Project 1 - Art Proposal

week 08 (week of 10 Oct)

10/11
I played around with Sketchup in class today. Mostly wanted to figure out out how to do spirals for the nautilus dome I want to create. I had created a spiral from scratch but when I made it 3D the very center of the spiral was corrupted so it wasn't right.

Thomas suggested using a spiral maker and also found a Sketchup extension called Tapermaker which would make the spiral shape 3d. So for the entire class I played around with the Tapermaker seeing if I could break the computer.

10/12
I pretty much worked more on the library. I had the layout pretty much there but I needed to draw it out and fix the library itself (along with a hundred million other things).

It took a while to fix the library curves since I had created it from a top view and then went top to bottom thus the curve of the building was harder to capture or more specifically the underneath area where the columns are. It took over my weekend. And honestly I didn't have time to do the poster. Will try to print tomorrow even if there are no print lab hours. Yeah extra stress!

week 07 (week of 3 October)

10/4
Today in class Thomas extended the deadline for the structure project which was good. I could have made it on time but I didn't want to go to the FabLab to do a 3d structure (which I would have to find time to make). So that was good. We learned better methods of composing our SketchUp buildings/suroundings which would have saved me a little work previously.

10/6
Today Thomas went around and looked at our progress. He looked at mine and said I am focusing too much on precision. I should just make the structure and move on with other details. I tend to agree with him but I am not sure if I be able to do that.

I finished the layout of the library and did all the calculations regarding its height so I took the flat layout and made it into a 3d structure. I will need to add windows/etc. Also need to work on the other additional building with the shell shape.

An Essay on the New Aesthetic RR

Reading Response on: An Essay on the New Aesthetic

I thought the blog post we had to read was well written. The writer knew his subject and was able to insert humor into his style so that it was actually fun read (see certain previous reading response blog posts for counter examples).

My favorite line of the entire essay had to be “Weirdness is merely relative.” It just spoke so much to me. I know it is taken out of context but I just love that line and I just wanted to highlight it for my own personal benefit.

I was very interested to read this essay on the New Aesthetic. I mean, the writer, Bruce Sterling, made a lot of good points and gave an excellent in depth analysis of the New Aesthetic. I had not thought about how the previous generation had personified computers but he made a very good point about how we should step away from that. But more to the point the whole idea of the New Aesthetic was interesting topic to explore. I think it is hard to give analysis to an art movement which is still going on and still developing but this writer from Wired did a pretty job. He played devil’s advocate to the point of view of seeing what machines feel/see in order to make good design.

The writer certainly had high hopes for this new generation of designers / technology artists in fixing some of the issues he listed, but I can not tell if such problems are fixable or if they nessarily need to be fixed. I really do not know what I should think about this even after reading or rather listening to his essay. I need to research more on the topic in order to fully have an opinion on this subject and make a comment or two. I did like the essay though.

week 06 (week of 26 September)

9/27 - Tuesday (Class)
We had a nice class. By which I mean we had a 30 minute class and then the power went out. I considered working some more on the layout of the building at home but no dice as the power was still out for a number of hours all over campus (this was written later of course).

9/28 - Wednesday
I took some reference photos of the library:

9/29
Today we saw a presentation from one of the advanced students and then Thomas talked a lot (what's new haha). In that one lesson I learned so much about Sketchup and 3d printing that I got a headache (literally). The highlight was that we learned how to insert pre-made objects like trees, lamp posts, etc. that some had made and uploaded. I played around with the pre-mades and ultimately compiled a display containing the Helix Nebula ("eye of god" formation), the library of congress building and a giant Alfred Hitchcock cameo. I like the program. It's a lot of fun. That being said, I left the class with a huge migraine and had to sleep for a while (probably unrelated to the lecture).

week 05 (week of 19 September)

This week we worked on SketchUp some more. We learned how to add geo-location and layers to the 3d document. I also learned about the extensions which could make spirals. I will have to play with it some more to see which way is best for my shell structure.

I went to the library for some pictures just to get a sense of the building.

I realized I will need to make the shell bigger than the actual building so people looking up can see it.

Materializing Information RR

I think this article on “Materalizing Information” was actually very compelling. It was less idealized than the Minecraft/Makerbot video article and brought about a number of good point about the pros and somewhat cons of digital desktop fabrication.

The writers really went in-depth with their details. I already knew computers were used in manufacturing since the 1960s, but it was nice for them to note it. Unlike the video article, they actually get the price right for Makerbot printers and they certainly are very knowledgable on the subject of 3d printers. Overall, I actually liked the article. It was a very well written piece with lots of well researched info and discription. In addition, the article was not worded so it was over technical. It was straightforward and accessible to anyone who picked it (not unlike 3d printing technologies and maker space groups they were discussing).

One of the most fascinating sections to think about was “Section 2: Results from environmental scan”. I knew there were places which were repositories of digital objects online (as I have wandered through a few of them to satisfy my own curiosity), but the writers go in an interesting direction when they link Google 3D Warehouse to Google Earth and Google Maps. I knew you could digitalize pieces of art or untensils, etc., but the implications of using maps, satellites and photographs to digitalize the world is amazing. It is just mind boggling that, with the right resources we could create an accurate digital world. That is just amazing. Of course the current 3d printers would only be handheld sizes so I don’t know if it could be printed but just a digital representation is still cool.

The other fascinating section was the cons of desktop fabrication. They do bring up a good point about increasing our “throw-away” culture. It is a very distressing idea. It goes back to the whole “the Minecraft/Makerbot video article” about the idea of scarcity. We do not have an eternal supply of anything unlike Minecraft so attention must be paid to that. Add in legal issues and we have a very convoluted area of design. Like I said, very interesting article that I need to pour over again to fully apreciate.