“Seeing is Believing”

How do 3D printed models or maps enhance representation?

I believe that physical representation gets the point of physical objects across best, which is why studying a map that is 3D printed and physically present can help one understand an area better than a flat map image. I came to this idea because the concepts of representation and perspective have always been interesting to me throughout my life. I’m someone who always likes to see things from different angles and I try to contemplate how ideas or data might be better represented and therefore better understood. I’m excited to make a 3D model of at least part of downtown Olympia. Even if I’m the only viewer of it, I know it will better my understanding of the area.

In doing research for this project, I struggled to find sources (that were accessible and understandable to me), which pertained exactly to my idea. It surprised me that it was so difficult to find cartographers interested in 3D mapping, since distortion is such a huge part of 2D mapping. Instead I found examples of my idea demonstrated in Architecture and models of building designs. I came across pages for different companies explaining how 3D printing or 3D rendering/modeling has made a huge difference on the way they do business. Rietveld Architecture Firm perfectly describes why 3D rendering is important for clients’ understanding of designs, and also how 3D printing their designs allows for many more models of various scales and iterations to be made more quickly and efficiently. 3D printing these necessary models also allows for more detail to be incorporated, which provides easier understanding for the viewers.

“During the course of a typical project, Rietveld, like other architecture firms, builds numerous models in increasing detail and scale that help clients to visualize designs. And, like other firms, they had traditionally built these models by hand – a task that usually required two employees to spend upwards of two months cutting, assembling and finishing components made of cardboard, foam board and Plexiglass. The time and expense to hand craft these complex elements dictated that the models have an inadequate amount of detail, limiting the creativity and therefore showcasing a model that sometimes did not sufficiently highlight the selling points of the design.” (Meijs).

Rietveld Architects have been able to take their business a step ahead of their competitors. They say there is always a “wow factor” when they present a 3D printed model. Obviously models are necessary in the architecture industry, in order to examine and appreciate designs. Now 3D printing has brought ease to this very important piece of every project.

Brian Smith and Brian Zajac, founders of 3D Architectural Solutions, are firm believers in the 3D movement and development. They both individually began working on 3D studies in the 90s. While Smith steadily progressed in the field of 3D, Zajac moved to web design, under the impression that work in 3D was not quite worthwhile in those years. Later on he noticed that the world of 3D was quickly picking up actually cost effective (unlike in the 90s) and at this point he and Smith formed 3D Architectural Solutions. In 2006 they teamed up with other organizations to form CGschool, which is now the leading company in visualization training.

It is clear that both of these men are very wisely invested in the field of 3D representation. This interest pointed them both in the direction of architecture. The field of architecture is perfect for utilizing expertise in 3D representation, as I talked about before. 3D representation is used for presenting a design most accurately. It is useful to both the designers, and the clients. It is the best way to understand the data in front of you.

“3D Rendering has brought about huge efficiencies in the architectural and engineering industries in recent times. 3D rendering is the process of producing an image based on three-dimensional data stored within a computer.” (The Benefits).

The data used to create these images was already being generated with every design created, but until 3D rendering became a big part of the industry, the only way to understand the design was either by interpreting numerous 2D drawings, depicting different angles, or to use a model which was an expensive, time consuming, detail limiting piece of work… before 3D printing came into the scene.

Representation is key to understanding. In the fields of architecture, mapping, engineering, and others, it is important that people be able to convey their designs, or data they have collected in a manner that makes sense. With anything that exists in three dimensions, the most sensible representation is 3D rendering which is now more than possible but very efficient. I’m excited to create my very own model of the city that is my new home.

Works Cited

“3D Modelization and Visualization.” Open Text. Open Text Corporation, 2011. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.

“The Benefits of 3D Rendering.” AABSys. AABSyS IT, 2014. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.

“Benefits of 3D Rendering and Visualization.” GIS Virtual RSS. GIS Virtual, 08 Aug. 2012. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.

Meijs, Piet. “Examples of 3D Printing in the Architecture Industry.” 3D Printer. Javelin Technologies Inc., 2014. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.

Meijs, Piet. “Objet Technology Enables Architecture Firm to Shave Months Off Model-Building Time.” Case Study. Rietveld Architects LLP, 2010. Web. 2 Nov. 2014.

Smith, Brian, and Brian Zajac. “Why Are 3D Visualization Renderings and Animations Important?” 3D Architectural Solutions. 3DAS LLC, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2014.

“The Societal Impacts of 3D Printing.” 3D Printing. WordPress.com, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.

Where is the intersection between entropy and order, and how does this affect creativity? In my last version of this project, I referenced the essay Art, Thefore Entropy by Michael France and Alan Hénaut. The essay’s thesis was that a degree of chaos is necessary for the birth of good art, and from that it … Continue reading »

Who is really the scanner? What does it mean to build something? Where do you take from and where do you take it to? When does something become unique?  Which matters more?

How I choose to answer these questions in regards to my Blue Rabbit Project, creating a digital library of the assets from The Evergreen State College Natural History Museum, has left me digging deep.

The idea of 3D printing a skull I scan leaves much left yearning in my personal goals, having taken something that was one alive and using it’s remains to perpetuate it’s life implicates even more.

If I use the scan as a reference to draw a rendition of the animal’s exact genus and species won’t I be using something with it’s own unique qualities as well? Where does the individual of an entire group begin to represent similar enough qualities to represent the entirety of the whole group? Are the marks and blemishes that befall the item in it’s life or even after death change what it is, out side of the vantage of quality, and if these models that are created from scans have the ability to be restored and improved doesn’t that change the value of quality?

I selected my project to challenge what it means to create, if our references act as crutches and stairways to new ideas, the idea of creating entire reference libraries that can be re-transformed into pristine samples would mean to create better gateways to new thoughts. The physical task of scanning items is not difficult but the idea of creating from those samples leaves endless possibilities. New communities could begin to form around the idea of up-keeping and updating what can be used as tools in countless fields of study(ecology, art, biology just to name some). My goal is to create something that extends beyond myself and will be a project that is continued with or without me. Anyone could take the existing models from the library and transform it. From anything like an entirely new species to an even more improved representation of reality.  Each iteration could be added back into the library allowing for individuals to become informed as well as inform others of their works.

"Economies of scale drive down the consumer price of mass-produced products and increase profits for a company. However,
 to earn back the upfront investments in design and production, companies must sell large volumes of the same product. 
Only after a significant number of identical products are sold does a company begin to profit from its initial investment."(Lipson, Kurman, 2013, 26)

Instead of having to focus on producing only one item in order to make a return we can have open source an entire library of items acts outside the commercial market. With the free
exchange of ideas and new models that could be printed for next to nothing and specialized to each individual, tailored to their specific demands with no need for over production. These ideas hit home for me because of the focus on suitability in the actions taken and is in opposition of the current global economic environment.  I chose to awnser the questions we have repeated, “Why produce in a world physical objects in a world over-saturated already…?” with the chose to not produce anything physical. Rather I pursued the chose to create digital objects of items that are in general restrictive in access because of their physical qualities.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History states on their 3D Collection website that ” the purpose of this collection is to allow you to view your favorite objects from our David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins or to examine many of the primate and other animal skeletons housed in our museum’s collections. All of the virtual objects on display were either CT or laser scanned. The scanning process enabled us to generate 3D models of each object that you can view, rotate, and interact with online.” The tools used by this organization are professional standard and the creation of the scans were done under the supervision of  PHD’s and other credentialed staffers. Although I do not have the same tools, skills or facilities I do have the drive to create something a little more open than the Smithsonian. I was not able to download any models from the website or interact with them outside of the site itself, but I found that the catalog system was very intricate and that there was lot of pertinent information about what I was interacting with.  I will use this national museums model in my creation of the digital catalog with the added ability to have moderator approved uploads and the ability to download models open to students.

Watching the class interact with the 3D scanner this quarter reminds me of how excited I was when I first started using this technology this summer but also  clues me in on how much people enjoy recreating the physical world virtually.  Our generation currently and to come will have a greater appreciation of what is virtual and what is not, in both value and understanding. As we create reality virtually what reality do we encapsulate? Where is decay on our digital screens, as our users die but their files remain unscathed what will truly be seen as our lasting legacy. If others can amend reality posthumously won’t we always be remembered better down the line?

At this time I have gotten the program “Skanect” installed onto the computers inside the Natural History Museum at Evergreen. This Wednesday I will attempt to use the schools resources and $0.00 to produce the ‘skeleton’ of what is to become our 3D collection at The Evergreen State College Natural History Museum. Yes I did not create the taxidermy-ed and preserved items at the library but I will add to their longevity.  I will be giving myself the ability to have new references for future 3D modeling projects and a more through appreciate of the biological and ecological differences between species as I get to handle rare items.

“Abbott’s Gray Gibbon, Indonesia (USNM 142172).” Human Evolution by The Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Program. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.

Lauren Steury

Making Meaning Matter

November 4, 2014

iCyborga

We make our identities tangible through material object and place- however, with emerging technology, the construction and consumption of identity is transferred to the digital rather than the physical. Virtual identities, assembled through social media, dating sites, personal blogs, and websites- may or may not correspond to real life (RL) identities, though they are axiomatically related:

Digital identity construction (Nguyen and Alexander 1996) makes it possible to express latent and nested identities (Herb and Kaplan 1999) or to more fully disclose aspects of the self that are difficult to represent physically. Alternatively, CMEs (computer mediated environments) also enable people to conceal aspects of their selves that they find undesirable (Schau and Gilly 388).

Aren’t our idyllic selves creations and expression that are just as valid as our ‘real life’ selves? Gender, age, appearance, personality are all social constructs upheld through silent agreement of shared culture. Now, through increased access to semiotic tools and cultural artifact (Appadurai 1996) the self is overtly constructed, duplicated, multiple identities can be expressed, and referencing of brands, symbols, texts, pop culture, is easier than ever through a digital medium and refined for social consumption. Digital tools and easy access to the web are diversifying and complicating the discourse on identity as Hope Jensen Schau and Mary C. Gilly address in We Are What We Post? Self-Presentation in Personal Web Space:

Identities often consist of abstractions left intangible by intention (we are what we choose not to have by voluntary abstention), as a result of few resources (we cannot afford to consume what would flesh out or identities), through denial (we choose not to reveal aspects of identity or obscure their presence), or because the identities are not prone to concrete expression (we cannot locate strategies to express complex facets of our identities)… Personal Web space, with its limitless digital symbols may allow researchers a glimpse of the selves consumers wish they had (Schau and Gilly 387).

The web has made self-representation possible through intangible, non physical objects while still allowing for the same implied meaning of such objects. It is no secret that these new modes of expression are highly edited and sculpted, so the illusion of creation is unveiled. With the heightened awareness that these identities are partial truth, partial fantasy, we tend to take this personal information at face value and more or less accept it as both truth and construct whether it be a comment on life experience, physical appearance, gender, or personality.

These emerging theories on identity creation and how technology complicates said creation are central to cyberfeminist theory which is where my work as an artist emerges from. In working with 3D printing I can’t avoid the meta-symbolism of construction, and reproduction. The (dis)connection between (wo)man and machine and how the boundaries between them become blurred, is at the heart of my 3D printing and film work.

To explore the coupling of woman and machine, one must look to Donna Hanaway’s Cyborg Manifesto where she defines a cyborg as a “cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction” (Haraway 291). But the cyborg is so much more, as Haraway explains:

My cyborg myth is about transgressed boundaries, potent fusions and dangerous possibilities which progressive people might explore as one part of needed political world… From one perspective, a cyborg world is about the final imposition of a grid of control on the planet…waged in the name of defense, about the final appropriation of women’s bodies in a masculinist orgy of ware. From another perspective a cyborg might be about lived social and bodily realities in which people are not afraid of their joint kinship with animals and machines, not afraid of permanently partial identities and contradictory standpoints (Haraway 295).

The cyborg is the rebellious, illegitimate child of technology and military that strays into the radical abolition of power structures such as gender. It undermines the animal-human, nature-machine, physical-nonphysical (virtural) boundaries that cyberfeminism brings into question. The Culture of Copy explains not only our obsession with creating in our own image (which I am literally doing) but also how we use artificial life as metaphor for ourselves. We shape our definition of life and intelligence in tandem with our experience of hardware and software, for example, the virus, and the obsession with making a machine that can think and feel (Alan Turing). Just as capitalist, patriarchal society seeks hegemony, computer science in many regards seeks to make a machine that can “pass” as human:

There is little difference, come to think of it, between the passing of a man for a woman, a machine for a human, an Indian for an Englishman, or a black man for a white man in the Turing test. An epitome of our culture of the copy, the tests appears to be a fine filter for the uniquely human, but presupposes, as did Turing, that passing is profitable…” (Schwartz 352).

Hegemony shows himself even in machines, therefore feminism will respond through radicalizing the discussion of the cyborg. When the personal is political, how do we maintain our sense of self, agency, and power, when our bodies themselves can be scanned, transformed, manipulated even outside of our own control?

I will make a film that continues this question of a machine passing (and intentionally failing) to show the irony and humor in the (wo)man/machine relationship:

The cyborg is our ontology; it gives us our politics. The cyborg is a condensed image of both imagination and material reality, the two joined centers structuring any possibility of historical transformation (Haraway 297).

The idea of a cyborg, (wo)man/machine, or beast/human, is not new as we know from the classic literature of Mary Shelleys Frankenstein. Shelley Jackson (a precursor to my own cyborg creation through film and 3D printing) reworks the digital, female form of Frankenstein in Patchwork Girl a hypertext. Jenny Sunden cites the piece in her analaysis of the human monster, and the creation of womans body in technology:

Interlinkages between text, body, and machine are always present in acts of writing/reading, but they become explicitly intimate when texts are digitized…The body of the female monster created through digital texts and images becomes entwined with the body of the reader through his or her physical engagement with the computer… (Sunden 152)

I seek to build on this body of digital/human engagement with the idea of cyborgs by reproducing my own image in 3D and positioning ‘her’ as an embodiment of my digital self. I am taking my digital identity, carefully constructed for social approval and consumption and birthing it into the physical world. Just as Hathaway argues that cyborgs cross the physical and virtual boundaries, my 3D self will be a cyborg come to life through film. My 3D doppelganger will replace me as a way of taking my virtual identity or “digital double” into the physical world. This film will stay relevant and interesting through humor and irony. I am responding to Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto and using it as my inspiration.

Irony is about contradictions that do not resolve into larger wholes, even dialectically, about the tension of holding incompatible things together because both or all are necessary and true. Irony is about humour and serious play. It is also about rhetorical strategy and a political method, one I would like to see more honoured within socialist-feminism (Haraway 292).

I am using the cyborg as a reference to the feminist dialogue with technology and nature. Technology is influenced, even derivative of, society and culture and therefore from normativity and patriarchy. Where eco-feminism seeks to return to nature (the mother) cyberfeminism seeks to use technology as a radical tool for deconstruction and as a platform for change. On the Importance of Being a Cyborg Feminist, Kyle Munkittrick uses the analogy of eco-feminists fighting fire with water, to cyber feminism fighting fire with fire. Cyberfemnism gives us the tools to deconstruct the very definition of “human” which changes alongside time and innovation. My work is a dialogue with what it means to be human, specifically female, in a patriarchal world. The film will, through a feminist lens, act out the ironic relationship between cyborg and woman, technology and humanity, finite and infinite.

The skeleton of my work has been clearly outlined here, through identity construction via technology, cyberfeminism, irony/humor, and feminist politics. The conversation happening between these texts and the present moment is where my film lies. I will birth my virtual identity into physicality through 3D printing. Through film, I can (humorously) depict how a cyborg version of my idyllic self could play my role in life, by replacing me in my everyday routine. My cyborg rises with the sun, she meditates, does yoga, interacts with my lovers, goes to a coffee shop, has ‘girl talk’ with friends, and is positioned, like me, as a white, 20-something, polyamorous, pansexual female in 2014. The cyborg, and therefore my use of the cyborg in film, as a symbol of dualism and unity, bounded and the boundless, past/present/future, is the perfect tool to explore the expression of identity and the future of feminism. My film is taking the self-portrait, the selfie, copy culture and identity in relation to feminism and technology, to the next level.

Works Cited

Smelik, Anneke, and Nina Lykke. “An Introduction.” Bits of Life: Feminism at the
Intersections of Media, Bioscience, and Technology. Seattle: U of Washington, 2008. Print.

Sunden, Jenny. “What If Frankenstein(‘s Monster) Was a Girl?” Bits of Life: Feminism at the Intersections of Media, Bioscience, and Technology. Seattle: U of Washington, 2008. Print.

Jensen Schau, Hope, and Mary C. Gilly. “We Are What We Post? Self‐Presentation In Personal Web Space.” Journal of Consumer Research 30.3 (2008): 385-404. JSTOR. The University of Chicago Press. Web. 4 Nov. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/378616>.

Schwartz, Hillel. “Discernement.” The Culture of the Copy. New York: Zone, 1996. 352. Print.

Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto.” The Cybercultures Reader. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.

Munkittrick, Mark. “On the Importnace of Being a Cyborg Feminist.” Humanity. 21 July 2009. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.

Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 1996. Print.

Graham Fisher

Iteration #2: The Text

What are the boundaries of creating musical instruments?

Struck by a blinding flash of luminous innovation, by a fertile moonbeam of unencumbered imagination, my gaping mouth opened like a landing strip.  I hoped that the vacuum of each of my inhales would draw the object of my amazement just a bit closer, reeling in the machine and the person who pulled it down the sidewalk.  The little man who pulled the machine was drawing quite a lot of attention from the passing crowds, children everywhere dropped their ever-changing lollipops and let go of their kaleidoscope balloon animals as sounds from the machine hit their ears, their parents had to pry them away.  But the man kept rolling down the street, a big smile on his face and an arm behind him towing the enigmatic piece of audiophonic equipment mounted in the bed of a bright red radio-flyer wagon.

I could not let this opportunity pass me by, this little man had created something magical and I would never forgive myself if this wonderful device was blogged by one of my competitors.  My paranoia began to escalate as more and more eyes, undoubtedly endowed with retinal mounted computer interfaces turned to the man’s singing, trilling creation.  And so I shook off my dumbstruck pose and took off to get the scoop for my tech blog.  Walking up to the man he seemed slightly perturbed as I blocked his way.  Before he had time to utter a grievance I tapped my teeth together, enlivening the audio recording device implanted in my front tooth, and let spill out a long embellished streak of compliments and ass-kissing whirlwinding him into a docile mindset, ripe for an interview.  He was clearly proud of his work and the attention it was getting.  “Nothing in the world like it,” he boasted to me with a grin from ear to ear.

First, before you hear the noble words of the machine’s most illustrious creator, I will attempt to describe his device without a breadth of mechanical understanding or the aid of photographic evidence.  Positioned upright in its red radio-flyer trolley, the apparatus looked like a disheveled heap of band instruments smushed together, as if on the way to a concert a brassband’s tour bus had crashed, entangling all the components of the luggage compartment.  But instead of a static pile of brass and wood the machine bent and moved, constantly rearranging its flexible parts into different formations, never staying in one position for very long but resurgences of familiar shapes happened in varying intervals.  It all seemed to be made of the same material, its dullish grey hue was characteristic throughout however the flowing nature its movement was alien to any alloy I had knowledge of.  Suddenly down the street an AI driven magnetic railcar shrieked on its tracks to halt for crossing pedestrians, from a passenger seat someone yelled and shook their fist out the window.  Instantly, as if struck by the lightening, the mysterious device remodeled itself, shaping a corner into a dull grey cone.  Simultaneously another corner took on the characteristic of a semi hollow box.  Emanating from these two openings I was amazed to hear audio loops of the sounds of the shrieking railcar and the yelling passenger mimicked perfectly.  These sound clips were then stretched and rephrased, woven into an audiological ecosystem of other sounds from the busy street being mimicked by the machine.  This was an incredible invention indeed.  The ability to create an entirely unique and creative soundtrack to one’s environment based on the sounds present in one’s environment in real-time without digital interference, staggering.  The implications are earth-changing.  What does this mean for the future of music?  What does this mean for the future of musicians?  How does this change how we interact with sound?  I intended to find out.

“What is this thing?” I asked, clearly still dumbstruck.

“My latest invention! It’s a Phonaudiopneumatic-transmogrifying-soundscapliofier!” explained the visibly bubbling inventor while stumbling over the name.  I had to ask him to repeat it at least five times.

After taking me back to his workshop and walking through a hanger full of tools and failed versions of the machine I came to learn that it was made out of a special composite material (patent pending) only recently developed by the inventor that reacted sympathetically with the sound wave vibrations in the air.  The waves acted like ocean waves on a cliffside, eroding it particular depressions based on the characteristics of the sound, bass sounds dug out large caves, higher sounds cut out little swaths, etc.  The real insight had come when the inventor had discovered that he could use high functioning computer analytics to process the raw data from the material, introduce counter frequencies and use the depressions from the incoming sounds to emanate outgoing sounds in the exact same frequency.  Then he implanted a music generative algorithm AI into the whole system to coordinate the process and BAM the device was born.  The radio-flyer had been the easiest way to get it around town without having to build an integrated housing.  He told me his favorite activity was to going to the park or the beach and watching the machine draw a crowd of children as it sung them bird songs and sea shanties.

“Where did you go to school?  From whom did you get your chutzpah?” I asked, anticipating loads of emails from my blog readers.

“I was launched into this direction by fellow student collaborators from the Evergreen State College.  For decades their 3d printers have been churning out inventions in acoustics, experimenting with materials and designs for the exploration of sound.  But what initially attracted me to the idea of combining computational design with musical properties was an article I found online.”  http://3dprintedinstruments.wikidot.com/printed-instruments

“The person who created this article clearly understood the effect that computational design could have on music and musicians.  They catalog experimental instruments, instruments that have no equivalent using traditional building techniques, instruments that could not be made without computers and 3d printing.  The article also explores 3d printed enhancements to traditional instruments as well as the printing of the instruments themselves.  This is where I got the idea to take advantage of natural occurring sounds but then also to advance them past the limits of traditional sound making.”

“Another landing point of discovery was a design I encountered from a Swedish drum manufacturing company.  This company sought to compress all the timbres of a full drum set into a small and portable package, the Gigpig.  This self-contained percussion instrument set up can be folded into itself, allowing a drummer to set up quickly and easily, making impromptu performances virtually anywhere possible.  The intelligent design, created using computer software turns a huge drumset with five or six different drums as well as all the hardware and components into one small fully functional, full sounding instrument.  Finding this liberating contraption bolstered my confidence in computational design’s ability to craft instruments perfectly designed for the performer.” http://gigpig-drums.com/

“As much as I love browsing the internet for ideas and inspiration, when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of a project academic journals and peer reviewed articles are far more reliable for credible and well thought out information.  One of the first pieces of academic writing that I came across which applied to my purposes was a biomedical journal that explored the acoustic properties of a common 3d printed filament, PLA.  This information was extremely valuable when I was composing an easily moldable material that would be ideal for my project.” http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-605X/5/5/055004

“Another model for my experimentation with 3d printed instruments came from a case study out of Oxford.  In this instance, a professional cornet’s interested in 3d printing found archaic designs for a cornet which hadn’t existed for hundreds of years.  With lots of diligence and hard work she was able to create a computer model of the ancient instrument and print it out.  While not playable it did provide a working model for master craftsmen to be able to create the instrument in its native form.  Just another example of lost arts being revamped by 3d printing.” http://em.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/07/31/em.cau090.abstract

“Finally, the last component of research which aided my developing project was a glimpse into the business and anthropological impacts of the 3d printing revolution.  As many new technologies inspire competitors and thieves I was quite worried about attracting people who might choose to steal my idea and hamper my research so this article was very helpful, outlining ways to prevent this and how to launch my idea to the free market.”   http://www.cesames.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Thierry-Rayna-business_model_innovation_3D_printing.pdf

I closed the interview with a handshake and goodbye, the sounds of which were promptly mimicked and mixed into a composition by the Phonaudiopneumatic-transmogrifying-soundscapliofier, a soundtrack to my departure.

