Reading Takeaways

Image credit: Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash

Regalla, L. (2016). Developing a maker mindset. In K. Peppler, E. R. Halverson, & Y. B. Kafai (Eds.), Makeology: Makerspaces as learning environments (Volume 1) (pp. 257–272, Chapter 17). Routledge
&
Blikstein, P. (2013). Digital fabrication and “making” in education: The democratization of invention. FabLabs: Of Machines, Makers and Inventors, 1–2.

These readings exemplify how the maker-mindset and Makerspaces/Digital Fabrication Labs offer a more natural approach to learning through play and exploration, and a different approach to teaching through facilitation of self-directed learning. While reading, I was reminded of a class I took during my first semester at TC, called A&H 5195: Experience, Education, and Histories, taught by Professor Thomas James. Our first assignment was to write about a foundational learning experience we had at or before age 7. What I wrote about is distinctly similar to the making processes described in both readings. Below is an excerpt from that assignment:

“Before the age of seven and after, one of my favorite things to do was play with my Polly Pockets. But I didn’t play with them the same way as my other dolls… My Polly Pockets were more like crash test dummies. As soon as I figured out how to tie knots (around four years old) and got my hands on string and tape, I was creating webs of polly pocket ziplines, hammocks, and falling nets. No wall or piece of furniture was safe from my stash of Scotch tape, and my parents often found it impossible to walk through our basement. Eventually, my materials spanned out to include Dixie cups, fabric, plastic, paper, paperclips, kites, rubber bands, helium balloons, water, electric circuitry kits, and my brother’s Hot Wheels tracks and Legos. Ziplines were only step one; I was making swings, trampolines, hot air balloons, parachutes, hang gliders, slides, and jigging my electric circuitry kits to extra batteries to try and get the fan attachment to fly in the air with a poor Polly Pocket taped to its top (I ended up playing doll hospital after some of these experiments).

Initially, a lot of my string, zipline, hammock type creations were to enrich the setting and plots of the stories I was making up, inspired by the animated Barbie movies of the early 2000s. I was obsessed with fairies as a kid and wanted to be one so badly. I would often dream of flying and felt disappointed every time I woke up and realized it was a dream. If I couldn’t fly, I was determined to get my Polly Pockets to. Eventually, my interests evolved into understanding how different objects and forces interact to create movement and how little changes could affect the outcome of one of my experiments. I enjoyed discovering how many paperclips to add to a paper parachute so it would float properly and figuring out how long it would take before different designs would fail at different heights by trying things over and over.

My self led learning was a stark difference to my formal learning experience...”

Like the learners described in the readings, the door to my experimentation was opened by my interests: fairies and Barbie movies. As I kept experimenting, I became more engaged in how things worked, solving problems, and combining materials. And, my seven-year-old self’s natural constructivist way of learning was very different from the type of learning encouraged at school, which led me to struggle. As teachers, how can we work within the systems in place to provide our students with the benefits of Makerspaces and maker mindsets? How should we structure our lessons to meet the requirements while still benefiting students? How do we become facilitators?

Citation:

Bashaw, G. (2024). Experience, Education, and Histories [Unpublished essay]. Department of Arts & Humanities, Teachers College, Columbia University.

Initial Ideas for my Final Project

Initial Ideas for my Final Project:

Last class, we each rolled the three dice to pick the focus for our final projects. I rolled science (lucky!!!!), found materials (ok, sure), and video & editing (oh no)... Why "oh no" for video & editing? Well, there are a few reasons. Filming and editing videos is not something I have much experience with. I also don't like recording my voice or being on camera. I like watching videos, but I don't like making or being in them. Additionally, since this is our last creative assignment, I want to like whatever I make. When it comes to video art, I prefer installations that include video rather than videos that are the artwork themselves. I'm not sure how I can accomplish that as a beginner with an approaching deadline and several other assignments. Making something physical and then filming it would be easier, but it feels like cheating, and just isn't as satisfying conceptually because it doesn't feel integrated or intentional enough. I'm unsure how to create something I'll end up liking for this project.

