creative, expressive process starts. The communication of the interior of the cylinder with its outer space is a proposal for an experimental study of this subject.

Forms of Machines and Mechanisms: An Artistic Approach to their Material,
Shape and Texture

The investigation of the concept of mechanism, both as an autonomous formal element and as a unit which can be composed by other in a three dimensional structure in space is the objective of this subject.
The fact that the forms of mechanism usually convey in a characteristic way their functional purpose (rotation, compression, amortization, attraction, current, conductivity, etc.) adds to their heterogeneous composition a new content, more intellectual than structural. The interest, that is, is focused not on the mechanic efficient of the composition but on the fact that the various part correlate the mechanic and natural parameters in a new "Unorthodox" way.
This, the individual mechanic parts obtain a new substance, are transformed in a unified "artistic machine" and recall forms and volumes, which schematize or contain natural magnitudes.
The eye seeks to conceive the function through form and to explain the form through function. The raw material, texture and shapes are extremely complicated, ranging from rough or frigid to flexible, curved and peculiarly plastic ones. Their organization requires experimentation and imagination, so that the heterogeneous industrial forms of the mechanisms could be developed to compositional creations.

Concentration - Elevation -Dissemination

Concentration: it frames substance, thought, idea, and mass. The ensemble contains the motion in inertia and when it acquires power it emerges and evolves freely in space and time.
It is the procedure of all the natural and artificial functions. Whatever lives or evolves goes through these phases successively and assimilates the knowledge, which is not only scientific but also knowledge of life.
The student, by studying thoroughly, through some symbolic elements, the natural, explores the final result, the combination that is of these two expressions, which always remain in a dialectic, spatial relation.
In brief, when an idea is born in the mind, then the student, assisted by his visual and feeling perception and having at his disposal the necessary materials, starts to express himself dynamically, in volumes, according to his spiritual quest, experiences, conceptions and memories, but always under the guidance of his teacher, in a relation of mutual communication.

Door - knocker

It is the device, which, through the sound it produces, defines the intention of going from the open or public space to the exclusive private and visually isolated inner space of the house.
The material, form and sound of the door-knocker constitute the first contact of the visitor with the house, a symbolic and literal contact. Being a primeval symbol of communication, it exhibits a perpetual dynamic, because, exactly through the dialectic relation of material-form-sound, it offers to a message-call the possibility to be transmitted, a sort of invitation which conveys the mood for social intercourse, comradeship, meeting and communication.
The form of the door-knocker varies and evolves according to the period and the architectural style of the house and entrance, creating a fragile equilibrium between its decorative and symbolic role.