Works Cited

“3d Printed Instruments.” Printed Instruments -. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.

“Biomedical Materials.” Longitudinal Acoustic Properties of Poly(lactic Acid) and Poly(lactic-co-glycolic Acid). N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.

“Early Music.” CAD Modelling and 3D Printing for Musical Instrument Research: The Renaissance Cornett as a Case Study. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.

“Home.” Gigpig Percussion Instruments. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.

Striukova, Thierry Rayna And Ludmila. “The Impact of 3D Printing TECHNOLOGIES on Business Model Innovation.” (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

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Sarah Redden

Blue Rabbit Iteration II

Week 6

11.4.2014

WdCt: 1024

The Poetics of “Non-jects”

Marcel Proust once wrote, “[n]ovelty is never so effective as a repetition that manages to suggest a fresh truth” (Lopes 52). This is interesting at the present moment because 3D printing creates and embodies both novelty and repetition. I am seeking a fresh truth in the materiality of 3D printed waste by continuing to work around a handful of my original questions, such as, it is important to question the rapid production of 3D printing? In a time where almost any thing can be made, is it important, now more than ever, to attempt at making no-thing? If nothing doesn’t or can’t exist, can it be made to exist? Is 3D printing potentially a very appropriate medium to explore this through?

Lev Manovich, a Professor of Cultural Analytics at the European Graduate School (ESG CITATION), and “one of the leading theorists of digital culture and media art” is quoted by Warren Sacks in an essay called Aesthetics of Information Visualization. Manovich writes that “[i]f Romantic artists thought of certain phenomena and effects as un-representable, as something which goes beyond the limits of human sense and reason, data visualization artists aim at precisely the opposite: to map such phenomena into a representation whose scale is comparable to the scales of human perception and cognition” (124). It seems that out of any time in history, out of any medium of making art, that computer art, more specifically 3D printing, could produce a valid exploration of materializing that which has been previously perceived as impossible to materialize.

France and Hénaut, in an article called Art, Therefore Entropy, describe a situation in which a blank canvas is perceived as expressing or possessing very little complexity, a canvas with one brush stroke on it conveys only a little more, yet a canvas mixed with many colors until the tone reaches that of a dull grey possess infinite complexity, or “white noise”. In this there is inherent complexity and simultaneous minimalism. Could the materiality and process of 3D printing be analogous to the complexity just described?

There is a current genre of art that is exploring complexity in process and material, it is called glitch art. Glitch art “mythologizes the computer error as its ultimate muse and most potent tool”, creating pieces of work that manipulate the functionality of standardized software. Some of these artists are actually using bugs they’ve found in software and some are just “introducing noisy data to functional algorithms or applying these algorithms in unconventional ways” (Temkin). The artists who are “introducing noisy data” are essentially making the machines make mistakes, whereas the artists who are using true bugs are working with and curating error itself.

In my search for photographs of 3D printed glitch art I have found many images, but very few if any that conveyed the misprinted object as an intentional object. Most of the photographs of print errors were calling for viewers to diagnose what potentially went wrong in the print process so that the error could be rectified. These images were presented as a means of problem solving, not as the presentation of problem objects. These glitchy prints have a place on the World Wide Web, but it is not so much a creative space of representation, as it an object in a space that needs fixing.

I have encountered the word “space” many times in my research, whether it were digital space, maker spaces, outer space or bodily space. In encountering this word so often I felt it might be interesting to revisit The Poetics of Space, by Gaston Bachelard (1958). Bachelard was born in Northern France in 1884, and died in the autumn of 1962. He got a BA in Science, became a professor of chemistry and physics, until 1922 when he turned his focus more towards philosophy and poetry (ESG CITATION). The Poetics of Space was first published in French in1958 and was translated to English in 1964.

The book is kind of a meditation of the everyday, of the beauty and unusualness of commonplace, and a metaphorical rendering of domestic space. This text is very significant in that so often Bachelard seems to be playing with the metaphor of playing with metaphor in poetry, so the text lends itself in many directions, an Indra’s Net so to speak. I focused in the chapter Intimate Immensity. I began to think that the act of 3D printing could be creating a kind of intimate immensity, with open source software connecting many people and their thoughts in maker spaces or their own homes. Through this connection we may “discover that immensity in the intimate domain is intensity, an intensity of being…It is the principle of “correspondences” to receive the immensity of the world, which they transform into intensity of our intimate being.” (Bachelard 193).

Since the first iteration I have been intrigued and focused around the question of what can be made out of the objects that come out of the 3D printers that are “ugly” and useless? Through my observational experiences of the past six weeks and through research, I have learned that the proper printer itself cannot easily make what ever it is that can be made out of the waste objects of the 3D printer. I have arrived at the notion that in order to discover what can potentially be made out of the waste objects that come out of the 3D printer, I may first have to explore what can definitely not be made by a 3D printer. By working from the edge of the metaphysical or material potentiality of PLA and 3D printers as creators of objects and just as often as creators of “non-jects”, I am finding juxtapositions are key in getting to the heart of this matter. Intimacy and immensity, freedom and restriction, every thing and no thing, complexity and simplicity, beauty and error, a poetic approach of contrast seems key. In the final weeks of this project I aim, through process and further research “to give an object poetic space” as Bachelard writes, to do so “is to give it more space than it has objectivity; or, better still, it is following the expansion of its intimate space” (202).

Bibliography

Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. The Orion Press, Inc, 1964. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.

Context Providers: Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts. Margot Lovejoy, Victoria Vesna, Christiane Paul. Books. N.p. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.

“Gaston Bachelard – French Philosopher – Biography.” N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.

“JSTOR: Leonardo, Vol. 27, No. 3 (1994), Pp. 219-221.” N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.

“Lev Manovich – Professor of Media Theory – Biography.” N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.

Lopes, Dominic. A Philosopy of Computer Art. USA and Canada: Routledge, 2010. Print.

“Non-Object Oriented Art.” N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.

Steph Smith

Arlen Speights

Making Meaning Matter

11 4 2014

Radical Camouflage: the disassembly of visibility[i]

With and without our consent, surveillance has become an integral part of modern life. Embedded into our social, political, national, and consumer realms, we rely upon surveillance as a matter of convenience and a means of security (surveillance is a convenient security). In a post-911 world, the technologies of surveillance[ii] have raced ahead to form a “liquid modern society [that] is a ‘contraption attempting to make life with fear livable’” (Bauman, Lyon 101). The acceptance of a continual state of fear and suspicion and the constant negotiation of our rights combine to form the lived experience of surveillance. As an extension of the culture it is created in, our surveillance technologies reify our social inequalities – seamlessly reproducing evaluative tiers[iii] through the process of generalization, categorization, and privileging. To radically alter the terms of engagement with surveillance thus becomes a move to dismantle not only one’s compliance with dominative power, but the very scaffolding it is perched upon.

The lived experience of surveillance is a series of enlistments that render the individual legible, locatable, and neutralized. Michel Foucault’s theory of panopticism[iv], derived from Jeremy Bentham’s late 18^th century architectural plans for a prison watch tower, claims the power of surveillance to reside in the understanding and internalization that the self is always, or may always be, watched. Foucault enumerates: “He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection” (Foucault 202-203). The knowledge of one’s own surveillance engenders a productively multiplied regulation, meaning: one who knows they are being watched is inevitably enlisted in their own surveillance, monitoring their behavior and the behavior of others accordingly. Poet-activist Emily Abendroth asks: “How is ‘my safety’ turned against me? How is ‘my safety’ turned against others?” With surveillance posited as the necessary means to our security, the lived experience becomes one of the internalized police-state.

In face of the rampant development of surveillance technologies, the monolithic architecture of the panopticon has melted into the unfixed and omnipresent. Zygmut Bauman explains the certainty and breadth of modern surveillance as liquid; “without a fixed container, but jolted by ‘security demands’… surveillance spills out all over” (Bauman, Lyon 2-3). With even our most mundane moments being quantified and collected via surveillance, our lived experience mirrors that of forced symbiosis. In a network of cameras, wireless signals, thermal heat detectors, and biometric scanners, surveillance surrounds us and our relationship to it exists within a paradigm of asymmetrical transparency. Amongst its liquid spread, we are at once aware and ignorant of surveillance[v].

Although the notion of a centralized and visible panopticon is no longer relevant, our movement within the flows of a now liquid surveillance represents our compliant enlistment to the processes of our own undoing[vi]. Our compliance proves the Foucauldian notion of self-subjection as a still powerful factor in our relationship to surveillance today. “The right to privacy ceases upon the publication of the facts of the individual, or with his consent” (Brandeis, Warren 218). Our divulgement of personal information becomes a voluntary surrender of our right to privacy. Particularly in the realm of social media, we willingly surrender our rights in earnest attempts to become more connected to one another. In this yearn for social connectivity; we enlist ourselves into a process of disconnection by which information about us is deterritorialized from our physical bodies. “Knowledge of the population is now manifest in discrete bits of information which break the individual down into flows for purposes of management, profit, and entertainment” (Haggerty, Ericson 619). In the construction of our surveillant assemblage, our deterritorialized data coagulates to form a data double, by which real life consequences are predicated upon.

Despite its proclaimed[vii] mechanical objectivity, surveillance technologies replicate the socio-political ideologies of the culture that creates them. In this way, their application works in service of discriminatory practices, the commoditization of bodies, and the coded assignation of value. Where these technologies are currently deployed becomes a key insight into their dutiful purposes. The state funding of surveillance has engulfed border security, welfare programs, and the criminal justice system (Magnet 32). The move to mechanize the process of legitimation for border crossing belies an ever-increasing investment in the fixed boundaries of inclusion. Shoring up the line between US and THEM under a veil of “objective”, mechanical procedures bespeaks a deeply entrenched pedagogy of Othering that justifies the neo-colonial pursuit as well the disenfranchisement of whole populations living within[viii] our borders.

The multiple failures of biometric technologies for particular categories exemplify the embedded prejudices of which bodies have value within the dominant cultural framework. The narrative of biometric failures stands as proof to Shoshana Magnet’s proposition that “culture is always encoded into technology” (Magnet 20). Fingerprint scanners more often fail to scan the hands of Asian women and clerical, maintenance, and manual laborers. Iris scanners neglect those with visual impairments and those who use a wheelchair. Facial recognition software struggles with the elderly and the disabled (Magnet 30).  In effect, biometric surveillance sorts whole populations of people as legible or illegible, legitimate or illegitimate in the new social catalogue for order. This process designates bodies through fixed categories of race, gender, sexuality, and ability – it is predicated upon the assumed biological and static nature of identity. Within this procedure, our identity becomes not a living part of ourselves (flexible and self-authored) but rather something easy to designate, extract, and disseminate[ix].

Shifting the terms of engagement with surveillance is borne not from a simplistic denial, but rather a “radical negativity”. A strategy that “belongs neither to negation, nor to opposition, nor to correction (‘normalization’), nor to contradiction (of positive and negative, normal and abnormal, ‘serious’ and ‘unserious’, ‘clarity’ and ‘obscurity’) – it belongs precisely to scandal: to the scandal of their nonopposition” (Felman 104).

When visibility itself becomes compliance and asymmetrical transparency shrouds the domain between the surveillers and the surveilled – nonopposition becomes a strategy for the reclamation of agency. This will not be an agency self-interested and acute, but an agency enacted as a “singular plural”, in which our “entity registers as both particular in its difference but at the same time always relational to other singularities” (Munoz 10-11).  The radical task then is an armament of disassembly, with a shared recognition of the “covert” as not the proprietary province of the state or corporate enterprise. This enactment of the covert, our camouflage, begins the radical shift of engagement.

To appropriate camouflage in the service of human rights and social justice is a gesture in dissonant dissent of its ties to colonialism, empire, and violence. In order to radically disentangle ourselves from surveillance, we must first be knowledgeable about the methods of our own subjection. For example, the use of facial recognition software relies upon accurate readings of key facial features[x]. By obfuscating the markers of our assigned identifying features, we can effectively dematerialize in the face of digital observation.

Camouflage is a product of the landscape, its success contingent upon one’s ability to know the terrain and replicate it. The act of hiding in plain site, hiding from “within”[xi], mimics the techniques of surveillance while dismantling its procedural efficacy. In a speech given in 1919, Lieutenant-Commander Norman Wilkinson of the British navy (creator of Dazzle[xii]) explains, “the primary object of this scheme, [is] not so much to cause the enemy to miss… but to mislead him… as to the correct position to take up” (Newark 74). Enacting our own invisibility thus becomes a method of creating chaos in a well-monitored system; it is a technique of survival that denies access and integration upon non-consented grounds. Looking to the horizon of our “worldly bodies-in-the-making” (Haraway 137), I close with Zygmut Bauman:

“Humans constitute an endemically transgressive species… having been blessed or cursed with a language containing the particle “no” (that is, the possibility of denying or refuting what is) and the future tense (that is, the ability to be moved by a vision of reality that doesn’t exist ‘as yet’ but might in ‘a future’…” (Bauman, Lyons 143).

[i] VISIBILITY, STRATEGY, WARFARE, RECIPROCITY, COMPLIANCE, DENIAL, DISSONANCE, REPLICATION, AESTHETIC TERRORISM, SPECTATORSHIP, POSITIONALITY, ACCESS, TRANSPARENCY, ANONYMITY, PERSONALIZATION

[ii] Facial recognition software, CCTV, RFID microchips, fingerprint capture, iris scanners, and drones to name a few.

[iii] Along race, gender, sexuality, ability, practices of faith, citizenship status

[iv]

(Photos courtesy of University of Washington)

[v] We know of our surveillance, but we are not certain at all times which surveillance methods are being deployed nor do we know the destination of the information collected about us.

[vi] We are undone by the procedure of “making”, that is the rendering of our identity into legibility through fixed categories with attached values.

[vii] impossible?

[viii] Within but not among.

[ix] Historically contested bodies, the bodies of people of color, women, those with a disability, non-normative sizes/shapes, the elderly, and transgender and queer bodies must be cordoned to appropriate vectors of identity to fit within the framework of surveillance. Generalized categories become technologies of control, all in the name of our “freedom” from fear.

[x] “Nose Bridge: Partially obscure the nose-bridge area: The region where the nose, eyes, and forehead intersect is a key facial feature.”
“Eyes: Partially obscure one of the ocular regions: The position and darkness of eyes is a key facial feature.”
“Head: Research from Ranran Feng and Balakrishnan Prabhakaran at University of Texas, shows that obscuring the elliptical shape of a head can also improve your ability to block face detection.”
“Assymetry: Facial-recognition algorithms expect symmetry between the left and right sides of the face. By developing an asymmetrical look, you may decrease your probability of being detected” (Harvey).
[xi] Surveillance is sold to us on the grounds of national security. Yet, it is within our own borders that our greatest fears are realized.
[xii]

(Painting by Edward Wadsworth, 1919)
“The most famous camouflage in the First World War was ‘Dazzle’, the boldly modernist and highly decorative disruptive pattern designs that were applied to British ships” (Newark 74).

Works Cited

Bauman, Zygmunt, and David Lyon. Liquid Surveillance: a conversation. Malden: Polity Press,

2013. Print.

Felman, Shoshana. The Scandal of the Speaking Body: Don Juan with J.L. Austin, or Seduction in Two

   Languages. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 203. Print.

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books,

1977. Print.

Haggerty, Kevin D., and Richard V. Ericson. “The Surveillant Assemblage.” British Journal Of

   Sociology 51.4 (2000): 605-622. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.

Haraway, Donna. Modest Witness@second Millenium.FemaleMan Meets OncoMouse: Feminism and

   Technoscience. New York: Routledge, 1997. Print.

Harvey, Adam. “Style Tips for Reclaiming Privacy.” CVDazzle. Web. 4 November 2014.

Magnet, Shoshana. When Biometrics Fail: Gender, Race, and the Technology of Identity.London:

Duke University Press, 2011. Print.

Munoz, Jose Esteban. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York: New

York University Press, 2009.

Newark, Tim. Camouflage. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.

Warren, Samuel V., and Louis D. Brandeis. “The Right To Privacy.” Harvard Law Review 4.5

(1890): 193-220. Business Source Complete. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.

Works Cited

Bauman, Zygmunt, and David Lyon. Liquid Surveillance: a conversation. Malden: Polity

Press, 2013. Print.

Felman, Shoshana. The Scandal of the Speaking Body: Don Juan with J.L. Austin, or

   Seduction in Two Languages. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 203. Print.

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage

Books, 1977. Print.

Haggerty, Kevin D., and Richard V. Ericson. “The Surveillant Assemblage.” British Journal

   Of Sociology 51.4 (2000): 605-622. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.

Magnet, Shoshana. When Biometrics Fail: Gender, Race, and the Technology of Identity.

London: Duke University Press, 2011. Print.

Munoz, Jose Esteban. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New

York: New York University Press, 2009.

Newark, Tim. Camouflage. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.

Warren, Samuel V., and Louis D. Brandeis. “The Right To Privacy.” Harvard Law Review

4.5 (1890): 193-220. Business Source Complete. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.

Blue Rabbit Iteration #2:In Writing

When thinking further on my idea I wanted to know more about culture  and the different uses of bells within each culture and . Not only what they symbolize , but also how they generated from each culture, how bells started within these cultures and how  they were  made.What do we illuminate from the sound of a bell?What importance does sound bring to everything and everyone around us?What meaning would bells bring without making a sound? How has the consciousness of sound changed over time.  There are many shapes of bells, sounds bells and the tones they make, and what each sound can mean. In my previous post I wrote a lot about how bells were symbolic to me because they have been in my presence at random and important times and have had meaning to me without knowing the history. I have always loved the sound and feeling I got from a bell. although I didn’t know how far the bell rooted from I knew it was important to me from the feeling I got from an early age. The bell dome is supposed to represent the vault of heaven  above and its flat circular bottom represents the flat, circular horizon of the earth . The empty space within represents all that is between heaven and earth. This makes me think that one needs the other to be complete. The sound the bell makes when the inner part hits the outer part sends a message. Depending on the bell and how hard you use it the tone varies.

In 2000 BC is when the fist bells first started up. They were started in the Chinese culture as a religion and way of life. The meaning of them was used for royalty,nobility,wealth,and power. Bells were used for ceremonies, traditions, and are still used today that were created by people. Larger bells were made as the centuries passed. I wonder if this was because people needed a louder sound made or because they needed to be recognized more. The sound was known to reach across far distances and to have meanings for many things such as ending your work shift or starting your day. Bells started to become very popular around the world. Because of this people started to make many different styles of designs where the higher class viewed this as a sign of power. The number of bells that were placed in certain places meant something to everyone around them. The emperor had four bells on each side of where he was living, the prince had 3 bells,  the minister had 2, and the government officials had one. The value of bells seems that it was way more apparent and important to people when they first started being made. Bells are known to be the largest and loudest instruments in the world. They are made from copper and tin with a  range of the lowest to the highest tone on the musical scale.I still feel that bells have importance to certain people today.Myself being one of them, but knowledge about why they are important or their symbolic meaning wasn’t present to me until recently. The way they were made was harder to make beforehand along with a lot of other objects we use and have today. It started off by a metal worker binding together pairs of tiles,creased enclosed chamber with an opened door that can amplify the sound. Sound keeps coming up with a lot that i’m reading and it makes me think about how there are more and more sounds that have further increased throughout time with using objects and instruments and now  technology.Sound is so important to me because it brings certain thoughts and feelings that can be taken out of something else. The sound of silence is very strong and powerful. I think it would be interesting knowing how important the sound of the bell makes to make a bell that wouldn’t make any sound at all.I don’t think it would have as much meaning or any meaning at all. It might even be a nik nak. This was a consideration knowing that making bells 3D printed  out of the material we have here wouldn’t end up making any sound anyway. Sound lies at the very center of speech communication. “A sound wave is both the end product of the speech production mechanism and the primary source of raw material used by the listener to recover the speaker’s message.” Without sound our communication would be very different then it is today, not only for humans, but for other  animals as well. Sound is so much more than just a noise it makes meaning of certain things. You can express yourself so much from playing something that sound is produced from and you can release a lot from making sound yourself.

The consciousness of sound has changed dramatically over time . Now we can listen to sound  threw a small earbud that is from a device such as an Ipod or phone.

Musicians started using small and specialized made bells as an important instrument. Before Christianity bells had been used as a musical instrument of the gods across the land to provide peace, clear peoples minds, bring happiness, and blow away the bad spirits. The bell is one of the oldest percussion instrument. By the 3rd century BC a bell was made that could produce two pitches of sounds. When I think of a bell I think of something smaller being trapped inside something bigger  , when is shaken it is forced to make a sound because it cannot escape. Before the inner part of the bell the only part that was present was the outer part , and made sound by someone  using a mallet to hit against it and make a sound.  The struck handbell vibrates in many different ways which are called modes. Only a few of these carry out enough vibration to make sound. The most basic tone which is called the fundamental lifts up the lowest vibration and causes the lowest pitch to be made.Because there is a fixed amount of metal in the bell, the sides must move outward. The bottom of the bell is pushed inward.

Religions such as Buddhism,Hindu,Shinto and Egyptian religions used bells for spreading information and during religious practices. Buddhism and Hinduism accepted bells as part of their religious ceremonies . It is said that a temple can not be considered a temple without a bell in inside of it. Full acceptance of bells came in the 15th century and by the 17th century is when people started to realize it could be used as a musical instrument.

((sry i didn’t know how to remove what i had already written for my project?? i felt my first iteration was v. important in establishing my voice//positionality so instead of re-writing i added on 1,000 more words. it is still v. unfinished and sort of trails off at the end because i felt there was no way to wrap it up neatly (yet). it is obvious to me now that the amount of things i feel necessary to say are not exactly in line with the word count given to us. you can skip to the bolded text to read the newest part if you have already read my first iteration……))

: : : :   S E C O N D   I T E R A T I O N   : : : : : 

“There are many kinds of power, used and unused, acknowledged or otherwise. The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling. In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power within the culture of the oppressed that can provide energy change. For women, this has meant a suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives.” (Lorde 53)

What would it mean to exploit the thing that has exploited me?

