Outside Event 3 - Maker Faire

I'm not sure if I am a bit jaded by the cool stuff we do every day at Mind 2 Matter, or if the Maker Faire was less impressive than the first time around.

I went for the first time last spring and was just in awe of EVERYTHING. This year didn't really have taht same appeal. I felt sort of like "been there, done that" or really "been there, saw that" as a lot of the exhibitors were the same as last year.

There were some changes and they weren't necessarily for the best. The SF Bazaar was moved to the back of the event and in its place was the Start Up Tent. The Start Up Tent was a fraction of the size that the bazaar was last year and this year's bazaar was a fraction of the size as well. There were the usual giant mouse trap, battle pond, etc., and the jr maker's area.

It seems as though the prices for space were jacked way up, as there were fewer exhibitors and a LOT of shared booths.

I did a lot of walking on Saturday (I walked almost 6 miles according to my fitbit) but didn't catch any of the presentations (last year there were some really great talks about sustainability and food sourcing). In all honesty, I felt like I had seen everything after only a few hours and just wandered about re-examining things. I did approach a few of the newer 3D printing companies and asked them to pitch me as I am part of a print on demand company. None of them could really give me any reason to purchase their machines aside from look at the print quality. In looking at the print quality, we get the same quality off our "Fakerbots" so that didn't really sell me. Also, the bulk of the companies there were selling a fairly small build area (usually less than 6'x6'x6') and a high price tag ($2k +). Sure they looked nice sitting on your desktop, but 6" cubed isn't really much to work with.

Ultimaker. A nice looking printer, but not really worth the price tag. 

There was one company that was selling a paste extruder kit that you can add to your existing 3D printer (I am pretty sure we've got one on it's way). They were actually printing with silicone caulking onsite, which makes for a far more flexible print than the current flexible filaments out there.

Of course I checked out some of the subtractive manufacturing companies out there and this desktop CNC mill from Carbide3D was pretty impressive. It was amazingly quiet and did some really detailed and intricate milling work. 

I always check out the laser cutter booths, and the pricing still hasn't come down quite enough for me to purchase one. It's on my list, but at this point our focus is 3D printing and casting, so I can't justify it as a business purchase :) 

The second day I was tasked with getting scanned by every company that offered scanning and get .stl files sent to us to check out the scan quality. I don't have any of the files yet (and some of the companies would not provide access to the file), but I will be completing a review of the scanning for other purposes once I get access to the files. 

Half Dome Honeymoons

Souvenir

Here is a screen capture of the souvenir I designed for the Tourism package. 

It was designed in Adobe Illustrator and TinkerCAD

It will be printed on our new SLA printer and cast in Aluminium before the presentation. 

Outside Event - Jonn Herschend

I stuck around for Jonn Herschend's presentation at SFSU. I can't say that I entirely "get" his work. Especially having seen stills for his work prior to actually seeing his video work. He's got a dry sense of humor. And video isn't necessarily something I have appreciated as an art before.

I had initially seen images of his installation of The Book You Said I Never Returned, which you really need to know the story to have the images make sense. My initial impression was "what the eff is this sh...."

It's a bit more meta than I'm used to. I guess part of me questions what the art actually is. Is it the explanation or is the the work? And if it's the explanation, perhaps you should be a writer. But that's just me.

Jonn is a pretty funny guy and there were a few technical difficulties during the talk.

He's being featured in the Whitney Museum of American Art's Biennial. The piece being featured is called Discussion Questions.

Unfortunately it isn't available in it's entirety to share with you, but I loved it. It was text based (so obviously that made me happy) with a driving dance beat. You are reading the storyline as each PowerPoint slide transitions as the music gains in volume and beats per minute. I seriously loved this piece far more than the rest of his video or installment work. The story was pretty great and the orignal music was pretty good as well.

I'm still not entirely certain how I feel about video as an artistic medium. I still think of it as a part of cinema, which is an art form itself, but to me it seems distinctly different than fine art. Perhaps that's part of the problem with how I am approaching art in general. Not really sure, but it's something to question.

