For my project, I have decided to explore the realm of 3-D scanning items and turning that scan into a 3-D printable format. Throughout the upcoming weeks I will be making a platform capable of capturing precise 3-D images of an object with any smartphone, finding the most suitable program to convert these captures into printable .stl format, and testing the practicality of printing replicas by scanning and printing a house key. During the entire process, I will be researching and writing on the impact that making these technologies available to the public could have on society.

My idea first started as a simple way to print out a spare key. During my first attempt to make a key image using 123D Catch, I realized the process would require more tools, the most significant being a stable, adjustable arm to photograph the key from multiple vantage points without moving it. After this realization, I decided to widen the scope of my project and include the development of a platform to scan objects with, using the printer to make many of its components. The idea I came up with was inspired from a photo from a Google search titled “3D scanner platform” but redesigned to work with the gyroscopic sensors used with the 123D Catch Android app. I also discussed my design with Michael, who had previous experience with making a scanner/platform with an XBOX Kinect unit, and he invited me to see that scanner in action. I hope this will shed some light on the next step in the process, which is that of converting the capture into a printable file. Although I haven’t worked with the program yet, I know that 123D Design offers an import/export and brush-up of files captured via phone. Finally, after conquering all of these hurdles, I hope to test the ability of my digitally scanned and converted key file by printing it up and testing it in a lock. But why spend so much time and effort on creating a replica of something that already exists?

I think that the urge to replicate comes from within our own bodies, constructed of DNA endlessly reproducing to scribe our stories within its helical pages. In terms of objects, replicas are seen as synonymous with fakes and forgeries, but can also be used to educate people and create an interactive learning environment when paired with 3-D scans (Roozenburg). Also, there exists a convenience factor of knowing that you have a digital copy of something, whether or not you need to manifest it at any given time. This idea somewhat nullifies the question of what to make in a world so full of stuff, because things could be produced only based on their need, and kept in a digital realm until then. In the case of a key in particular, having a digital copy stored somewhere safe could make you $50-100 richer, and a few hours younger.

After doing some research to see if anybody else had played with this concept, I came across an article in the Telegraph that wrote of two companies – Keys Duplicated and KeyMe – that offer paid services for key duplication. While I find this very similar, I would like to see the services offered to anyone, freely. Aside from that, I saw images and ideas for keys with customizable faces, adding a new element of fun to every lock/unlock session, woo-hoo!

But in the deep, dark corners of searching the internet (actually the front page), I also found atrocities. From bump keys to testing the integrity and safety of the aforementioned KeyMe service, it seemed that the ill intentions were as plentiful as the good. Bump keys, formerly used by professional locksmiths, could be inserted into a lock, whacked a few times, and voila! Problem solved. In the digital realm, these keys can be found and 3-D printed easily, and in the hands of the wrong person they can be devastating (Sparkes). Andy Greenberg decided to test KeyMe’s claim that “only you(key owner)can scan your keys” by attempting to scan his neighbors key, on a keyring, in a 30 second time frame. Surprisingly, he had no problem taking this scanned image and reproducing his neighbor’s key through the KeyMe  service(Greenberg). The author and experimenter suggested that people just “keep it (the key) in their pants” because in this day and age, every bit of personal information is at risk.

I hope that over the next six weeks, I can add a new angle to the 3-D scan society by creating a platform that will allow any smart phone user to scan any object of their affection to keep with them forever in the digital realm, or use in a practical situation. In doing this, perhaps another case study can be conducted on what people find necessary to scan into the digital realm.

For my project, I have decided to explore the realm of 3-D scanning items and turning that scan into a 3-D printable format. Throughout the upcoming weeks I will be making a platform capable of capturing precise 3-D images of an object with any smartphone, finding the most suitable program to convert these captures into printable .stl format, and testing the practicality of printing replicas by scanning and printing a house key. During the entire process, I will be researching and writing on the impact that making these technologies available to the public could have on society.

My idea first started as a simple way to print out a spare key. During my first attempt to make a key image using 123D Catch, I realized the process would require more tools, the most significant being a stable, adjustable arm to photograph the key from multiple vantage points without moving it. After this realization, I decided to widen the scope of my project and include the development of a platform to scan objects with, using the printer to make many of its components. The idea I came up with was inspired from a photo from a Google search titled “3D scanner platform” but redesigned to work with the gyroscopic sensors used with the 123D Catch Android app. I also discussed my design with Michael, who had previous experience with making a scanner/platform with an XBOX Kinect unit, and he invited me to see that scanner in action. I hope this will shed some light on the next step in the process, which is that of converting the capture into a printable file. Although I haven’t worked with the program yet, I know that 123D Design offers an import/export and brush-up of files captured via phone. Finally, after conquering all of these hurdles, I hope to test the ability of my digitally scanned and converted key file by printing it up and testing it in a lock. But why spend so much time and effort on creating a replica of something that already exists?

I think that the urge to replicate comes from within our own bodies, constructed of DNA endlessly reproducing to scribe our stories within its helical pages. In terms of objects, replicas are seen as synonymous with fakes and forgeries, but can also be used to educate people and create an interactive learning environment when paired with 3-D scans (Roozenburg). Also, there exists a convenience factor of knowing that you have a digital copy of something, whether or not you need to manifest it at any given time. This idea somewhat nullifies the question of what to make in a world so full of stuff, because things could be produced only based on their need, and kept in a digital realm until then. In the case of a key in particular, having a digital copy stored somewhere safe could make you $50-100 richer, and a few hours younger.

After doing some research to see if anybody else had played with this concept, I came across an article in the Telegraph that wrote of two companies – Keys Duplicated and KeyMe – that offer paid services for key duplication. While I find this very similar, I would like to see the services offered to anyone, freely. Aside from that, I saw images and ideas for keys with customizable faces, adding a new element of fun to every lock/unlock session, woo-hoo!

But in the deep, dark corners of searching the internet (actually the front page), I also found atrocities. From bump keys to testing the integrity and safety of the aforementioned KeyMe service, it seemed that the ill intentions were as plentiful as the good. Bump keys, formerly used by professional locksmiths, could be inserted into a lock, whacked a few times, and voila! Problem solved. In the digital realm, these keys can be found and 3-D printed easily, and in the hands of the wrong person they can be devastating (Sparkes). Andy Greenberg decided to test KeyMe’s claim that “only you(key owner)can scan your keys” by attempting to scan his neighbors key, on a keyring, in a 30 second time frame. Surprisingly, he had no problem taking this scanned image and reproducing his neighbor’s key through the KeyMe  service(Greenberg). The author and experimenter suggested that people just “keep it (the key) in their pants” because in this day and age, every bit of personal information is at risk.