In any attempt to create, I feel forced to look critically at myself as I (and art object) unfold. In this way, it becomes imminently important for me to position myself as a white woman effectively challenging myself and the West as authoritative subjects of feminist and anthropological knowledge. I begin questioning the complexities of what it means to exist, operate, and “claim objectivity” as a creator, documenter, or ethnographer under the trajectory of Eurocentric frameworks which have been already put in place for me. What would it mean to disrupt these bottomless “master discourses”? What would it mean to create something in a state of becoming or fragmentation? What would it mean to exploit the thing that has exploited me?

My idea involves careful consideration of the possible linkings between “post-feminism” and “post-modernism”. By defining these two terms as not merely what comes after feminism or modernism, but pointing towards their most nascent stages, it becomes highly valuable to examine them within the context of 3D printing. Because everything we make, whether we want it to be understood as art or not, is inherently political, the ideas of “post-feminism” and “post-modernism” become my framework for understanding both my positionality and the tools, myths, and gestures involved in 3D creation.

Additionally, the exploration of truth//fact will be a guiding force within my process. By understanding that the accumulation of fact does not equate to the arrival at any certain “truth”, I question the objectivity of any notion when one realizes the aberrations carried out in the “name of truth”. Since a large part of the work that we do in this class is documentation, I feel that it is important for me to challenge the “facts” in a documentary practice. Are fact and truth neither relative nor absolute? (Trinh 156) What can truly be considered “scientific” or “objective”, when more often than not a number of codes are unconsciously used to disfigure and alter our individual understanding of how things look and feel? Why does it become more and more difficult for us not to confuse fact with truth each time we engage in a documentary practice?

It is hard for me to not feel overwhelmed. Because there are so many artistic, political, and ethical concerns connected to 3D printing, it is difficult for me to settle with one singular image or idea. It is difficult for me to get past the feeling that absolutely nothing is worth me 3D printing at all. As I find myself face to face with the hyper-reality of 3D printed pizzas, unborn fetuses, and working guns, I ask myself what separates a necessary creation from an unnecessary one? Who gets to decide what is necessary or not?

Specifically, what feels most vital in my attempt to create is the relationship between myself and the machine. Through well-considered poetic analysis of myself and the object I create I hope to disrupt something, to exploit the machine. This is where I return to my idea of creating something in a state of becoming and fragmentation. From Trinh T. Minh-ha’s Framer Framed, I quote, “Fragmentation is here a useful term because it always points to one’s limits. Since the self, like the work you produce, is not so much a core as a process, one finds oneself, in the context of cultural hybridity, always pushing one’s questioning of oneself to the limit of what one is and what one is not.”

This limit described by Trinh T. Minh-ha is particularly important because it not only points to the limits of the machine and its inevitable failure, but also the limits of myself, my physical body, and its failure to perform at times the way that it is “supposed to”. By further exploring my physical body’s limits and “failure to perform” from a feminist perspective, it becomes clear the many ways in which our capitalist-imperialist-heteronormative-patriarchal society has turned my body (simultaneously) into both a weapon and an object to (simultaneously) either be regulated or consumed. So what would it mean to visually represent this horror? What would it mean to compare my body’s limitations to the limitations of the makerbot? How can I exploit this?

I will be 3D printing sex objects. With access to a machine that can literally materialize violence, including ammunition, drones, and bombs, I will exploit the machine by creating objects used for pleasure. However, because our society has such an obtrusive definition of what female pleasure looks like, and that dildos and other sex objects must appear to be phallic, I will design three that not only completely disrupt that vision but are also crafted specifically to the wants and needs of my three housemates.

What feels most important to mention here, is the focus my project has on humanizing the ideas and experiences of sexual pleasure and well-being. Because you can see a real photobooth image of the women I am making these objects for (included in my first iteration), it can be known that there is nothing hidden here in the process. When I look at websites like intiimitechnologies.com I am reminded of the convenient anonymity that remains most prevalent in the sex industry and the marketing of sex toys.

Intiimi is a start-up company, working with Stratasys, that specializes in a “new category of sexual wellness devices” utilizing 3D printing technology. Each device is designed to measure states of arousal and respond to maximize pleasure, learning over time how to tailor its responses to enhance your pleasure and “safely increase” your sexual performance. The devices can be connected to your smartphone through downloadable apps to create “The Intiimi Network” where you can unlock achievements and reach milestones set for yourself (intiimitechnology.com). Bartosz Bos, product architect and cofounder, says, “What we’re working on isn’t merely a vibe. It’s an entirely new class of device. Like nothing on the market. We’re changing the game completely. What was once just a motor and batteries will soon be a user centered product ecosystem” (Park 1).

To hear Bartosz say this is very interesting to me. I am wondering how he plans to “change the game completely” with shutterstock photos of thin, beautiful, able-bodied couples on his website. These images, which portray a young heterosexual white couple, an older heterosexual white couple, a white lesbian couple, a gay white cis-male couple, and one heterosexual couple of color, loop through endlessly on the webpage, appealing to the very marketable mainstream. It is evident that Bartosz and his fellow creators are using the binary between cis-man and cis-woman to sell this product, regardless of other phrases on the site such as “gender neutral”. There is no representation of fat bodies or disabled bodies, and the representations of queer bodies are very limited to assimilationist ideas of what “lesbian” and “gay” looks like. LGB, often excluding trans* men and women, has become a major selling point for many companies. It is clear to me that this is exactly what intiimi is capitalizing on.

So what really is the future for 3D printed sex objects? Furthermore, how do companies like intiimi remind us to ask these questions: What is female pleasure? What is its function? How can definitions of woman be further examined along the lines of race, class, gender, and sexuality?

From Viviane V.’s essay titled Trans* Sexuality: Reflections on the Commodification of Sex from a Transgender Perspective, I quote, “My body – the body of a transgender woman – is differentiated in relation to (cisgender) ‘normalities’ for the fact that it changes itself in accordance to aesthetical standards which are not expected for ‘bodies like mine’: if hormone theraphy, aesthetical procedures to remove body hair and changes in hairstyle – the most significative procedures that I have undertaken so far – are ‘ordinary’ bodily changes according to dominant ideologies, much more restrictive social perceptions are in place when such changes take an ‘antinatural’ (transgender) route, to such an extent that, not rarely, transgender people ask ourselves whether we have any agency over our existences when they are not aligned with certain gender normativities.” (Viviane 6)

This excerpt is extremely relevant for many reasons, the most obvious one being that it speaks to an experience that I myself never can never speak to.  It highlights my relationship to her and to my privilege as a cis-woman. Because my housemates also all identify as cis, we largely represent this idealized cisgendered body which Viviane speaks of never attaining. It is never-endingly important for me to acknowledge this in the process of my making. Although my body as a cis-woman is sexually exploited, it can and never will be exploited in the same way as Viviane’s or any other trans* person’s. While we are all victims of the internalization of dominant culture within our sexualities, this is especially true for those with queer sexualities and genders who are degraded, ignored, condemned, and destroyed.

Works Cited:

HannaMonika. “Happy Mature Couple at Home.” Shutterstock, n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2014. <http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-73703578/stock-photo-happy- mature-couple-at-

home.html>

Intiimi. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2014. <intiimitechnology.com>

Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing, 1984. Print.

Park, Rachel. “Intiimi Will Be like Nothing You’ve Ever Seen Before — Customized, 3D Printed Sexual Well Being.” 3D Printing Industry, 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.

<http%3A%2F%2F3dprintingindustry.com %2F2013%2F09%2F18%2Fintiimi-will-be-like-nothing-youve-ever-seen- before-customized-3d-printed-sexual-well-being%2F>.

Trinh, T. Minh-Ha. Framer Framed. New York: Routledge, 1992. Print.

V., Viviane. Trans* Sexuality: Reflections on the Commodification of Sex from a Transgender Perspective. Academia.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Nov.

2014. <https://www.academia.edu/4382005Trans_Sexuality_Reflections_on_the_Commodification_of_Sex_from_a_Transgender_Perspective>.

My idea is to 3D print a tchotchke.  I consider a tchotchke to be an object that is perceived as meaningless, pointless, or useless.  For all intents and purposes in this paper, tchotchkes, trinkets, and knick knacks are the same things.  Originally I had planned to print one object for myself, and one object as a gift.  My plans have changed to only include printing an object for myself.  I feel that printing an object as a gift is unnecessary for forming my idea.  I have already printed a tchotchke and I learned a few things in the process of making it.  I am very interested in printing an object that has meaning only to me.  On this first tchotchke I included little images from different things that I like.  I included a letter A for my name, the Black Lodge emblem from Twin Peaks, the Pokémon Jigglypuff, a kodama(as represented in the film Princess Mononoke), and the nails emoji.  I was originally satisfied with this design, and I still am, but I think going further with this idea I would like to create an object that has meaning only to me.  Four out of the five images come from places in pop culture, and a lot of people are consumers of pop culture.  The other image is just the letter ‘A’ which could apply to almost anyone in some way.  Thinking about this, I wonder how to create something that only has meaning to me.  Another thing I noticed when showing my design to people is that they would often try to assign a function to the object and make it useful.  While it was extremely interesting to see how others saw how my object could be used, I want to create something that’s only function is bearing meaning.  I think that these objects are worth existing even if they have meaning only to one person, and if they are essentially functionless.  A functionless object is almost impossible though, I think.  I consider an object functional if it has any effect at all.  Even just looking at something can make a person think or feel something.

“5 people like this topic”

The thing about trinkets is that people just like them.  If we didn’t, we wouldn’t need a sign telling us they are forbidden from printing.  In scientific studies trinkets are used as reinforcements for children who display positive behaviors.  “Our preliminary work, therefore, was concerned with evaluating types of reinforcements (appearance of a toy, candy, balls, pleasant sounding tones, trinkets, etc.), various kinds of responses (push buttons and lights, peg boards and lights, pump handles, dropping a ball in a hole, etc.), and ways of setting up experimental procedures.”  (Bijou 162)  Here we see trinkets being used in the same situation as toys and candy.  Toys and candy are undoubtedly positive things that are well liked by most people.  If we like something, isn’t it worth creating?  I think inspiring happiness is a worthy function of an object.

This idea is a controversial one.  The question “What is worth printing in a world that is already full of stuff?” has a heavy environmental theme to it.  Eleanor K. Sommer of myeconnotebook.com is definitely one who is worried about the environmental impact of 3D printing.  As she learned about 3D printing for the first time, she questioned the impact of the plasticity of 3D printing.  “Pulling myself back from warp speed, though, I became disturbed. This wunderkind appliance had implications I could not even imagine.  The substance must be powdered plastic, I decided as I watched. I cringed at the thought of household desktop “printers” adding to the mountains of plastic waste in the world. More useless stuff.  I was wrong. At least about Z Corp. Titlow told me the material is a special kind of powder and contains gypsum.  Z Corporation uses “eco-friendly, non-hazardous” building material and produces “zero liquid waste,” he said and the company tries to be eco-friendly in other ways, such as replacing plastic drums with cardboard ones for shipping the powdered materials to clients.” (Sommer)  She seems to have concluded that 3D printing is eco-friendly and that’s that.  Later in her article though, she questions 3D printing altogether.  “My fear is the proliferation of plastic trinkets in a world already inundated with plastic waste. Health concerns are implicit in every stage of plastic production: manufacturing, use, and disposal.  Do we really need the convenience of downloading a program (or scanning an object) to print more synthetic stuff?” (Sommer)  Here Sommer specifically states her fear of plastic trinkets.  She equates trinkets with waste.  I wholeheartedly disagree.  I wonder why trinkets would still be considered bad if they are made of an environmentally friendly material.

“Does anyone know an online website that i can buy pointless stuff or knickknacks from?”

“It’s a myth that museum shops are stuffed with overpriced, humdrum tchotchkes.  Case in point: Nico, the $8.95 barista action figure now brewing at Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum, is the perfect gift for any latte lover. Read her story on the back of the box — Nico’s beans are always freshly ground, she never tamps the filter basket too tight, and her foam is perfect. This Seattle transplant/ex-Peace Corps worker is moody and curt, but her joe is the best.”  (Erlichman)  We think of museum gift shops as places that sell “overprices, humdrum tchotchkes.”  While it seems that Erlichman believes that the word “tchotchkes” has a negative connotation, I don’t think it has to be viewed that way.  It would be completely easy to view this barista action figure as a worthless object, void of meaning.  However, there is something about the items in this gift shop that isn’t immediately recognizable.  “Museum shops tend to scare people off, says Leslie Dungee, director of the art museum’s gift shop.  ‘But it sure beats the mall.’  Think marble staircases instead of fluorescent-lighted food courts. And hand-picked items, with a purpose.  ‘Our products are designed by women, purchased from a woman-owned company, or relate to the work of women artists,’ says Lynda Marks, director of retail and wholesale operations at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.” (Erlichman)  The fact that all of the items in the gift shop are designed by women, purchased from a woman-owned company, or relate to the work of women artists is incredibly meaningful.  This aspect is not obvious, but is still important and valid.  This meaning might not have been intended at the creation of the object, but assigned later in its life.  I begin to question how it will be possible to create an object that only has meaning for me.

I think I might need to abandon the idea that my object will be functionless and have meaning only to me.  In fact I am almost sure that it will have a function aside from bearing meaning for me.  If I am presenting this to the class, my object will probably inspire thought in some, which I consider to be a function.  I also think that if an object is inspiring thought, it is very likely to be assigned meaning by someone who is thinking about it.  I need to figure out how I will design my tchotchke with this in mind.  Is it worth trying to make it only meaningful to me if it will probably be assigned meaning by someone else?  Is it worth trying to make functionless if it will undoubtedly have a function?

Work Cited

In my previous iteration I prefaced my project with the framework of queer aesthetics as a means of negotiating what I am calling “apocalyptic horizon”, in conversation with Jose Muñoz’s theory that queerness is a horizon, a modality of survival. I realize that this theory is quite abstract upon first entry, however I shall attempt to unpack this theory by contextualizing it with work in the contemporary fashion movement that is categorized as “post-apocalyptic” of which is coming out of queer-headed fashion houses. I shall then put my own project of 3D-printing a bra made of chain mail that can be added and subtracted to depending on the constraints of the body into conversation with the theory of Muñoz and the work of post apocalyptic fashion houses. The model I am designing piece around is my dear friend Kat, a queer-identified trans woman in the midst of her transition, and ideally she will utilize this garment indefinitely as her body changes. I assert that the work I am attempting to actualize is worthy of materialization because it serves feminist value, attempts to create a dialogue about theories of queerness, apocalypse, futurity and is an effort to fix the problem of clothing’s disposability once it can no longer fit a body.
Currently in the New York fashion world, more and more younger brands are adopting the aesthetic of the post apocalyptic, which can be defined by characteristics including hyper-customization, hyper-branding, and utilitarianism. Brands like Hood By Air1, Telfar2, ASSK3 (of Paris), Eckhaus Latta4, and Luar Zepol5, in particular exemplify the aesthetic of the post apocalyptic as well as all being headed by queer designers. While queer people working in fashion is not necessarily something particularly new, the contingency of the post apocalyptic aesthetic contextualized by the modality of queerness in the aforementioned queer-identified designers’ work must not go without recognition and analysis. Because most lines are prepared a year in advance for commercial release, the post-apocalyptic aesthetic in relation to time is emblematic of the relationship of the millennial generation has with the future: one that is not necessarily forgiving to those inheriting the environment, economy, and hegemonic social order. The aesthetic may be envisioning a future less bright, however the work of the post apocalyptic in relationship to queer aesthetics shows a resiliency and an armory for the body despite it. I assert that the horizon of queerness as a modality is in tandem with post apocalypse as a potentiality.
In the thesis of “Cruising Utopia”, Muñoz defines queerness not as sexuality but a modality in relation to futurity:
“Queerness is that thing that lets us feel that this world is not enough, that indeed something is indeed missing. Often we can glimpse the worlds proposed and promised by queerness and the realm of the aesthetic, frequently contains blueprints and schemata of a forward dawning futurity. Both the ornamental and the quotidian can contain a map of the utopia that is queerness. Turning to the aesthetic in the case of queerness is nothing like an escape from the social realm, insofar as queer aesthetics map future social relations. Queerness is a performative because it is not simply a being but a doing for and toward the future. Queerness is essentially about the rejection of a here and now and an insistence on potentiality or concrete possibility for another world” (Muñoz, 1)

The mapping of future social relations though queer aesthetics is a modality of futurity, a relationship with time extending beyond the realm of sexuality into the realms of ornament, space, and relation through the envisioning of an alternative to the here and now. The “here and now” shows little promise to those inheriting the future, which I am referring to as “the apocalyptic horizon”, in which we currently operate. The apocalyptic horizon is a potentiality in which queer futurity rejects the here and now and proposes another other world in which the meek have inherited the earth.
One of the conceptual pillars upholding the apocalyptic horizon structure is environmental collapse, often the garments of the post-apocalyptic aesthetic are meant to interact with an environment of post apocalypse, for example: ASSK’s redesign of RealTree print camouflage including items such as iPhones, BIC lighters, prescription pills, and other objects that exist the here and now that are associated with modern day survivalism:
“The ASSK Fall / Winter 2013-14 collection is inspired by survivalists, a hard core subculture, found most predominantly in middle America. ‘Preppers’ are readying for the end of life as we know it. But the collection explores the average person, taken completely unaware, in an apocalypse that is a bit of a disappointment… roaming around middle America, scavenging for prescription drugs and out of date junk food snacks, aimlessly filling in time, waiting for nothing. The brand does not divide it’s collection into male and female looks, instead the majority of the collection can be easily worn by either sex.” (Kowalewski, Schofield)
The joining of a utilitarian garment such as a camouflaged jacket with objects of the modern day, the here-and-now, envisions a future less bright combatted through garments that are meant to interact with the projected environment, while also not gendering the object. By not gendering the object, we can glimpse into a future in which the biopower of the gender binary does not exist projected by the object as a rejection of the hegemonic here and now.


(Pictured above: ASSK’s apocalyptic take on RealTree)

I asked myself: how does the body adapt to its changing environment and what are the constraints that the body must adapt to in order to survive? In my own projection of the future less bright, garments must no longer be objects that become disposed of once they are outgrown or once a body cannot fit comfortably in them. My solution to this problem is a detachable chain mail fabric that can be added onto or subtracted depending on the constraints of the body. My design is based on printing sheets upon sheets of semicircles that contain an opening and a closing of a clasp when joined together, which can then be linked like typical chain mail. When I think about bodies in constant states of change, my mind turns to a friend whose body is undergoing states of change while taking hormones for her transition. Kat is a woman who was assigned male at birth and transition is a performance of physical actualization, a rejection of her here-and-now of the current constraints of her body and the imposed gender assignment of her parents at birth, the physical embodiment of her womanhood in the horizon. Kat soon will be developing breasts during her hormone treatments, and I seek to make her a bra out of this chain mail fabric that she can add onto as her breasts grow, an armor of sorts in the face of the apocalyptic horizon. While I cannot guarantee the comfort of a 3d printed bra hinders the object’s functionality, the conceptual aim of this project is more so the focus than trying to create a marketable and functional object.

(pictured above: the prototypical rendering of the clips)

In my imagination of the near future, technology will have meshed closer with the human form: the line between animate and inanimate object eventually converging. In relation to futurity, this bra is being materialized with a MakerBot Desktop Replicator 2 3D-Printer, a device heavily associated with the technologically advanced near future and the potentialities along with it. The act of making a garment that is set to have function in the not yet here while becoming a part of the body it frames is a physical manifestation of a concept that exists in the imagination, in the potentiality of the future. Donna Haraway theorizes on the connection between the future and imagination by stating:
“High-tech, gendered imaginations are produced here, imaginations that can contemplate destruction of the planet and a sci-fi escape from its consequences. More than our imaginations is (are) militarized; and the other realities of electronic and nuclear warfare are inescapable. These are the technologies that promise ultimate mobility and perfect exchange…” (Haraway, 17)
This outlook on the apocalypse being entwined with the perpetual advancement of technology denotes a militarized imagined future. The “realities” Haraway speaks of exist in the not yet here, yet we are following the forward trajectory of technological advancement so it can be seen as a tangible potentiality. My object follows in the same beam cast by this projected reality, armor for the horizon of obstacles unknown in a time period marked by uncertainty. In this time of uncertainty, we can imagine the other worlds promised through the modality of queerness as a means of combatting the apocalyptic horizon, and I am to combine the technological with the theoretical/intangible through the materialization of this garment.

BIBLIO
Muñoz, José Esteban. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York: New York UP, 2009. Print.
Haraway, Donna. “Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York; Routledge, 1991), Pp.149-181.” Donna Haraway. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.
1. Hawgood, Alex. “Hood by Air Has a Fashion Moment.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 Apr. 2013. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.
2.Duncan, Fiona. “Forever 69: Postgenderism Is Fashion’s Future, Our Future.” Bullett Media. Bullett Media, 24 Feb. 2014. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.
3.”ASSK· about.” ASSK. ASSK, n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.
4. Strange Touch – Style Bubble.” Style Bubble. N.p., 21 Oct. 2012. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.
5. “LUAR ZEPOL SS15 VIDEO.” Vimeo. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.

How might we preserve the human body in the future?

My best friend Josh M. suffers from spastic cerebral palsy. “This form of the condition causes muscles to stiffen, which makes movement difficult” (Cerebral Palsy). Josh used to wear braces on his legs, he eventually decided to take them off after years of pain, not only in his legs and back, but the mental pain from other children bullying of him. My best friend honestly believes that he will be in a wheelchair before the age of 50 because of the effects on his body from his condition and every day with work and life. I was telling Josh about my class and how I was working with 3-D printers and how we can almost print anything, about how people are already using it to print functioning human organs, when he interrupted me. He said “Dude, print me a spine.” I said “that’s it, that’s what I’m going to do. I am going to print you a spine.” Knowing that I can’t currently print my friend a functioning spine, my idea is to build some type of 3-D replica of a section of spine suffering from spastic cerebral palsy, and then some kind of replica of a spine fixed with 3d printed parts.

Humans have been trying to preserve the human body for thousands of years, from mummification in Egypt to modern day western medicine. For the ancient Egyptians it was part of their religion to preserve the body in death (Encyclopedia Smithsonian: Egyptian Mummies). For most modern-day humans however, we are trying to preserve the body in life. We are trying to preserve our bodies in order to live longer, happier, and more productive lives. I believe that using the 3-D printing technology in the medical field in order to preserve our bodies in life is one of the most important uses of this technology.

3D printing technology in the medical field has already changed lives and is currently changing lives today. As I was telling Josh before he interrupted me, there are already people out there living with 3D printed organs. During my research for this project and course I happened upon a video involving this use of 3D printing for medical purposes. The video was a TEDtalk by Anthony Atala. Atala and his of professionals work in the field of research pertaining to organ transplants and the culture of the different necessary cells in the human body. In the video after a brief coverage of the other progress made in the field the lead up to his work (such as discovering how to grow cells in a petri dish) Atala begins discussing his work with printing. One thing that was particularly interesting to me was when he discussed how he first started printing tissues. The printer they were using was a modified “desktop inkjet printer”. They had reworked this regular printer so that instead of ink it printed layers with cells of different tissues. With this technique Atala and his team were able to print out a needed piece of bone and have it implanted. They have also done work with soft tissue organs. An example of a life that has already been changed by this aspect of 3D technology is that of Luke Massella. Luke Massella received a 3D printed kidney when he was a child.

