Bridge Types

There are 5 (main) different types of bridges:

1.     Arch Bridges:

2.     Beam Bridges

3.     Suspension Bridges

4.     Cantilever bridges

5.     Cable stay bridges

1.     Arch Bridges:

 They are call arch bridges because they have an arch in them. These bridges were originally built by bricks and stone. However now they are built of steel and reinforces concrete. This allows the bridges to be longer and lower. Unlike other bridges the key stone holds the bridge in place. This means that the weight of the bridge is transferred to the two ends of the bridge. The support at the end of the bridge that stop the ends from spreading out is called the abutments.

2.     Beam Bridges:

These types of bridges are known to man the most because they are so short and easy to build. They are also known as Girder bridges. They used to be as simple as a log across a stream but now there are many different types of Beam bridges. As the bridge is horizontal it is supported by piers to stop it from bending when there is a lot of weight on it or twisting.  

3.     Suspension Bridges:

These types of bridges are the longest bridges in the world. They were once made of wood and rope. However, steel is now used in place of the rope. Each cable is made up of thousands of steel wires each approximately 0.1 inch think. Steel is used as it is very strong and therefor be able to hold the weight of the bridges. Bridges that are light and strong can have a distance of up to 2,000 to 7,000 feet, ideal for covering waterways. Suspension bridges are often the most expensive types of bridges to build.

4.     Cantilever bridges:

Cantilever bridges are also long but they are mostly used for trains. Huge pillars that are held up by the narrow top members, take up the compression. Cross bracing prevents the bridge from twisting and bending. To maintain the balance of the bridge there are counterweights on either end of the bridge.

5.     Cable stay bridges:

Cable stay bridges and suspension bridges look similar. They both have cable which hang up a roadway and they both have towers. However they are different because of the way in which they support the load of the roadway. They are attached to the towers which form a triangle shape (which makes it strong) which holds the load. The cables are attached to the towers from different points on the bridge.

Bibliography:

*       http://www.design-technology.org/archbridges.htm

*       http://www.design-technology.org/beambridges.htm

*       http://www.design-technology.org/suspensionbridges.htm

*       http://www.design-technology.org/cantileverbridges.htm

*        http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/china/meetcable.html

SINGAPORE HELIX BRIDGE

The Helix Bridge is located in Singapore at Marina Bay. It was opened in April 2010. The bridge provides a pedestrian connection from one end of the river to the other. The Helix Bridge was entered into an international design competition which was held in 2006. The design won the completion and was made. There were two different firms that were working on this bridge which are the COX Group Pte Ltd (Australia) and Architects 61(Singapore). The principle architect from COX Architecture was Michael Rayner. The client was the Urban Redevelopment Authority. The owner of the bridge is the Singapore Land Transport Authority.

It is the first ever bridge that uses the double- helix structure and it uses five times less steel than a conventional box girder bridge. The helix structure is meant to represent renewal and growth. Even though the bridge is 280m long, the steel tubes that were used to make the helix structure were almost 10 times big if laid out end to end. The tubes spiral around the bridge in opposite directions. They rise up to a height of 8.8m and spiral back downwards. Shade on the bridge is given by glass and steel canopies. As well has the helix shape, the bridge has a few pods coming out. This is for people who want to catch a view of the city. It also has LED lights around the outside to the helix structure to make to look good and catch people’s eyes.

The advantage of the helix design is that it uses less steel compared to cable bridges or box girders, which saved millions of dollars in construction costs. An estimate of how much the bridge cost is $68 million.

"The Helix is truly an engineering marvel. While the structure is incredibly delicate and intricate, it’s been engineered to support more than 10,000 people at a time. The Helix is the first example of this structural solution applied to a bridge – there is nothing else like it." -Dr See Lin Ming, Arup project leader.

I really like this bridge because it is different to what you would normally see. I also like how they made the tubes go abound the bridge to make it look like a helix. By making it go all the way around it looks more like a helix rather than making it look like a random design. In addition to this I also like how there are lights both inside the bridge and outside the bridge.