I hope that over the next six weeks, I can add a new angle to the 3-D scan society by creating a platform that will allow any smart phone user to scan any object of their affection to keep with them forever in the digital realm, or use in a practical situation. In doing this, perhaps another case study can be conducted on what people find necessary to scan into the digital realm.

“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? 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? This is where I try my best to take these broader terms and conditions (post-feminism//post-modernism//truth//fact) and turn them into specificities.

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.” (Trinh 156)

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 possessed. 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 dildos. With access to a machine that can literally materialize violence including ammunition, working guns, drones, and bombs, I will exploit the machine by creating objects that are used for pleasure. However, the dildos that I create will not appear to be functional. Because our society has such an obtrusive definition of what female pleasure looks like, and that dildos 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 is the function of female pleasure? How is my definition of female pleasure different from yours?

Works Cited:

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

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

Graham Fisher

Iteration #1: The Idea

What are the boundaries of creating musical instruments?

http://www.3ders.org/images/brazilian-caxixi-instrument-kxx-3d-printed-rattling-rings-3.png

http://createdigitalmusic.com/files/2011/01/multi-pipetrumpet.jpg

http://img-new.cgtrader.com/uploads/blog/large_121606b7-96f1-41cf-87fe-a278d30f5405.jpg

On a planet already loaded with too much stuff, what idea is worth turning into more stuff?  Stuff that transcends stuff.  Stuff that makes music, oscillating vibrations of the air and/or itself. Stuff that dematerializes and then rematerializes meaning.  Stuff translating a dialogue between matter and immateriality.

My idea is to create a plethora of 3d printed instruments.  Some initial ideas include a variety of percussion instruments: a guiro, a series of tonal “wood” blocks, a cixixi rattle ring, a few shakers and perhaps a “steel” drum.  I will certainly have to experiment with designs to perfect the acoustic properties of each idea since for the most part these instruments were created using wood or other non-plastic materials which have quite different timbre profiles than the P.L.A we are using.

As technology advances so does the art of the time period.  Advances in recording techniques and manufacturing materials in the early 20^th century completely altered the popular music landscape, increased its accessibility and dramatically changed its artistic direction.  Developments in music production in the past few decades have changed the way music is created.  DJs and producers can be inspired, write, record, mix and perform all in the same day using a computer with infinite varieties of digital instruments and orchestration, some prerecorded, some altered and even some completely imaginary.  3d printers allow a further level of customization and manipulation of sound.  Computers using 3d printers are able to create impossible to construct instruments through traditional means of instrument.  The possibilities are endless: exotic timbres, acoustics built into architecture, custom instruments, at home, printable orchestras.  This is the new evolution of our ever-changing musical tools.

Parker, N. G. “Biomedical Materials.” Longitudinal Acoustic Properties of Poly(lactic Acid) and Poly(lactic-co-glycolic Acid). 9 Sept. 2010. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

There are a number of science labs across the country and the world experimenting with P.L.A (the filament we print with) and using it in surprising contexts.  This particular study test P.L.A for use as a sound dampening material to use in construction.  Traditional sound dampening materials are heavy and expensive but specially designed P.L.A fiber pockets could be quickly printed and used cheaply in modern construction. (This application of P.L.A is kind of the opposite purpose that I would be using it for in my experimentation but the research data is extremely valuable.)

“3D Printing In Popular Culture: A New Character Is Born – Blog- CGTrader.com.” 3D Printing In Popular Culture: A New Character Is Born – Blog- CGTrader.com. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

3d printing is so new that much of the general public doesn’t even know it exists.  This article documents a few examples of the emergence of 3d printing into popular culture and its applications in fashion, representation in media and potential in video games.  It could turn into a fad.

“3d Printed Instruments.” Printed Instruments -. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

3d printed instruments are of course the subject of my inquiry and this article was what first inspired me to appreciate its potential.  This page contains hundreds of prototypes and tested examples of theoretical and applied 3d printed musical instruments.  Some are variations on existing instruments enabling new sounds; others are attachments and accessories, still others are imaginary instruments with the potential to create some very unique timbres.

So what?  How can that question even be asked?  The implications and applications of 3d printing have not yet even begun to be explored.  We have no idea how this device might alter our culture, our perceptions, our religions.  This is assuredly an exciting time to be watching all this unfold and I believe that music and musicians, undeniably at the forefront of experimentation and technological innovation, is an interesting place from which to observe the progress.  Plunging into this avenue of investigation will not only allow me to do research in a field that is at its infant stage and which requires an enthusiastic involvement that I luckily possess but will further progress my own musical development.  I hope to exit my investigative engagement with tacit knowledge in the process of 3d printing and its acoustic properties as well as a few useful creations that I can be proud of and utilize to their full extent.

Eric Ross

Week 4

Blue Rabbit pt. 1 WD:467

10/19/2014

3D Horseshoes

In a world full of mass produced  junk is it OK to create something useful? 3d printing can be used to improve plant, animal and environmental life.

The following image is of a horseshoe that was 3d printed by CSIRO in Australia. This shoe is a titanium shoe printed. for a horse named Holly she has Laminitis a disease that affects the attachment between hoof and bone and causes pain and inflammation. These shoes are remarkable bringing pain relief to horses everywhere.

My Idea is to create something significant to do my part and help improve the planet. This is what I’ve been thinking about the horseshoes and how much its improved Holly’s life in Australia. I want to use this idea in America to help horses with Laminitis. Due to excessive intake of grass and grains being a common trigger www.animedvets.co.uk/laminitis mentioned prevention through diet. Some other risk factors other than diet include enlargement of the Pars Intermedia of the Pituitary gland and high insulin levels.

I believe my Idea is important because eight thousand horses per year get Laminitis and of those eight thousand  six hundred are euthanized. Laminitis is a disease that has affected the horse from the beginning of recorded time.  If one those horses can be saved than what are we waiting for?

