Express

Collaborate

Lo-fi prototyping

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Physical fabrication

We started the electronic vessels studio by learning skills needed for the studio like how to use Arduino and Rhino. We then established a client/designer relationship with another person from the studio. We developed ideas based off of the person's concept from and earlier studio (Identity Vessels) and did lots of Lo-fi prototyping and iteration before we came up with a final concept for the studio. We all continued Lo-fi prototyping for just that one concept, and also made roadkill versions of the prototype, which is just the electronics in the prototype. We then made a final prototype, and did final presentations for it.

In the this studio I was able to grow by learning many new skills such as using a laser cutter, using Rhino, using Arduino, soldering, using LED light and moters, and overall lots of needed skills to be a NuVu student. I was also able to learn how to work well with a client, and how to be a client for someone else. I was also able to do lots of physical fabrication and Lo-fi prototyping to get to my final prototype.

Express

Envision

Physical fabrication

Giving and recieving feedback

The project that I developed the most was based on a memory my client Lloyd had about his mom having a bike accident. The way Lloyd chose to represent this is by making a bike going around a lumpy wheel that had broken spokes and a lightbulb in the center. The bike on the lumpy wheel represented before the accident, the spokes represented the accident itself, and the lightbulb represented new beginnings and hope. I tried to make my version more abstract. My version has four tiles moving up and down in a wavelike pattern controlled by cams. This represents the usual flow of life; then the tiles start moving more jaggedly, and the tiles shake, but then the tiles start smoothing out back into a smaller pattern to the wave but different. This represents new hope or new beginnings.

In this studio, I think I did a good job of expressing what I wanted to through my final prototype, partially because this was based on a somewhat important memory; I didn't want to mess it up. I also think I did a good job with physical fabrication because I managed to have the electronics in the back and had a laser-cut wood back, along with the fact that I got complimented on the level of fidelity I got to, given the amount of time I had during my presentation. I also think I got better at incorporating feedback during my mid-review and conversations with my client because that's where I finalized my ideas for the cam mechanism. In this studio, I did a lot of planning before I could get to actually making my final prototype because of how big it was going to be and how the cams were going to have to be placed, and I think I got better at envisioning these before making them as previously I had done more go-with-the-flow work. During this studio I also learned how to use Arduino and got to solder and use motors.

Collaborate

Express

Physical Fabrication

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Coding

In Electronic Vessels I made a machine that folds tamales, that can lighten the workload in small Mexican restaurants. Making tamales is very labor intensive. The "Auto-malé", decreases the time that it takes to make tamales, and it makes it easier to mass produce them. Also, when using the Auto-malé at home, having family time while making tamales becomes easier. My client has grown up eating tamales however a big problem that they always had when making them was that they took too long to make. Essentially, the project has motors that pushes flaps with a corn husk attached to them, resulting in a folded tamale. The project will really take the process of making tamales to a whole new level.

I learned a lot in Electronic Vessels, and grew in many ways. On the first day, I learned how to use copper tape, LEDs and a lithium battery to light up the LED. Also, throughout the studio I learned little bits of Arduino code. I practiced physical fabrication skills including learning how to use the laser cutter and other power tools in the shop. I learned how to solder and I learned how to use Arduino to power lights and servos. I learned how to use different mechanisms for different uses. I learned how to use 3-d printers to enhance the quality of my projects, and lastly I learned how important iteration can be when fabricating, because if we never iterate, then we miss out on thousands of ideas and possibilities.

Engage and persist

Collaboration

Digital fabrication

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Physical Fabrication



In Electronic Vessels we had to create a product for our 'client'/fellow students in the studio that would help express the idea behind their original work in Identity Vessels. My partner's initial idea targeted collaboration between people. Collaboration is often hard to achieve. In order to utilize collaboration in my project, I decided that my project had to have a clear goal to achieve, such as getting something like food or a gift. The project is called The Candy Vault and you need two people to open it. One user must input the code on a separate console to unlock the vault itself and the other user must send the code using Morse code. Ideally this project could be used to help foster teamwork, relations or as a fun puzzle with two people. but to ensure the vault is not opened early without the right code the door has a dead bolt run through it that is connected to a motor, which only retracts the motor when the right code is input.

In Electronic Vessels I have improved upon my digital fabrication skills by gaining a significantly better understanding of Rhino. In regards to physical fabrication skills, specifically collaborating with others that helped me with assembling part of the project, which was very frustrating at times. but I persisted with the construction where things didn't always work out how I planned, especially in the face of unforeseen issues like screws stripping or pieces which were originally cut to the right size suddenly not fitting or being too big or too small. In order to continue growing further I will need to be a tad more thorough in planning ahead.

empathize

collaborate

Digital fabrication

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Coding

Electronic Vessels saw students taking commissions from their peers and expanding on their ideas using electronics. My project was creating a plant with a pair of glasses replacing its leaves to represent how fragile they both are.