Tourism Package - Change of Plans

After thinking about the amount of work that would go into creating assets for my Silo tour package, I've decided to do something a bit more personal.

I'm going to do a detailed tour of Yosemite, in particular the Panorama Hike. My husband and I did that hike on our honeymoon last year and got some great photos. I was shooting with my panasonic t3 most of the trip, so I have detailed location information embedded in the metadata of the images.

I am still working on the main illustration for my poster (which will be a line drawing illustration) but have been playing with text ideas. I'm using clipping masks in Illustrator to fill my text with photos that I have taken. This is nowhere near the final version, but this is what I have been working on so far.

Just a tip, if you are going to do the Panorama hike, might I suggest the alternate route of the John Muir trail to the valley. The Mist Trail is panic inducing, even if you aren't afraid of heights. Imagine a stairway with a rickety handrail that is wide enough for one person to be on at a time. Now image dozens of people trying to go both up and down the stairway at the same time. All while on wet, slippery rocks.

Poster ideas

My tourist package ideas have been largely centered around one of my favorite series, The Silo Series (WOOL, SHIFT & DUST) by Hugh Howey. Taking place in the future, humanity has been relegated to living in underground silos. The world is closely controlled, with "cleanings" looming over the society as punishment for dissent and any thoughts of (or initiation of) uprising or questioning authority. "Cleanings" are a death sentence where the accused is sent out into the inhospitable world (or so they have been told for generations).

If you haven't read these, I suggest you do so immediately (or at least as soon as school is out because I couldn't stop reading when each volume came out!). I downloaded his new series, SAND, as soon as it came out but I haven't had a chance to sit down and read since I have so much shitty reading to do for school).

My ideas are as follows:

1. A tour package from the lowers (where the mechanics and workers keep the silos running) to the mids (the middle class - farmers, couriers, etc.). Perhaps it's what we would consider an eco-tourist package where people pay to go have the "farming" experience (check out WWOOF - It's a thing). Though now that I type this idea out, it seems more like something that folks from the uppers would do (uppers are the upper class - IT, government, etc).

2. A tour package based on the stories of old (the people of the silos have never been outside, nor were they aware of the existence of anyone outside of their world). A level of the silo has been developed to have a viewing station that presents images of the old world. People can save their chits (currency) to take virtual tours of a world that no longer exists.

3. Tourism between silos. The silo world began with 50 silos (for 50 states). Over the years, some have been eradicated (gassed by leadership due to insurgency and dissent) or through human nature. Eventually some silos began to communicate and create tunnels underground to move between silos. Each silo may have retailed details of the culture of the state they sprung from.

4. The outside world has recovered enough to venture outside. The silo dwellers can tour the dilapidated, vegetation covered ruins of what used to be the United States (eventually they may be able to venture "international travel" but knowledge of vehicles and mechanized travel has largely been lost over hundreds of years of no travel aside from up and down endless flights of stairs).

The Art of Tourism

Our final project is actually one of the more exciting (though it will be time consuming) of the semester. I can't wait to design and print my souvenir! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I did a bit of research on artists that utilize tourism or some aspect of tourism in their work.

The first thing I came across was a blog post from 2008 about an exhibit in Frankfurt at schirn-kunsthalle called All Inclusive:A Tourist World. The post had me intrigued.

Ho-Yeol Ryu, Airport, 2005

Ho-Yeol Ryu's Flughafen is a great digital compilation of images supposedly taken at Hannover airport. I did find an interesting "debunking" of the image components from an aviation expert but the image is pretty cool nonetheless.

Another image featured was Crowd by Eva Grubinger.

Eva Grubinger Crowd 2007

This installation separated portions of the exhibit hall and people were forced to walk through the queue as though they were moving through a crowded area. 

NL Architects  caught my attention because their work is playful and fun. I normally can't stand architects (they are so smug - a lot like graphic designers, but that is for another post another time). Their actual architectural work isn't super awesome, but they have a series of "virtual realities" that are pretty cool. 

NL Architects Flower Power: Power Plant 2006

Outside Event - Autodesk Gallery/3D Hubs Meetup & Mixer

For outside event #1 for the semester, my husband and I attended the 3D Hubs mixer at the Autodesk Gallery at 1 Market Street (2nd floor).