CSIRO and a veterinarian named DR Luke Wells-Smith have created a titanium horse shoe for a 10 year old mare named Holly. They scanned her hoof and 3d printed a shoe perfectly fitting her hoof. The new shoes redistribute the weight away from painful areas and allows Holly and other horses to heal.(http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Media/Hollys-Christmas-wish-comes-true.aspx)

Amanda Lee Welch researched Laminitis of the bovine claw, What if this idea can be used on other animals that suffer from this disease. Think of how many animals we can relive from this burden.(http://www.udel.edu/ocm/development/evan/delete_me/envirotext_ek_older.html)

Maryland farrier Henry Heymering wrote a paper in 2010 titled a Historic Perspective of Laminitis. At the end he concluded.  “We’ve had nearly 2,000 years of bleeding as treatment, 1,700 years of exercise as treatment and more than 40 years of phenylbutazone as treatment – without proof of effectiveness in treating laminitis. Although longevity suggests effectiveness, until we have proof of our treatments, future generations may find them as quaint and misdirected” as the ancient treatments that have come before. (Historical perspective of laminitis Henry W. Heymering, CJF, RMF)

What I believe  he is trying to say is that until we know what treatments work we will doubt current treatments out there. So if this idea can help there will be no need for doubt or skepticism.

So without a doubt I believe that this idea is worth spending the rest of the quarter on. If I can help just one animal it will be worth that and more.

Blue Rabbit Sources

1. http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Media/Hollys-Christmas-wish-comes-true.aspx  (Holly’s horseshoe’s)

1. http://www.udel.edu/ocm/development/evan/delete_me/envirotext_ek_older.html ( Pre-Vet student Amanda Lee Welch)

1. http://www.laminitishelp.org/504/history-of-laminitis-may-date-to-ancient-greece-and-beyond/  ( Historical perspective of laminitis Henry W. Heymering, CJF, RMF)

1.  www.animedvets.co.uk/laminitis

Apart from a (largely embraced) shift from wood to linoleum during the early half of the twentieth century, the invention of water-soluble inks, as well as the disposal of labor division, the medium of relief printmaking has remained relatively unchanged throughout its twelve hundred year history. This is doubtlessly one of the reasons it seems to compel such a diverse range of artists. Another reason could be the rampant restrictions it imposes upon the carver’s artistic vision: fine artists are restricted by the imprecision of the blade, which make lines imperfect and color inconsistent; while propagandists are restricted by the degradation of the linoleum (being that linoleum presents a bit of a paradox – the softness of the material makes small details possible to carve, but that same softness means that prints slowly wear down and lose their detail). And although these hindrances can breed creativity,  three-D printers present doors begging to opened.

So, Is it possible to blend the oldest form of printmaking with the newest?

I spend my free time running stamps through a printing press. I spend my class time creating digital models to print on a MakerBot. That fantastic juxtaposition glared at me until I noticed it halfway through the first week of class. Suddenly, I had an intention. I would use the fermented cornstarch or some other filament to print computer-calculated stamps that could potentially print with an unprecedented consistency. It was circular, poetic, and it barely followed the rules – all synonymous with impeccability, in my book. The idea of making something two-D out of something three-D, and using  cutting edge technology within a medium that’s been largely stagnant for a millennium, was too enticing to leave anywhere but the forefront of my mind.

My enthusiasm was met by a fellow student and lino-cut artist who shed light on the processes’ potential for evolving the foreboding multi-layer stamp. Before, the project seemed like a cute little interpretation of technology from the viewfinder of a self-assured technophobe, but the idea of working with layers could mean a tangible advancement in not only the medium, but in my personal germination as an aspiring printmaker. For the past couple of months, multi-color prints have been both the prerequisite for, and the bane of, my aspirations. I’ve been largely unsuccessful in my attempts to augment other mediums in order to add much-needed color; my venture into abstraction using only (and far too much) lino was laughable and left me feeling wasteful. In fact, most of it was distressingly un-printable. But Involving computers in the printmaking process could mean the margin for imperfect calculation droping to zero: colors could meet one-another with precision, and their interaction would not detract from the continuity of the print (a phenomenon which so often cripples my efforts). In light of all this, I must say that I haven’t a damn clue how this is all going to turn out, or even if it will turn out at all, but my thoughts are consolidated by an individual I discovered on the internet who has gallantly tread these waters.

The appropriately named Jason Webb, in March 2013, using only a basic knowledge of printmaking, developed an open source “printing plate generator,” and briefly experimented with stenciling, embossing, as well as relief printing. This is a step forward, but it seems to have ended there. I searched the internet to the best of my abilities, and could not find a single print made with his generator (outside of his initial work-prints), and there is certainly nothing that ventures into multi-layer printing. So although two-D printing with three-D printers is a door that has been previously opened, it has remained at a very rudimentary stage in its development for the past year and a half. I would be lying if I said this did not comfort me I way, knowing that whatever I create will be the first of its genus and caliber.

Walking into a situation where your creativity is pressured to bud can be a little counter-intuitive, and frankly, no one knows this better than myself. So, the excitement in finding a place for my passions within such parameters is duly multiplied. Yet I have no idea what to expect. And thus, I walk into this project both skeptical and optimistic, invigorated and terrified – a blind man with a flimsy walking stick.

Works Cited:

Thompson, Wendy. “The Printed Image in the West: Woodcut.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wdct/hd_wdct.htm (October 2003)

Lecomte, Domonique. “Relief Printmaking Techniques.” http://lecomtedominique.com/techan.html (2014)

Webb, Jason. “Parametric printing plate generator for OpenSCAD.”  http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:32772 (March 2013)

How can I be a figure that helps connect people back with the sea, basic elements, and the unitive light of nature, and how can I spread the thrill of the art of surf while helping spread the understanding that it is such an aesthetic and energetic delight at the same time?  It took me quite a bit of brain storming and imagination exploring to finally come up with a novel and sustainable idea that I can create and work with especially in this world of already oh so much rubbish and trinkets. So one night while listening to the rain and packing some things for the next days venture to the ocean I took a moment to just sit and enjoy the rain drop like symphony going on outside and the rich air sweeping through my apartment, and in that timeless moment I started spacing off at my surfboard leaning up against the wall looking gorgeous and all, and then the idea came outta of nowhere right from left field and struck me and I knew just what I should create and work with for our programs mighty 3d printing project which I decided then was gonna be surfboard fins. Which is perfect because there is a whole wave of youth that are really starting to want to clean up the sea and appreciate surf as a source of wisdom and aesthetic glory. For the late Tim Leary once wrote “you could almost say surfers are outcast mutants, throw-aheads of the human race”(surfermag.com, January 1978)  The idea of a fin is also ideal for me personally because Ive surfed since childhood and its always been such a zen like omega experience of magical clarity and heightened sensations. When Im out surfing or sheerly just playing in the sea I swear its like overdoses of satisfaction.  So I look forward to being able to have the technology which will enable me to give back to the surfing community with sustainable, and artistic fins.

