THE Ñ PROJECT
Spanish was at some point forced on many people and we all can agree that forcing by violence one’s culture upon others can be left in history, right?
But today it’s a powerful tool that unites a big chunk of the planet’s population and I want to celebrate it in a sculpture.
What’s more
Spanish that the“ñ”?
This letter came
from the unification
of the 2 “NN”
present in many
latin words.
When writing on a page, priests needed to save space and a double “NN” takes a huge unnecessary space in the line. They found out a solution of adding a tiny “n” on top of the main “N” character. This evolved into the little swirl on top of the “ñ”, et voilà.
Real Prototype of the sculpture
The sculpture consists on a double “N” coming together by the shape of the swirl. I built it up cutting 26 pieces (as many as Spanish speaking countries/ regions) and stuck them together in a way that from one side and the other you can read N and from the top you can see the swirl shape.
The figures below are some sketches and calculations I had to make to cut is properly:
* Frontal view: Shows the “N” basic shape of the first piece. All the other pieces are based on this one but had modifications in order to both take shape of the swirl and to inverse the N on the other side of the sculpture.
3D rendering prototype
* Gradual rotation of the middle piece of the “N“: The middle piece of the letter had to be gradually rotated in oder to make it readable on the other side of the sculpture, otherwise it would look mirrored.
* Top View: Where the swirl shape is visible, each “N“ piece had a gradual incrementation/ decrease of the size of their lateral pieces.
Frontal View
Top View
Gradual Rotation of the middle piece of the “N“