Design for Digital Fabrication - Student Work - Vinyl Tattoo

Art277 - Design for Digital Fabrication

Vinyl Tattoo

For this project students were asked to look to tattoos as inspiration for creating body adornment. They started with sketches, converted those into Rhino curves, and then output the design to the vinyl cutter, cleaned up the sticker and then stuck it on the body/clothing.  

iAm - sockets

A couple weeks ago I started experimenting with plasti-flex, the material I am casting the iAm sockets out of. This part is currently functioning as an interface with the wall, a transitioning material. The initial mold was created out of a 3D printed prototype and some left over Oomoo rubber. I wanted to test out the plasti-flex so when I heard someone in the studio had some extra rubber, I just quickly grabbed the test print and a Tupperware to make a test mold. The makeshift mold allowed me to quickly test the colors and flexibility of the material. The fit turned out really nice. 

I've since re-designed and machined a new socket piece for the final mold and have poured some ReoFlex30 over it. I should have some really nice sockets once this mold is ready to be used. TBC

Stand alone? iAm

After rendering the pieces on the wall, I started to wonder what it would look like if they were all mounted onto a stand alone steel frame... I like how minimal the wall version looks compared to this... I wonder what this would look like suspended from the ceiling vs. coming up from the floor. The desert shot makes me chuckle. 

IMA Final Project - Part 2

I am manipulating a few images of water that I recorded out at Atwater Beach last week for my final project in Interactive and Multimedia Art. I've been doing some writing about the work, so I'll just post that here too (below)... I'm not sold on the video presentation yet - so I'm not posting any video documentation until that's better under my control. To see the work live, check out Arts Tech Night at Kenilworth Square East on Wednesday, December 16 from 6PM - 9PM. 

Bound by Periphery is an interactive art object that explores aspects of peripheral awareness through human presence and touch. Upon approaching the object, the viewer’s presence and proximity are sensed; this reveals a moving image on a screen resting face up on the gallery floor. By crouching down and physically exploring the frame of the video, the imagery begins to change; the water imagery becomes clear, colors increase in saturation and the sound of waves and wind becomes evident. Through presence and an acute awareness of the boundaries of the object, the viewers experience becomes more dynamic and descriptive. In this way, Bound by Periphery explores various states of being contained and containing physically through objects as a metaphor for the mind. A container holds a screen, holding a sequence of video frames, playing over time. While screens can contain an endless amount of data, this object is restrained to the frame of the video. The video frame only allows us to experience what is in view, limiting our field of vision, but upon exploration of the periphery, the focus becomes clearer and transforms. By placing emphasis on the physical presence of the body on the edge of the object, the viewer is offered an incentive to explore, to relieve themselves of tunnel vision, to soften focus and play.

iAm Light milling

This weekend I machined a version of the iAm light out of polypropylene. I ran into a few issues with the break-chip drill operation, but luckily nothing detrimental. This series of operations only takes about an hour and a half, a significantly less amount of time than the aluminum versions of this shape (5 hours per piece, yikes!). I'm going to test out sandblasting on the back of the light to see if that diffuses the light a little more. I've got a 12 neopixel ring, trinket, and battery that all goes inside, so I'd like to be able to frost the dome a little more, so that the electronics don't distract. I've been thinking about the color of light I'd like the object to emit, and I think I've decided on hues of orange to go with the plugs. I'm really having a lot of fun with this project, all of the materials and all of the components are making it challenging to finish quickly, but I think taking my time with some of the decisions will pay off in the end product.