Basically I want to print three different types of fins all for dealing with different waters, primarliy big waves called thrusters, cold water fins, and hard drive fins. Also I’m using orcas, sharks, humpback whales, and dolphins all for inspiration as to how to shape the ultimate fin design, so far it seems like orcas have the ideally evolved fins to try and shape and replicate my designs to be like. Its important to me as well that the fins have an artistic quality and touch, I really would like to put the Japanese aesthetic symbol the enso on each fin or do a little hand brushed calligraphy or perhaps even come up with a cool lightning bolt logo or some fractal designs and abstractions of color.

The fin is a simple and fabulous shape, and although surf is for play I feel creating my own eco friendly fin technology is rather important and at least has meaning to me and Im sure there are others out there who would agree. For surfing is great in the sense that it is for play, for isn’t  life like a cosmic joke anyways? Its a positive that it counters seriousness as well as fear and takes you out of mind and ego dualistic rubbish which allows people to have a complete encounter with life’s mystery where they can forget calendars and clocks and come back to sheer consciousness not the movement of thought. Like when Im on a wave I can’t help but get that feeling of all is one and one is all and that my body is and instrument for the cosmos and my brain a great reciever. In those moments I feel intrinsically pure and electric as can be and wholly receptive taking in all the incoming data and stimuli, but more than that it gives me sensations of sheer wholesomeness with the inexplicable which is great for to know the always so is to be illuminated.  The next few weeks I have with this project I look forward to quite so for its going to involve a lot of my own personal study as I set to design the supreme fin and continue to gather information on orca and other marine life’s fin style. Its going to involve a lot of experimentation to master the craft, and Im going to have to experiment a lot with tinker cad as well with enso and calligraphy painting.

“Not to sound too deep or weird, but I think that the times when you really appreciate surfing are the times you’re really sort of becoming one with nature. Surfing’s as raw of a sport as it gets”.(http://www.changemakrs.com/kellyslater)

After surfing the internet trying to collect some info as to who else is doing a similar project,  all that  I was able to discover was just a handful of people who made attempts on thingiverse. Which I suppose is a misfortunate fortune for me, due to I won’t have many people to connect and learn from, but this also means there basically is a wide open market when it comes to 3d printed surfboard fins, so hopefully I can craft a novel design and style that I can share with others in which they can than create with there own printer and means, and hopefully one day will all be able to just 3d print and customize our own boards right from our casa.

“surfing is an aesthetic style of the liberated self, and thats the hopeful model of the future” (quote source unknown)

What different symbolic meanings and significance do Bells have to different people?

Bells have always had a meaning to me during my life, I just never thought too deeply about them. Just knew they appeared frequently. Weather it was during christmas time of “santa” leaving a bell from his slay on my porch or simply finding a bell in a bathroom stall or at my sisters soccer game . They have always popped into my surroundings. When I was younger I never thought twice about it just really loved the sound it made and the feeling it had in my hand.

When I came to Evergreen last year it was so magical to me and I had several spiritual awakenings. Not understanding my life at all growing up or why certain things had occurred. Questioning of why things were  happening and why to me. I just went with it and did what I needed to do.Feeling out all the different emotions and feelings as they came. I didn’t understand why I did certain things either. Coming here I felt comfortable, loved , and happy . I looked at myself one day in the mirror in my dorm and something inside me was telling me to take the makeup off my face , and to just be. Just be was a reoccurring thought threw my head over and over again. The make up came off my face and I saw myself differently then I had ever seen myself before. Not only myself but everything around me, I saw colors, symbols, numbers, and signs. I was laying in my bed and thoughts were rushing to me so fast . I felt that I understood my life at such a deep level , I could feel that I was surrounded by love, support and guidance. Being up for almost the whole night tears were rushing down my face. Around four in the morning when thoughts were clicking for me I heard the most beautiful sound outside , realizing it was the sound of bells. It was a sign to me that I got it and it was okay. Everything that had happened in the past was okay and had happened for a reason. I saw myself how it had been before. Connecting everything together .

The feeling of only sharing this with a few close friends last year to now sharing it with this whole class makes me feel a little weird but good at the same time. It was something that was very memorable, important , and intense for me. I wasn’t to sure of what I wanted to make, I had thoughts of making a beehive also being very symbolic to me, until Bells started coming up a lot for me again. Popping into my head , and hearing a lot about them during our retreat and seeing a few of them as well. I realized I would be very interested to make one big bell or a collection of eight bells with different thicknesses and colors.

Not growing up in a religious home, but defiantly believing in something of a higher power. when I started researching bells, there was a lot about religious value, but also about many other things. Bells and chimes are used in ceremonies, celebrations, and announcements by numerous cultures across the world. 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. When the clapper hits the inner side of the bell, it symbolizes a message being resonated and created within the vault, or dome, of heaven delivered to the earth below. Bells are also used for many different reasons such as being certain peoples wake up calls to push us forth into our daily routines. Schools use Bells for the beginning and ending of classes to notify that a certain time period is over and boats use the sound when sailing through thick fog in order to announce their presence. The different tones of bells have different meanings. The higher tones are supposed to lift peoples spirits, represent happiness , and symbolize a closeness to a spirit. Lower tones can supposedly dampen peoples spirits. Chimes and high pitched bells can announce the presence of the higher spirits. Many people can associate bells with religious activity, but also can be used as magical enchantments. Bells are used as luck or to ward off evil spirits. Some believe and some doubt, but I was just very interested in researching the different symbolic reasoning due to my own personal experience with bells. Bells have a beginning and ending to what they symbolize and can also be used for the ringing of a door bell. When looking into the Chinese culture it is said that they are used for prospering and protection. And when looking at the bell and the sound symbols of Dharma , the bells sound symbolizes the proclamation of the masses of Dharma. The empty interior means voidness . The center of the bell is the reality of full knowledge of awareness .I believe that bells speak their own language through a variety of tones.

Is enjoying something for a moment less valuable than being able to hold it forever?