Bibliography:

http://travel.cnn.com/singapore/play/worlds-first-curved-double-helix-bridge-marina-bay-505668

http://www.arup.com/projects/helix_bridge.aspx

http://www.worldbuildingsdirectory.com/project.cfm?id=2705

http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1045_2011-06-30.html

http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1045_2011-06-30.html

http://www.archdaily.com/185400/helix-bridge-cox-architecture-with-architects-61/

Sophie De Oliveira Barata

The project that Sophie De Oliveira Barata created is the artificial limb project. She creates personalised and realistic artificial limbs for people who amputees. She makes ones that either blend in with the body or those that are unique and reflect the person. She founded this project in 2011.Sophie De Oliveira Barata studied special-effects for film at the University of the Arts London. After that she worked as a sculptor for 8 years, created prosthetic limbs.

 For this type of work the type of artistic skills that are needed are sculpting skills, measuring skills, observational skills, colour skills, etc. This is so the limb looks its best. Measuring and sculpting skills are one of the most important because you don’t want to have one limb longer or bigger than the other. Also the structure of the limb needs to be like the other good limb.

She uses different materials which include; silicone, plastic, metal, wood and crystals. The material of the limb depends on the type of design chosen. If the client wants a robotic limb for example this would have specific skills. She often collaborates with different artist often with ones that have different skills to her like woodwork skills, laser cutting skill, and metal work skills.

To start making the prosthesis limbs she takes a cast of the limb that is good, or she uses a donor limb. Next she will take pictures, colour readings and will discuss any ideas for the limb and how different it should look. Then a test piece will be made so that it is made sure that the limb will fit. If the client is not happy with it she will make alterations to it. She will keep making alterations until the client is satisfied with the fitting. She will then involve the client in designing the limb. After that she will go ahead and make the limb for the client. She involves the person wearing the alternative limb in all the processes so they can decide how they want it to be.

In my opinion I like Sophie De Barata’s work because it’s unique. All the designs that she makes are personalised to fit the clients’ needs. Each limb she makes looks really aesthetically pleasing. If I were to get a prosthesis made I would make it look realist, so it blends in with my body but at the same time it would have gems and diamonds going down it.

Bibliography:

http://www.tedmed.com/speakers/show?id=293049

http://www.thealternativelimbproject.com/#/alternative-limbs/4569103979

http://www.theindy.org/398

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/dec/29/artificial-limbs-art-de-oliveira-barata-interview

Amara Por Dios

Amara Por Dios is a Swedish artist but she is based in London. She has been doing street art since 2010. She said that she loves “to paint big, it’s a feeling of freedom and not to be limited”.  As well as doing street art she also does graphic designing and canvas painting. In her work she has a mixture of “ancient, ethnic imagery with a modern palette and animated, graffiti application that is reminiscent of a more vibrant version of the tribal art left behind by the Aztec and Incan peoples”.  She uses a lot of bright colours in her work. Her interest in graffiti art stared as a child in her grandmother’s studio. She continued to draw and paint until she graduated in 2007. After this she enhanced her graffiti skills.

She has done a few collaborations including the finish street wear brand KSRHU originals. In 2010 she designed a t-shirt for Flying Lotus, an American producer. The t-shirts got sold in Japan on Tour and on online stores. In 2012, she designed the album comer “Martian Xmas” for Moka Only, a Canadian rap artist. She has had exhibitions in many cities in Sweden. But in 2013 she finally had her first solo international exhibition which was located in London at the Great Easter Bear Gallery. She currently has her own t-shirt brand,is working on larger scales of area and I doing graffiti in the streets of London.

I very much like Amara Por Dios’s work. The reason for this is that her work is very original. Her work has a consistent theme. If you were to walk down the street and you saw her graffiti you would be able to recognise that it is her work. I also like how she uses a black outline to show the features of the characters or cartoons that she creates but at the same time she makes them look realistic. 

Here are a few pictures of her work:

Here are some of the links that I used:

• http://amarapordios.blogspot.co.uk/
• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2081336098/amara-por-dios-goes-to-london
• http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/amara-por-dios/86/3a8/32a
• http://amarapordios.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=19&zenid=0db6714e83ecb5656367f6876e49b4a2

Si Scott

Si Scott is a graphic designer from the United Kingdom. He was born in 1977. He left school at the age of 16 to do a BTEC in design in collage in order to study graphic design at Buckinghamshire University College for two years.