“I was really sick. I could barely get out of bed. I was missing school. It was pretty much miserable. I couldn’t go out and play basketball at recess without feeling like I was going to pass out when I got back inside. I felt so sick. I was facing basically a lifetime of dialysis,and I don’t even like to think about what my life would be like if I was on that. So after the surgery, life got a lot better for me. I was able to do more things. I was able to wrestle in high school. I became the captain of the team, and that was great. I was able to be a normal kid with my friends. And because they used my own cells to build this bladder, it’s going to be with me. I’ve got it for life, so I’m all set” (Transcript of “Printing a human kidney”).

Luke Massella life is already changed for the better. Atala is not the only one working in this interesting subject. Doctors in China have begun to use this technology for medical applications as well. A 12-year old patient from China named Qin Minglin received a 3D printed vertebra to replace a vertebra destroyed by a tumor. Doctors there used a “novel device was made from titanium powder and included a series of tiny pores which will allow the bone to grow and bond to the structure as it heals” (First-ever 3D-printed vertebra implanted in 12-year-old cancer patient’s spine, 2014). This is another example of a life changing procedure made possible by 3D printing.

This last usage of the technology really excites me. Not only is it akin to my own project, but knowing that these capabilities exist and are successful makes the future look a whole lot brighter for my best friend Josh.

 Work Cited

“Cerebral Palsy.” Cerebral Palsy. Gallaudet University. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

Atala, Anthony. “Transcript of “Printing a Human Kidney”” Anthony Atala: Printing a Human Kidney. TED, 1 Mar. 2011. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.

“Encyclopedia Smithsonian: Egyptian Mummies.” Encyclopedia Smithsonian: EgyptiaMummies. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

“First-ever 3D-printed Vertebra Implanted in 12-year-old Cancer Patient’s Spine.” Fox News. FOX News Network, 28 Aug. 2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.”

Chuck Neudorf
Iteration #2
WD CT 1000:1500

What I propose to do for my Blue Rabbit project is to blur the temporal aspect of technology. I hope to use new technology to create an old tool that can solve problems in today’s world that were first solved long ago. Further, I hope that the use of this tool will foster an understanding of how the world works. Additionally, I would like to look at how tools extend the mind of the user.

The tool I am making is a plumb bob sextant, a precursor to the marine sextant. It is a simple tool that measures angles above the horizontal plane using a plumb bob as a vertical reference. It is a simple, yet remarkable tool. It can be used to determine the height of a building or a mountain. It can also measure the height of a celestial body above the horizon to determine latitude. Before the early eighteenth century, this was as good as navigation tools got. That is, most of the Earth was explored with tools no more accurate then the plumb bob sextant.

I am a navigator. I have had the responsibility of finding a path across an ocean, without electronic aids to navigation. The tools I used were more sophisticated than those that I have 3D printed, but the principles are the same. Using the tools and the algorithms of navigation is one of the most interesting and rewarding things I have done.

While it is called a plumb bob sextant, the device I have made is actually an astrolabe. The difference is that a sextant measures an angle relative to the horizon where an astrolabe measures an angle relative to a vertical line established by gravity. Neither instrument is more inherently accurate than the other, but because of ease of use, the sextant can generally produce more accurate results.

There are records of astrolabes as early as 150 BC, but it wasn’t until advances in sail configuration, hull design, and magnetic compasses that navigators had the tools necessary to explore the planet. Instructions for the use of the astrolabe came from some notable sources. “The simplest and most available English work on the description and use of the astrolabe is the “Tractatus Conclusionibus Astrolabii” written be Geoffrey Chaucer in 1391 and 1392.” (Latham). Historically, mariners had to stay within sight of land, but once the tools were in place, that changed. “The application of the astrolabe, and the abandoning of the time-honored route of exploration, along the African coast, for steering a bold course westward in pursuit of Cathay and fabled lands as yet unexplored, resulted in the addition of a continent in the greatness and progress of which the Old World, while admitting a sister in the family of nations in the present is already looking for a rival in intelligence wealth and progress.” (Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York). The ability to sail out of sight of land for weeks at a time, and yet still know ones position, led to the great voyages of discovery of the 14th through 16th centuries. Early in the 18th century, two inventions made marine navigation easier and more accurate. The sextant and chronometer together, allowed longitude to be calculated, where before it was estimated. While a reasonable replica of a sextant can be made with a 3D printer, the chronometer is out of the question. Consequently, I’m drawing the line in the sand of technology at the early 18th century.

For navigation purposes, an astrolabe works by measuring the angle of a celestial body above the horizon. There are only two targets we are interested in, Polaris (the North Star), and the sun. Given a few constraints, if we measure the height of either of these bodies, we can determine our latitude. The number we get from the astrolabe is not a direct reading so we’ll have to do some calculations. Don’t worry, nothing more than some addition and/or subtraction. One of the great things about this system is that it requires you to understand some of the basic facts of the solar system. You have to understand that Polaris is directly over the North Pole. You have to understand how the suns path changes throughout the day, what defines the tropics and the seasons, and even which way the Earth spins. You really get to know your home planet.

Our discussion so far has been Eurocentric, but the exploits of the Polynesian navigators were every bit as impressive. They used different navigation concepts and very different boats. Where Europeans plotted the advancing position of their vessel on a static chart, the Polynesians saw themselves as being at the center while the stars and islands and other navigational clues were in motion around them. The European strategy was to formalize the tools and teachings of navigation while the Polynesians relied on an oral tradition. Between the two cultures, there was a large difference in opinion as to what constituted a proper ship. “To the European mind the only seaworthy vessel is one made buoyant by a watertight air-filled hull, so big and high that it cannot be filled by the waves. To the ancient Peruvians the size was of less importance; the only seaworthy craft was one which could never be filled by water because its open construction formed no receptacle to retain the invading seas, which washed through.” (Heyerdahl)

The Polynesians were able to not only explore but to colonize the vast expanse of the Pacific basin before the Europeans even saw the Pacific. “We could trace the introduction of these Amerindian alleles to before the Peruvian slave trades, i.e. before the 1860s, and provide suggestive evidence that they were introduced already in prehistoric time. Our results demonstrate an early Amerindian contribution to the Polynesian gene pool on Easter Island, and illustrate the usefulness of typing for immunogenic markers such as HLA to complement mt DNA and Y chromosome analyses in anthropological investigations.” The extent of Polynesian influence reached all the way to the Americas.

It is easy to see how the two cultures differed in their approaches to navigation. My attention now turns not to the similarities of mechanics but to the similarities of being. How do you set off on a voyage of exploration? What lessons are learned when travelling on the open sea? “For scientists studying how humans come to understand their world, the central challenge is this: How do your minds get so much from so little: We build rich causal models, make strong generalizations, and construct powerful abstractions, whereas the input data are sparse, noisy and ambiguous-in every way far too limited. A massive mismatch looms between the information coming in through our senses and the outputs of cognition.” (Tenenbaum)

What of the mind of the navigator? If the Polynesian and the European reach the same goals but use different tools, are the respective tools responsible for the same or different extensions of the mind. How does time affect these questions? When I sailed down the trades to Hawaii thirty years ago, how connected was my mind to Jack London’s who had sailed the same route 100 years ago; or with George Vancouver who sailed the route 100 years before him? It is said that the measure of a navigator is his demeanor when he has no idea of where he is. That is something, I believe, we all share.

My project starts with things that I am comfortable and familiar with. Soon enough, I find myself with lots of questions and few answers. I don’t really even have a strategy for finding some of these answers. It’s okay. I’m a navigator; I’ll just keep forging ahead and not let anyone know that I’m lost. No sense in all of us being panicked.

The Astrolabe
Marcia Latham
The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Apr., 1917), pp. 162-168
Published by: Mathematical Association of America
Article DOI: 10.2307/2973089

Transactions of the Society for 1872
Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York
Vol. 4, (1873) , pp. 35-56
Published by: American Geographical Society

The Balsa Raft in Aboriginal Navigation off Peru and Ecuador
Thor Heyerdahl
Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Autumn, 1955), pp. 251-264
Published by: University of New Mexico
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3629024

The Polynesian gene pool: an early contribution by Amerindians to Easter Island
Erik Thorsby
Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, Vol. 367, No. 1590, Immunity, infection, migration and human evolution (19 March 2012), pp. 812-819
Published by: The Royal Society
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41441734

How to Grow a Mind: Statistics, Structure, and Abstraction
Joshua B. Tenenbaum, Charles Kemp, Thomas L. Griffiths and Noah D. Goodman
Science, New Series, Vol. 331, No. 6022 (11 March 2011), pp. 1279-1285
Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41075877

Cooper Stoulil

Printing the Song of Apollo

Creation is beautiful.  A blanket statement that I would argue timeless, or not of time at all.  So how then can you use a computer to print an instrument that can create something artistic, healing, beautiful, audible?

Music is healing, notably enough so that the field of music therapy has arisen in the last 100 years, tracing its origins to theories from Plato and Aristotle.  When looking at depression, studies have shown that playing and hearing music has a direct correlation with ones treatment and recovery.  A group published in The British Journal of Psychiatry 2011 conducted a study on individual music therapy for depression and showed how musical creation can improve the well-being of somebody suffering from depression or anxiety.  “Clients sometimes described their playing experience as cathartic, and this may have led to corrective emotional experiences in further processing. A rather unique property of music therapy is the fact that it includes the opportunity to be active and this seems to be a meaningful dimension for dealing with issues associated with depression” (Erkkilä 137).  In essence, by giving an instrument to someone dealing with these problems, you are giving them the ability to heal themselves.  Not in the way that medication would, where taking pills attacks the problem as a chemical imbalance, but through a much deeper and profound means to the individual, especially since the initial trauma is often emotional in nature.  “Playing music with others is just one way of finding happiness. The relationship between the musician and the instrument itself can also blossom into a loving one” (Döpp 10).  Hans-Jürgen Döpp is a former professor of psychoanalytical interpretation and history of erotic art at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt.  He has published over 18 books dealing with sexuality in culture and art.

Art as both an aesthetic and sound are constantly being reinvented.  Suzi Gablik, in her article The Nature of Beauty in Contemporary Art, pitches her views of what it means to be an artist in the modern day and how to live a more artful life.  Suzi, like many contemporary visionaries, feels that in the past few decades, a greater shift towards ‘soullessness’ has occurred in art.  “… in responding compassionately to whatever it [art] touches, it is helping to create a more beautiful world.  Artists whose work helps to heal our soulless attitudes toward the physical world have my full respect and attention because, for me, beauty is an activity rather than an entity, a consciousness of, and reverence for, the beauty of the world” (Gablik 4).  Suzi Gablik is the author of The Re-enchantment of Art and Has Modernism Failed?  Believing that art’s commitment to social change died in the 80’s.  She is a visual artist and professor of art history.  Imagine a world where accessibility to a musical instrument, or a tool to create art, was only a push of a button away.  Such access would empower anyone looking to explore self-expression and perhaps even sharing beyond that.

So what is sound?  A vibration, or the vibration that moves through things.  “Scientists say that sound requires a medium through which to travel. Here the word medium has nothing to do with middle, average, or psychics, but rather refers to some kind of substance, such as air, wood, or water” (Robertson 29).  In short, sound, being a wave, moves things.  For that reason alone it is my favorite practice of art.  To be exposed to the vibrations someone else has crafted and feel their intentions just as you would observe the brush stroke of a Monet.  Music is not only about listening, it is about feeling.  Even the act of listening, given anatomy, is the feeling of vibrations.  That is the kind of power I wish to see in the hands of humanity.   What more beautiful a tool than one we can feel and experience together as both an output and an input.  Robertson is the author of the Stop Faking it! series, designed to be accessible explanations of various types of physics.

In Stockholm, RickardDahlstrand is using 3D printers to produce music while printing.  The focus is in the sound, not the product, and he’s managed to produce songs such as Mozart’s Serenade No.3 and Rossini’s William Tell Overture, as well a few other recognized classics.  I love the approach of making the printer become the instrument while using printing as a bi-product.  The event was published through a website called arthackday.net.  “Art Hack Day ‘Hackers as Artists’ is dedicated to cracking open the process of art-making, with special reverence toward open-source technologies.”  In essence, using technology in a ‘hacked,’ or unintentional way to create.

Music is equally as cultural as it is cross cultured.  Historically, everything can be drawn back to early percussion in the Rift valley.  How fascinating a world we live in now that what once was separated by cultures, history and geography is now finding its way into iterations and culminations at the artists command.  This is an exciting time for music and how able through technology people can share ideas and creations.  Technology are the veins of distribution in which empower us to share, therefore, 3D printing is yet another facet lending itself to ease of creativity through the personal ability to download an instrument.  An instrument that can heal, which is exponentially more safe and potent than many therapeutic alternatives such as medication.  Through vibrations, we are connecting with something beautiful in an attempt to save our definition of art.  It should come as no surprise the immediacy to continue making our world a more beautiful place.     “Art, religion and knowledge are all conditions of Apollo [truth/healing], in which Dionysian [sensual/emotional] reality is defended against and channelled at the same time. We should approach the monstrous in life with the help of art – preferably music. This is what a summary of the book of tragedy could sound like” (Döpp 89).  I have no doubt that if someone held a flute that had just been printed, their life would be impacted for the better in a lasting way.

Chrissy G.

//PRINTED SPACE//

How do homes shape people; how do people shape homes?

I am curious about the way that we live. I’m not just interested in the way that we choose to spend our days, or the things that we choose to surround us. I want to understand how we inhabit the spaces we live in. More specifically, I want to challenge the concept of “home”.

This project explores the value of domestic spaces in a variety of contexts. Drawing from anthropology, conceptual art, architecture, and psychology, I’ve discovered that the value of inhabitable spaces lies within the experience. The subjective narrative that we write for ourselves provide a framework for my research.

The final product will be a 3D printed model of the yurt which I currently inhabit. Given the depth and breadth of research on this topic, further investigations of the human/home relationship would be to actually print habitable space.  My vision is to combine the reverence of home with the reverence for the natural world. I am interested in the inside/outside world dichotomy and how this feeds into the experience of spaces. Furthermore, I want to use this as a platform for re-thinking the way that we live.

Henry David Thoreau argued (over 150 years ago) that “our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them.”  It is true that the spaces we seek refuge are not entirely shells of our own choosing.  This statement generates a larger question about how we view the earth—the only house that binds us all. How will future generations get to experience the natural world, and how is this going to change the way we develop our roads, our cities, our forests?

Witold Rybczynski, a Canadian-American architect and professor, says that “domestic well-being is too important to be left to experts; it is, as it always has been, the business of the family and the individual” (232). Our understanding of the nuclear home in American culture is often celebrated as the highest ranking of domestic accomplishment. The house is designed, like most things in Capitalist society, to fit basic standards. These standards comply with more standards about how you’re going to contribute to the outside world. These standards give us the image of the house as the “American Dream.” However, the inside of the homes of individuals are totally unique. There is no internal standard for how your space is occupied. The inside world is about “infusing a particular site with our presence, and not only with our physical activities and physical possessions but also with our aspirations and dreams. We live in a house, and in this process we make it alive” (Rybczynski 171).

Living spaces therefore has a double meaning. Living spaces are the places that come alive, the spaces that shape you– and living spaces are the places you live, the spaces you occupy.

The psychological distinction from outside world is that inside our homes, “we comfort ourselves by reliving memories of protection. Something closed must retain our memories, while leaving them their original value as images. Memories of the outside world will never have the same tonality as those of home” (Bachelard 6). Memory is a key concept within the work of Gaston Bachelard, author of The Poetics of Space. Our memories of places we’ve lived in the past embody a superior quality. The more time passes, the more the spaces come alive. As quoted in Bachelard’s book, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke tributes these kinds of memories:

(House, patch of meadow, oh evening light

Suddenly you acquire an almost human face

You are very near us, embracing and embraced)

“The verb ‘to habit’ combines three seemingly disconnected meanings. It signified (for it is no longer in common use) to dress, or clothe; it also indicated the act of dwelling in, or inhabiting; lastly, it meant to accustom, or familiarize. What do garments, dwellings, and customs have in common? The sense development of this root, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, began with habere, to have or hold—whence holding oneself, or showing oneself to the outside world. This could be accomplished externally, by one’s demeanor or bearing and, by extension, one’s dress and even by one’s house, or else internally, in mind, through one’s comportment, which led to the sense of familiar or customary behavior” (Rybczynski 169).

Habitation embodies inside/outside dichotomy. Habitation connects our inner, most familiar, self with the rest of the world.

Carl Jung began building his personal retreat, the Bollingen Tower, with the intention of living a more “archaic” lifestyle—“a place to return to a simpler life” (Rybczynski 191). The fairy-tale castle was a 40-year project that, to Jung, represented a structure of the human psyche:

“After my wife’s death in 1955, I felt an inner obligation to become what I myself am. To put it in the language of the Bollingen house, I suddenly realized that the small central section which crouched so low, so hidden, was myself! I could no longer hide myself behind the “maternal” and the “spiritual” towers. So, in that same year, I added an upper story which represents myself or my ego-personality” (Rybczynski 192). Jung had actually built his dream house, not to make a ‘perfect’ home, but a physical representation of his inner self.

(photo by buddhistdoor.com)

How do dreams (as internal realities) materialize themselves? Are suburbs an extension of the “American Dream”? Do hi-rise apartments extend into that which we desire to attain? Is the yurt an extension of a mind’s eye?

“Prospero was wrong when he said, ‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on.’ What he should have said is, ‘Dreams are bits and pieces of the stuff of which we are made,’ and what that stuff is, is quite another question. Even though we can discuss the ideas which we ‘have’ and what we perceive through our senses… the question of the nature of the envelope in which all that ‘experience’ is contained, is a very different and much more profound question…” (Bateson 70-71).

Since the 90’s, American artist Andrea Zittel has been producing work that addresses the concept of how we experience our home. “Her work as an artist has engaged vigorously with design, architecture, and urbanism, forming an experimental investigation into, and conceptual assessment of, our aspirations to live fully and in harmony within that often contradictory landscape” (Morsiani 11). She likes to solve problems about domestic life. This often materializes into smaller, simpler situations. What drew me into Zittel’s work was her A-Z Living Units, portable living structures that organize everyday activities into streamlined experiences. It’s a compact living system designed to re-evaluate the way you occupy spaces.

“Zittel looks at how we perceive ourselves in our home, office, and personal lives, and at the belief systems we have created in order to balance personal aspirations with the covertly authoritarian logic that comprises the consumerist economic and capitalist political power structures. Our daily regimens reflect our contradictory impulses to achieve a sense of control and security without sacrificing individual freedom” (Morsiani 17).

Zittel began a series called A-Z west, located on Joshua Tree Nat’l Park. The capsules were designed for self-sufficiency and connection to the outdoors. They “reference both the covered wagons of the old western frontier and the standard suburban station wagons of today”(design boom).

image by Andrea Zittel

(they remind me of the “coffin” hotels in Doctorow’s Makers!)

This kind of work precedes the Tiny House Movement, which currently reassesses the way that we inhabit spaces. More and more people are attracted to mobility because “people are most happy when they are moving forwards towards something not quite yet attained” (Zittel, 2005). When our relationship to space is in a constant state of flux, we become more in tune to our environment. Traveling with our homes is something we’ve done for thousands of years in nomadic cultures.

In the financial constraints of today’s economy, more people are “moving forwards towards something not quite yet attained,” and that’s translating to their homes.  The Scotland-based company Trakke has just recently come out with a portable yurt called “Jero”. The yurt is a 129 square foot space that you can break down and fit into the back of a car. “The Jero yurt is made of marine plywood, which both designers praise for its low-waste production, inherent strength and ability to withstand harsh environments. While Jero’s last yurt was designed by hand, the new yurt was design on a computer and CNC milled to use as little material as possible” (Stinson).

Photo: Trakke.co.uk

(I was so close to inventing that!)

3D printing can inform our way of making spaces. Wikihouse is just one example: it’s an online, open-source construction site that allows the community to build upon pre-existing ideas of spaces. Customization is becoming more embedded into the ideals of cheap, portable homes. Furthermore, people are able to design their own homes with minimal building experience. Customization challenges the idea of personal aesthetic and functionalism.

photo: Mark David

How can the process of cognitive archaeology refine a physical understanding of subconscious imagery predicated on past, future, and present emotional constructs? 

Accurately transcribing literal history predicated on a personal (subconscious) representation of social and cultural development is crucial to redefining intimate relations of past experience, along with answering why they have maintained long-term cognitive resonance. Linking the past with the present is always a critical step forward in the conceptualized advent of situation analysis and resolution, which is ultimately necessary for ensuring the future longevity of an interactive populous. Uncovering physical relics of past experience can be a momentous process, in some instances rediscovering memories that have made a transparent leap from mental to physical manifestation in the exercise of emotionally articulated attachment can be seen as a very profound representation. What promotes the divine and almost inherently human desire to retain and preserve historical evaluation? How does the historic value of individually acquiring personal possession and attachment differ from the collective value of obtaining and reaffirming social history itself, or can this value be differentiated at all? The human construction of written language has been a valid tool in recording a detailed, however still very fragmented preservation of cultural and social history. Textual representations of events, evolutionary upbringings, and the linear exposition of human cognition can be rendered as incomplete reiterations which are part of a greater visual understanding or delineation of circumstance; “in general, the rather sophisticated activities for which writing was presumably devised do themselves depend upon the existence of a series of concepts such as these: they are indeed cognitive concepts. But in many cases they are not only material or cognitive constructs: they are based upon interaction with the real world, and in general upon interaction with symbolic artifacts which operate within the prevailing social world” (Renfrew, 3). Colin Renfrew in his text, “Mind and Matter” establishes the connection of language development with external symbolic storage and how early human development progressed through the means of constructing monuments and other physical vessels capable of implementing sentimental recovery relevant to cognitive recognition. This historically theorized example presented by Renfrew corresponds effectively with the general interpretation of my own research in terms of comparing the ideology that historical relevance and comprehension can be implanted into a material, physical entity for the future purpose of preservation and recovery, “In reality many indicators take the form of visual symbols, that is to say artifacts. And some of the most important institutional facts are embodied in artifacts could not exist without them” (Renfrew, 3). Analyzing this concept through my research platform of subconscious recovery a relevant question to consider is: What emotional construct or past physical interaction justifies the remembrance of a material item visualized within a dreamscape? Directly referring to the “plumbing knife”, a completely unintentional material projection of my subconscious, I am inferred to believe that particular past experience and emotional value has been instilled with this particular vessel due to its shamanistic visual extortion and vivid display of detail within my dream. Promoting a grasp on personal satisfaction and linear organization being processed through a troubled subconscious has become greatly import to the cognitive archaeology of my own personal dream exploration. Realms of exploration for this research has become personally attributive. The physical interaction between my body and this representational knife in the context of the dream was curiously disturbing and brought forth an indescribable amount of anxiety which only became apparent upon awakening. This anxiety and confusion however, was not present during the unfolding of physical harm that was dealt during the imagined scenario. Were there past recollections being represented through the intensity of the dream? “If the planes of social life reflect the processes of the determination of the base-superstructure, then the daily life, where all those determining factors are generated, is the product of a complex network of social antagonisms whereby the structure and consciousness move closer together, become interlinked and finally inter-determine one another” (Politis, 64). The dreamscape offers a disoriented visualization through a fogged viewfinder of past, present, and possibly future reconciliation or confrontation. Attaining the ability to break down and manipulate the conscious outcomes of a non-linear conglomeration of past and present thoughts is something worth achieving. The ultimate goal of this particular dream excavation is to uncover the fragmented pieces of important as well as non-important memories that my subconscious has involuntarily upheld and then reassemble them into solidified connections between emotional and historical thoughts. What were the systemic roots of these thoughts which were used to comprise a fictional sequence of story telling? How is the process of what seems to be linear story telling accomplished in a state of unconsciousness? The plumbing knife is constructed as a vessel for revisitation of thought and self exploration, however it works in fluid cognition with the linear structure of the dream itself, attributing no greater or lesser purpose than the characters or environmental settings involved. Each projection is dependent on the other in the process of uncovering emotional and historical preferences within the dream. The solidified visual representation of the knife itself is what has allowed me to retain and vividly re-engage the greater aspects and nostalgias implemented into my unconscious self, it is again, but a vessel; “it is easy to infer that the object, which lends weight or veracity to the tale, is secondary to the stories themselves, which come to encompass the object and generate an entire narrative around it”(Colby, 44) both the story and the object itself are established as separated entities however a unique transparency or dependable reaction between the two becomes apparent during the compositional break down of the dreamscape, how is it possible to ultimately define a link to an archaeological redevelopment of past experience and emotional value? “it is precisely through those subtle, mundane, often unconscious affective channels that material culture manifests its dynamic character and its semiotic force” (Malafouris, 93). Physical representation and conclusive production of the plumbing knife will offer a new and greater understanding of the metaphysical discomfort and agitation experienced within the dreamscape, attributed to the sensory obligation of touch and texture definition. The current visual imagery of the vessel, although still evoking much thought and consideration, remains static in a two dimensional sequence of repetition.

