3D Printing Explained by ASAP Science

Want to learn about 3D printing in a nutshell, but don't want to spend your life sifting through news articles? Here you go! (Thanks to one of my favourite Youtube channels)

Innovative and Interactive Learning with Google

This is Old(er) News, but I Forgot this Exists!

The Google Art Project is a part of the Google Cultural Institute, a website dedicated to making arts and culture more accessible- that is, collections and displays and projects are online, where anyone with an internet connection can visit.

Google believes that by providing these tools and resources digitally will "engage students, scholars and teachers through innovative and interactive learning." 

I believe it. With the Google Art Project, you can create your own galleries of work from pieces across the world. There are tools for those taking tough Art History courses (maybe I'll use these as an Art History Teaching Assistant and Art History fanatic ;).

The Google Cultural Institute works and partners directly with museums, cultural institutions, and archives, so it is not just another Google Search page.

In the "Explore" section of the Google Art Project you can choose from multiple categories, which you can combine if you're stuck on the name of a work you want to learn more about (or a specific categorized piece that you just really need for a biased art history paper).
I'll have to put this feature to the test in the upcoming months.

Below, the vid' that reminded me in the first place:

(or click this hyperlink: Art Project- How to Use the Site )

Another Interesting 3-wait, 4-D Project?!

It's called 4-D printing, and the fourth dimension in this case is time. Here's how it works: A 3-D printer with extremely high resolution uses materials that can respond to outside stimuli, like heat or light, as ink. The resulting structure can change, move or even assemble itself after it's been printed.

(Siner, 2013)

Check it Out. 

Hey! Art/Museum Games

I just came across this tonight....

Do I want to play games (like matching, puzzles, etc) all about art?

Heck yes, I do.

Check out games with the Getty!

3D Printers: A Tool for Building Homes Efficiently?!?

This just in (yesterday, in fact)! :

Khoshnevis of Contour Crafting has plans to create machines that can build 2,500 square-foot homes in as little as 20 hours! This machine will use a form of 3D printing. (He already has prototypes & a TEDtalk).

Overall, this way of building seems rather efficient. The costs of production is decreased using this technology (financing building materials, decreasing CO2 emissions created and energy used)...however, the amount of manual labor is also decreased, which means fewer people are needed to work it.

He wishes to use this process of building for poorer areas where shelter is problematic. On the Contour Crafting website, he even mentions using this on other planets (because Earth's going to deteriorate sometime- thanks, humans). This way, shelter can be created in a very short amount of time-and lots of it, too. Imagine, Contour Crafting as a way to quickly create shelter for survivors of natural disaster (Hurricane Katrina, for instance?).

Decreasing the physical labor required for building homes is a controversial part of the project. Will this put millions of people out of work? Should this technology only be used for special projects? Will the benefits out-weigh the negatives?

Check. It. Out.

Discovering 3D Printing: New Hope

3D Printing is "all the rage" this season.

As a part of the 3D Printing team this semester, paired with the Art Institute of Chicago, it is my team's job to benchmark and learn more about the potential of this technology.

I may have mentioned before that I didn't really understand the overall purpose of 3D printing (as in, why did my alma mater randomly decide to invest in one?).

Reading an article on NPR this morning, I at first saw nothing new. The title of the piece, 3-D Printing A Master Work For Your Living Room, did not seem promising. However, the author steps in and redeems herself at the last minute. By making "patterns" of artwork available online (in this case, detailed images of sculptures, an individual (anywhere!) with access to a 3D printer can make sculptures available for viewing no matter the locale. This raises potential for distance learning. Experiencing an object in 3D is more real to life than simply looking at an image.

How much more could you get out of seeing Rodin's The Thinker or Michelangelo's David in 3D replica than you could from an image in a textbook? There is potential for a new kind of learning that one could once only get from visiting a museum- something that is not always possible for the average Jean, Jill, or Joe.

How could this form of learning experience be used in other ways, outside of art?

Need some patterns for your 3D experience? Check this out: http://www.thingiverse.com/

"Photobet" Adventures

This week in Cyberpedagogy, we presented a "Photobet" activity we had done in pairs. 

