Annotation on the First piece of the collection, [z]ytoplasm:
    The first piece mainly focuses on the interplay between complex shapes and colors. The metallic mint color is the representation of cytoplasm that is surrounding the organelles within the cell. Different colors and different shapes are used to create a heavy, thick and overwhelming feeling to meet the gell-like qualities and the crowded structure of the cytoplasm. But even though the whole pattern seems to be composed of overwhelming colors and shapes, there are still lines and configurations that categories shapes into groups, therefore providing some order to the complications. This order corresponds the functionality of cytoplasm.

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     The final project of surface design studio is to come up with a collection of three patterns. My collection’s name is called [z]ytoplasm, which is a word that I made up to describe my own version of cytoplasm. The first piece is a piece mainly focused on the pattern itself and the relationship between colors and shapes. A little three-dimensional approach is added in the second piece by gluing on googly eyes in the piece. The third piece took the three-dimensional approach even further by adding rectangular bars to the pattern, creating a different visual effect.
    The true property of cytoplasm is often debated among biologists. Some say it is “weak elastic solid”, “soft glassy material”, and some say it is “poroelastic material”, or “viscoelastic gel”. But biologists all agree that it is the fluid that surrounded the organelles, the cell’s internal sub-structures. Responding to this characteristic of cytoplasm, I decided to make my version of cytoplasm to be represented by the metallic gouache in first piece of the collection and the repeated hologram material in the second and third piece, hoping that this would reflect the shiny characteristic of a gel-like matter and also creating a more unstable and mysterious feel.

Since cytoplasm is likely to be a gel-like matter, I prefer to imagine it as a thick, sticky and a more transparent material that when we zoom in on the structure of a single cell, we will be able to look through cytoplasm and see each individual organelle. Also, cytoplasm has a very crowded structure. It is as crowded as a protein crystal which is 20-60% protein by weight. In order to capture this thick, sticky, transparent and crowded characteristic of cytoplasm, I used a variety of colors and shapes that are really defined as each individual in each of my collection to create an overwhelming, thick and crowded atmosphere. I also chose a more reflective hologram in order to obtain a mirroring effect to add to the crowded feeling in the piece. These shapes are also created in an overlapping way, therefore providing a sense of transparency.

    Cytoplasm plays important roles in the cell because it contains molecules such as enzymes that are responsible for breaking down waste and also helps in metabolic activity. It is also responsible for giving a cell its shape. Therefore, in my collection, I placed the metallic and hologram representations of the cytoplasm around the whole square of the pattern as if they are all guards that are standing in each and every location in order to guard the functioning organelles. Googly eyes are also added in the second piece to add to the guardian, or “looking after” feature of cytoplasm. In the third piece, the function of giving a cell its shape is represented even more literally by approaching the pattern in a three-dimensional way. The three-dimensional approach, along with the use of mirroring hologram, created different views from every different angle.

    Overall, my version of the cytoplasm, [z]ytoplasm, is a more exaggerated and playful approach of cytoplasm with the use of holograms that mirrors the piece it self, the googly eyes that personified ytoplasm and a three-dimension approach of a pattern that looks different from different perspectives.