Jádé had a good idea and recommended that I create a stop motion to fulfill the video portion of the project. Building on that, my first idea is to use shiny found materials to create a stop-motion of a mineral's crystal structure, growing layer by layer. However, there are a few potential issues with this. Firstly, using a bunch of random objects to create a very specific structure may not be realistic. Sometimes materials don't stick together well with tape or glue, and for a structure meant to keep growing, it would be a problem if it collapsed before the stop motion was finished. I considered stacking the found materials between layers of clear acrylic, but because the materials are different shapes and sizes, the structure wouldn't hold. I can film a 2D version of the crystal structure, but it won't be as engaging. 

                                          The atomic arrangement in natrolite, a common          Natrolite crystals on basalt from the Puy de Dôme,

                                          zeolite. Image from Mineralogy by Dexter Perkins      France. Photo by Didier Descouens via 

                                          et al., OpenGeology.org.                                                      Wikimedia Commons.

My second idea is to make something about rock thin sections in a microscope. Those are pretty shiny and colorful, and I have some photos of them from my Petrology class. I could use shiny, transparent found materials for that, too, but I'm not sure where the video part will fit in. I can do what my group did in 2D Fabrication with a video of a color-changing light playing beneath the transparent material, and take a video of it, but that doesn't feel right either. Thin sections aren't layered; they're 2D because they are single slices of rock mounted on a thin glass plate. The light video part makes sense because microscopes shine light at the thin section from below, but this idea seems like a video of something I made rather than incorporating video into the concept, which I wanted to avoid. 

The more I think about it, the more I think thin sections would be great to recreate with scanography. For instance, scanner beds are made of a sheet of glass, objects get placed on top of the scanner bed, and the scanner emits light from below as it scans. Thin sections are flat pieces of rock or mineral mounted onto a glass slide, and when you place them under the microscope, it shines light at them from below. If I created a stop motion video using images of found objects scanned with a scanner, would that be considered a video? 

Peer Work Appreciation

For this assignment, I commented on the blogs of Joyce, Cheyenne, Mila, Chloe, Jádé, Shihan, and Kate. I try to look at my classmates' blogs every once in a while, because it's super cool to see how others have approached the same assignments, but I don't think I've commented on anyone's blog until now. It was nice to have that little push, and it's great practice for when I'll eventually have to comment on my future students' work. It was also super nice to see the comments my classmates left me on my own blog, not just the compliments, but also the constructive criticism! I actually hope we can do this again another week, though I don't know if that'll fit in with what Richard has planned. I often struggle with what to say about a piece when I'm looking at it, so this was a nice low-pressure way to practice. I'm still trying to find the balance between giving positive feedback and constructive feedback. It's not just that I'm afraid to give constructive feedback; my brain tends to focus on the artist's process and concept, and I'm less knowledgeable about the technical stuff across many media. I also lack some technical vocabulary, which can make it difficult to communicate what I see.

2D Fabrication

Results:

Process:

This project came out way cooler than I think Jádé, Chloe, and I expected! Our ideas came about in chunks throughout the process. During class last week, Jádé whispered to me that she really wanted to explore light with this project. Being someone who studied rocks for 4 years, I thought of optical calcite because it refracts light in interesting ways. We were talking about different structures we could make that would include optical calcite, but I didn’t have any with me to test whether it would produce an intense enough rainbow effect. So, we pivoted. Opal is another mineral that interacts with light to produce multiple colors, but in a brighter, more exciting way. Then I thought, what if we tried to recreate the look of an opal using stacked layers of clear acrylic?

At this point, Chloe joined our team, which was a big help! We started pulling materials and experimenting with layering transparent colored acrylic sheets as Jádé began working on our design mock-up on Procreate!



As we were working, we realized we might need to rethink our process and layer placements, so I grabbed a few sheets of colored paper for Chloe and me to create physical mock-ups. This part of the process was very back-and-forth, and we had to consider what would actually work and look nice while still being realistic about timing. Originally, we wanted to fill the cutout parts of each layer with a different color of acrylic, but ultimately decided that, to let light through, it would be best to leave the holes open and place an iridescent piece of acrylic on top for it to still be flat. Chloe made a really awesome deconstruction of the idea with the paper scraps, and Jádé updated the Procreate file to reflect our new ideas before exporting it to Adobe Illustrator.