We have been working with 3D Hubs for a while now (though their print on demand system is not the most user friendly and presents problems with getting paid for work) and they had an afternoon of software presentation and a panel of speakers in the evening to celebrate their collaboration with Autodesk 123D products (essentially the Autodesk API has 3D Hubs as an integrated print source allowing users to print directly to a 3D Hubs user).

Personally I don't use most of the 123D apps because they are limited to iPad platforms (which I think does a huge disservice to the community on the whole because most of the time "makers" are big on open source (running linux homebrew machines) or PCs and a lot of designers don't use Mac products because there have been limited comprehensive design software for Mac until recently).

I do use TinkerCAD (as does my husband) for a lot of design work, which was acquired by Autodesk last year. There are a number of reasons I love TinkerCAD and when I was teaching, I was working on a curriculum to teach it to elementary school kids.

The afternoon consisted of TinkerCAD and MeshMixer presentations (TinkerCAD is a web based CAD program and MeshMixer is sculpt/paint/print program I haven't played much with but it's on my list of explorations).

We didn't attend the afternoon tutorial sessions (but we did print a bunch of swag for 3D Hubs).

Ultimately the most interesting part of the entire event was the Autodesk Gallery itself. As an artist with a background in industrial design, I feel that products can be art. The process of developing an idea is just the same as developing artistic ideas. They had an amazing range of things from 3D printed objects (and an Objet SLS printer), giant Lego sculptures, various prototypes and mock ups of vehicles and products and more. You really should check it out. They are open to the public on Wednesday and Friday each week.

Augmented Bodies - Project and Thoughts

First I'd like to comment on how interesting it was to discuss augmented bodies with the group and hear others thoughts on ideas and current body modifications.

A few things I found interesting was the reaction most had to the idea of men getting muscle implants or having ball bearings inserted in the penis. Most people seemed really disgusted at the idea of the modifications that men are currently undergoing, yet no one really gives a second thought to the ways that women have been "augmenting" their bodies for hundreds of years. Consider foot binding and corsets among the early ways that women augmented their bodies to fit the fashion of the period. Fast forward to the modern era and now we have breast implants, butt implants, lip implants, cheek bone implants and more. And that is just the list of augmentations in the realm of plastic surgery.

No one seems to think twice about how "gross" it is when women are inserting foreign bodies into themselves to create a more perfect appearance, yet there was much discussion about how it was lazy of men to get muscle implants instead of hitting the gym.

An interesting observation.

There was also some discussion about the appropriation of various "traditional" body modifications by the western world such as tattooing, branding, the filing of teeth, gauging of lips/ears/septum, etc. It brought up some interesting thoughts on appropriation of another culture's tradition and ceremony, but it was hard to really take a stance on is it wrong or is it right. I'm not entirely certain where I stand on the thought. I have some tattoos, most of which are related in some way to life events or rights of passage. I admit I have a few that I got "just because I could" but most of them hold deep meaning to me.

On to the assignment!

The idea I ended up working with was the idea of a parasitic relationship between humans and the earth. As the host, the earth began working to rid itself of the parasites (humans) through excretion of toxins that is triggered with the presence of a human.

Working with the idea of gene splicing and genetically modified organisms, I took the idea one step further. What if the modification of genetic material could allow "shape shifting" to be utilized as camouflage from triggering the release of toxins?

Parasite
par·a·site
ˈparəˌsīt
noun 

1. an organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense.

Consider the parasitic relationship between humans and the earth. Imagine a world where the Earth (host) begins working to rid itself of the humans (parasites) through excretion of toxins triggered by the presence of a human.

Working with the ideas of gene splicing and genetically modified organisms, what if these ideas were taken one step further? What if the manipulation of genetic material could allow for "shape shifting" to be utilized as camouflage from extermination/detection?

Original Image

Modified Image

Modified image placed in scene

Augmented Bodies - Brainstorming

This particular assignment is full of possibilities. Practical ideas? I could do that. But I don't really want to. Besides, many of the more practical ideas have already been illustrated or involve internal devices (thinking back to my thought pushing idea during the Vannever Bush assignment).

