March 06, 2004
#29 :: Human silhouette
This is a new iteration of a very, very old design aid. Draftspeople always seemed (when I was a kid) to use the neatest tools - flexible curves, Staedtler pens, compasses, rulers - that spoke of a level of arcane understanding of the universe that mathematically ignorant people like me would never reach, the music of calculation, the figuring of art. The silhouette is about 3 inches long when crouched, 6 in full flight. Button-rivet joints let you imagine the pose of your subject as acrobat, bum, president, celebrant, victim, ballerina or slave - the last the most likely, you realize, as you bend its translucent green limbs into horrible positions to picture human suffering - before guilt or empathy makes you feel its discomfort and return it to a more peaceful state of repose.