I plan on playing with the idea of what a 3d printer can do.  I would like to try something more extreme than printing a plastic object and challenge myself by printing a completely edible object using the 3d printer.  I’m inspired by the idea of someone eating an object that I believe represents them.  It’s entertainingly cannibalistic.  This project will take some, “Do-it-yourself,” work which will require me to print and assemble my own extruder, and also purchasing or making my own filament.  There is not a solid design idea as to what the objects I’m printing will look like due to the fact that I will be designing and printing different objects for different people.  There is also this interesting idea that my edible objects might be seen as less meaningful because they wont last nearly as long as typical plastic based printed objects.

The idea of printing edible objects is important because of what the world is already saturated in; plastic.  Creating something that can be eaten and then eventually return to the earth after exiting someone’s body seemed most practical to me.  I wanted to approach this project and challenge not only myself but the 3d printer and its capabilities.  Rather than attribute to the plastic all around me, I’ve decided to get rid of the plastic

altogether when printing my final objects.

My central exploration surrounding my idea of the meaning behind something edible and also its context as a physical object led my research to interesting areas.  I was able to find an article titled Do We See Apples as Edible written by Benece Nanay.  Nanay poses a question, “What properties are represented by perceptual experiences? (Nanay 305)”  This immediately made me think of the implications of the objects I would eventually print, the meaning behind eating an object that wouldn’t typically be edible, and how someone might go about eating, or not eating it.  Do the shapes of objects define what action we take?  The properties that objects have are characterized by our actions (Nanay 311.)  Printing edible objects is quite a daunting task considering there didn’t seem to be much of a market at the start of my research.  As I progressed I was able to find that some companies were playing around with the idea of creating edible objects made with a 3d printer.  The process appears to be in its early stages from an article that I discovered which was published in 2012.  The process of creating these edible objects involved heating the chocolate up in a tub before printing and maintaining it at just the right temperature (Sereno et all 827).  Although laborious the challenge of finding a workable filament is both exciting and daunting, the challenge will fuel my project.  The advancements in technology are making the way edible objects are created more accessible and less costly (Sereno et all 832).  This can turn anyone into an edible molder at a low personal cost.  The accessibility of 3d printers is exciting, in the foreseeable future people may have printers that can spit out a huge variety of things (Greengard 17).

This projects central question is, “On a planet already loaded with too much stuff, what idea is worth turning into more stuff?”  This question challenged me and inspired fear within myself.  I wanted desperately to create something that would be worth more than personal value or accomplishment.  I set out to challenge myself and figure out how to produce objects that weren’t sentimental but meaningful and EDIBLE.  Something that you can hold but also eat, something meaningful but also tasty.  In many ways I wanted to work without plastic and go beyond what I thought was possible and figure out what else I can make this printer do.  Challenge, devotion, and creation make my idea worthy of running with for eight weeks.

Works Cited

Greengard, Samuel. “All the Items Fit to Print.” Communications of the ACM Vol. 56.Issue 7 (Jul2013): p17–19. Web.

Nanay, Bence. “Do We See Apples As Edible?” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 92.3 (Sep2011): 305–322. Web.

Sereno, L. et al. “A New Application for Food Customization with Additive Manufacturing Technologies.” AIP Conference Proceedings Vol. 1431.Issue 1 (2012): p825–833. Web.

How can maps help people navigate and understand an area better?

My goal is to create a 3D map of downtown Olympia that will be comprehensible and tangible to people struggling to understand the area. I will color code different types of businesses and locations to help guide people in their errands and adventures. I think maps are important to efficiency of getting around and I believe that the most useful type of map is one that brings the feeling of an area to the user.

By looking at the images above, one can see that map images try their best to convey an area, but attempting to exhibit a spherical object like the earth, as a flat image is impossible to do without distortion. 3D representation of a location is the most useful and least distorted type of representation (if done properly).  This is why a globe is the superior model of the earth – it essentially is a mini-earth. Of course regular 2D printed maps can be very useful in navigation, but it depends on how the map is designed, and it depends on the interpretation of the person using the map.  It takes a certain type of mind to relate a flat image to one’s surroundings in order to orient themselves and navigate from that.

With 3D representation, there is little to be interpreted. A tangible mass, modeling a city, puts your mind within the buildings allowing you to understand the layout and the sensation of the area. Becoming familiar with such a model will make a person relate to the area as if they are familiar with it itself. There’s little translation to be done.

Jeffrey Ambroziak is a cartographer from the United States. He is known for his invention, the “Ambroziak Infinite Perspective Projection” which is a form of 3D mapping. His development includes the third dimension of objects within images without distorting them. Distortion is a common problem among cartography since maps often try to relate 3D objects or areas to flat paper or screens. “Ambroziak doesn’t consider these kinds of images to be truly 3-D, as viewers must look at them from a specific distance and angle. Glancing from the sides, or walking toward or away from the image, distorts or destroys the illusion.” As a young man Ambroziak struggled to accept this distortion in maps and eventually developed a way to avoid it.

Recently he had a KickStarter project raising money to create a 3D map of the moon. He used data released by NASA to put into his program and develop the map.

“NASA put out some amazing digital elevation data of the moon late last year, but nobody had released it in true 3-D. So I decided I would,” –Jeffrey Ambroziak

What is “true 3-D”?

“A three-dimensional model that displays a picture or item in a form that appears to be physically present with a designated structure. Essentially, it allows items that appeared flat to the human eye to be displayed in a form that allows for various dimensions to be represented. These dimensions include width, depth, and height.”

The above definition of “true 3-D” says that for something to be 3D it has to display something in a form that “appears” physically present. I want to make something that actually is physically present. It will be exactly what it is showing people. There will be no possibility of distortion anywhere because its appearance does not depend on its viewers.

Unlike the idea for my project, Ambroziak’s map is 3D in the sense that a 3D movie is. He refers to it as “true 3D” because one can move with the image without distorting it. However, they still need 3D glasses and they cannot touch and feel the dimensions. This is why I aspire to create a map or model that is a tangible 3D representation of Downtown Olympia.

3D images are definitely getting popular these days.  As someone who has an affinity for cartography, I truly appreciate maps that include the third dimension.

Recently Apple and Google have introduced 3D maps to their mapping programs and it is clear that the 3D versions are far superior.  Just by looking at this image you can see how much better the right map is at displaying the area.  I think moving cartography in the direction of 3D will make a big difference in map usage.  I see people becoming less frustrated and less lost.  Using the map on the left would almost discourage me from trying to acquaint myself with an area, whereas the map on the right excites me.