Once in Adobe Illustrator, Jádé Image Traced our file, so our design could be cut and engraved. One thing we hadn’t thought about was making our file the same size as the project on the computer connected to Bubbles. We ended up having to resize our image and re-edit the strokes, which was complicated with multiple layers. Since we were using scraps, Chloe and I measured the largest open areas on each of our acrylic sheets to determine the size of our finished product. Jádé then resized each layer to reflect that, and we measured the coordinates of the open areas on each acrylic sheet so Jádé could move the layers to the right spot in the file. Finally, we were ready to hit print, but we ran into issues where Bubbles kept misreading our file. However, with much help from CeCe, the studio fellow, we were able to cut out each of our layers!

The next day, I was playing with our cut pieces before we met up again to glue them together. At some point earlier, I had mentioned the idea to shine a color-changing light through the bottom of our sculpture to give it the glowy quality of an opal. I pulled up a YouTube video of LED color-changing lights on my phone and experimented with stacking the different acrylic layers on top of it. Originally, we planned to have a white layer with cutouts second from the top, with a flat, iridescent, engraved layer on top. However, as I experimented, I realized I might like how it interacts with the light more without the white layer. I headed over to the studio, explained the situation to Adella, another studio fellow, and Jádé, and we experimented with the light and layers in the metal shop, where we could turn off the lights. Ultimately, we decided to leave the white layer as a removable piece at the very top, so we can choose to block some of the light or let it through.

Adella showed us how to use the acrylic glue, and we finally melded our pieces together after a few tests. The glue made a few blobby marks underneath our top iridescent layer, which we hadn’t expected. We actually liked the look of these glue blobs, but wish we had spread them out more to look more intentional. The good thing is that the white layer covers them, and when the light shines through the bottom, you hardly notice the marks.



With all of that done, we cut a quick mask out of black paper for Jádé’s iPad so light would not pass through the edges of our sculpture, and then went back into the metal shop to take photos, videos, and time-lapses!

Making Connections: Design's Classroom Potential

Image Credit: UX Indonesia on Unsplash

2D Design Notes: 

• Learn programs like Photoshop and Illustrator
• 2D design is everywhere in our lives (ads, posters, logos, packaging, etc)→ more interesting, familiar, and accessible to students
• Also, more accessible because graphic designs feel simpler to accomplish
• 2D design is versatile and can easily connect to different topics of interest for multiple points of entry
• Students connect with the world by realizing how much 2D design surrounds them in their everyday lives→ they gain a new appreciation for art and design because art will no longer feel isolated to the classroom or museums.

Idea:

• Have students bring in the packaging from a food item they found visually interesting to class.
• Ask students what they notice about the packaging’s design, and use students’ observations to ease into a conversation about line, shape, color, value, space, form, and texture. Point out a poster in the room that students can refer to for a reminder of the elements of design.
• Have students create their own design in Illustrator for an imaginary food product using the elements of design they observed in the object they brought to class

Design Thinking Notes:

• Can be as simple as setting up your classroom and routine in a way that supports everyone’s needs while being open to change as problems arise and need to be solved → this can help teaching to run smoothly
• Teaching design thinking helps students develop problem-solving and decision-making skills and leads to innovative ideas that might not otherwise arise. Students may also become more confident in their abilities and independent. Building these skills and qualities in students is especially important now, when it is so easy to ask AI to do something for you when you feel incapable. 
• Design thinking process: Inspiration: empathize, define, Ideation: ideate, prototype, and Implementation: test, share. 
• https://theartofeducation.edu/2021/07/july-how-can-design-thinking-support-the-studio-process-in-your-classroom/

Idea:

• Have students design their own sketchbooks!
• Empathize: Students notice that filling an empty sketchbook can feel overwhelming.
• Define: Students have trouble organizing and documenting their ideas. The solution is for the class to create their own guidelines/parameters/prompts for what to include in their sketchbooks. 
• Ideate: Students research other artists’ creative processes, sketchbook inspiration, and search for examples to help them develop ideas that solve the problem.
• Prototype: Students apply their research to their own sketchbooks, trying out what they’ve observed.
• Test and Share: Students pick the ideas that worked best for them, create a final example sketchbook layout, and then share it with their peers for feedback.
• Maybe do this in tandem with an easier creative project, so students have something to write about and sketch in their sketchbooks, while emphasizing that structures must be open to change. 