Works Cited

Malafouris, Lambrose. “introduction”. How Things Shape The Mind. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2013. Print.

Politis, Gustavo. “Archaeology as a Social Science: Its Expression in Latin America.”Archaeology in Latin America. London: Routledge, 1999. Print.

Colby, Sasha. “Reverie and Revelation: The Textual Archaeologies of Theofile Gautier.”Stratified Modernism: The Poetics of Excavation from Gautier to Olson. New York: Peter Lang, 2009. Print.

Renfrew, Colin. Cognition and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Symbolic Storage. Cambridge, England: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 1998. Print.

We exist in a world full of corporate greed and global monopolies, everywhere you look there are conglomerates that are cornering the market and setting prices, all it takes is a small amount of research to uncover what is really going on all around us. At the start of my blue rabbit project I found out almost immediately that the leading supplier of eyewear in the global market is a company called Luxottica. At 65 million pairs of glasses produced in one year, and ½ a billion people around the world wearing Luxottica products every day (Luxottica) you would think that this would be a household name; which lead me to ask the question “Why have I never heard of this company?” There is a simple answer, it is because Luxottica designs and produces sunglasses and optical frames for countless brands across the world. Brands such as Tiffany, Ray Ban, Chanel, Gucci, and even Sunglass Hut all are supplied and/or owned by Luxottica. (Beaumont)

This has a direct correlation to what you pay out of pocket when you break your trusty frames. Ten years ago glasses from a local frame maker/optician would cost about thirty dollars; now with the market cornered you are paying hundereds of dollars for frames with the same material cost as ever.  The have a stronghold on the market, affecting anyone in the optical field. If you make glasses you want them to be in their stores, and if you own a store you want their products in them so you can provide your customers with what they may want to buy. Oakley brand sunglasses had a dispute with Luxottica about pricing, resulting Lux. Brand not carrying Oakley sunglasses in any of their chains. This resulted in the stock value in Oakley dropping drastically, and finally Luxottica buying out the brand from under them when their company was weak. (Luxottica) Power like this will go unchecked until something can challenge what they offer.

You may ask “What did Luxottica do that made the price of your frames change?” They took a medical device and through marketing and branding changed the perception from “nerdy” to “sleek.” Since JFK, every U.S. president has sported a pair of Ray Bans, associating power and prosperity with a brand. Ray Bans made movie appearances in the 80’s, like the iconic look of Tom Cruise in Risky Business. At that time another risky business was Ray Ban itself, which were dipping in the market and appearing in stores for 30 dollars. This was the perfect way for Luxottica to swoop in and save the day, buying up the company in 1999 and taking Ray Bans off the shelves for a year. No need to fret, they were back on the market soon enough, at inflated prices but with branding improvement.  They make glasses cool. Andrea Guerra said in a 60 Minutes interview with Barbara Walters about glasses frames, “It is one of the only objects that are 100% functional, 100% aesthetic, and need to fit your face for 15 hours a day.” (Luxottica)With a product that means so much to people’s lives, both in functionality and style, should we really trust one conglomerate to take care of all our optical needs?

With the availability and convenience of three-D printing now the public is beginning to have a louder voice, and the people are chiming out with a resounding “NO!” New websites are popping up all over the internet which is allowing people who don’t have the funds to start their own entrepreneurial ventures by simply creating video proposals of their pitch and uploading them to the sites. Crowdfunding, crowd financing, micro loans, hyperfunding and more are all new ways to describe this budding niche market. Only asking for 5% of the profits collected, these websites function on providing a place for inventors everywhere to ask for startup help without selling off shares of their delicate new industry.(Rushin) “Financial backers, which are armchair philanthropists of projects, put their trust in the project creators by providing cash in return for a promise of a future return. The return can be naming credits as with a film, a discount price of the develop item, or some insignificant benefit. “

Companies that were once crowdfunded ideas are now flourishing, selling their products and making a name for themselves in industries that were once impossible to elbow into. New manufacturers such as Protos Eyewear began just a few years ago with an idea, and a Crowdfunding website link. The founders of Protos were once all students of California College of the Arts, and now all of them have found an intrinsic role in the company. With Marc Levinson overseeing the company as CEO and visionary leader, John Mauriello as the CAD expert and design office, and Doug Ponciano as programming guru behind the customizable software, these three musketeers have changed the way running a company is approached.(Jovan) Unlike the way that Luxottica produces and ships glasses styles to various brand names, these three men are right in the thick of their company, innovating and improving the company every step of the way.

In the world of capitalism, bigger is always better. Bigger companies, bigger factories, and bigger workforce always equals a bigger profit. This model although prevalent in every industry seems to be unfit in the realm of eyewear. This is a profit driven system, not value driven, and when you are trying to provide something as important as optical equipment, value should always triumph over profit. This is the rational of Fetch eyewear, another customizable glasses company that can be found on the internet. They see that luxury eyewear is becoming outdated, boasting that they can provide quality and sophistication in their eyewear but not delivering the product. More and more companies are offering customization, but one thing I have yet to find online is customization, and the power to create coming from the consumer. (Sachs)

This is where my project will step in, with the use of a three-D scanner, such as one you can buy online, like Digisize (which comes with the scanner and the software)(Digisize) or a free Application for your smart phone such as 123d catch I would like to bridge the gap from ordering customized glasses from a provider and creating them yourself. Whether scanning a pair of glasses your friend has and tweaking them to fit the shape of your face, or scanning your whole head and completely fabricating your glasses yourself I want to help put your glasses frames back into your own hands.

Works Cited

Anon. “Is Luxottica Taking Over the World of Eyewear?” Beaumont Vision. Beaumont Vision, 21 Sept. 2012. Web. 01 Nov. 2014.

“DigiSize.” DigiSize. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2014.

Jovan, Jeremy. “Feature: Protos Eyewear | Idea Issue | Asterisk San Francisco Magazine.” Feature: Protos Eyewear | Idea Issue | Asterisk San Francisco Magazine. At Risk San Francisco, n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.

Luxottica- Do You Know Who Makes Your Glasses? Perf. Barbara Walters. 2013. Youtube. Youtube. 60 Minutes, 26 Oct. 2013. Web. 1 Nov. 2014.

Rushin, Gary. “Crowd Funding: Turnkey Financing Source for Entrepreneurs.” GaryRushincom RSS. Garyrushin.co,, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2014.

Sachs, Ann. “Why Buy Independent Optical | Fetch Eyewear.” Why Buy Independent Optical | Fetch Eyewear. Fetch Eyewear, 21 Nov. 2012. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.

I am proposing to create and 3D print several beads, and then string them together to form jewelry. This idea came to me during the Cornet Bay retreat, during our bead workshop. More than almost anything else we did on that retreat, making beads was meditative for me. Being able to zone out and entirely devote my attention to one task was very calming, and it’s what inspired me to devote my Blue Rabbit project to beads. Jewelry holds monetary, spiritual, and sentimental value across the globe, and nearly every culture has some form of personal adornment.

The concept of digitally created art is, while very new to the history of art-making, not a new concept for the digital world. In the article Theoretical Statement Concerning Computer/Robotic Paintings, Joseph Nechteval writes, “Electronic overload has smashed the narrow limits of assigned meaning. A doorway has opened. We have the power to shape our own meaning. We have the tools and the weapons for our own personal, magical transformation. With deconstruction, re-contextualization, non-conformity, and destruction we take symbolic control over given hierarchical systems.” (Nechteval, 120) This piece is part of a series of articles in Leonardo. Supplemental Issue, Vol. 1, a book that was published in 1988. Right from the onset of home computers and 3D printing, people were thinking about how they could challenge the system, how they could make art from this new medium that seemed right out of a science fiction universe.

Jewelry falls under the category of art, but many cultures wear and craft it for reasons other than pure adornment. In Ethiopia, certain adornments were used for spiritual or healing purposes. Roger McKay writes, “Amber has a special importance to the tribes of the eastern provinces. It has always been regarded as a specific against ill health and ill fortune. Aurignacian remains from the Old Stone Age show amber used as ornaments and as cures for asthma, rheumatism, and internal disorders. The Romans wore it as a protection against witchcraft, and gladiators against the possibility of sudden death.” Even across two very different geographical and cultural landscapes, this material was used for purposes other than aesthetic ones. Both of these cultures assigned a beneficial meaning to amber; the Ethiopian tribes used it for healing and ornamental purposes, while the Romans and their gladiators wore it because they believed it had innate protective abilities. This proves that all cultures and people are capable of taking the same object or material and interpreting its use and meaning in different ways.

In his article “On Jewelry Made in the Contemporary Southwestern (U.S.A.) Style” from Leonardo, Vol. 12, David E. Dear writes, “Jewelry making was a family pursuit, and some families continue the tradition today. Artifacts brought by the Spanish from Europe (some of which bore Moorish characteristics) had initially a strong influence on the Indian metalwork. They copied buttons, belts, iron bits for horses, knives, etc. … With the installation of railroad lines, the demands of tourists for jewelry of Indian tribes began to be felt.” (Dear, 303) I feel like this passage is a good microcosm of how the American Indian population was exploited; they copied the metalworking designs of European colonists, and then eventually were demanded to sell their work to tourists. This is an example of imperialism and yet another way of using the indigenous populations to turn a profit.

In more contemporary times, people are looking to 3D printing as a way of crafting jewelry and other trinkets, and making these designs publicly available. An article from 3ders.org, a website devoted to 3D printing news, reads, “Back in April this year, JewelDistrict, a Seoul, Korea based startup launched its 3D printing servicespecializing in printing precious metal jewelry. To work with JewelDistrict, you first upload your 3D model and select your desired material and finishes. JewelDistrict will then review your 3D model to make sure it can be 3D printed. Your 3D model is then printed using wax for lost-wax casting. The 3D printed wax model is turned into a rough casting in silver or brass. JewelDistrict offers also different options in terms of surface finishes, plating, and stone setting. According to the company’s CEO, Sungdo Lee, 3D printing technology has the greatest potential to dramatically change the jewelry industry. This is because while most 3D printed products are limited to decorative purposes only, 3D printed jewelry is readily wearable. Jewelry designers can create geometrically complex designs that can only be achieved by 3D printing.” I feel like this passage does a good job of explaining the process that is 3D printing jewelry, and how it has massive potential to alter the jewelry industry. If people can fully harness what 3D printing is capable of and use it on these adornments, the jewelry industry can easily shift from a monopoly on gold and diamonds to an entirely maker-driven movement and trade.

Current jewelry companies can also use 3D printing to revitalize their businesses. An article from IBTimes explains, “‘We can now create a virtual inventory of products and create pieces that are a lot more precise,’ American Pearl CEO Eddie Bakhash said in an interview. Bakhash’s father founded the company more than 60 years ago. The company began experimenting with 3D technology several years ago, but didn’t fully apply it until 2013. Though it competes with the famous likes of Cartier and Tiffany & Co., American Pearl is one of a growing number of retailers looking to 3D technology for custom jewelry, including Shapeways and even Amazon.com.” With 3D printing undeniably being the future, it would make sense that companies and businesses would start to incorporate it into their plans. Bakhash also adds, “The power the consumer has is clearly all there. American Pearl.com has more product than Tiffany’s now, because of this technology,”

The concept of jewelry – for personal adornment, for spiritual reasons, and for healing powers – has been around for thousands of years. However, it has always been seen as a skilled trade. With the advent of 3D printing, the skill of jewelry making can be readily learned by anybody, which has absolutely vast potential to completely change the face of the jewelry industry.

Can a 3D printed object be responsive to its environment and to the dynamic energies of the people and processes that interact with it? The idea: given the right conditions and variables, one could see the shape of the magnetic field created around an object. I will attempt to create this by placing a metal 3D printed object in a glass sphere with magnets on the top and bottom and filling the sphere with water and ferrofluid. My theory is that the ferrofluid, a mixture of dispersed nano-scale magnetic particles (laserjet toner) and a viscous solution (100% vegetable oil) (HouseholdHacker), would follow the magnetic force applied to the 3D printed object by the magnets and float around the sphere through the water on the flux lines of the magnetic field. The result would be a sort of magnetic snow globe.

My overarching question for this class is how can 3D printing and making play into my desire to create spaces that inspire people to be alive? Could I create a 3D printed object that is alive, responsive, intuitive, and vulnerable and inspires the people who come into contact with it? And how would that object, or the process that unfolds during my attempts to make it, answer the question what does it mean to be human?

Although, not a physicist myself, I realize my project is all about physics, so I was not surprised to find that 3D printing was being used in other physics applications around the world. In the article “Not Immaterial” published in Mechanical Engineering, Physicist Tim Evans of Imperial College in London, was inspired to use 3D printing when he saw a 3D printed object in a museum (Thilmany). “The object was a table inspired by the tree-like structures found in nature, which is an example of a branching process that is commonly encountered in complex systems in theoretical physics.” Evans states, “This led me to think, what other processes familiar to physics could be turned into a 3D printed object?”

University of Chicago physicists Dustin Kleckner and William Irvine answer Evans question in another article by Andrew Grant published in Science News. Kleckner and Irvine are using 3D printing to explore further the “evidence that knotted vortex loops could emerge in and affect the flow of various fluids and plasmas.” Their problem was first, duplicating a knotted vortex in the lab, and second, creating an environment that could hold the vortex long enough for them to study it. Their second problem was solved when they saw a YouTube video of a dolphin making and pushing a vortex ring in the water. Their first problem was solved by 3D printing. They now have a collection of various sized and shaped 3D knotted “wings,” a collection which would be much more limited with traditional manufacturing practices, which they use to recreate knotted vortexes.

I was also interested in the non-scientific realm of the various components of my project. I discovered others that have found exciting the beautiful displays made with magnets and ferrofluid. Krunal Patel, founder of Fluux Design Lab, LLC in Houston has launched a Kickstarter campaign to “explore and bridge the gap between material science and artistic expression.” His project? A free standing magnetic tube filled with water and ferrofluid which observers can manually manipulate with an external magnet.

Research into Patel’s educational or professional background did not return any matches, but that did not seem to prevent his backers from pledging over 500% of the project’s original goal, over $112,000. Patel conducted extensive research on the various materials used to come up with a “design element that was aesthetically pleasing,” and would ideally catch the eyes and interests of his backers whose main concern was color coordinating their shiny new toy with their existing high-tech shiny toys. He also included a detailed timeline for the manufacturing and shipping of his unit, but comments on Kickstarter’s website seem to indicate delays in shipping times with some backers kicking themselves for being suckered. Perhaps Patel’s function did not meet form.

Another Kickstarter campaign, aptly named “Ferrocious,” takes the same concept, yet provides another variable; music. Russel Garehan’s tube is connected to a musical input that allows the viscous fluid to dance. His design, which is not as sleek and refined as Patel’s, has the added feature of being combined with the audio component. Unfortunately, form did not meet function and Garehan’s campaign only generated 300% of his original goal, a mere $15,528 compared to Patel’s sleek design. However, Garehan’s backers have received their units and Garehan responds directly to his backers’ comments on the Kickstarter website, stating “I’m glad to help as much as I can.”

Garehan received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University and has been featured, for this project, as well as other accomplishments, in popular magazines such as Wired, Popular Science, and Business Report. Perhaps not surprising, Garehan has his own experience in 3D printing as a freelance 3D modeler. Currently, he is a design engineer for Mezzo Technologies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

All my research has only further fed my own curiosity for not only how I can use 3D printing to bridge the gap between my linear left brain and creative right brain, but also whether what I aim to achieve is even possible. Although, my question remains the same, one other study I found gave me an alternative path to follow should my original design not produce the intended result.

Akiva J. Dickstein and colleagues experimented with the theory that “ferrofluids are known to produce complex labyrinthine patterns when trapped between closely spaced glass plates and subjected to a magnetic field normal to the plates.” Although they led their research with the inquiry of how the patterns form, my response was to create a design that would capture the pattern as another version of the magnetic snow globe with a complex labyrinth for the ferrofluid to navigate during its magnetic journey.

The Kickstarter campaigns, which combined the awe and respect of an academically acclaimed scientific system with the beauty and creativity of artistic expression, both received well over the minimum pledges, demonstrating that people are indeed curious and excited about new devices and technology that allow them to explore complex scientific systems within their own human experience. Whether this curiosity is driven by a consumer need for instant gratification and social inclusion or a human need to observe, participate and understand the world in which we live remains under the umbrella of the inquiry what does it mean to be human?However, all my research pointed in the direction that, yes, a 3D printed object can in fact be responsive to its environment and to the dynamic energies of the people and processes that interact with it, and this responsive ability may very well occupy a large sector of future 3D printed technologies.

Works Cited

Tobias Hope Young

11/02/2014

Iteration Two of Blue rabbit Project

Re-usable Pen

The idea was originally just a response to the question of what plastic object I would like to print into a world already overflowing with plastic objects. The idea came to me quickly; I would make a reusable pen so that I wouldn’t have to throw away a pen every month or so. A product that would not fall victim to planned obsolescence. This idea did stick with me while others rolled off. One day a friend of mine pointed out to me that if I was seriously interested in reducing my carbon footprint, which was my interest going in and still is, I should try to print out something else. For example my friend pointed out that I flossed with a plastic floss pick tool and every month I threw it away. “It would be more eco-friendly if you were to design a reusable floss pick where the only part of it that you would have to replace would be the floss part of it.” he said. I thought about that for a while. In a way he was right. It might benefit the environment more if I were to design a reusable floss pick, but as I said to him later it simply felt better to work on printing a pen. The reason behind my general feeling is, of course, much more complex. The reason behind my desire to make a pen instead of a reusable floss pick is due to the relative recentness of the invention of the floss compared to the invention of the pen. Floss was invented in 1815 (Kennedy) while the pen dates back to the ancient Egyptians (Danzing). The reason why this is important is because 3D printing technology is a somewhat recent invention and we need to understand that it can have everyday applications to our daily lives. In the United States 10-40% of Americans floss (Bauroth) while just about everyone in the United States owns, or at least has access to, a pen. Some might claim that with the advent of the personal computer that the pen will become obsolete but that argument does not hold up when confronted with the sheer practicality of the pen and the fact that it will be a long while before anyone can come up with any practical technology to completely replace it. By taking this age old symbol and 3D printing it I believe that we should be able to bring this 3D printing technology and the concepts and purpose that this pen represents, fully to the mainstream consciousness.

Another reason that I decided to print a pen was in order to fight planned obsolescence. As explained by Jeremy Bulow in his article “An Economic Theory of Planned Obsolescence”, planned obsolescence is a policy of planning or designing a product with an artificially useful or limited life so that it will stop being useful by no longer being fashionable, functional or it becomes obsolete after a certain amount of time (Bulow). As Lester pointed out, in the book Makers, that the iPod, amongst other products, was only made to last a year before it becomes unfashionable or stops being functional (Doctorow). This policy makes its appearance quite often in many industries from car manufacturing (Landes) to software (Planned Obsolescence) and it is a very profitable way to do business. In fact its roots can be traced back to 1932 where it was proposed in a pamphlet to be a means for boosting the United States out of the Great Depression (London). This policy is also incredibly detrimental to the environment because it encourages an increased rate of consumption (Guiltinian). This increased rate of consumption is detrimental to the environment because it naturally requires more resources to sustain itself. With global temperatures rising (Comitee on America’s Climate Choices) and the trash buildup of trash in the ocean growing to be as large as the United States (Marks) it is apparent that an alternative needs to be found.

A somewhat realistic alternative to this cycle of planned obsolescence is presented in the science fiction novel Idoru written by famed writer William Gibson. In the book they have a line of computers called Sandbenders which are basically your own customized computer that you could order for a relatively low price (Gibson). The beauty behind it was that it was made by a small group of people so that you could upgrade your laptop without having to buy a new one. In theory you would be able to take this computer apart remove an obsolete motherboard and put it back together and it would be able to work just fine. When I first read this I thought it was an incredibly naïve idea. I had come to this conclusion because in the book it is a small group that makes this computer software, computer frames, and its upgrades. The profits from this style of business being relatively small compared to that of other companies it is reasonable to assume that these people do not have access to factories for making new parts like updated motherboards. However after reading this book with the knowledge that there was such a thing as 3D printers and that average people could get their hands on them, and that in this technologically advanced future they would have found ways to 3D print computer parts, then the whole idea becomes much more plausible. However in our current time with the technology that we have now we aren’t going to be able to print motherboards anytime soon so I came to understand that we weren’t going to prevent planned obsolescence on that scale for quite some time. If we were going to have to start we were going to have to start somewhere much smaller. One object to start with would be pens. A pen has a relatively simple structure and was affected by planned obsolescence, although on a much smaller scale. The pen manufacturers naturally change the design of their ink well once in a while to keep people buying a new version of reusable pens. By 3D printing my own customized pen I would be resisting their system of planned obsolescence because I didn’t buy a new pen to begin with and when they change the design on their ink wells all I would have to do would be to alter the design of my pen and print another.

