Thought « Jaymatter

Thought

Rapid prototyping

This summer I was lucky to see some real examples of the rapid prototyping at work in the Italian design and architecture industries. Based in Milan, ONEOFF positions themselves as “the prototype of a new generation of modelling labs and expresses [sic] the potential of digital technology applied to rapid manufacturing”. They’ve spent a lot of time becoming experts in creating prototypes – and most interestingly for myself, in rapid prototyping.

(Image borrowed from ONEOFF's Flickr stream)

Rapid prototyping is an automated process which allows for complex objects to be produced before the manufacturing stage. Layers of a material (often plastic but also ceramic) are “printed” on top of each other until the final form is finished. No tools or moulds are required – just a 3D model of the prototype. The value here is in the ability to quickly create something for discussion and analysis. Complex objects can be created in mere hours. Artists also often use rapid prototyping technology to create “sculpted” work.

(Image borrowed from ONEOFF's Flickr stream)

The technology for high quality rapid prototyping isn’t cheap – $10,000 will get you something in the entry level. There are however, a couple of alternatives that come from the open source crowd ( for whom I have much love ). I was recently turned onto the RepRap, an open source project that comes in the form of a wiki that documents the parts and instructions to build your own 3D printer – for less than $1000. You can even buy a kit for $750 that gets shipped to your house for you to assemble in a day or so. MakerBot is another open source solution, with plans for parts so you can build your own. The MakerBot kit sells for the same price.

RepRap from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo.

According to Google’s Open Source Programs Manager, Chris DiBona, the Rep Rap you can ”think of RepRap as a China on your desktop”. Hah.

If I didn’t have to pay for tuition… I’d have one keeping myself and my room mate up at night.

Arduino / Art / design / process / Thought / Tools — Comments Off
21
Dec 09

The Importance of Prototyping

I’ve been working with an art student at Emily Carr University to design and build one piece of a bigger art project, Code.lab. Makiko’s project is to build a “robot” that follows the metal railroad tracks that run around Granville Island and in front of ECU. We first looked at line following robots to inform some of our decisions around the form for the sensors, the motor and wheel arrangement, and the general shape of the final artifact. Makiko’s desire to shape the aesthetic to her artistic vision is definitely helping with material and part choice, but the various versions of prototypes that we built together helped to create objects that we could discuss and use as a platform for ideation.

The first real prototype, past sketches, was a Lego Mindstorms line follower. We were able to observe how an optic line follower worked, with a single sensor on the front of the robot detecting the black color of the line against a white surface.

The next version was an arduino based line follower that we thought we would use Hall-Effect sensors to detect the metal rail tracks with. We took a small prototyping step here to test the Hall-Effect sensors which we discovered were overkill for what we wanted to do. In the end we chose to use rare earth magnets mounted on the arms of contact switches to detect the metal tracks.

Prototypes informed our choice of wheel clearance relative to the robot chassis, helped us determine that the sensors should be mounted on the front of the robot. Testing versions of code helped me come up with the final code that drives the servos to follow the metal tracks.

Every prototyping step helped us refine an abstract thought to a more certain form, a form that functions in a way that is close to what we had originally envisioned. Versions of the parts of this project let us look closely at our problem space and also exposed problems that we had no idea existed. We were able to physically discuss and evaluate our design decisions, considering Makiko’s artistic vision and the pragmatic need to make this robot move and follow the tracks. We are now at a prototype version which is very close to the final form – new parts in the coming weeks will bring us to the final scale. It will be interesting to see what the final form looks like come February when the final exhibit opens to the public. Stay tuned for more of our progress.

Experience / Thought — 1 Comment
2
Oct 09

The Optimal Experience Project

The Optimal Experience Project is a good friend’s collection of thoughts and study surrounding the human mind, experience, flow state and meditation.

The Optimal Experience Project.

process / Thought — 2 Comments
24
Sep 09

Project thoughts

The Red Communicationist Party

As part of the process of a 4th year course that I’m taking at SFU’s SIAT campus, my class team and I have been thinking about possible projects to fulfill an 8 month capstone project. The project should follow values formed by our group as well as use technology in its implementation. The final project piece should be marketable in some way to be the most successful in the eyes of our professors.

