TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION - ASSIGNMENTS

Final Project - PART 1 DUE TUESDAY

There were a lot of excellent ideas shared by all of you today. While one agreed upon story did not quite emerge, several groups have organically formed based on shared interests, which is great - dig deeper into these. Some of you are thinking what to do solo. Once your work is shared next week, we will find ways to connect all of it together, and how we transfer and transition from one to the next.


Overview:

We have explored various tools, technologies, and themes throughout the semester:


Assignment:

Each of you needs to create a final project that is a deep dive into several of these areas based on your interests. START RIGHT AWAY. For next Tuesday you should have a working prototype, ready to show. If you formed a group you still need to each create your own project that can stand on its own, which could then be combined with others in your group.

If you are still looking for ideas, perhaps take inspiration from the New Museum exhibit, which aims to explore "what it means to be human in the face of sweeping technological changes".


Schedule:


Performance Time:

Your individual project performance presentation should be approx 90 seconds max.

Group presentations can combine the times for a longer performance


Let us know if you have any questions or need any kind of help!


Week 11 - Due Tuesday April 14th

PART 1

Following our visit to the New Museum's New Humans: Memories of the Future exhibit:

Choose two artworks by two different artists in the exhibit. Take pictures of the work and complete the following for each of them. Upload all into a new page on your website:

  • Name of the artists and of their work
  • Date - when was it made
  • What technology is being incorporated
  • How is technology being used - describe this in detail
  • What materials is it made of? - be very specific and detailed
  • How does it work? What do you not know? What is invisible? Describe in detail
  • What made you pick this? How is it interesting or inspiring to you?
  • Draw the artwork (literally) - create a "technical" drawing of the artwork.
  • Sketch/draw how you think it works (what changes over time? what is the flow of information/movement?) (conceptual)


PART 2

Record out a TD video showing a warping of reality/self. What is real? How do we bring the physical into the digital and what affordances do we have there that we don’t have IRL? What can that communicate? How can we represent objects or people in ways that we can’t physically? At least 12 seconds, can just be a screen recording.

Advanced:

Walkthrough video on Notion page and Youtube Channel

Artists for Inspiration:

Matt Romein

Kate Ladenheim





Week 10 - Due Tuesday April 7th

PART 1


PART 2

Bring in an .obj of an object, an .fbx of a character with a mixamo animation, and a .ply of a scene/splat

Week 9 - All Due Tuesday March 31st

PART ONE:

Design an original design in TinkerCad (simplest), Blender or Fusion 360 and 3D print it. Instructions for our Ultimaker and Bambu 3D printers are HERE. It can be anything:


BRING IT TO CLASS + DOCUMENT AND POST IT ON YOUR WEBSITE 


PART TWO:


POST ALL OF THE ABOVE ON YOUR WEBSITE. WE'LL REVIEW THEM IN CLASS

Week 8 - Due Wednesday March 25th

Lighting Assignment: The idea with this assignment is to practice doing this again and experiment with cues, colors, brightness, fade ins/outs, no fades, etc. As shown in class, doing this on your laptop is the equivalent of programming the actual board. You can then copy your file and load it on the lightboard in 404 and operate the lights in the room.

Using the ETC EOS software that you all installed on your computers, create a light show that includes:

The tutorial is up HERE (updated since we did it in class. no need to do BASE for moving lights). You'll want to start from HERE if you need to download the software. And you should ALL download the new LIGHT TEMPLATE which we updated.

Week 7 - Due Wednesday Mar. 11th

In groups of 4, create a performance that uses Ableton to control audio-reactive projections in your environment and on a constructed prop/set.

Criteria:

Note: not all projectors work at all distances, so make sure you know which projector is best for your concept. Either test them or there's a chart at the top of the Notion.

Your group can check out a projector from the ER — Don't wait until Tuesday to do this!

Week 6 - Due Tuesday Mar. 3rd

Make audio reactive visual art in TouchDesigner using Ableton to automatically control your media.

Detailed walkthrough videos are on the Notion link below — going through what we did in class, plus a few extra techniques.

Video Walkthroughs and Resources:

TOUCHDESIGNER NOTION PAGE

And don't forget you can right click on a node in Touch and select "Op Snippets" to see an example of how any TOP works!

Week 5 - Due Wednesday Feb 25th

START DESIGNING - THIS WILL TAKE TIME

Design, laser cut, glue, paint, and put together a 3-dimensional object or toy that incorporates at least one moving mechanism.

- In Illustrator create a new Artboard that is 12 inches by 12 inches.
- Create your design utilizing as much of the 12x12 artboard as possible (leave about 1/4" from the edges). NO GENERATIVE AI OR FOUND IMAGES - it totally defeats the purpose of the assignment.
- In the Art Studio there are 12"x12" plywood pieces 1/8" thick. USE JUST ONE PLEASE.
- FOLLOW this LASER CUTTING TUTORIAL
- NEED MORE WOOD? Use cardboard, or thick paper.
- GLUE your pieces together to create your new 3D objects.
- PAINT everything so it no longer looks like it was lasercut.
- FEEL FREE to incorporate any additional materials that would enhance your object such as fabric, beads, LEDs, wire, wooden dowels
- EXPERIMENT - The laser is precise and can cut out shapes that would be incredibly difficult for you to cut by hand - use that cleverly to your advantage.