Si Scott specialises in typography. This is the different types of fonts that words can be written in. He has done work for famous brands such as; Vogue, Adidas, Coca-Cola, etc. His work, compared to other artists, is different and unique. His work is a mixture of handcrafted work and hand drawn work. Some of the materials that he uses includes; fine liners and paint. “I’d say my work is ninety percent hand and ten percent other methods, such as the computer for colouring, etc. I also use paint quite lot, or am starting to again anyway”. “I really like looking at designs and thinking: that attention to detain must have taken absolutely ages”. Once he has created the illustration on paper, he would then scan it at 125% so that when the size is decreased to the actual size so the work looks clearer. As well as typography he also does illustrations using the same techniques and materials.  He uses swirls and circles to create the image. He does not normally use colour in his work as he usually uses fine liners but a few of his drawing do have colour. His inspiration comes from music as he likes to listen to music when he works. His work is often compared to Alfred Mucha and Aubrey Beardsley`s work.

 I think that his work is really good. It make the words have a different meaning. I also like how he uses mainly fine liner pens to create all those swirls to make the words look more exciting.

Here are a few of his pictures of his work:

Here are a few links that I have used:

·       http://siscottstudio.com/

·       http://siscottstudio.com/portfolio/bio/#

·       http://www.typeforyou.org/2006/08/30/si-scott-interview/

·       http://bonexpose.com/featured/si-scott/

·       http://news.gestalten.com/news/si-scott-0

·       http://quotesondesign.com/si-scott/

http://www.formatmag.com/art/si-scott/

Ben Eine

Ben Eine is a well-known graffiti artist. He was originally inspired to be a graffiti artist when a New York City subway car caught his eyes. The subway car was transformed into a canvas for graffiti, which really amazed him. He is now into typography. He believes that the core essence of graffiti is “the study and stretching of letters”. Eine then became frustrated with graffiti because he got “bored by the rules that graffiti writers put upon themselves”. To Eine, graffiti was always about exploring the different forms of letters and words. He said that he liked to do this because he likes “how letters can change when put next to other letters”. A famous graffiti artist that Ben Eine worked with was Banksy. He is known for his stencil art. They have done much collaboration over the years. Some of the places where they have done this includes; Australia, Berlin and Palestine. Street art, according to Ben Eine, should not last long. “Street art isn’t made to last”. When he said that when he was young he painted over others work and most of the art gets cleaned off at a point.

I like Ben Eine’s wok because it’s something different and it looks good. Also the fact that he does everything free handed makes you look at the work a bit differently. It makes you think that a lot of work has gone in and makes the work look better.

Here are a few pictures of his work:

“Exit through the gift shop” written review

After witching the full documentary think that the “Exit through the gift shop” is not a real documentary. It is just a hoax. I think that the message of the documentary is that doing art is good and that artists are people who can at least draw or create something unlike Mr BW. Watching the documentary it did not seem that documentary was real. An example of this would be when people were trying to break into the exhibition. Mr Brainwash seemed a bit to calm for that situation. Also it was also a bit like a movie. What I mean by this is when in a movie something big is going to happen and then something bad happens. Similarly in the documentary, Mr Brainwash was going to have an exhibition and be just happens to injure himself. But it doesn't matter whether or not the documentary was real or not. The main point that Banksy was trying to get across to us through the documentary is that street art is meant to be expressive and it is meant to original. It also raises questions like is vandalism art? What make a person an artist? This may be the reason why he named to documentary, “Exit through the gift shop”. The exit in a museum is normally through the gift shop. This encourages people to buy something on their way out. He used these word because to sums up what the documentary is about (Terry selling street art when in fact it should only stay on the streets and not be sold).

If Mr Brainwash is a real person and not made up, then I think that he is not a real artist. This is because he doesn't do his work himself. He has people who do it for him. An artist is a person who has great ideas and who does the work themselves. Also his work is not original. It is like he has copied other artist`s styles and techniques. An example of an artist, which Mr Brainwash has done similar work to is Andy Warhol. In addition to this real street artists do not sell their work. Were as, Mr Brainwash seemed to be doing it for the fame and money.