Some of the discussion to discover our preferred form for this project have considered surfacing social and urban issues in our own locale, in the hopes of raising general public awareness and discourse. Issues related to these are something that have really directed my path through life for years, especially in my multiple choices to leave a career or thriving freelance business and return to school. If the success of a community can be measured in part by the general happiness and well being of the people in it (rather than the financial success, but that’s a whole other topic), then should not the people in the community be interested in the happiness and well being of the people living around them? And if there is an issue or group of people that need attention in a community, how do you tell that story to the community around it in a way that evokes action from the people hearing the story?

There are questions relating to narrative and experience here. The work that I’m doing now with Emily Carr University and in school at SFU are allowing me the opportunity to think about how design and technology can fit around these questions.

Here’s a link through to our process site for this project.

Actionscript / Code / Experiments / Flash / Processing / Thought — 7 Comments
22
Sep 09

Parallax RFID -> Flash

Parallax USB RFID

Watch the video demo here.

This tutorial assumes that you’ve got Processing and the Parallax RFID reader running as per the Parallax -> Arduino document here: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg895rd7_534c58v2g7

Continue reading →

Art / design / Other / Thought / Tools — Comments Off
27
Aug 09

Pen & Paper Apparel

Buy a shirt!

Some visionary, hopeful work coming out of Vancouver with Pen & Paper Apparel. Support meaningful design and buy one of their shirts here or read their blog here.

music / Thought — Comments Off
24
Aug 09

Note to a friend.

Strangely, Italy has made me love hip hop more. Not the bloated stuff you hear on the radio – but the real art: poetry over a beat or melody that shares some of the sentiment in the words, whether it’s aggressive or reflective. Some artists do the blend well, some are stronger in the poetry, some with the music production. I love the words in this song and thought you might appreciate them also. It’s not perfect, but Italia showed me that greatness never really is, is it?

The video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuG3ZDAxLhs

The lyrics:
http://www.metrolyrics.com/all-about-u-lyrics-classified.html

Classified is from Nova Scotia.

Remember, it’s all about you.

Code / Other / Thought / Urban — Comments Off
1
May 09

Chicago: The Sustainable Windy City

Chicago

Lots of good music has come out of Chicago – the “greatest blues label” Chess Records, Common, Kanye West, all come out of Chi-city. Frank Gehry’s got a small outdoor venue built in a park there. There’s also been some really great sustainable urban development led by Mayor Daley including park improvements, green rooftops. The latest (well, I’ve only just read about it but it’s been going on for two years) are “green alleys“. Porous concrete helps water reach the subsoil, recycled materials are used to make some of the concrete. The city has even compiled a handbook outlining possible layouts for a green alley. They’re supposed to be “more inviting” – and maybe they will be with their light reflective paving stones and rain gardens. I’ve always found a certain charm in alleys, the behind-the-scenes space between businesses, houses and other buildings – heck, I grew up playing in some of the finest alleys in East Vancouver. It will be interesting to see if there is a change in the use of these generally avoided/ignored city spaces, especially in dense urban areas.

Other / Thought — Comments Off
13
Mar 09

DJ Numark and the Radical Design movement in Italy

Talk about weird tangents. Currently looking at the designers who were working in Italy in the mid 60s and how they put down their pencils and spent their efforts thinking about their roles as designers. What if they didn’t follow the status quo? What if design was absurd, relative to what was going on at the time? A decade was spent thinking, writing and exhibiting this line of thought. Here’s DJ Numark reinterpreting the role of the DJ in three and a half minutes. This is what happens on Week 9 at 3 in the morning.

Other / Thought — 2 Comments
18
Feb 09

Can your publicly funded high school band do this?

Simply amazing. Direct from TED. And more about El Sistema from the TED prize winner Jose Antonio Abreu.

design / Other / process / Thought — Comments Off
27
Jan 09

The wisdom of Paul Rand

From one of the originators of the Swiss Style of graphic design, Paul Rand:

“Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations. – Paul Rand”

Truly.

From jasonsantamaria.com via Swiss Miss.

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