(a picture of a prototype dual guitar pick)

I am a musician and I am always in the process of creating something new and defining and redefining my sound.  The guitar is the main instrument (besides my voice) that I play and is an extension of my own body.  One of the main interfaces of my biological vehicle and the guitar can be found within my right hand—the pick.  Over many years I have tried many picks and then settled with a Dunlop .60mm nylon pick that defines my specific sound and style.  Now with the technology to 3D print so many things, I saw an opportunity to interact with my sound by creating my own pick, customized to my own liking.  I can even make a double-pick that strikes the strings twice in one sweep.  My goal is to make musical matter that connects the musician to the instrument and literally “make” my sound and connect that to a song that I write portraying the interaction between the realms of thought and materiality as mentioned in the Gnostic/Neo-Platonic mythologies.

What does the future look like for innovators of sound?  I plan to explore the lives of experimental guitar artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Jack White, Jerry Garcia and more in discovering how they “made” their unique sound using things.  Things play such a vital role in the formulation of a unique sound, and when thing are now easier than ever to create, I wish to capitalize on my ability to design and print specific picks for specific sounds that I am looking for.  When I first posted a picture of my first 3D printed pick on a social media site, I immediately had people interested in custom designed guitar picks.  I think the future will boom with people getting creative and making new instruments and instrument accessories to really mold their sound.

I will study the formation of new pedals and guitar effects.  The connection that artist such as “The Edge” from U2 had with their sound and new effects technology is something that I wish to explore and learn from.  “Widely recognized as one of the most creative and influential musicians of the 20th century, Jimi Hendrix pioneered the explosive possibilities of the electric guitar. Hendrix’s innovative style of combining fuzz, feedback and controlled distortion created a new musical form.” (http://www.jimihendrix.com/us/jimi) Jimi Hendrix used things that people never thought of using before to create his unique sound.

I wish to inspire people to create more music and to branch and see how they can make innovative things that give music new life and a new way to play. Musician’s such as the band Mutemath have created interesting new instruments (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zdtzk5mYf4) that make sounds like no other. When seeing this instrument played live, it opened my eyes to the possibilities of what kinds of sounds we can make and create new soundscapes with. “Music soundscapes can also be generated by automated software methods, such as the experimental TAPESTREA application, a framework for sound design and soundscape composition, and others” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundscape)

While there are many ways to create sounds in a digital audio workspace (DAW), I wish to focus on the creation of analog or physical objects that create unique sound. There is much going on in the digital realm, but I feel a material connection to music is irreplaceable in an age of digitalizing everything. I feel this creation of my own sound will inspire other to also hone their sound and think out of the box. I will make a presentation at the end of the quarter of a song in which I will incorporate the meaning of matter and thought. The digital realm is very analogous to the masculine principle of thought and then is brought into actualization by the feminine principle of material form.

The song that I create will address the issues that we have had with the mythological Artificer or “maker of things” that is referenced by Plato in Timaeus. In the Gnostic neo-platonic tradition, there was first a “Pleroma” or fullness that all consciousness came from. Out of the pleroma came the “Un-begotten Father” (see Gospel of Sophia) and the Divine Mother aka Sophia (personified Greek word for wisdom). Sophia created the Demiurge out of matter and since he was made out of matter, he only saw matter and thought himself to be the only god and creator. He then created the physical world and seemed to trap the souls of mankind into material bodies. Unbeknownst to him, he was actually carrying out the will of his mother, Sophia, by creating the physical world and the souls of man were only trapped by their own ignorance of their true origins.

For my blue rabbit project I have decided to spend 8 weeks researching the cost and availability of custom glasses frames to the mid and lower classes as well as what it takes to three-D design and print frames without using a pre-made framework.

This idea is important because of the high cost of optical wear and the importance of functional glasses frames. If you go to a normal optometrists office to get new glasses you most likely will spend thirty minutes trying on glasses that you will wear for at least 2 years (The American Optometric Association recommends that non-senior adults and children over age 6 have regular eye exams a minimum of once every two years.) those glasses then will characterize your face for the rest of the time you wear them, and if you pay an obscene amount of money for a pair of glasses that don’t quite fit you right, you might end up not even wearing them, or paying more to find the right pair.

I have always had a hard time finding glasses that I thought I would actually wear every day, and when I have found “the one” pair they were always too expensive. Eye care is important and will degrade the more you ignore the problem, it can be frustrating when the only thing holding you back from getting the eye care you need is the high cost of frames. Buying lenses online, if you know your prescription, can be as low as 40 dollars, and if you customize your own frames (or scan in a pair that you want to print) you can cut down the cost of the frames to just the cost of materials.

Right now the monopoly on eyewear is controlled by Leonardo Del Vecchio at a net worth of 17.1 billion dollars, owner of Luxottica, which owns a slew of well-known brands such as Ray Ban, Persol, and Oakley. Luxottica also makes sunglasses branded Giorgio Armani, Burberry, Stella McCartney, Versace, Vogue, Miu Miu, Tory Burch, and Donna Karan. Leonardo is the 38th richest man in the world as of August 2014. Why must we trust this rich Italian fellow to produce all of our optical wear for us? Where else can we go?

Mykita is a berlin-based firm which has produced and patented their own process of creating three-D printed custom eye wear. In 2007 they made a polyamide-based material which uses selective laser sintering (SLS) to create a finished solid piece. With google-like ideals they call their workspace a ‘manufactory’ and have a specific vision for the aesthetic of the store. Adorned with white lights and smooth spaces each Mykita store has its own in-house optometrists who performs certified eye tests, generates customized optical profiles and adapts the frames and lenses to the wearer’s face in the store. It seems like the customized glasses seeker’s dream, right? At a whopping 400- 700$ there is a very limited amount of people who can actually afford Mykitas custom lenses.

There are many innovative techniques that are being utilized by eye wear designers, such as Tom Davies, who has been using three-D printing to print out prototype frames in store to ensure they will fit his customers’ correctly before he hand-crafts the custom frames from a more durable material such as bone.  Even in Silicon Valley entrepreneurs of the web are coming up with algorithms which can use two photos (portrait and profile) of your face and create the optimal glasses frames for the shape of your face. John Mauriello and Marc Levinson along with three other co-owners created Protos, a start-up company which is now offering custom frames to people who pledge ~500$.