A few practical ideas I had included a small glow stick style unit placed just under the skin that changed colors with moods and emotions. I was thinking heavily about how much difficulty people with Aspergers (or on the autism spectrum) have reading people's facial expressions and understanding emotions. A small indicator would allow for a cue to be visualized based on color instead of trying to differentiate minute facial cues.

Great idea, but sort of a boring augmentation to illustrate.

I started thinking about parasites and parasitism. Parasitism is a non-mutual symbiotic relationship that doesn't result does NOT kill the host. I found out that a parasitoid is an insect that produces larvae that eventually kill their host.

I started thinking about how humans sort of have a parasitoid relationship with the Earth. We're here. We don't do anything mutually beneficial for our host (the Earth). In fact, we are killing our host.

What if the Earth began killing off the parasites? I imagine a world that excretes a variety of toxins when they detect the presence of humans. Humans have taken to living in sealed environs to avoid the toxins but cannot survive forever in these sealed locations.

Humans began an attempt to hybridize themselves to evade the detection of the Earth. They have become shapes shifters, allowing them to take on characteristics of various plants and animals. These characteristics allow them to avoid detection, thereby preventing toxin excretions.

I practice yoga. A lot. I used to teach yoga to kids (most fun ever) and try to incorporate yoga into my everyday life. I started thinking about various poses and how they reflect nature.

I was really intrigued by scorpion, but I would likely need props because I don't have the arm strength I used to. Removing the props and background would be a lot of work. (not impossible, but a lot of work nonetheless). Also, a human shifting into a scorpion form would be a HUGE scorpion. Seriously huge.

I will be working with tree pose instead.

Indeterminacy Switch

I did Vanessa's Indeterminacy project, which was to create a poem using letters scrambled from the answers to a series of questions.

The questions/answers were as follows:

Your full name: Sarah Nicole Love Kelly

Where you were born: Sacramento

Your favorite food: Strawberries

The name of your favorite song: Green and Dumb

Your astrological sign: Taurus

Your Chinese zodiac animal: Sheep

Your Mayan astrological sign Eagle.

This gave me the following numbers of letters:

a b c d e g h i k l m n o p r s t u v w y 8 2 2 2 12 2 2 2 1 5 2 4 3 1 7 6 3 3 1 1 1

This gave me a total of 70 characters  to work with. 

The directions as written weren't entirely clear as to how to use the letters, but I got clarification from Vanessa (I wasn't sure if I was to re arrange the letters or if I had to choose a word that started with each of the 70 letters). 

Here is the outcome. 

Working with Chance - Shifted Perspective

After thinking about what we have been discussing for this class about indeterminacy and working in chance, I decided to apply it to my independent studies class as well.

In 3D printing, a lot of variables are left to chance. There is no guarantee that your print will be successful. If you print the same object 1,000 times, there are any number of things that will effect the outcome. Ambient temperature, material, hot end temperatures, computer issues, hardware issues, and more can change the outcome of your print.

Case in point:

This is an 18 gallon tote filled with failed prints (going back about a year - there are more that have been thrown away or are in other boxes as well). Some failed due to equipment failure. Some failed due to material failure. Some of them we have no clue as to why they failed. 

This box is intended to be run through a "filabot" style machine to reclaim the expended filament. Mind-2-Matter and LaserGnomes try to be as green as possible, so reclaiming spent filament is inline with our  business plans. I figured in the meantime, I could do a bit of reclamation myself. 

I spent some time digging through the box to create a sculpture from failed and discarded prints. Since we design and print a myriad of things from engineering parts to organic shapes, it was an interesting melange of components to choose from. 

We had a number of MegaFire and SlugFire shells that failed for various reasons or were made prior to additional revisions that lead to our finished retail ready products for NERF blasters.  We also had a number of failed flowers from another project that we undertook for Valentines Day. 

Obviously it's time to get a larger photo tent :)

Shifted Perspective

Shifted Perspective

Shifted Perspective