Elements and Principles of Art and Design Notes:

• Elements and principles of art and design provide students with a universal vocabulary for what they already notice when they look at an artwork. 
• When a student is unhappy with their work, they have the elements and principles to look back to help them identify why they might feel unsatisfied. 
• Students ask themselves open-ended questions about how the elements and principles can help them achieve their goals for a piece.
• Being introduced to the elements and principles makes students more aware of their observational skills, which they can apply to other disciplines.

Idea:

• The teacher I’m observing this semester teaches a semester-long airbrush class, and his students are currently working on a project in which they use the elements and principles of design to create non-objective airbrush paintings. 
• The students use a lot of stencils for their airbrush designs, which reminded me of contact paper stencils for screenprinting. One could teach a very similar lesson using stencils in a screenprinting class.

2D Design Self Portrait

Final Result

It's been a hot minute since I've used Adobe Illustrator, and creating a 2D self-portrait was the perfect way to jog my memory. I hadn't realized until Richard's presentation that I had created a 2D self-portrait and a t-shirt design in the past. My very first screenprint was a quick self-portrait in hot pink, and over the summer, I made t-shirts using a design I created for a course called 40 Objects in 400 years.

First Screenprint

T-shirt Design

I reflected on my creative process while working on those two projects and drew on what I remembered in my approach to this assignment. For instance, for my screenprint, I drew my design using reference photos before simplifying it so it could be cut into a stencil. For my 2D design portrait, I did something similar but tried to save time by tracing part of my reference photo on my phone (ominous foreshadowing). 

Sketch

To create my t-shirts, I drew out my design in my sketchbook, took a photo of it, uploaded it to Photoshop, got rid of midtones, made it black and white, and then uploaded it into Illustrator to image trace it, creating a vector image that a DTG (direct to garment machine) could print from. I knew I had to do something similar for this assignment, so after taking a photo of my sketch, I uploaded it to Photoshop to clean it up. Well, that's at least what I tried to do. My laptop broke a month ago, and I've been using an old one until my new one got delivered yesterday. I discovered that my temporary laptop wouldn't let me download Photoshop, so I tried Photopea instead, but it was SO SLOW, and my PNG just looked weird. It keeps getting worse. I was able to download Illustrator, but it kept loading indefinitely, and I found myself wanting to strangle an inanimate object.  

Fast forward a week, and I got my new laptop. NOW I uploaded my photo to Photoshop! I had to look up a few tutorials on how to clean up my image and ended up adjusting the levels, threshold, and grayscale, which I think is different from how I've done it in the past (the new version of Photoshop is confusing me, and there's probably a more straightforward way to do it). I also used a white brush tool to "erase" some of the mistakes in my drawing. 

Next, I moved into Illustrator to image trace and expand my drawing. I wanted to experiment with different colors, so I turned the image into a Live Paint object. Unfortunately, I realized that since my drawing has open spaces, they would not fill with color, so I placed a rectangle and line segments around it and merged them into the Live Paint object. I tried a few different color palettes, but ultimately picked some colors from an image of my 2D Fabrication assignment, which I'll be posting soon. 

First Draft

At this point, I thought I had finished, but I kept looking at my portrait and felt like something was off. I asked several people if they saw the offness too, and received different answers as to why (nose too big/round, right eye slightly off, etc). I realized I could check this by bringing my reference photo into Illustrator, and sure enough, the tracing I had done earlier was wrong and, in fact, did not save me time (ominous foreshadowing follow-through). The rat on my head, which I did not trace, actually came out better. But not to worry, using the magic of Illustrator (pen, direct selection, and blob brush tools), I was able to reshape parts of my vectorized image! 

Altering my vector shapes

Finally, feeling good about how my portrait looked, I added some finishing touches, like a pattern in the rectangle's fill and a pastel texture effect. 

Overall, I learned a lot from overcoming the challenges I encountered while working on this assignment. Through the struggle of technical difficulties, navigating Photoshop and Illustrator, and noticing flaws in my design, I feel better prepared to help students when they encounter similar issues. Working through every frustrating part of this project has left me feeling satisfied and more confident in myself and my abilities. I am proud of what I accomplished with this assignment and throughout the course, especially as someone without an art school background.