This raises the question, “But where does that leave me?” as a college student with limited income and the opportunity to use a maker-bot, at least I don’t have to pay the fee to have Shapeways or iMaterialise print frames for me; but it also leaves me stuck counting on Thingiverse to have the fit I need. There is really no place with the option to customize glasses to your face online without paying a large fee and just handing it over for someone else to create. This quarter I want to find/use/or create a template where you can upload pictures of yourself onto an autoCAD program and use frame templates to create and morph the frames into exactly what you are looking for. Customization without all the useless fees.

“MYKITA – ABOUT.” MYKITA. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. https://mykita.com/en/mykitahaus#

“Protos Eyewear.” Protos Eyewear. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. http://www.protoseyewear.com/

Sharma, Rakesh. “Custom Eyewear: The Next Focal Point For 3D Printing?” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 10 Sept. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. http://www.forbes.com/sites/rakeshsharma/2013/09/10/custom-eyewear-the-next-focal-point-for-3d-printing/

“TD Tom Davies.” TD Tom Davies. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

http://www.tdtomdavies.com/handmade.aspx

Anthony Stallsworth

Professors Arlen Speights and Sarah Williams

Making Meaning Matter

20 October 2014

Blue Rabbit Iteration 1

The population of honeybees has been going down drastically, which is also known as the “Colony Collapse Disorder” to most researchers. This is a major crisis for nature, and the food we need to live. Bees pollinate ninety percent of our food’s nutrition, and without honeybees we would be at a major decline in food, making it very hard to sustain a healthy daily diet. I believe that the printing of beehives to help sustain the bee population is something worth making in the world. This is why I have chosen printing a beehive that may be able to sustain and house honeybees for my Blue Rabbit Project.

I would like to back up my idea with more statistics on the importance of beehives, not just in the United States, but in the rest of the world as well. “Each year more than a million commercially produced bumblebee colonies are sold around the world.” (Paul H. Williams) These beehives produce more than ten billion dollars annually through their pollination service alone. The beehive industry is a fairly large one, and it is only getting larger with people already 3D printing these beehives. Lulzbot is a 3D Printer-manufacturing business with a blog about people who “design hives that can support bee colonies in a sustainable way, to monitor and track the health and behavior of a colony as it develops.” (https://www.lulzbot.com/blog/3d-printing-open-source-beehives)

The structure of a beehive is a repeated octagonal pattern. Basically, this is a pattern where each line intersects each-other at a one-hundred and twenty degree angle This pattern is not that hard to print, especially since the 3D Printers already print anything out in an octagonal pattern. I believe that printing out a plastic beehive is not very safe to the environment, because after time it enters our oceans and kills a lot of the animals that hunt in the ocean or live in the ocean. Most man-mad beehives are created out of wood and wire mesh, which creates the octagonal pattern. Plastic is harmful to the environment which is why I would like to create my beehive out of a different material. I considered beeswax, which would be a great substitute filament, because it would be easy for the bees to find and move into, and also it is a natural material that would not hurt the environment in any way. Although there is a type of extruder you can install on your 3D printer to print with beeswax, our school does not have one. This is the only thing stopping me from going through with it. There is a filament called “Laywoo-D3”, which is created out of recycled wood and harmless binding polymers. This type of filament would be immensely better for printing than the more common PLA filament, because it is not made mostly out of plastic.

In New Zealand, a golden honeycomb was created and placed in Sir Edward Hillary’s backyard “whereupon his bees adopted it as their own.” (Jacob E. Nyenhuis 140) This is only one example of bees moving into a man-made honeycomb, and I am sure that there are many more examples. Since the total number of managed honeybee colonies has receded 2.5 million in the last 40 years, it is very important that we create more, to keep the honeybee population sustained. By creating more honeybee colonies we can maintain the honeybee population, if not increase it, and in turn that will keep our plants pollinated to keep making the food we need. We cannot produce most of the food we have on this earth by ourselves alone. If we lost all of the bees in the world, we would start declining in populations ourselves. As humans it is our job to help the other species that live on this planet, especially the ones we need. Because there is already so much stuff on this Earth, I find it alright to create something that matters to the Earth, and is not just some useless plastic object that people will eventually throw out. I believe that studying beehives for a quarter is useful because bees are such a necessity to humans, and also flowers. If we 3D Printed beehives, bees would have more availability to colonies and this would help sustain their population. Most bees die in the winter because it is cold and because most of the flowers go away during this time of the year. While supplying more beehives to bee farms, we could keep them alive during the winter. This is why I think beehives are an important and useful object to create in the world.

Works Cited

“3D Printing Open Source Beehives.” Web log post. Lulzbot. Aleph Objects Inc, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

Kaplan, Kim. “Related Topics.” ARS : Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder. United States Department of Agriculture, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

Nyenhuis, Jacob E. Myth and the Creative Process: Michael Ayrton and the Myth of Daedalus, the Maze Maker. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2003. Print.

Williams, Paul. Bumble Bees of North America an Identification Guide. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2014. Print.

What is the potential of 3D printing in healthcare, and how will it revolutionize the medical field? This is one of the many questions that first inspired me and seized my attention when I began delving into the Making Meaning Matter program. I am still amazed by how cutting edge and truly interesting our texts are for this quarter, I knew this is what I wanted to do and that I was in the right place when I first started reading Makers, by Cory Doctorow, and couldn’t put it down. I’m convinced that this is the next big thing to revolutionize our existence and I am overjoyed to be learning about it, as well as fascinated and motivated to be a part of it.

Not to sound too sappy, but the most influential person in my life has always been my Mom, Kim. She is driven, intelligent, loving, and tenacious. She had me at a a relatively young age by today standards, growing up in Olympia she used to take me to class at Evergreen with her. Of course I don’t remember this, but she has described pulling me around campus as a bundle of blankets in a little, red, radio flyer wagon. After getting her degree from Evergreen Kim went to midwifery school and became a home-birth midwife, which was rough as a child because she would always be on call and have to leave at odd hours, often in the dead of night, to deliver new life. In my middle school years, Kim went back to school at PLU to get her masters as a Nurse Practitioner for many reasons, but mainly because she wanted a broader scope of practice. She worked so hard all those years and I’m incredibly proud of her, and I grew up knowing that like her, I loved helping people. I’ve contemplated going into a healthcare profession, but life took over and I decided I didn’t really have any clue about what I wanted to do or how to get there. Also medical school is a lot of time,  and money, plus I’m squeamish… but who knows what the future has in store for me, right now I’m happy to be moving forward with my education, I’m loving Evergreen, and I’m really interested in 3D printing some bones! I plan on starting small like some teeth, or just a shape that resembles a bone, but I would love to work my way up to a pelvis or skull.