Looking back my idea of printing out a pen has come a long way from my original idea. My original question was what object was worth printing into a world already filled with useless objects? However overtime while investigating the matter further and getting feedback from other people I have expanded the question to being about what it means to make new things in a world that is filled with corporations trying to get you to constantly buy new things and what the impact of this new technology would be? What I’ve learned has helped me to understand the larger issues surrounding 3D printing and has helped me see the importance in even the simplest and smallest of things like my pen.

Citations:

Bauroth, K., C.h. Charles, S.m. Mankodi, K. Simmons, Q. Zhao, and L.d. Kumar. “The Efficacy of an Essential Oil Antiseptic Mouthrinse vs. Dental Floss in Controlling Interproximal Gingivitis: A Comparative Study.” Journal of the American Dental Association 134.3 (2003): 359-65. Web.

Bulow, Jeremy. “An Economic Theory of Planned Obsolescence.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 101.4 (1986): 729-49. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.

Committee on America’s Climate Choices, Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Division on Earth and Life Studies, and National Research Council. “America’s Climate Choices.” America’s Climate Choices. Committee on America’s Climate Choices, 1 Jan. 2011. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.

Danzing, Rachel. “Pigments and Inks Typically Used on Papyrus.” BKM TECH. Brooklynmuseum.org, 22 Sept. 2010. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.

Doctorow, Cory. Makers. New York: Tor, 2009. 33-34. Print.

Gibson, William. Idoru. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1996. 137-38. Print.

Guiltinan, Joseph. “Creative Destruction and Destructive Creations: Environmental Ethics and Planned Obsolescence.” Journal of Business Ethics 89.S1 (2009): 19-28. Web. 2 Nov. 2014.

Kennedy, Pagan. “Who Made That Dental Floss?” The New York Times. The New York Times, 20 Oct. 2012. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.

Landes, Luke. “Resist Planned Obsolescence or Accept the Financial Consequences.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 6 Nov. 2012. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.

London, Bernard. “Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence.” Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence (1932): n. pag. Web. 2 Nov. 2013.

Marks, Kathy, and Daniel Howden. “The World’s Rubbish Dump: A Tip That Stretches from Hawaii to Japan.” The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 5 Feb. 2008. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.

“Planned Obsolescence.” The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 23 Mar. 2009. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.

In my first iteration of my Blue Rabbit 3D printing Idea I posed the question, what is the potential of 3D printing in the healthcare industry, and how will it revolutionize the medical field? This was one of the many questions that first inspired me and seized my attention when I began delving into the Making Meaning Matter 3D printing program. After all the material we have been covering in class in convergence with my own research I am convinced that humanity is on the brink of a continuous revolution, a material, technological, and hopefully conscious and sustainable revolution. The potential of “3D printing” and being able to have what is in your mind on the table in front of you is so exciting I get goose bumps thinking about it! The medical industry is massive, and for good reason after all, in this life what is more important that your health right? Everyone wants to be healthy and happy, no one wants to be sick, no one wants to get old and watch their bodies decay and die. Over the last thousand, even hundreds of years, we have made massive strides in longevity and quality of life through “medicine” and “healthcare”. The amount of preventative measures, cures, and operations that are discovered or invented every year is astonishing.

I expect 3D printing to eventually impact almost every industry in the coming downloadable material revolution, especially those reliant on technology, kind of like I don’t know… the internet? For this reason, and because I grew up with a strong mother figure deeply iembeddedin the healthcare industry through education and work, I am intoxicated with curiosity, fear, and anticipation about what the future has in store involving 3D printing and scanning and its ability to help people as a whole, AKA humanity. In the documentary we watched in class, the Netflix original “Print the Legend” one of the Makerbot ex-employee/founders says something like, people aren’t printing out new kidneys and installing them in in their kitchen, today. But with technology exploding at its current rate I honestly believe that 3D printing bioengineered organs or machines that are capable of doing automatic surgeries is conceivable within my lifetime. One journal I found online titled “How 3-D Printing is Transforming Everything from Medicine to Manufacturing” says that 3D printers are

A New Tool In the Classroom—And the Factory

A former K–8 teacher in ­Seattle, Bri Pettis wants to put a printer in every K–12 school in the U.S. “When I was growing up,” he says, “there was an Apple IIe in the classroom, and if you were a nerd, you were taking it apart. That was probably the most important part of the education—it had nothing to do with what was on the test that day.”

A Medical Revolution

“By far the most exciting ways in which 3-D printing is being used are in the medical field. Across the U.S., research teams have been making rapid progress in 3-D-printing a bewildering array of human body parts: ear cartilage and muscle tissue; skin, skulls, and bones; organs large and small.”

The article also goes into detail about how customization is huge, telling the story of a young girl who has a 3D designed and printed robotic hand that was created for a fraction of what it would cost to buy a standard prosthesis which run upwards of $60,000. And most of the parts can be made on a machine that costs about $1,500 as opposed to its counterpart industrial stereolithography 3D layering or “printing” machines that have been around since the 1980s for $150,000. So you tell me, how long till everyone has one in their home? Almost everyone I know has a computer in their pocket, and during my parents lifetime computers were the size of refrigerators and the internet was in its infancy.

With these ideas and concepts I eagerly began seeking out recent resources both scholarly and journalistic in nature regarding what professionals are doing today with these forms of technology regarding logistics, ethics, and practice. In my first iteration I talked about journals I found online, one regarding an article, titled “3D printed heart saves baby’s life as medical technology leaps ahead “which told the story of a 2-week-old baby who required a complicated heart surgery because the babies heart had holes and the chambers were in an unusual formation like a maze. These issues were due to CHD (Congenital Heart Defects), which is a common defect of the structure of the heart present at birth. Using MRI scan data Morgan Stanley Children Hospital in New York City 3D printed a copy of the child’s heart to act as a sort of practice pad or road-map. This 3D “blue-print” printed heart allowed for the opportunity to study the riddled, structurally unusual organ, and develop a detailed strategy for the complicated and dangerous surgery. I found another article regarding 3D printing technology in the medical field which described a 3D printed titanium spinal invertebrate replacement that was porous so natural bone could grow through it over time.

Continuing forward with my research on JSTOR and EBSCO (digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources) I found an article published through Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America titled “X-Ray Microscopy in 3D” which talks about conventional tomography, simply put getting an image in slices, just like Makerware does with our STL files when it slices the 3D model layer by layer into the build path the extruder will take. The standard X-ray picture is a shadowgraph. It shows that somewhere in the object a certain amount of energy was removed from the X-ray beam, but it doesn’t tell at what depth in the object the removal took place. Medical doctors have been able to use the ordinary X-ray pictures because more often than not their previous knowledge of anatomy allows them to tell which structures inside the body were imaged by the shadows; they already know the depth in the body at which, for example, the spine or the ribs usually lie. But for an object about which there is no previous knowledge such reconstructive reasoning doesn’t apply In general, the lack of depth information severely limits the information. Medical people were happy to see the development of X-ray tomography, which gives three-dimensional information about the structures inside a body, this article goes into detail about

“Now a group of scientists has taken tomography into the microscopic range, developing what they consider a threedimensional form of X-ray microscopy. The technique is called X-ray microtomography.”

Another related article I found published by The MIT Press titled “Artwork Using 3D Computed Tomography: Extending Radiology into the Realm of Visual Art” speaks directly about CT scanning, the common CT scan stands for computed tomography

“Since its advent in 1972, computed tomography (CT) has played a key role in diagnostic radiology. Computed tomography allows visualization of the human body in cross-section, in slices.”

But human anatomy is three-dimensional and complex. Anatomy varies among different individuals, and acquiring knowledge of these differences is of great importance in medical treatment, as iterated in the article about the 3D “road map” printed heart. Doctors would build up a 3D mental picture of the anatomical structure after assimilating a set of 2D CT images in their head, this process sounds abstract and not easy or exact. Computer software is now available to rebuild 3D images from these cross-sectional images. Until recently the quality of these images has been poor because of technological limitations and slow scanning speeds, early CT scanners can only provide limited numbers of relatively thick slives, resulting in low resolution 3D images and taking a heavy toll on computing power. This article goes into detail about

“New Developments in CT and Computer Technology. A technological breakthrough occurred recently with the introduction of a new generation of CT scanners called multi detector CT. This new generation of CT scanners employs state-of-the-art technology and uses multiple rows of detectors to provide fast, powerful and efficient scanning. A large volume of data covering a wide range of the body can be acquired in less than 20 seconds. The time needed is well within a single held breath, thus avoiding motion artifacts.”

My own Blue Rabbit has evolved into me customizing a model of my own anatomy, using relatively cheap technology and free versions of software I am taking a 3D model scan of my hand with an x-box Kinect plugged into a lab top running Skanect, importing it into blender to smooth it out and save it as an STL file. Then I am going to tinker with it and try to 3D model what I think my bone structure looks like, and 3D print a physical model. While John was helping me scan my hand it was hard to stand in one place as he had to circle me and capture every angle in order to make a 3D model, so I experienced “firsthand” the issues with capturing moving artifacts.

The last primary source I would like to incorporate into this scholarly discussion is one I found particularly interesting and relevent headed “Microscale Technologies for Tissue Engineering and Biology”, also published by the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. This article brings into conversation the fact that each year in the U.S. alone, millions of people suffer from a variety of diseases that could be aided from organ transplantation therapies. Now think about the widespread need for transplantable tissues and the fact that many patients die while waiting for donor organs. It is from this need that the field of tissue engineering has emerged. Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary field that involves the use of the biological sciences and engineering (Bioengineering) to develop tissues that restore, maintain, or enhance tissue function. The article goes on to explain the issue

“Despite significant advances in tissue engineering, which have resulted in successful engineering of organs such as skin and cartilage, there are a number of challenges that remain in making off- the-shelf tissue-engineered organs.”

Some of those barriers include the lack of a renewable source of functional cells that are immunologically compatible with the patient or in their words

“the lack of biomaterials with desired mechanical, chemical, and bio- logical properties; and the inability to generate large, vascularized tissues that can easily integrate into the host’s circulatory system with the architectural complexity of native tissues.”

The article goes on to explain in the past few years microfabrication has been increasingly used in biomedical applications partly because of the emergence of techniques such as soft lithography to fabricate miscroscale devices such as microfabricated scaffolding that many tissue engineering applications use to provide cells with a suitable growth environment, optimal oxygen levels, effective nutrients transport, as well as mechanical integrity. Scaffolds aim to provide the environment to bring cells in close proximity so that they can assemble to form tissues, similar to how a 3D model is printed bead by bead layer by layer. So what happens when we figure out how to 3D print stem cells on the microscale? Is 3D printing organs for transplantation ethical? Who will have access to this potentially life changing technology?

Bibliography

22, A., 2014, 20, 2:26 Pm, & 295. (n.d.). How 3D Printing Will Revolutionize Our World. Retrieved October 21, 2014, from http://www.businessinsider.com/the-next-industrial-revolution-is-here-3d-printing-2014-8

28, K. L. A., 2014, 22, 11:29 Am, & 5, 301. (n.d.). This 3D Printed Vertebra Is A Huge Step Forward For Medicine. Retrieved October 21, 2014, from http://www.businessinsider.com/3d-printing-can-create-replacement-bones-2014-8

Boren, Z. D. (n.d.). 3D printed heart saves baby’s life as medical technology leaps ahead. Retrieved October 21, 2014, from http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/3d-printed-heart-saves-babys-life-as-medical-technology-leaps-ahead-9776931.html

Congenital Heart Defects. (n.d.). [Text]. Retrieved October 21, 2014, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/congenitalheartdefects.html

Facts, P. F., FictionParade, & Nachos, D. W. to K. W. Y. T. C. F. (n.d.). How 3-D Printing is Transforming Everything from Medicine to Manufacturing. Retrieved November 4, 2014, from http://communitytable.com/345790/parade/how-3-d-printing-is-transforming-everything-from-medicine-to-manufacturing/

Fung, K. (2006). Artwork Using 3D Computed Tomography: Extending Radiology into the Realm of Visual Art. Leonardo, 39(3), 187–226.

Khademhosseini, A., Langer, R., Borenstein, J., & Vacanti, J. P. (2006). Microscale Technologies for Tissue Engineering and Biology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103(8), 2480–2487.

Neurosurgeons successfully implant 3D printed skull (Wired UK). (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2014, from http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/3d-printed-skull

Thomsen, D. E. (1987). X-Ray Microscopy in 3-D. Science News, 131(19), 300–301. doi:10.2307/3971340

X-ray computed tomography. (2014, November 3). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=X-ray_computed_tomography&oldid=632299643

Blue Rabbit Iteration #2

 John Grieco

The idea I have been working with is very personal to me and directly relates to my current interests in computer programming. I decided not to focus on a specific object but an alternative way of making ones object or idea 3d printable in the future. The alternative way to design 3d models that I have been exploring is through the use of a programming language called Javascript and an application called OpenJSCad. By the end of the quarter I hope to contribute to the open source community a number of shapes and objects submitted to the OpenJsCAD github examples page.

The idea of using Javascript to move from idea, text, image and then 3d printed object is a complicated one that contains many versions of text’s, ideas and images within itself. Not only will I have to explain this idea to my professors and classmates through text in the form of the very iteration you are currently reading I will also have to do the same to my computer in a completely different coded language. By using Javascript code in the form of text I am able to explain to my computer the simple object I wish to create. This form of 3d design differs from what most of my classmates are doing in that I am communicating with my computer by using mainly text and they are communicating mainly through dragging and clicking. The dragging and clicking technique is possible because someone programed a user-friendly interface so designers could create without having to write strenuous code, this allows for faster and more efficient design.

3d modeling software does allow for faster design but by using it are you potentially giving up ownership of the designs you create? “If you’re not able to open and replace the batteries in your iPod or replace the fuel-sender switch on your Chevy truck, you don’t really own it,” Mr. Jalopy argues. “The terms of ownership are still dictated by the company that assembled it and glued the iPod shut so that you couldn’t get into it.”(Jalopy, NPR.org) The argument presented by Mr. Jalopy applies not just to hardware like your iPod but to software as well. This illusion that you have the freedom to create anything you want with the use of their software only masks the real objective that you only have this freedom as long as they allow you to have it. While TinkerCAD is a great tool for design as is an iPod for playing music, the user often doesn’t know what is going on inside the machine or behind the UI (User Interface) of a web application or software package. This quote inspired me to take ownership of my designs and embrace the DIY mentality of the open source community through programming.

Now having been briefly introduced what is going on behind the software, I couldn’t help but wonder what I was missing out on by learning how to navigate the user interface and not actually having any knowledge of what was going on under the hood. This is why I feel the idea of 3d design by way of a programming language is important and is a part of the larger discussion within the ‘Maker’ community about ownership and the value in being able to build something from the ground up. I think that we are often too reliant on things we do not understand. This practice is dangerous because it puts the power of who can create in the hands of those that understand the technology. At any point the owners of the software could take their software away or require you to purchase it, then where would you be? By learning how to build something from the ground up, through programming, you are empowering yourself as a user.

Not only does using something you don’t understand put you at the mercy of the creator, it also has the potential to make you lazy and compliant. “To most, computers are a means to an end, not something you want to learn about. A doctor isn’t interested in how an EKG machine works; he just wants to use it and read the results. A structural engineer doesn’t concern himself with how his calculator works; he just wants to use it to calculate loads.”(Smith, PCMag.com) Programing may be a dying art. There is little motivation to learn how to program something when someone has already made an application that can do what you wished to accomplish. With spell check and auto correct on every computer and smartphone what motivation do we have to learn to spell words correctly? I don’t want to use computers as just a means to an end. I want to understand how shapes are generated and keep the dying art of programming alive within Making Meaning Matter.

The lack of documentation about 3d design by way of programming just enforces my concerns about the power software developers have over your creativity. The only group of people I found interested in using OpenJSCad and Javascript as a 3d design tool were the 226 members of their Google + community. But looking at the parent question to my idea, the importance of being able to create something from the ground up is a thought best described by author Douglass Rushkoff. “When human beings acquired language, we learned not just how to listen but how to speak. When we gained literacy, we learned not just how to read but how to write. And as we move into an increasingly digital reality, we must learn not just how to use programs but how to make them.”(Douglass 7)

In Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age, Douglass Rushkoff argues that now more than ever it’s time to learn to program: “Understanding programming — either as a real programmer or even, as I’m suggesting, as more of a critical thinker — is the only way to truly know what’s going on in a digital environment, and to make willful choices about the roles we play.” He suggests that you take control of your fate in a world of growing technology or it will take control of you. “It’s really that simple: Program, or be programmed. Choose the former, and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.”(Douglass 8) I don’t want to be controlled; I want access the control panel of my future.

Through researching the value of computer programming, the idea of creating something tangible by way of a programming language made me realize that in the current stages of my development the object that I end up creating is irrelevant. The skills that I learn along the way are the most important and meaningful aspect of my ‘making’ experience. Programming is a tool that more and more artists will be using and it should be looked at as another medium for design. “Programming is no longer an exclusive domain of a particular discipline. The time has come for art and design to embrace programming and make it its own.”(Amiri 2011)

Citations:

“Are You Sure You Own Your Stuff? : NPR.” N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

“Programming: A Dying Art? | Tim Smith | PCMag.com.” N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

Rushkoff, Douglas. Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age. New York: OR Books, 2010. Print.

Amiri, F. (2011), Programming as Design: The Role of Programming in Interactive Media Curriculum in Art and Design. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 30: 200–210. doi: 10.1111/j.1476-8070.2011.01680.x

Eric Ross

Week 6

Blue Rabbit pt. 2 WD:614

11/4/2014

WD 919

3D Horseshoes

In a world already full of so much stuff I wanted to expand on the Idea of 3D printing horseshoes. This idea is meaningful to me because it has been used in to help horses. My interest in helping horses stems from jobs of my youth in which I worked with horses. I like this idea, the fact that you can scan a horses hoof and 3d print a horseshoe that will then improve that horses well being is awesome. The horseshoes I’ve had the privilege to read about were racing shoes and horseshoes that help with a disease called Laminitis. “Laminitis (also termed founder) is inflammation of the laminae of the foot – the soft tissue structures that attach the coffin or pedal bone of the foot to the hoof wall. The inflammation and damage to the laminae causes extreme pain and leads to instability of the coffin bone in the hoof. In more severe cases it can lead to complete separation of and rotation of the pedal bone within the hoof wall. Laminitis is a crippling condition which can be fatal in severe cases. Once a horse has had an episode of laminitis, they are particularly susceptible to future episodes. Laminitis can be managed but not cured which is why prevention is so important”. (RSPCA)  In the horse racing aspect of 3d printing the horse can run faster because the shoe is lighter. But cost significantly more because the 3d printed shoes are titanium and the traditional shoes are aluminum. For the treatment of disease in horse hoofs I believe that 3D printing can help so many horses. As this technology advances it never ceases to amaze, so much good is waiting to be done with what we have been given. Horseshoes are also symbols of good luck. This was created through ancient folklore during the stone age in Northern Europe and the British Isles. To scare away goblins and evil the people hung iron horseshoes above their door. The evil was scared of the horseshoes because, it looked like the Celtic Moon gods crescent.

In 2013 CSIRO with help from a horse podiatrists scanned and 3D printed titanium horseshoes for a horse named Holly. For three years Holly had been suffering with Laminitis. The horse’s foot is similar to our finger; the hoof wall is like our finger nail and is attached to the bone underneath. Laminitis affects the attachment between the hoof and bone, causing pain and inflammation. “The new shoes will work to redistribute weight away from the painful areas of the laminitic foot and give Holly, and horses like her, the chance to recover” (Smith)  Dr. Luke Wells-Smith is a Veterinarian from Australia whose research includes biomechanics of therapeutic horse shoes.

That same year CSIRO also created 3D horseshoe for a race horse named Titanium Prints. The printed horseshoes are half the weight of traditional aluminum horseshoes. Here is what CSIRO’s titanium expert had to say ” 3D printing a race horseshoe from titanium is a first for scientists and demonstrates the range of applications the technology can be used for.” (Barnes) Mr. John Barnes is Titanium Technologies Theme Leader Future Manufacturing Flagship, at CSIRO.

Curtis Burns in Florida uses a 3D printer to design his Polyflex  horseshoes before they go into mass production. Polyflex shoes are glue-on urethane shoes that allow the hoof to flex.

Dr. Andrew Schneider a human Podiatrist in Houston Texas commented on CSIRO work with horse podiatry, in the article “A Tale of Horseshoes, Podiatrists and Grey’s Anatomy” He says that ”  I find this new development in 3D print technology very exciting. I already create custom orthotics for my clients, using the inserts to help your feet work as efficiently as possible, making the rest of your body more stable. Right now, I make the orthotics from a mold I take of your foot when it’s in a ‘neutral’ position; once that mold is made, I modify the orthotic to create a shape that will counteract the unique problems created by your own biomechanics.” (Schneider) I think its really good that Dr. Schneider is excited for this technology. He envisions what this means for the future of human Podiatry.

Experts on this Idea seem to be in unison,  this is something that can be great. The ability to not only help horses that are crippled and in pain, but improve their hoof health for eons to come. But through this idea I discovered some one wanting to improve human foot health in similar ways. So I believe that without a doubt that these expert would agree. In a world full of so much stuff, a horseshoe that restores life is worth making more of.

In closing what I’ve learned about 3D printing and horseshoes only adds kindling to my desire. That desire is to see this idea through to completion.  Horses are noble creatures that since the beginning of time we have made work for us. We have used horses in battle and have we’ve made them things we were to weak to accomplish. I’ll leave you a quote I like from Ralph Waldo Emerson “Riding a horse is not a gentle hobby, to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole and once it has done so, he/she will have to accept that his life will be radically changed.”

Bibliography

“What is laminitis, and how can it be prevented or treated?” RSPCA N.p. , 21 Apr, 2011 Web. 3 Nov. 2014.< http://kb.rspca.org.au/What-is-laminitis-and-how-can-it-be-prevented-or-treated_461.html>

“Luke Wells-Smith BVSc” EQUINEPODIATRY  N.p. , N.d. ,Web. 3 Nov. 2014

< http://equinepodiatry.com.au/staff/158-luke-wells-smith-bvsc.html>

” John Barnes” FITT.  N.p. , N.d. ,Web. 3 Nov. 2014

< http://www.fitt.org.au/Portals/0/John%20-%20Melbourne.pdf>

Jurga, Fran “3-D Printing in the Forge and Clinic: Hoof Anatomy Models, Veterinary Applications, and Horseshoes” hoofcare. N.p. , 27 Oct. 2013 , Web. 3 Nov 2014

< http://hoofcare.blogspot.com/2013/10/3-d-printing-in-forge-and-clinic-hoof.html>

Melina, Remy ” Why Are Horseshoes Considered Lucky?” livescience. N.p. 15 Mar. 2011, Web. 3 Nov. 2014 < http://www.livescience.com/33116-lucky-horseshoes.html>

Schneider, Andrew ” A Tale of Horseshoes, Podiatrists and Grey’s Anatomy”   tanglewoodfootspecialist. N.p. 23 Dec. 2013 Web. 3 Nov. 2014

< http://www.tanglewoodfootspecialists.com/blog/a-tale-of-horseshoes-podiatrists-and-grey-s-anatomy.cfm>

Emerson, Ralph ” Quotes” thenaturallyhealthyhorse. Casie. N.d. Web. 3 Nov 2014

< http://thenaturallyhealthyhorse.com/horse-quotes/>

How can I help connect people with their higher selves through meditation, yoga, and/or any kind of spiritual practice? 

