Kintsugi

How Might We Make School Better?

What's The Problem?

After observing the school for several days with a notepad full of notes, it was up to the STEAM students to use the information in those notes to make the school better. Since STEAM students are students and go to school almost every day, we are the experts more than anyone about school.

Most of my notepad was filled with answers to questions I asked friends and strangers. From the answers to previous experience, I found a great problem in mental health at school. What exactly is the problem? People are hurting, they may even want to die, and have no one to convince them not to.

User Group
Point Of View

They aren't just students, but people in general, because many students and staff deal with mental problems and keep it to themselves. They may suffer greatly with their problems and want to die but have no one to help and convince them otherwise. They need more mental support, They need a reason to live. They need someone to share their pain.

How Might We Help Others Grow From Their Pain?

Prototype Concept

Just getting rid of the pain only temporarily solves a problem. My prototype concept is to make an artistic expression of helping each other grow from our pain.

A person who has been broken by the weight of their pain is represented by a cracked figure on their knees reaching out. A helper reaches back to help this person, represented by a hand. This hand fills the cracks with gold- a tradition called Kintsugi where shattered ceramics are put together again with gold, making them more beautiful the more they break. From the cracks of the once-broken figure grow flowers that represent growth from pain. The hand is made from aluminum foil because it's reflective, reflecting the viewer to show that each of us can be the helper.

Rapid Prototype

Rapid Prototype Review And Feedback

How Well Does The Prototype Concept Answer The HMW?

I think their idea was good, they could maybe have the hand all gold and then the hand pointing or touching or somehow giving the person gold and them kinda transferring to gold in some way of healing.

Prototype Peer Suggestions:

It’s a good design, not much to add except maybe add more gold to the hand to make it more visual because there’s not much there.

How Well Does The Prototype Concept Answer The HMW?

The concept overall is really good. It makes sense when you hear about it and the ties in the traditions are a really nice addition.

Prototype Peer Suggestions

I would make it more obvious that the hand is actively helping the broken person. I would suggest making it with 3D printing. It would be really cool if you added a button on the hand that when pressed lights in the figure would light up

Concept Peer Feedback And
Test: Reflective Thinking

Overall, my project went well and received great scores, but there are only two reviews. In those reviews, I was recommended to use a 3D printer when I finalize this prototype. For solving the HMW, I was told that the meaning could be more clear, especially the hand: I could make it more clear that the hand was pouring gold into the broken person by posing the hand differently. Otherwise, the gold and flowers in the cracks made sense.

When I finalize my prototype, I am going to change the poses of both the hand and the figure. The first prototype is stiff, so I will put more emotion into their posing. I plan on the hand touching the forehead of the figure, golden blood flowing out and seeping into the cracks. The figure will lean into the hand and holds its chest while reaching out to the hand. Flowers will still grow from cracks, and won't grow from the hand. Both the figure and the ground it sits on will have cracks, filled with gold and flowers. Somehow, I need to make the hand reflective enough to see myself in it.

I will definitely use different materials, as the ones I used were flimsy dollar-store resources. I was highly recommended sculpting in Blender, a program I've never used but will likely try. If I choose not to 3D print anything, I will sculpt the traditional way of building up substance, usually foil, and covering it with clay. An idea I have to make the hand reflective is using shards of a mirror, but then the hand may look broken as well. For the figure, what I originally wanted to do was sculpt the person fully and then break them into pieces, I'd put the pieces back together with golden glue. The figure has no specific features that make it look like a specific person, I plan to keep it anonymous while sculpting the figure to appear more human. The gold will clearly be pouring from a finger on the reflective hand and onto the figure like blood. The finger touches the forehead, so the face of the figure will be covered with gold. I want to change the platform the sculptures stand on by finding one less flat with more texture.

This was my favorite project of the Trimester because I was allowed to choose what I wanted to create, and I could create it artistically. Even with spending free time on this project, I didn't mind because I actually liked and cared about what I was making. Because this project is about how to make school better, it has so much more purpose than lighting up objects or fan merch for Disney characters. I hope people will look at my sculpture and think about how they can help each other grow.