A2 Data Sculpture

The characteristics chosen, all fit the theme chosen, ‘The dangerous nature of thongs’. I thought that this would be an interesting topic to base my sculpture off, as I found may articles and sources, which have deemed thongs to be ‘dangerous’. And who would’ve thought. Being a thong wearer myself I found the information interesting and abit ‘funny’, because of the serious nature of the information, in comparison to a cheap, everyday clothing item that people don’t even think twice about, or would associate the word ‘dangerous’ with. It is also highly popular worldwide.
After researching data for my sculpture, it has made be look at them in a different way. I wanted to share this with others and ‘expose’ the potential risks of thongs on thong wearers, as it is amusing yet serious, and relatable. I also thought that it would make a interesting object to make a sculpture from, it’s common and will attract attention.

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Characteristics

Shark Attack Deaths
Flip Flops were originally commonly worn at the beach, until recent ‘fashion’ has retransformed them, and thus made them as acceptable everyday wear. Flip-flops are greatly associated with the beach or the swimming pool. Therefore the connection of my first trend and the thong is apparent. Shark attack deaths is not something that is commonly heard of, but only when n occurs, it does make headlines, such as the recent death of teenager. I decided to use this trend as it related to my theme of ‘dangerousness’. Shark attacks are lethal and fatal, and death may occur. Records show that the statistics for shark attacks and death from a shark attack do not co insist. This is because shark attacks occur regularly, and they often do not result in direct death. In the many cases of incidents in the past 50 years, 61 deaths have occurred as a result of a shark attack in Australia. To enable this data to be translated and displayed within an object, I decided to do shark attack deaths, by state. I thought by separately and displaying the data by state, it would be more interesting to the viewer than by year. The data I found was sourced from: http://www.mesa.edu.au/seaweek2005/pdf/infosheet12.pdf. “According to the ASAF, there have been 61 recorded human deaths due to shark attack in the last 50 years (up to December 2004). Of these, 22 have occurred in Queensland, 16 in South Australia, 9 in New South Wales, 7 in Western Australia, 4 in Tasmania, and 3 in Victoria (Table 1 (next page)). No fatal attacks have been recorded in the Northern Territory in that time period.” To model this data I chose to change the number of deaths in each state as a percentage of the total deaths (61), over this time period, to allow me to cut into the thong more accurately. Therefore: Q 36% SA 26% NSW: 15% WA: 11% Tas:7% NT: 0%
The data above shows that Queensland has a higher percentage of shark related deaths at the beach. As oppose to the Northern Territory, which has no deaths in this time period. The reasons for this, is because of weather and water sports. In Queensland the weather is consistently hot, and being the ‘sunshine’ state, it is popular for its beach, sun and great weather all year round. This would encourage and attract beach goers to part take in water activities (swimming, sailing, surfboarder), and thus the more people in the water at the beach regularly, increases the chances of a shark attack to occur. Which could ultimately result in a death. This can be compared to the Northern Territory, which is not exactly known for its ‘beaches’, but instead, its outdoor desert, ruggedness. Therefore the chances are reduced.

Design process
To illustrate this into my data sculpture I decided to imprint a ‘sharks bite’ into the thong. I did this by extruding and leaving the % of deaths in each state, according to the above data.
The data followed a ‘step-like’ pattern, which was perfect for the shape of the ‘shark bite’. I also chose a related colour, of a ‘blue’ thong, as sharks are related to the beach, and live in and attack in water, I saw that it was the only appropriate colour. The thongs ‘plug’, the piece which slots in between the first and second toe, was appropriately shaped into a sharks ‘fin’.
Hospital Complaints
The information I found related to ‘danger’ and thongs was astonishing. ‘Figures show that 55,100 men and women went to hospital with flip flop-related complaints in 2002.’ As mentioned in the article below: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.ht... This is a huge number, and danger is not something you’d usually associate with thongs. I gather that the figure mentioned is worldwide, because I don’t think that thongs would be that popular I the UK, let alone that many hospital related complaints in just one year. Design Process To illustrate this data, I chose to embed ‘rusted nails’ into a thong. This illustrated pain, and danger. I inserted them in the places, which are known to be areas of discomfort and pain, as caused by wearing the thong. Such injuries included: joint pain, shin splints and twisted ankles, tendinitis, heel pain, the arch, toes and the forefoot, stubbed toes. I illustrated the figure 55, 000, by placing 55 nails through the thong’s sole. (Obviously I could not embed 55, 000 nails), so I figured 1 nail to represent 1000 was good enough. I rusted the nails to represent danger, as ‘rusty’ metals can carry diseases if one if cut by it. And thongs can also cause effects. The thong was painted with red and white, as it was associated with the hospital, and the plug for the thong was appropriately repositioned to form a ‘red’ cross.
Skin Cancer Deaths
Skin cancer, Melanoma, is a serious cancer that affects 9722 people in Australia each year. Out of the 9500 people, who are diagnosed, 1600 unfortunately die. Because the sun plays a large part in the beach, I decided to include this data into my sculpture. I did this by finding the percentage of those who are diagnosed with this cancer and died as a result. This came to 13%. It was difficult to map the figure ’1600’ into the sculpture, therefore I decided to use the nail metaphor, illustrated above, and integrate ‘skin cancer’ death data into it.