 I envision a peaceful world where people are happy, healthy, and and in harmony with themselves and others. I believe that human consciousness can be restored to a more positive, loving vibration by connecting us to our higher selves, and higher ways of being. We are already masters of our universe, we already have the full potential to be great people and live in peace, but  most of us get caught in some of the many negative and destructive forces in our environment around us. There is many healing paths to take that will significantly benefit ourselves and the greater good of our universe, but I believe some paths are more powerful and easier to access than others. In my life, I have experimented with some of these spiritual pathways, (paganism, wicca, buddhism, taoism, hinduism, vipassana, TM and various yogic techniques and styles) and found them all profound in different lights. But, one aspect that all of these practices shared was an emphasis on meditation. I believe a meditation practice  is key to improving one’s way of living, and is key to enlightening the masses.  This practice can occur in endless shapes and forms, and the type of meditation I am referring to is non-religious. Here is an example of a well-thought out description of meditation that I am referring to.

“As for modern developments, in trying to formulate a definition of meditation, a useful rule of
thumb is to consider all meditative techniques to be culturally embedded. This means that any
specific technique cannot be understood unless it is considered in the context of some particular
spiritual tradition, situated in a specific historical time period, or codified in a specific text
according to the philosophy of some particular individual.” (Taylor, 1)

When asked the question, “In a world of so much stuff, what idea is worth making?” I realized that when you make something, you are really spreading it out beyond yourself, and out into the world. When ideas become material, it is immediately easier for people to access and share. I want to spread and share my passion for meditation and yoga, and help people create a space in their homes where they can feel connected to their higher selves and practice their meditation.  Thus, I want to make a geodesic shrine.

The concept of shrine is embedded in many religious and non-religious communities globally. Shrines are ancient spaces of worship, prayer, and self-discipline, that are in temples, monasteries, and homes of people. Shrines symbolize the higher self, Gods or Goddesses, and connect people with something that is important to them and their community. In the eastern world, shrines are still heavily a part of people homes and culture. In Thailand, people build spirit houses in their homes, businesses, and even parks and sites, where they place food and water in respect for the spirits that live there before and now, and for the Buddha. In the Mongolia section of the Material World, the most valued possessions were the “TV (Father), Statue of Buddha inherited from grandfather (Mother).” (Menzel, 45). In the India section of the Material World, the most valued possessions were the, “Print of Hindu gods seen in Big Picture (Father), Sculptures of gods and goddesses of power and strength, who will protect family and home.” (Menzel, 71). In the Bhutan section of the Material World, the most valued possessions were, “Religious book (Father, Mother, 1st daughter)” (Menzel, 78) These are just mere insights into how important these shrine spaces are, and how strong these spaces are in culture. I find it interesting how in the West we have somewhat lost creating these spaces within our homes, and only seek these spaces in the form of churches, temples, or natural settings. Creating a sacred space within our homes, can also help create a sacred space within ourselves. 

christian shrine

japanese shrine

indian shrine

thai shrine

buddhist shrines

People in the West are becoming more and more interested in meditation, and scientists alike are interested in its effects. I stumbled upon an article that expands on the role and history of meditation in the West. “Meanwhile, the popular revolution in modern culture grounded in spirituality and consciousness is having a growing impact on traditional institutions such as medicine, religion, mental health, corporate management strategies, concepts of marriage, child rearing, and the family, and more.” (Taylor, 6) There are numerous studies on the benefits of meditation, and numerous meditators who spent their lives spreading this practice. Science is a useful tool to understand things, and it is amazing how we can “prove” experiences to be “real” in a scientific manner. Science is a language in itself that helps us communicate to the world. In the article is a summary of studies done on TM meditation and its effects:

      ” Studies then began to show effects when TM was applied to medical conditions such as asthma, angina, and high blood pressure. Personality variables became a focus of research. These included measures of intellectual problem-solving ability, thinking and recall, creativity, field independence, sense of self-esteem, and self-actualization. Researchers then moved into applied social situations, looking at the effects of teaching TM to the police, the military, and such populations as juvenile offenders, incarcerated adults, high school students, and athletes, as well as managers in the corporate environment. Meanwhile, more subtle biochemical measures of blood chemistry were also undertaken. These included endocrine levels, effects on neurotransmitters such as dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin, and the measurement of altered cell metabolism. TM was also examined in the context of various psychiatric disorders.” (Taylor, 10)

S.N. Goenka is one of the best modern day examples of a person who created meditation spaces and made it accessible. He created centers all over the world that teach a variety of Vipassana meditation courses. The centres are run completely volunteer based, and all of the courses are paid strictly by donation, after the course is complete. I attended one of his 10 day courses, and found it astonishing how many people were given access to this knowledge that would have not been to otherwise. “If we are to benefit from the truth, we have to experience it directly. Only then can we know that it is really true.”  (William, 15) He says that we must find our own truths and experience them to gain knowledge, and I want to help people create spaces where that is possible.

I want to create my own shrine that is a type of terrarium. I want the shell to be a 3d printed geodesic dome, because the sacred geometry behind the domes are striking, and they are one of the most environmentally sound structures. R. Buckminster Fuller was the strongest innovator of geodesic domes, and on his website he states, “The spherical structure of a dome is one of the most efficient interior atmospheres for human dwellings because air and energy are allowed to circulate without obstruction.” (Buckminster Fuller Institute).

     In my shrine, I want there to be plants to represent the growing and nurturing of myself and the world, and I want to be able to tend my shrine and there to literally be life inside of it. Instead of Gods, Goddesses, symbols, words, or pictures, I want to bring the attention back to mother earth, and the life around us now. There are is an epidemic of urban gardens, and people wanting local food supplies and farms, and I feel in myself to bring the garden home. “Results suggest that community gardens were perceived by gardeners to provide numerous health benefits, including improved access to food, improved nutrition, increased physical activity and improved mental health.” (Growing Urban Health: Community Gardening in South-East Toronto) 

Asking myself again and again what I want to create in the 3d printer, led me to questioning what I want to create in this world. Researching others and how they created spaces for meditation practice, and seeing through my travels how these spaces were valued made my intention concrete. I started with wanting to create a terrarium, and now I want that terrarium to be a shrine in my home, and I want to inspire people to create sacred spaces for themselves.

Bibliography:

Murphy, Michael, Steven Donovan, and Eugene Taylor. “The physical and psychological effects of meditation: A review of contemporary research.”Published by the Institute of Noetic Sciences (1997).

Menzel, Peter, and Charles C. Mann. Material World: A Global Family Portrait. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1994. Print.

Hart, William. The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation as Taught by S.N. Goenka. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987. Print.

“About Fuller.” Geodesic Domes. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.     https://bfi.org/about-fuller/big-ideas/geodesic-domes

Wakefield, Sarah, et al. “Growing urban health: community gardening in South-East Toronto.” Health promotion international 22.2 (2007): 92-101.

What does it mean to make one’s sound? I wish to design many different interfaces for playing guitar.  Originally picks were handmade by each musician for their own instrument.  I wish to do something similar and create a connection with my sound by creating my own picks with the 3-D printer.  The pick is the major interface with the guitar and my body. There have been many different innovators of sound throughout the centuries. People have used many types of materials to create distinct sounds. “Musicians have used plectrums to play stringed instruments for thousands of years. Feather quills were likely the first standardized plectra and became widely used until the late 19th century. At that point, the shift towards what became the superior plectrum material took place; the outer shell casing of a Atlantic hawksbill sea turtle[…]” [Hoover, 11-12]

Even now people are improving on the original plectrum design and editing it to create their own sound. A company, named Pykmax, has created “a patented new style of super comfortable guitar pick that fits perfectly in the player’s hand.“ [“A Guitar Pick Revolution by Pykmax – The Best Guitar Pick Ever” http://www.pykmax.com/] 

Click here to view the embedded video.

There are also other approaches to guitar picks such as the Jellifish pick that attempts to emulate the sound of a 12-strint guitar by having multiple strands of metal hit the guitar depending on how one holds the pick.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Famous guitarists have had to explore and create their distinct tone. The creation of different tones is dependent on many different variables such as guitar strings, body, pickups, plectrums (aka picks), effect pedals, and amplifiers. Guitarists such as The Edge from U2 has a completely different effects setup for each song that he uses and the effects are just as much a part of his guitar playing as well as the actually playing of the guitar. [check out how he uses rhythmic delay to make his sound in this song]

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jerry Garcia from The Grateful Dead used a Fender extra heavy flat pick, as well as a plethora of different stompbox effects. [“Grateful Dead – Jerry Garcia Guitar Rig Gear and Equipment.” Accessed November 3, 2014. http://www.uberproaudio.com/who-plays-what/433-grateful-dead-jerry-garcia-guitar-rig-gear-and-equipment.]

Jimi Hendrix created for himself a sound that was uniquely his with his guitars, picks, strings, pedals and amps, and even what parts of his body he used to pluck the strings with [such as using his teeth to pluck the strings]. “Jimi’s obsession with his guitar garnered him a nickname around Clarksville: Marbles. He was so named because people thought he had ‘lost his marbles’ and was crazy as a result of his excessive practicing. The guitar had become an extension of his body[…]” [Cross, 1727] It is interesting to see how he too, saw the extension of his own identity or sense of self onto his guitar. He also used that same approach into his effects. “[Ivor Arbiter] said, ‘Can’t I make a fuzz unit with a different shape?’ I saw microphone stand with the cast iron base, and I said, ‘Why don’t we make it round so it won’t slip?’ Hence the Fuzz Face, which had some very nice sounds. Hendrix especially liked it. Jimi used to visit the Sound City shop a lot, and he got his first Fuzz Face there or from Manny’s in New York.” [Thompson, 426] Many times the artist would work very close with innovators of effects pedals to make their sound.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The sounds that musicians create for themselves is actually not a material object, but they use material objects such as effects and picks to create the sound or muse[ic]. The word ‘music’ stems from the word ‘muse’ which means to think or contemplate. Music is not matter but rather exists in the realm of ideas or forms. “[Plato] believed that [..] there is certain truth, but that this material world cannot reveal it. It can only present appearances, which lead us to form opinions, rather than knowledge. The truth is to be found elsewhere, on a different plane, in the non-material world of ideas or forms.” (“Plato’s Realm of Forms”) Plato makes an interesting distinction between the material world and the conceptual world, and actually asserts that since the conceptual world [in theory] makes perfect sense, that it is in fact more real than the material world with its seemingly flawed essence. For instance: “When we see a circle that has been drawn well what we are actually seeing is a close approximation of a perfect circle. In fact a perfect circle could not be seen at all. Infinite points which make up its circumference do not take up any space, they exist in logic rather than in a physical form. As soon as someone tries to draw it, even if he uses the most sophisticated computerised equipment, it becomes imperfect. But although the Ideal Form of a circle has never been seen, and never could be seen, people do know what a circle is, they can define it while at the same time accepting that it cannot be translated into the material world without losing its perfection.” [“Plato’s Realm of Forms”]

Music in a sense shows how thoughts take form but that form is only conceptual and not material. The medium by which it is expressed—such as records, CD’s, and MP3 files—are a sort of material, but the actual song/sound is not material, only carried by it. Ontological questions then arise on what constitutes reality. Many think of reality as only the material world, but I disagree. Certain truths are necessarily true by definition such as the statement: “Nothing does not exist.” That is a necessary truth in that the very definition of nothing is: “that which does not exist.” If nothing does not exist, than it also follows that everything does exist. The question is not if something exists or not (if it is something, than by the very definition of ‘something’ it is not ‘nothing’) it is rather a question on how and where something exists.

So I see that we extend our mind into our things, but also materiality is not the only thing we know to exist, in fact it is one of the things that Berkeley shows that we cannot prove to exist apart from the mind. “All the choir of heaven and furniture of earth – in a word, all those bodies which compose the frame of the world – have not any subsistence without a mind.” [Berkeley, WEB] A pick is a material object that is meaningless without the mind or muse[ic], but when understood as an extension of the mind into the material realm, it is then really making music matter.

Bibliography

Change is encroaching upon an art medium famous for its stagnant nature. Someone else has explained it with more eloquence and authority than I. “Printmaking in the twenty-first century…simultaneously relies on and explodes tradition; welcomes the incursions of other mediums and materials; and adopts traditional techniques into a larger practice to suit formal, technical, or conceptual concerns. This sense of fluidity is seen in other quarters, as publishers and printers adapt to the changing needs of both artists and the market, and as formerly codified roles are circumvented to allow for reinvigorated do-it-yourself production. Within these multiple channels of activity, there is both an embrace of tradition and an openness to expanding the boundaries, a desire to maintain and acknowledge print’s specificity and to position it within a larger discussion that will keep the print world — and the print people — central to contemporary art” (Suzuki 24). Suzuki, here, captures the irony of evolving printmaking. There are things to preserve and there are things to push forward —  printmaking falls under both categories, and there is something almost eerily poetic about that.

My project has remained relatively unchanged throughout the course of this course; the motive behind it, on the other hand, have multiplied and become more energized. Among numerous other possibilities for increased artistic precision through computer-aided printmaking, is the potential for multi-layer stamps (meaning color). Running parallel to my digital road-less-traveled are the subjects of Patric Prince’s article, Imagining by Numbers: A Historical View of Digital Printmaking in America:  “Printmakers have historically used ‘states,’ examples taken at long intervals along the final process, when analyzing and completing a work. When artists use the computer, they no longer need be afraid of alterations and worry about when a work is finished…this also changed the concept of a work-in-progress” (Prince 97). I found solace in these stories of artists who gained a valuable tool without losing what it is that breathes life into art. In order to not mislead the reader, I should disclose that Prince’s definition for “digital printmaking” is not the same as mine. To him, it is any work of art created on the machines, but he focuses on painters and other visual artists who decided to switch to computers when Macintosh’s desktop first came into existence in 1984. I like my definition better, and for one reason: my concept of digital printmaking facilitates limitations, and limitations breed creativity.

When there are restrictions placed upon a piece of art, the potential for innovation is often increased. This, I believe, is what first attracted me to relief printmaking. And pushing these limitations are what keeps it as a recurring theme in my life. It leads to artistic experiments I could have never otherwise conceived. Jennifer Smith’s critique of an art show at the Chazen Museum of Art that exhibited two prolific relief printmakers demonstrates the different directions these limitations can push people in. “This small show illustrates how printmaking diverged, some artists adhering to more traditional techniques and subjects and others moving in a more experimental direction. Take two prints with similar subjects, Hashiguchi Goyo’s Underrobe (1920) and Mitsutani Kunishiro’s Nude Woman on Blanket (c. 1935). Although only 15 years separate them, they’re worlds apart stylistically. Underrobe is meticulous and elegant in its composition. As a woman ties her patterned robe, the sash momentarily held in her mouth, the strands of her hair are remarkably detailed. The dusty red butterfly-and-floral pattern on the robe contrasts with creamy expanses of skin that are formed by unprinted areas on the paper, a nifty and economical design solution. Nude Woman on Blanket, although also a color woodcut, has a loose, free quality that makes it seem more like a lithograph. Both the flowing lines and the informality of the subject call to mind European artists like Matisse. Instead of Goyo’s fine detail, Kunishiro depicts his woman elementally: slits for eyes, a single slash for a nose, two lines for a mouth” (Smith 16).

Nonetheless, these two artists are still decidedly thinking inside the alleged box, while there are artists out there who have torn that box apart. In 2011, Erik Brunvand and Al Denyer developed a method of “micro-scale printmaking” where materials that would normally go into creating micro-chips are used instead for tiny, tiny printmaking. This takes unique factors typically revolving around developing hardware with no aesthetic value, and turns them into restrictions for a new art form. This is the model I would like to use for my project. Using the filament and the printer we have, along with the inevitable warping and dis figuration, my limitations are already more-or-less non-negotiable.

After thinking about all of the aforementioned thought-tangents, I look at the smiley face I printed as a toe-dip in the water and I see only potential. “Technical achievement in its true form is significantly a positive process. The excitement outweighs the apprehension, and I am ready to jump. And in light of all this, I must still admit that this project is a sidetrack rather than a leap forward. Because authenticity can not be duplicated. “[W]hen one’s desire for creative expression is dominated by imposed disintigrative techniques, practiced in isolation, expressions become inane and the technical process is a negative one” (Andrews 25).

Works Cited:

Suzuki, Sarah. “Print People: A Brief Taxonomy of -Contemporary Printmaking.” Art Journal70.4 (2011): 6. Web.

Prince, Patric D. “Imaging by Numbers: A Historical View of Digital Printmaking in America.” Art Journal 68.1 (2009): 90. Web.

Smith, Jennifer A. “Two Roads Diverged.” Isthmus 25 Nov. 2011: 16. Web.

Brunvand, Erik, and Al Denyer. “Micro-Scale Printmaking on Silicon.” Leonardo 44.5 (2011): 392–400. Web.

Andrews, Michael F. “The Art of Creative Printmaking.” Art Education 17.4 (1964): 23–25. Web.

What is the relationship between 3D printing and food production? My question has changed, but my plan is still the same; to print a completely edible 3D object. I’m doing this because I believe that it eliminates the use of plastic, even a biodegradable plastic substitute, and creates an item that can ultimately be returned to the earth without doing extreme damage. I’m also interested in why the shape of an item reflects the action that we feel we should take. I have a feelings of insecurity, I’m afraid this experiment won’t work. There are fully functional 3D food printers on the market, but because of money, I’m forced to approach this project in a do-it-your-self fashion. It is rewarding to be completely hands-on in the process of creation, experimentation and success/failure, it also makes everything so much more personal. I feel like I’m pregnant and the possibility of a miscarriage is constantly on my mind. Even if the extruder that I’m downloading and printing from thingiverse doesn’t work I will just go back to the drawing board and try again, or manipulate the design that I downloaded. The reason I’m using thingiverse is because I have no idea how to create an extruder, I really appreciate the design that I have found and really hope it works. This will not affect the learning process because the core focus of my project is to print food. I’m using the design to support my final product, you can find the extruder that I’m trying to building and printing by following this link http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:20733

I’m curious about the production of food and how it’s made, and how I might feel more connected to what I’m eating because I designed it. Will other people feel a different connection to my item because they know that I made it? Because they know that they can eat it? Some food, like beer has deep roots to cultures across the globe, although its birth is hard to place in a timeline there was a beer goddess in Sumer called Ninkasi (Kim). What is the history of the filament I’m going to use? What culture is it connected to? These questions arose as I furthered my research, it’s surprising going through Kim’s history of processed food and reading its cultural origin. “My definition of ‘fresh’ is something that’s rushed from the garden straight to the kitchen, which is when food is going to look and taste best. (Clydesdale 6).” I’ve been asking a lot of questions but these questions took shape while I was doing my research. Clydesdale made me wonder; will my 3D printed edible objects be considered, “fresh?” I am actually excited to say, “here is your freshly printed (insert random object here).” Maybe 3D printing could be used to fight the obesity epidemic, a program could be made that will, “Change the way people buy food, it will change the way they consume food, and it will change the way they think about food (Claudia).” What’s most surprising by my research and how it compares to the research I had done initially is that there are already 3D food printers on the market.

Most of my sources didn’t directly tie into my question, although there was some interesting sources I found on peoples opinions of processed food and the history of it. Processed food originated from trying to find a way to preserve food (Clydesdale 6), which has an interesting relationship to my idea. I’m thinking about using a filament that will not be processed already, something organic and surprising. Finding a filament that I find personally important has been difficult for me, chocolate seems like the clear-cut answer but I would like to use multiple filaments.

Overall my research unearthed that 3D printed food is alive and well, and that it has a market. As to some of my earlier questions mentioned in paragraph two, I was unable to find a solid answer. I now know that what I’m doing isn’t as revolutionary as I once thought, but I’ve found inspiration in what I’ve read. There is new and emerging technology surrounding my idea , I can’t wait to see where it will be headed. My original idea still remains the same after all of my research. I’ve become more interested in food production but I believe that’s due to the progress of my project; I’m slowly identifying as a, “food processor.” This identification also makes me feel like a preservationist, which is interesting because my objects will be eaten. Is 3D printing essentially about preservation? I’m both excited and afraid of what will happen next in my 3D printing journey, hopefully I’ll be able to print edible objects that will visually and tastefully delight people.