WEBSITE:

Create a page on your website and UPLOAD final pictures, documentation, NAME OF TOY/OBJECT, description (what is it and what does it do), and your Illustrator AI file to your website.

WE WILL HAVE A PERFORMATIVE EXHIBITION ALL TOGETHER ON WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 25TH

Also make sure you have TouchDesigner downloaded and ready to go on Tuesday ~ * * *~ `*

MECHANISM EXAMPLES:

Mechanisms and Animations

Automata and Mechanical Toys

GEAR SET EXAMPLE: Illustrator File

Week 4 - Due Wednesday Feb 18th

Inspired by Saul Bass, Keith Haring, making the ordinary extraordinary, olympic pictograms, international symbols, etc:

In ILLUSTRATOR ONLY create a series of FIVE infographics/pictograms that tell a story about the stages of your life so far. This can take on many forms.
- Upload your FIVE pictograms to your website.
- For each pictogram include its name and a description.
- Be ready to present/perform your stages for the class.
- SPEND TIME EXPERIMENTING WITH ALL OF ILLUSTRATOR'S TOOLS, SHAPES, LINES, COLORS, EFFECTS, TEXT

Week 3 - Due Tuesday February 10th

Complete your website design and Mars Project documentation.

Using Photoshop, and incorporating what we learned in class + your own experiments - create a 6-panel short story (children's book, experimental, educational, comic, etc..)

1 cover page with title graphics etc

5 pages of the story

animated triangle
cover
animated triangle
1
animated triangle
2
animated triangle
3
animated triangle
4
animated triangle
5

Incorporate and experiment with animation + GIF making - create moving elements in each of your pages using frame or video animation in the Photoshop timeline.

USE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIMENT WITH PHOTOSHOP's IMAGE MANIPULATING CAPABILITIES - IDEALLY YOU WILL USE PHOTOS, IMAGES AND ART THAT YOU HAVE TAKEN OR MADE YOURSELF.

What is your style?

What is your inspiration?

What colors, text, imagery, or art will you create?

What importance will the movement in your work have?

Use this opportunity to experiment with telling a story using visual/graphic/text elements.

Upload your work on a new page on your website, as Gifs, images, and/or videos. If you like try incorporating a soundtrack or sound effects onto your webpage to accompany your story.

Here is a tutorial on how I created the animated triangle above in Photoshop. It's probably easier in programs like Procreate, but if you only have Photoshop you can try this.

Week 2 - Due Tuesday February 3rd

Using everything you've learned and experimented with so far in Cargo, design and build your website. Your site is meant to be an experimental art canvas for expressing your artistic vision online, a visual storytelling platform, and as a space for uploading your weekly assignments.

Remember - you must create everything you put on your sites and it must be your own new and original work.

You know how to:

Use this knowledge and your imagination to develop a unique vision for your site - what story will it tell? How will visitors interact with it?

  1. Create a unique main page.
  2. Create a "menu system" with links to the 14 weeks.
  3. Upload your first week Mars projects to a new week 1 page with project name, images, sketches, performance video, and project description that describes: what is it, what does it do, and how does it do it
  4. anything else you'd like to include.

MAKE SURE YOUR WEBSITE LINK ON THIS DOC IS CORRECT!

Week 1 - Due Wednesday January 28th

The year is 2089. You live in a home for old people on Mars. You wake up in the morning feeling rhapsodic and youthful. You dress up, brush your hair and apply your face cream. You feed Becky, your tri-color Bassett Hound three strawberries and a teaspoon of milk.

You share Becky with your ex who lives in OLD HOME #2. After a long custody battle, you settled out of court and arranged a schedule that makes sense for all three of you. Today is exchange day.

"This is going to be a good day," you say to Becky, and kiss her on the nose.

The breakfast menu flashes on your bedroom monitor: PANCAKES

The exchange of Becky takes place at the TERMINAL RELAY STATION which is located halfway between Old Home #1 and Old Home #2.

The good news: The Terminal Relay Station is outside and only 15 feet away.

The bad news:
- The temperature outside is -243°F (-153°C)
- There is a dust storm with 120 mph winds carrying rocks and spatial debris.
- It's pitch dark except for the light from Phobos and Deimos, Mars's two moons.
- You have to be back for Breakfast (you cannot skip even one meal) so you only have 2.5 minutes to do the exchange and come back safely.

Build a small model of a device, machine or contraption that will take you from either OLD HOME #1 or OLD HOME #2 to The TERMINAL RELAY STATION to exchange Becky. What does your outfit look like? What sensors do you need to survive the outside climate? What futuristic technology will you put to use to survive the short but tumultuous journey? And how will you make it in less than 3 minutes back and forth so that you can each get back for breakfast?

Good luck.

On Wednesday you will randomly be paired and come up in front of the class and present / perform your project. Make it into a story and consider incorporating other elements such as light and sound.

NOTE: all work you make for TIA must be new and original. Music, sounds, images, objects - should all be made entirely by you.

Mars

LIGHT TEMPLATE