Refining Design - "A Fruit is President"

After group discussion and self evaluation, I picked "A Fruit is President" for my final refined design. I had a difficult time picking between my designs, however Trump was a favourite from the get go and really speaks to remix culture.

During our group discussion I received feedback on quite a few designs, including "Minion of Aphrodite" and "Undressing after a long day." They concluded that a lot of my designs illustrated the themes of mash up and juxtaposition, narrowing it down to the Donald Trump and Minion Goddess  as the most powerful. Although "Minion of Aphrodite" was relatable to many - due to a mutual dislike of minions, I decided that Trump involved humour, juxtaposition and a healthy dose of pop culture, making it the most effective design.

I used three objects for this design, Donald Trump's head, a low poly banana and an object called "Legs for Fruit" (which has become my all time favourite thing I have found on Thingiverse.)

Mashing my object in Meshmixer I found to be more difficult, most likely due to my inexperience on this software. I didn't have a lot of facial structure and stacking multiple objects was frustrating. I tried to use the sculpting tools to recreate some facial features that are recognizable to Trump, however he ended up looking not as much like the real deal.

After mashing the original objects together into one object, I added lights, colour and produced a higher quality render of my object using Rhino.

I believe this object is critically thought-evoking when in relation to politics in pop culture, more specifically, it acts as a critique on who we, as a society choose to put in control. Remix culture is the act of reframing an original narrative or idea, and bringing forth a product that induces a new perspective on the material and initial context.  Here I have juxtaposed a fruit and the American President, which not only reflects the sheer stupidity of a man with the power to start world war, but also reflects back at our culture. Through combining a previously existing concept of calling someone a fruit (or a sissy), with a political, and controversial figure, I have produced my own contemporary view of Donald Trump. Remix culture gives an artist the ability through music, objects, or art to comment on modern issues and cultural politics, which is vital to our disputed society.