.Works Sited

Kim, Evelyn. “The Amazing Multimillion-Year History Of Processed Food.” Scientific American 309.3 (2013): 50-55. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

Clydesdale, Fergus M. “Food Processing Demystified.” Consumer Reports On Health 23.11 (2011): 6. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

Claudia, Puig, @claudiapuig, and TODAY USA. “Food for thought from Katie Couric.” USA Today n.d.: Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

Kim, Sandra, Matt Golding, and Richard H. Archer. “The Application Of Computer Color Matching Techniques To The Matching Of Target Colors In A Food Substrate: A First Step In The Development Of Foods With Customized Appearance.” Journal Of Food Science 77.6 (2012): S216-S225. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2014

What We’re 3D Printing Now: Valentine’s Day.” Architect 103.2 (2014): 30. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

“I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it’s because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships change, it’s because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea – whether it is to sail or to watch it – we are going back from whence we came”. (JFK, 1956, http://www.aclibrary.org)

My question which is how can I be a figure that helps connect people back with the sea, basic elements, and the unitive light of nature, while spread the thrill of the art of surf while helping spread the understanding that it is such an aesthetic/energetic delight at the same time? My idea that Im going to stick with is various surfboard fins. It seems like such a novel idea to me for I’ve always enjoyed the imagination catalyzing, humbling, enlightening, and nerve tickling experience of being in the sea. For my imaging I have done a lot of sketching and researching especially old childhood heroes to try and create a fin design thats a blend of all of there favorite styles. I’ve also found inspiration from orcas mostly, if you look at there fins I’m sure you would agree as well that nature provided them with a top notch fin technology. Great Whites surely impressed me as well but I find myself as of late favoring the classic orca design. Each fin I print will also be hand painted by me, either with an abstraction of colors and patterns or a simple timeless symbol such as the aesthetic symbol such as the “Enso”, or maybe even e=mc2 or James Maxwells wave equations.  Fins may not save the earth or be a cosmic secret unlocking invention but they do have great meaning to me for its always been an activity in which I come back with answers I hadn’t even thought of asking before paddling out. One of my best memories was of a night camping out in Northern California when me and my friend tried to surf under the stars and moon, we were rather unsuccessful but there were moments the water was so still you could see the stars above reflecting perfectly twinkling above and off the water. It truly was enchanting to me and my friend Shanelle. As we sat just purely observing what was, I couldn’t help but be overcome by feelings of selfless joy and wholeness it was like I could totally sense the unknown and unspeakable and was almost overwhelmed by feelings of more implicit levels of reality and I remember thinking the universe or multiverse whatever it is must be a cosmic joke for something to be as perfect as those instances were. Im oh so grateful for these kinda memories I just wish it was easier to explain and stay in that optimally clear timeless and aesthetic voyager like consciousness all the time not just when Im way out in wilderness.  This idea is meaningful to me for I’ve had this weird enchantment towards the sea and force of nature since I was young that only seems to expand the more I grow and learn. Every time Im in the ocean its like I have cosmic consciousness it truly feels like planetary magic to me.  These absolutely enlightening moments I’ve experienced out in the natural world not only are the best of my young life but they also left me with a tremendous passion to really push the environmental activist envelope and do whatever it takes to stop all the biospheric harm and rubbish our collective habits, un-mindful technological use, and industrial growth have caused. This project also has meaning to me for it gives me a chance to give back to all the surfing, wilderness, and aesthetic junkies out there by creating an eco friendly custom surfboard fin designs that people could actually learn to print for themselves. The idea of a fin and the sea overall intrigues my intellect in various different ways, well for one thats basically where planetary creation began for all organisms were all made up of those essential elements so clearly thats why some of us have a great longing to keep returning back to from where we once came. It also intrigues my intellect because throughout history the ocean has had such an archetypal effect in some of the worlds greatest works and thinkers. Everybody from painters to poets “You are not just a drop in the ocean, you are the mighty ocean in the drop”.(www.poets.org/poetsorg”) To historical texts such as the Bhagavad Ghita in which the infinite is basically described as like a unified field or multiverse an abyss or dreaming cosmos or sea of energetic potentiality in which universes are forever bubbling, expanding, unfolding and enfolding out of so various simultaneous realities can evolve allowing for anything and everything to happen. Theres many other greats too inspired by the sea like Shakespeare, Richard Feynman, Aldous Huxley, Herman Melville, James Joyce,  and Terence Mckenna who in this example I think uses the ocean as a marvelous metaphor for receiving ideas, “The creative act is a letting down of the net of human imagination into the ocean of chaos on which we are suspended, and the attempt to bring out of it ideas. It is the night sea journey, the lone fisherman on a tropical sea with his nets, and you let these nets down – sometimes, something tears through them that leaves them in shreds and you just row for shore, and put your head under your bed and pray. At other times what slips through are the minutiae, the minnows of this ichthyological metaphor of idea chasing.But, sometimes, you can actually bring home something that is food, food for the human community that we can sustain ourselves on and go forward.”(http://www.vasulka.org/Plan, Plant, Planet). The list could go on endlessly but its clear that the sea effects our collective unconsciousness, perhaps because its so essential to life and evolution or perhaps because it makes us ponder mystery and the subtler levels of reality. Or maybe it just purely reminds us of our universe and deep down thats what we are so perhaps thats why the chaotic sea is such recurring theme in past literature and artwork.

Now the slight problem that arises with my project, is that there really is no market yet for 3d printed surfboard fins, so I don’t really have a large spectrum of figures I can reference from and see who they are in conversation with. Which is fine for on top of learning from the dimensions of an orca fin, I’ve been studying some of my favorite childhood surfers to understand the different specks and styles of fins they most enjoyed, with the aim to create one of my own which is a result from all of there various insights from years of intense surf. The surfers I am looking to for inspiration are Larry Bertlemann who basically was a aesthetic god in the water and was apart of surfs golden years throughout the 60s and Kelly Slater who’s like a modern Jedi practically. Ive read basically any material those two have written (Pipe Dreams, Kelly Slater, 03) and they have influenced my imagination greatly just by understanding how they feel in the sea, there both such sensitive,attentive, and sharp reactive people so they make me want to create a fin with just enough flex so the rider has to stay low and there center of gravity is low so than they can really feel the fin flex and give the water attention as you turn.  The more I study and discover the more I’m beginning to feel confident that I’m designing a novel fin technology and developing my own style along the way.

http://www.aclibrary.org

http://www.vasulka.org/Plan, Plant, Planet

(Pipe Dreams, Kelly Slater, 2003)

home

Anthony Stallsworth

Sarah Williams and Arlen Speights

Making Meaning Matter

3 November 2014

Blue Rabbit Iteration #2

As all great or amazing things invented in this world, they all start off with just an idea. Whether this is a good idea or not, we do not always know. I question what creates a good idea, is it the complexity of deep thought that was put into an idea, the intentional motivations behind it, or is it simply how great the use of the idea plays a role in people’s lives? I believe that these roles play a key part in the machine that is “idea-making.” Sometimes the idea we come up with are already invented. As for my idea, I am copying something that nature has created many times over and over again: The beehive. My intentions are not to innovate the beehive, or make it better by any means, but only to recreate the beehive to help people think about the environment they live in, in a new way. This is the intentional motivation behind my idea.

I would only like to create this beehive in a way that it may be able to possibly sustain a hive of inhabitants that may so choose to move into it, but also resemble the shape of something meaningful so that I can innovate the way people think. As of now, I am not sure entirely what that shape will be, because there are many different meaningful shapes I could choose. Shape ideas could range from the shape of the world with all of its continents plateau’d into it, to the less complex shape of just a heart. Even though both of these shapes symbolize the relationship between honeybees and their care for the world and the nature in it, there are still many options to choose from. Another idea to consider in the creation of my project is the filament that I choose to print it out with. PLA is your standard, biodegrade-able filament that you can use if you want the Earth to inherit more plastic. I do not wish to do this, so I want to use a more natural filament to create my beehive, one that is created from recycled wood. This filament is called “Laywoo-D3.” Although this filament is not as good as the beeswax filament, we do not have the extruder needed in order to print beeswax.

Although parasites and harsh weather environments are not the only enemies of the life pertaining to a bee, they are still part of the number of the natural elements that can kill them. By natural elements, I mean ways humans have not destructed their lives by force of the honey production businesses in today’s modern era. “Honey-bees inadvertently come into contact with a wide array of inorganic and organic pollutants, and these are often taken back to the colony.” (Devillers, Preface) As seen in texts written by those who study bees because of their role in the agricultural aspect of the world, they are affected by the way us humans are affecting the environment that they are living in. To show the importance that Genus Apis (honey bees) play in our agriculture, there have been many studies done, and I would like to portray them to you. The U.S Department of Agriculture wrote an article stating that “the bumblebee is regarded as one of the most efficient pollinators of many crops.” They wrote this article in response to the decline in population of honeybees in 1976, and since then, the bee population in the United States has only gone downhill.

“The first human-constructed hives were variations on the theme of the hollow tree.” (Jacobson 25-26) The earliest known man-made beehives were found in Israel, which dates back to around the year of 900 B.C. This is a very early time in human history that honeybees even became important. In the tombs of Egypt, archaeologists discovered honey buried with the important figures of that time, which means it held either a medicinal value, a spiritual value, or high standard-value to their culture (That is to say it was worth a couple dollars). May I also add the fun fact that when they found this honey, even after thousands of years, it was still edible because honey never goes bad. Honey is also a form of antiseptic. One that is considered a  “slow-release antiseptic, one that does not damage tissue as other antiseptics sometimes can.” (Buchmann 120)

There has been many ways that honey is used throughout the world. The most important part of this use is the creation of it. To create it, bees must first find the pollen from flowers to create it. During this time is when they pollinate flowers and keep the flowers alive, because most flowers would not survive without the bees there to pollinate them. “Without honeybees, you would be limited to eating oats, rice, and corn.” (Markle 6) Although some of us would live happy eating just oats, rice, and corn, many people would probably not be so happy doing that. We have many vegetables and fruits that we need to eat to have our daily intake of nutrients in order for us to stay healthy. Without this, the world and the people in it would look much different, and we would have to change the technologies we use just to be able to survive.

Although all of these facts and textual support relate to my project, my project is not made with the intention to save the bees. Again, my project has only one soul purpose of just helping innovate the way people think about honeybees. My goal is to change people’s minds next time they decide to step on one when they see it collection pollen from a flower, because even one honeybee lost can create a big difference to its hive. I think think that the goal of everyone’s projects is to make people think in a different way, or to gain some knowledge behind the meaning of our project. Although we may not be able to change the world, we may be able to change the way people look at certain aspects of it, if not a certain aspect of the world entirely. And who knows, maybe we can even change the way people live on the world as well.

Works Cited

Buchmann, Stephen L. Honey Bees: Letters from the Hive. New York:

Delacorte, 2010. Print.

Devillers, James, and Minh-Hà Pham-Delègue. Honey Bees: Estimating the

          Environmental Impact of Chemicals. London: Taylor & Francis, 2002.

Jacobsen, Rowan. Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the

Coming Agricultural Crisis. New York: Bloomsbury, 2008. Print.

Markle, Sandra. The Case of the Vanishing Honey Bees: A Scientific

Mystery. Minneapolis: Millbook, 2014. Print.

“Pollination and the Honey Bee.” (1976): 1-20. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

<http://books.google.com/books?

id=gWwvAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA17&dq=honeybees+agriculture&hl=en&sa=

X&ei=eiZYVMv7KYLtoASUpYGQAQ&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&

q=honeybees%20agriculture&f=false>.

     Why are Rubber Ducks important to people? At first glance, they’re clearly not. Nobody obsesses unnecessarily about rubber ducks. However, if they weren’t important for some reason, we would have stopped making them. There’s something about rubber ducks that captivates people and society. Obviously, I started from their usage in programming. Other people find interest in the way they might float in oceanic currents. Still other make giant sculptures of them, write songs about them for child television shows, or do studies about how the chemicals used in rubber ducks were killing us. In order to learn about rubber ducks, we have to look into them in a broad sense. How are they looked at by other people? Why did they choose rubber ducks?

     On the 1^st of May, 2013, Rubber Ducks re-entered popular consciousness when a dutch sculptor name Florentijn Hofman made the world’s largest rubber duck, and put it in the bay of Hong Kong as an art exhibit (Whitehead, Hong Kong’s giant rubber duck). He had made several others before that, but they had not been so popular as the one in Hong Kong. In total, so far, Hofman has put up 22 rubber duck sculptures in various ports around the world, with the most recent being in Shanghai, China. The one in Hong Kong, however, remains the most well-known. Hofman says that he made it for adults, although rubber ducks are traditionally seen as childish. “I see it as an adult thing. It makes you feel young again.” Largely, he hopes the sculptures brighten people’s days by making them nostalgic.

      I will touch briefly on the usage of rubber ducks in The Pragmatic Programmer, as I’ve spoken about it a number of times, but still believe it to be important. The book is about software engineering, and is more or less my gateway into the universe of rubber ducks. It features a story about a programmer who would carry a rubber duck with him while he worked. When he was coding, he would explain the code, line-by-line, to the duck as a means of problem solving. This has since evolved into a common practice among programmers, and in several other instances, with a variety of stand-ins used in placement of a rubber duck. However, the rubber ducks remain the most popular item for usage in this fashion. “Place a rubber duck on your monitor and describe your problems to it. There’s something magical about stating your problems aloud that makes the solution more clear.” The authors have not said why the programmer used a rubber duck.

      The way rubber ducks used to be created involved a number of toxic chemicals. Most rubbers did, and in the heavily pollution-affect age that we live in, it’s difficult to not talk about the chemicals we face all day and every day. In Slow Death By Rubber Duck, Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie talk about this, however, they do not specifically focus on rubber ducks as much, instead using rubber ducks as an example of dangerous chemicals being heavily present in society. They chose rubber ducks because rubber ducks are so present, and so connected to innocence and childhood. Arguing that “the image conjured up by the word ‘pollution’ is just as properly an innocent rubber duck as it is a giant smokestack.”

      Rubber ducks have an effect of drawing people in, I’ve noticed. Perhaps it’s the novelty of rubber ducks, perhaps it’s the nostalgic effect rubber ducks are so famous for conjuring up. “I just wanted to learn what had really happened, where the toys had drifted away and why…I especially loved the part about the rubber duckies crossing the Arctic, going cheerfully where explorers had gone boldly and disastrously before.” This is a short bit from the opening of the book Moby Duck, by Donovan Hohn. Hohn got pulled in by rubber ducks, and found himself traveling the world learning about the story of 28,000 rubber ducks that got pulled from a cargo ship in the middle of the pacific ocean. This brings up a lot of questions about materiality and having too much stuff as well, as many of the ducks certainly ended up in the north pacific garbage patch, which is now twice the size of the state of Texas. The book ended up being about the huge amount of garbage in the pacific ocean. Hohn worked on rubber ducks because it’s where he started from.

     The popularity of Rubber Ducks can be attributed from many things, among them, the famous song from Sesame Street. It is absolutely a hit song, reaching the top 40 in 1970, where it stayed for six weeks, peaking at number 16. This song comes up whenever ducks are mentioned. I heard students talking about the rubber duck song, simply because Sarah mentioned one of my blog posts about it before the CST workshop one day. There isn’t much to say about the song, unfortunately. It was written for children, so it doesn’t make any deep arguments or have any underlying political propaganda. It’s a song for children about a child’s toy. What, however, that’s all the significance it needs?

      “Rubber Duckie”, in a fashion similar to Hofman’s sculptures, is popular because it’s silly, it’s meant to brighten people’s days. Certainly rubber ducks mean different things to different people, to some they symbolize declining environmental sustainability, or the lack of caring over the amount of toxic chemicals presented to us every day. Rubber Ducks are a strange “rabbit hole” of sorts. People like me, or Donovan Hohn get pulled in by silly stories we hear about them, and find questions on top of questions. Even thought they have toxic chemicals in them, and they are contributing to environmental decline, it’s impossible not to think it funny and talk about rubber ducks in anything but a light-hearted fashion. If rubber ducks end up as the symbol of the end of human civilization, we’d still be laughing about to the point of our extinction. There’s a reason for that. I found a website called rubaduck.com, it has a page entitled “why we love rubber ducks”. It argues several things about the simplicity in design of the rubber duck, but argues, at the end of the day, that rubber ducks are nostalgic for so many of us. They’re symbols of childhood and innocence. The reason we still talk about rubber ducks, and why we’re drawn to articles about thousands of them being lost at sea, or by books entitled “slow death by rubber duck” is that rubber ducks are symbols of nostalgia itself. I never even played with rubber ducks as a kid, and they’re still nostalgic to me. It’s that widespread nostalgic feeling we get when talking about rubber ducks that makes stories about programmers, and songs about childhood toys become popular and well-known. To sum up, Rubber ducks are important to people, because they make us feel like children again, and because it does that for so many people.

Bibliography

      Hohn, Donovan. 2011. Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them. New York: Viking.

     “Hong Kong’s Giant Rubber Duck.” 2014. CNN. Accessed November 2. http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/02/travel/hong-kong-giant-duck/index.html.

Hunt, Andrew. 2000. The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley.

Smith, Rick, and Bruce Lourie. 2011. Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things. Reprint edition. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint.

“Why We Love Rubber Ducks!” 2014. Accessed November 2. http://www.rubaduck.com/articles/why-we-love-rubber-ducks.

Is this world really worth seeing clearly?

Six months ago, my seeing eye glasses were lost. Due to lack of funds, I have yet to go buy another pair. Because of my need for these glasses, I thought this was an appropriate project to embark on.

Although for some it may be simpler and more reasonable to just go out and buy a pair of glasses, it might even be simpler for me, but I dont feel like it would be more reasonable. I am printing these in 3D because I dont feel like I am creating anything useless, or without purpose. It doesnt seem destructive or wasteful, and will hopefully be a challenging and rewarding process.

Around 1000 AD, the first vision aid was invented, called a reading stone, which was a glass sphere that was laid on top of the material to be read that magnified the letters. Evidently, the first eye glasses were made in Italy in 1286.

“It is not yet twenty years since there was found the art of making eyeglasses, which make for good vision…And it is so short a time that this new art, never before extant, was discovered…I saw the one who first discovered and practiced it, and I talked to him.”  Ilardi, Vincent (2007), Renaissance Vision from Spectacles to Telescopes, Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society.

My idea is to make frames similar to the pair pictured above. I want the frames to be strong, and to hardly look like theyve been 3D printed, (not stringy like the printers can sometimes do.) I am going to try and make that not happen, or happen less, by choosing a color like brown or black. Also it will just consist of how wide I design the frames on the computer.

153 million people (2% of the world’s population / 23% of the total number of those who are visually impaired) cannot see properly because they are short- or long-sighted – conditions that can easily be treated with a pair of prescription glasses. I happen to be long sighted, or near sighted. This affects me by making objects, signs, people, mostly everything thats far away very blurry. When I put my prescription glasses on, things become much less blurry and I am able to see far away things far much better.

This is a picture of the first known seeing eyeglasses. These were known as “bow spectacles” and were used from the first eye glasses on into the 1700′s. “Spectacles Gallery”, Museum, British Optical Association.

The amount of growth that glasses have seen throughout these hundreds of years has been astronomical. Going from tiny metal frames without even anything to hold them onto your face except your nose, to glasses with all different sizes and shapes, theres even glasses with computers in them now.

Beyond that, I am about to print in 3D a pair of glasses frames, which is insane if you think about the time lapse. Its very exiting and almost a bit frightening honestly to think about how advanced technology has become.

Without eyeglasses, or without the lenses, our world would be a much different place. It would be harder for some to make out any words or objects far away, but also thinking about magnifying glasses, telescopes, lab tools to see tiny molcules. All of these things would be much different in a world without bifocals.

I am excited to jump into my project and create something that will be very beneficial for me. It will be rewarding to create something that will help me in the long run, and that I can hang onto for awhile. It will also be rewarding to be able to wear something that I designed and had the opportunity to print in 3D.

“Rose had the sort of eyes that manage perfectly well with things close by, but entirely blur out things far away. Because of this even the brightest stars had only appeared as silvery smudges in the darkness. In all her life, Rose had never properly seen a star.
Tonight there was a sky full.
Rose looked up, and it was like walking into a dark room and someone switching on the universe.” 
― Hilary McKay, Indigo’s Star

Daniel Loose
Sarah Williams
Making Meaning Matter: The Ornament of Materiality
10/20/14

BLUE RABBIT PROJECT ITERATION ONE: CONFRONTING THE APOCOLYPTIC HORIZON THROUGH QUEER AESTHETICS AS A MEANS OF SURVIVAL

“Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.”

Which will end first: society or capitalism? The answer to this question may be too far off in the distance to definitively answer, however the horizon of the collapse of society looms over the heads of the millennial generation who are in the midst of confronting the energy crisis, global warming, overwhelming gendered violence, tensions between marginalized people and the police, being the largest holders of financial debt due to student loans (which were intended for survival in the capitalist economy), and a disassociation between the consumers and the producers of food and sustenance. Apocalypse may not necessarily be imminent, however millennials must constantly consider preparations for a future that we know will not be kind to us, and that living will not be merely living: life will be survival.
How do we confront the apocalyptic horizon? Informing this question, I draw upon the work done by queer and trans* artists and theorists whose practices are simultaneous negotiations of existence and survival. To inform this we turn to Queer theorist Jose Esteban Muñoz in his book “Cruising Utopia” discussing the relationship of queer aesthetics and futurity in his explanation of the concept of “queerness as horizon”:

“Queerness is that thing that lets us feel that this world is not enough, that indeed something is indeed missing. Often we can glimpse the worlds proposed and promised by queerness and the realm of the aesthetic, frequently contains blueprints and schemata of a forward dawning futurity. Both the ornamental and the quotidian can contain a map of the utopia that is queerness. Turning to the aesthetic in the case of queerness is nothing like an escape from the social realm, insofar as queer aesthetics map future social relations. Queerness is a performative because it is not simply a being but a doing for and toward the future. Queerness is essentially about the rejection of a here and now and an insistence on potentiality or concrete possibility for another world” (Muñoz, 1)

We can understand that the “world promised” informed by the “something missing” is the alternative to the current society in which we live: queerness could be that alternative to a society where efficient capitalism is supported through the hegemonic family unit and gender binary. Muñoz’s theory of the “not-yet-here” of queerness as horizon can act as the counterpoint to the impending “not-yet-here” of apocalypse. This thesis provides the conceptual framework for the work I intend to do in the following weeks.
In the discussion of specific queer artists working on the concept of post-apocalypse and futurity I draw upon a specific form that must survive in the capitalist market in order to have succeed to stay alive and to generate material: fashion. The contemporary fashion market is embracing technology without trepidation as seen in Iris Van Herpen’s 2015 SS collection featuring industrially 3d printed garments and Vogue Japan’s recent front page featuring the Apple iWatch, yet the contemporary fashion market’s younger houses are confronting the future and technology in a more abrasive and conceptual way. Specifically the fashion houses of Hood by Air, Luar Zepol, and TELFAR (all headed by QPOC designers) are negotiating a future less bright, armed against the horizon of apocalypse with the horizon of queerness.
It is with the work and presentations of the aforementioned artists and designers I shall counterbalance my current project that I find to be in alignment with the queer post apocalyptic aesthetic movement in contemporary fashion. I intend to construct a 3d-printed bra that can be added onto over time as a body’s breasts changes over time, thus contravening the inherent design flaw that that once we outgrow clothing the garment becomes useless for the owner. The model I am using for this project is my dear friend Kat, a Cornish College of the Arts student, whose work incidentally deals with post apocalypse. Kat is a trans woman, who is early in her transition, and the development of her breasts from hormone supplements is a key part of her developing a stronger sense of bodily autonomy. I believe that the way one dresses and adorns themselves is pivotal to developing a healthy sense of autonomy, an attribute necessary for surviving the current social atmosphere as well as the unforeseen ones.
I know that in regards to the question: “in a world full of too much plastic what are ideas worth materializing?” many would object to my answer being clothing considering that large-chain clothing gets dumped in massive quantities when it goes out of season or runs out of outlet circulation. However I am attempting to materialize a garment that thwarts the problem of clothing becoming un-wearable or becoming waste after bodies can no longer fit in it by creating a fabric structure that can be added onto or subtracted from over time depending on the constraints of the body it houses. I plan to juxtapose the work I am doing in this project with those of queer and trans* identified artists and theorists working in the realms of post apocalypse and utopic queer theory and put my work in conversation with the sources that helped inspire this project. The task of constructing a one of a kind garment is a project I have never attempted before and hopefully the outcome will prove worthy of comparison to the likes the aforementioned artists as well as helping a close friend on her journey through womanhood through a process of adorning her with personalized armor. I assert that the work I intend to do serves a utilitarian and feminist purpose while working within the constraints of the capitalist medium of fashion in order to fix the gaps in which the marginalized fall through.
I do not know what lies in the future, but I am positive that we will be well dressed for it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Muñoz, José Esteban. “Feeling Utopia.” Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York: New York UP, 2009. 1. Print.

Brown, Jacob. “Post-Apocalyptic Warriors and Voguing on the Runway at Hood by Air Men’s Fall 2014.” Vogue. Conde Naste, 9 Feb. 2014. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

“Stylee Fridays: Telfar Spring 08.” The FADER. The FADER Inc, 07 Dec. 2007. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

@lilgovernment. “NYFW: Luar Zepol SS14 Was Refreshingly Filler-Free.” Bullett Media. Bullett Media, 11 Sept. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.