My mind is still trying to grasp the potentials of 3D printing, but I think that medical advances through technology are game changing, and I am hopeful, and somewhat fearful of how we will use this tool to increase or longevity or quality of healthcare. I could see it being possible for people to make 3D printers that can create new bones, and potentially even organic matter like skin or organs for transplants, but what are the ethics surrounding this? Could we 3D print Stem-cells? Could we printing machines that are capable of doing automated medical procedures and surgeries. This is important to me because I grew up learning about the medical field and because I’m curious of how this will impact it, and because I think healthcare is a basic need, yet it is heated topic in modern society because of the economical and ethical state of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry.

As I began my research looking for other people who had significant ideas surrounding 3D printing in the medical field I stumbled quite easily on some incredible tales of heartwarming ingenuity. One such article, titled “3D printed heart saves baby’s life as medical technology leaps ahead” tells the 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 road-map. This 3D printed heart allowed for the opportunity to study the riddled, structurally unusual organ, and develop a detailed strategy for the complicated and dangerous surgery. Before this technique, they would have of had to stop the heart and take a look inside to decide what to do, which means more dangerous surgery, and less opportunity for strategic planning. I found several other amazing ideas that had put done with 3D printing technology the medical field, including a 3D printed titanium spinal invertebrate replacement that was porous so natural bone can grow through it over time. I am looking forward to spending a quarter exploring this idea and its manifestations because it has the potential to improve the human condition and because its cool as hell.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/3d-printed-heart-saves-babys-life-as-medical-technology-leaps-ahead-9776931.html

Works Cited

22, Aug et al. “How 3D Printing Will Revolutionize Our World.” Business Insider. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

28, Kevin Loria Aug et al. “This 3D Printed Vertebra Is A Huge Step Forward For Medicine.” Business Insider. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

Boren, Zachary Davies. “3D Printed Heart Saves Baby’s Life as Medical Technology Leaps Ahead.” The Independent. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

“Congenital Heart Defects.” Text. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

What sort of significance can be found in a rubber duck? Clearly, a question that has been asked by scholars the world over for the past several centuries. Rubber ducks aren’t really important enough to talk about, is what most sensible people would say. I, however, am idiotic and determined.

This idea came to me as a result of my recent obsession (for lack of a better word) with Rubber Ducking (rubber duck debugging, teddy bear debugging, rubber duck problem solving, etc). It’s a process where somebody takes something that is not human, personifies it, and explains their problem, in detail, to that thing. It could be a rubber duck, a teddy bear, a cardboard cutout of a celebrity, it could be anything. I, personally, have a plastic skull named Ichabod. Because, however, I first learned about this with rubber ducks, that’s what the focus is on.

The idea is to make a rubber duck model that people can 3-D print for the purpose of this problem-solving method. It will be designed with a couple of things in mind. Firstly, it needs to be easy to personify. There are some design techniques I can employ to make a plastic monochrome duck easy to personify. Secondly, I am going to design it with size in mind. If it’s too small, a person may as well be talking to the air, and if it’s too large, than there’s no effective way to store it while not in use, and it may become more of a hindrance than a help. I’m thinking around the size of a baseball. Lastly, I will design it with the knowledge that I am designing a plastic rubber duck, and that nobody will take it as seriously as I am. If somebody has access to a 3-D printer, and they need to use this method of problem solving, they can print a duck to which they can explain their problems, once my design is finished.

This is important for a couple of reasons. It’s more about what the duck symbolizes and its function than the duck itself. Sure, it’s a rubber (plastic, I know, but I will continue to say rubber because it sounds better) duck, but it is the ultimate tool for problem solving. It’s because, when we think, we use different parts of our brains than we do when we try to explain or when we try to ask questions. Therefore, explaining to a rubber duck, or asking a question to a rubber duck causes us to think through the problem more logically, and in wider more understandable terms. On top of that, one of the questions we’re working with right now has to do with our relationship to objects, and in a way, this is a different kind of relationship to objects. People don’t try to explain things to their phones, and blind people don’t try to explain things to their sticks.

Now, this is a pretty recent thought. The idea of understanding something better through trying to explain it isn’t new, in 1980, an education method known as “learning by teaching” was developed by a foreign language teacher in Germany by the name of Jean-pol Martin. It’s largely the same idea, that explaining something allows a person to develop deeper understanding of the concept. Using inanimate objects to problem solve, however, is still fairly new, and largely dominated by the field of coding and programming. The first instance I could find of it was in a book called The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas, which contained a story about a programmer who would carry around a rubber duck and force himself to explain his code, line-by-line, to it. However, there are stories of the same logical tool being used in other fields. I found a story online, in which a man working with automatic fire sprinklers, stopped by his boss’s office to ask a technical question, and was referred to a dead duck hanging on the wall. Halfway through asking his question, he found the answer. There are also stories of people using teddy bears, and pictures of political figures.

      The real question that stands to be asked, is what will be gained from exploring this concept over the next several weeks? I believe that by exploring this concept and looking deeper into the psychological reasoning behind it, I will be able to find some incredible fact about the way the human mind relates to objects. How can something like a rubber duck become so important that somebody carries it around with them while they’re working?

Bibliography

      “Creating Passionate Users: Rubberducking and Creativity.” 2014. Accessed October 21. http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/01/rubberducking_a.html.

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

     “Hwrnmnbsol – Ask the Duck.” 2014. Accessed October 21. http://hwrnmnbsol.livejournal.com/148664.html.

     Kernighan, Brian W. 1999. The Practice of Programming. Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

     “ Re: Not an Awk Question.” 2014. Accessed October 21. http://lists.ethernal.org/oldarchives/cantlug-0211/msg00174.html.

     “Rubber Duck Debugging.” 2014. Accessed October 21. http://www.rubberduckdebugging.com/.

     “Rubber Ducking.” 2014. Accessed October 21. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RubberDucking.

     “Rubber Duck Problem Solving.” 2014. Accessed October 21. http://blog.codinghorror.com/rubber-duck-problem-solving/.

     “The Concept „Learning by Teaching“ – Ldl-Engl.pdf.” 2014. Accessed October 21. http://www.joachim-grzega.de/ldl-engl.pdf.