http://www.cancercouncil.com.au/editorial.asp?pageid=2034 Therefore I calculated the number of deaths there would be from a diagnosed population of ‘55’. (55 nails in total). I found out that 6 people would die from skin cancer.

Design process
The nails represent a population of diagnosed people. They are shiny and clean. The ‘melted, rusty’ nails represent those, which would have died in the population.

Popularity
I was interested in finding out what percentage of female and male thong wearers there were. It was really hard to find a figure for this, and in my preliminary presentation, I suggested a possible survey I could conduct. Although it was advised that time was limited, and therefore to look further into the characteristic. Therefore I researched further on the Internet, and came across a ‘user-made’ survey, which had a male and female category, this was worldwide.http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/182350/results It was discovered that a higher percentage of males (75%) wear thongs compared to females (25%). To be honest, I would have thought that female thong wearers would be higher. I might be wrong, though I can question the validity of this source, as not very reliable, as it is a small sample survey (around 500 people), and is not official. Design Process To illustrate this piece of data, I decided to map it using sand. The sand grains represented people, and it was molded into a pie graph. I used red sand, and blue sand, to show the different genders. It is a clear way to display data, as comparisons can easily be made. The ‘sand’ was actually ‘river rocks’, but it was similar to the grain size, feel and texture of sand. To map this onto the base of the sculpture, the river rocks were mixed with pva glue and water, and mounted on to the board. I tried to mould them to replicate real sand patterns as seen on the beach. I chose to do sand as it was consistent to the rest of my model, (thongs/pail), and related to the beach.
Chemicals
Interestingly, during my research I came across information that related to thongs and chemicals, which resulted in rashes, burns etc. I also found out that during a study, by German researchers, that 14 out of 25 pairs of thongs had contained some sort of chemical ‘know to lower sperm count in men and attack the liver, kidneys and reproductive organs’.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-13401709,00.html?f=rss I was shocked when I read that, and thought that this was an interesting piece of data to include in my sculpture, to let people know. As explained above, the ratio for male to female wearers, as surveyed on a site, proved to be 75% males and 25% females. If the chemicals researched above only affect males, then, according to the data (if accurate), there is a higher chance that males will be effefcted, as there are more male thong wearers than females. Design Process To illustate this visually, I decided to use a thong and emangulate it, so that it seemed like chemicals and toxins have been used to burn (44%) of the thong away. I left 56% of the thong, to represent the chances of a thong containing these chemicals (which is 14/25). Inititally, I wanted to use a blowtorch or a match to melt and burn the thong to the appropriate size, although I did not have access to a blow torch, and settinng it on fire, also could have had effects to my health (since the thongs could contain chemicals and let off flumes). As well as that I did not have any strong chemicals or toxins that I could use on the thong to ‘burn’ it or ‘dissolve/melt’ it. Therefore I started to cut the thong to the approproate size, and used a glue gun, to create the ‘ melting’ effect that is seen on the thong. I decided to make it appear like it was melting, and dripping and oozing with dangerours toxins. To compliment this effect, I painted the thong green, as it is a colour associated with toxins. The Final Data Sculpture

The final sculpture, as seen, includes thongs suspended in a pail. I decided to use a pail, as it has a direct relationship to the beach, as does thongs. The pail is made from wire, and it is cut in places, and wrapped in ‘caution’ tape, to reflect the theme of my sculpture, related dangers of thongs.

The 3 thongs embody the characteristics as described above. I tried to use the ‘thong’ as much as I could in the sculpture, in illustrating the related dangers of the thong and thong related activities. I added labels, in the form of price tags, to integrate them into the sculpture, and to relate them to thongs in a consistent way.