Project 1 - "Mystic Marrakesh Serpent Garden" Project Statement

 


The “Mystic Marrakesh Serpent Garden” surrealism transforms the found object of a garden hose into an enchanted snake. This project’s main inspiration is the snake charmers found in the Jemaa El Fnaa square in Marrakech, Morocco. My dad immigrated to the US from Salé, Morocco and visiting family there has been an integral part of my upbringing and development. As a result, I knew that I wanted to incorporate my Moroccan heritage into one of my Rob 599 projects. In addition to the snake, I fabricated the Berber goat horn Mezmar, which is played to “charm” the snake. I added blue accents to the horn because Morocco has such vibrant colors in their crafts and the blue reminds me of the city in the North called Chefcahouen that is entirely painted blue. From the start of the project, I knew I wanted to utilize both the 3D printer and the laser cutter to fully explore digital fabrication. I decided to use the laser cutter to create a lattice hinge in Balsa wood to resemble the woven snake basket, which can also double as a garden fence. Moreover, I utilized Solidworks CAD software to edit a model of a snake to a snake head and to create my own Beber horn. The Beber horn was separated into two pieces and attached using a pin, snap pieces, and super glue. There were several challenges while creating this project including the laser cutter not fully cutting the edge, inadequate 3D printed threads, and assembling the snake. To fix the lattice, I hand cut extended the laser cut using a boxcutter. To fix the 3D printed threads, I opted for the pin snap piece design described above. After difficulties attempting to hot glue the hose together in circulator coils, I decided to arrange the hose in the pot more abstractly and allowed it to freehold itself allowing for a more natural snake position. Additionally, unlike my original sketches, the snake looked better without the shovel attached to it, so I decided to add the shovel in the pot to make the snake look like it's crawling. Finally, I attached a stand for my horn to the base. I decided to make the horn removable to engage observers who pretend to enchant the snake. This was a really fun and rewarding experience.

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