This film did change my view. But not of street art but of street artists. I have always thought that street art was amazing and that the artists put a lot of hard work. But it changed my view on street artists because I didn't know that they take what they do extremely seriously. Also the film show how much work can be put into street art. Additionally, it shoes how a person can think that they are a street artist but they are not and how upset the real street artists can get due to that.

It is hard to draw a line between street art and vandalism. This is because everyone has different opinions. It is not necessary that a piece of art that one person likes, another person will too. But I think that vandalism is when for example someone just gets spray paint and sprays it over everything in a big mess. Street art normally has a meaning and a form. A person is only a street artist because of their work and ideas behind the work. It is no goo having an idea but some else does the work because then the person doing the work is the artist. Also the work of the person should be unique and original or else it is copying another artist.

I like street art because is different and it is exiting to know what different things are going to be on the walls, building, floors etc. I think that in the film, the time that the artist when to far was when they went to Disney land and they put up a human (prisoner) shaped air bag. People go to Disney land with children to have a fun time not to have a bad time. Seeing something like that ruins people’s mood and stops them from enjoying themselves which they has gone to do.

The public own the streets and public spaces because if you think about it, it is government land and the government works for the public. So I think that it is fine to do art where you please. Businesses get to advertise their messages, but it someone paints over it, then I think that it’s fine because either way the businesses logo or sign would probably be up and they would be advertised. Also if they art on the advert is good or bad, it shows something about what the public think of them. I think that it is bad that money determines what gets advertised. However it is the only efficient and easy way to advertise.

Kara Walker

Kara Walker was born in 1969 in America. She is well-known for her large scale paper silhouettes. Her silhouettes are based upon America`s gender and racial tensions. Her work always shows history race, sexuality, power and sometimes violence. She was inspired to be an artist by her dad. She said “One of my earliest memories involves sitting on my dad’s lap in his studio in the garage of our house and watching him draw. I remember thinking: ‘I want to do that, too,’ and I pretty much decided then and there at age 2½ or 3 that I was an artist just like Dad.”  She is currently a visual arts professor at Columbia University in the MFA program. Her work with silhouettes began in 1993 as a student at Rhode Island School of Design. She thought that simplified parts of a human in the black cut outs, seemed a bit cartoonish. “I’m reducing things down a lot, but I’m also characterizing everything and everyone as a black thing, and it comes from a way of viewing the world, looking for blackness, in its good and nefarious forms.” As you may realise the black paper cut-out’s that she makes are stereo typical. For example to show a black woman, she made the silhouette of a woman have big lips and a big bottom. Similarly for a rich white man she would make the man have a top hat, long coat and good shoes.  Walker was in one way pulled towards the topic of racial tension because of what she had gone through herself.  This was when she lived in California. She said that she “just didn't get the rules," she says. "I didn't know what the story was that made people behave in very particular ways that I thought were pre-scripted and unnatural. I started looking for my own point of origin: maybe the point of origin was being American, or being black, or being a woman. I thought, 'I'll start with the foundation of this idea of a place, of America, and then work my way forward.'" The scale of her work is always large. The cut outs or silhouettes are stuck on to the walls in rooms (gallery rooms). They are the size of the wall.

I think that her work is really good. This is because as well as it being art, it has a history linked with it. Her work is very strong. This may be because the work she does is linked to her. I also like the way that she uses stereotypes to portray the silhouettes because that way she can show and tell us a story behind the art that she has created. In addition, I like how she uses the cut out (silhouettes) to create an illusion and leaves the audience guessing the story behind the art).

 Here are a few images of her work:

 Here are the URLs that I have used:

• http://learn.walkerart.org/karawalker/Main/Biography
• http://learn.walkerart.org/karawalker/Main/TechniquesAndMedia
• http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/10/kara-walker-art-shadows-of-slavery
• http://learn.walkerart.org/karawalker/Main/Humor
• http://learn.walkerart.org/karawalker/Main/RepresentingRace
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