The assignment was to find the letters of the alphabet in our everyday environments (Read: Pay attention and look out for the unexpected), take pictures, and then compose them together using Photoshop (though, there was not much if at all image manipulation). 

We were not allowed to "set up" letters. 

We had to find them naturally. 

My partner and I both traveled to our respective "hometowns" this weekend so we were able to bring pieces of home together in once place. After both returned to Chicago, we came together to find letters we had not yet captured. 

I guess you really can bring home with you. 

Below, you can see our Photobet. However, images are not in alphabetical order. 

What one person identifies as a "B" another might identify as a "Z" or "E."

I would certainly do this exercise again. 

Golan Levin: Art that looks back at you: Inspiration!

"Golan Levin, an artist and engineer, uses modern tools -- robotics, new software, cognitive research -- to make artworks that surprise and delight. Watch as sounds become shapes, bodies create paintings, and a curious eye looks back at the curious viewer"

This weekend, I spent some of my time perusing TED Talks that involve the arts.

In this video, Golan Levin shows us several projects that he has worked on that involve the use of technology intermixed with the visual.

What is even more curious is that these "art" pieces could very well be useful in other fields.

How might these technologies give us a closer look at how we perceive, how we interact with our environments, our own gaze? How we define every day life?

In addition, technological art form in these examples pave a path for integrated arts studies. How might programs similar to Levin's be used for learning?

             

Digital Interactive Struggles

Function 2: People as Art. Here, a visitor has climbed upon the bed and peeks up from behind the headboard.

[Vincent Van Gogh, Bedroom at Arles, 1889]

Last week, the Cyberpedagogy class was asked to bring in digital interactive projects- identifying what the Art Institute of Chicago could do with technology in order to make the museum experience more interactive (no limits: do-ability, cost, etc.).

As written in my previous post, this was a struggle for me. Museums so often play into the elitist ideal. AIC is expensive- and for good reason, but it is simply not financially accessible to everyone. It was difficult for me to get over this thought, to design something that may never be available to the communities I'm aiming to work for, to be an advocate for.

Eventually, I let these struggles go (for the assignment's sake) and let the words and ideas flow that came to me in the first place, which had quickly become clouded with doubt and anger.

Contextual Travel: The Firsthand Experience

The Need:

In order to initiate curiosity and engage the viewer, there needs to be significance to or personal connection with what is being experienced. Most often, exhibits are focused on what can be seen and may not offer other ways to explore. However, sight is only one sense that humans possess in order to study and perceive their surroundings. If each viewer’s learning style needs are to be addressed, then it is necessary for the institution to provide other means of perceiving. What if the viewer could be projected into a space that allowed exploration of the world in which the pieces of work were created? Can you imagine being immersed in the sights, scents, environmental conditions, but also the historical context of a work of art?

Functions & Capabilities:

The Contextual Travel Helmet is similar to earlier virtual reality programs, except the new headset is more compact and has more advanced capabilities. First, the wearer selects an exhibit piece in which they wish to learn more about. Then, the visitor can choose from two main functions:

1.  Experience the full context. The wearer chooses any combination of contextual components they wish to experience, such as sight, smell, climate, time period and historical events, persons involved in the piece’s history, etc. The visitor will then be placed within these contexts firsthand virtually- they can interact with the environment and figures within it. Through this, they will gain a better understanding of the piece and form an intimate connection with the work.  

2.  Become part of the work: People as Art. Visitors can interact with the work itself in this mode, but instead of interacting with historical settings, the visitor acts as a model within the virtual space that is the artwork. Once a working part of the work, the visitor’s curiosity might be tapped further and the experience can be documented and shared with friends via cyberspace.

The Contextual Travel Helmet interacts with the user’s brainwaves in order to create a virtual experience. The user then perceives chosen contextual components (Full Context variables or People as Art). This interaction is similar to what takes place in the human brain every second of the day.
 

Inspiration for People as Art:

Interactive “Haunted” Museum (Torafu Architects, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo):

http://beautifuldecay.com/2013/08/19/tokyo-museum-hosts-interactive-haunted-art-playhouse/

Goyte’s Somebody That I Used to Know:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

People Transformed into Paintings (Alexa Meade, D.C.):

http://enpundit.com/people-transformed-into-paintings-by-alexa-meade/