I've learned to collaborate: listening to Bryson's feedback, using his vision. I gradually understood is plan through several discussions. I had to empathize with Bryson to understand the experience of having glasses. I Learned how to use Rhino, the laser cutting plans, and putting designs together. Coding the plant to move up and down taught me basic coding, I had no knowledge to it so this project helped me with skills I wouldn't've have learned otherwise

Engage and persist

Collaborate

Coding

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I learned a lot about Arduino coding while building this plane. I had to do a bit of coding to make the correct light turn on only when the correct plane part is attached. I also learned how to make laser cut files in Rhino when laser cutting the parts of the finale plane. I improved in colabrating also I got a lot of feedback from my client Charlie who helped me with ideas. He gave me the idea to use hooks for the project and what types of planes I should use. The coding was difficult but I found a way to persist and better understand the code.

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Digital Fabrication

The idea of my project is to make a game were you have to assemble the parts of a model plane based on the name of the plane. The model plane has leds in it that when plugged into the plane will light red if you have connected the wrong piece of the plane your supposed to make or green if you have plugged in the right piece of the plane. I think this could make for a fun game and one that could teach you about the diffrerent types of planes. My client had the idea of wonder behind this idea.

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Empathize

Collaborate

Coding

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Iteration

The Emotion Lighthouse is a transformation and electrification of a project my client did. Her project is about emotions changing from glumness and depression to joy, represented by movement through a colorful forest path. My goal was to capture the essence of that in a new form. In my project, the path takes the form of a spiral staircase up the Lighthouse, adorned by paper, the colors of which represent different places on this emotion gradient. When the user presses a button, lights illuminate the gloomy base of the lighthouse. Then, through the power of Arduino, the light travels around and up the lighthouse, illuminating the present emotion.

Over the course of this studio l learned a lot to do with computers. I learned some about coding, which I had almost no experience with before this studio. Specifically I learned about LEDs and a few different things to make them do and ways to make them do it. I also learned about the 3d modeling software Rhino, and I gained a level of comfort with it. I cut my Rhino sketches out on the laser cutter, and so I learned how to use that. Besides the computers, this studio was also socially great. Working in a client/designer relationship with one of my classmates was fun and interesting. I enjoyed and am proud of the work I did understanding and translation my client's feelings and vision.

engage and persist

Express

coding

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digital fabrication

My project is a sculpture of a rain cloud that drops raindrops and lights up. I made this project to try to convey the feelings of calmness and happiness that my client, Theo, had when he was on a camping trip, and it started raining, and everyone went into a tent. It works using a servo motor and Arduino, which opens up a hatch on the bottom of the cloud to drop raindrops when you turn a dial, as well as having a led strip for light that also attaches to the Arduino and dial, which is all mounted to a laser cut frame and covered in cloud-like tissue paper. It also has a cover for the electronics on the base, and a mini tent that the raindrops fall on. It makes people feel happy and calm because the light looks cool when diffused through the tissue paper, and it is satisfying how the lights and servo both turn on in sync with the dial.

During this studio, I grew at expressing my project, engaging, coding, and digital fabrication. I grew at digital fabrication when I made a CAD file for my project in Rhino, and when I kept making changes when I realized there were problems with it. I grew at coding when I had to combine the servo code and the LED code, and also when I wrote some custom code to change brightness of the LEDs instead of the number of LEDs lit up. I grew at engaging and persisting because for this studio, we had to work with a client to design an electronic version of their project. Because of this, I learned more about how to design something for someone else. I improved at expressing my project because my presentation was a lot better this studio. I did not talk that fast during this presentation and also I think I explained my project clearly.

Habit of Mind

collaborate

physical fabrication

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coding

This project was designed for a client who wanted something to depict the feeling of freedom. I created something that represented freedom of nature translated through the beauty of flowers through the lens of an interactive art piece. I added LEDs which fade in and out through basic Arduino code and wires through the inside of the flowers. This project is an art piece which translates the feeling and expression of freedom into an art piece which can fit on your desk.

I couldn't code before I started the studio, but I felt I had pretty good understanding of electronics and wiring circuits. In this project I created electronic flowers with LEDs that fade in and out and I had to write code that could do that so I learned the basics of writing code as well as slimming it down and making it more efficient. Even if it's the barest bones basics of being able to do LED code, it will help a lot in coming nuvu projects. I also had a lot of practice doing physical fabrication.

coding

express

giving and receiving feedback

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iteration

For my project I worked on an electronic art piece to represent connection. My project would be in a household as a companion or in a museum or art gallery. For me the concept of connection is a set of interactions that you interpret to yourself to define the thing you are interacting with over time developing your own personal connection. The robot-like, wall-mounted, pod houses some electronics which gives it a way of sensing the world where it has different reactions based on how it's feeling, allowing others to interact with it. Others interact with it by getting further or closer to its eyes like a sensor at the front face of the pod where it reacts by displaying different colors on a strip of light and moving its tail.



This studio was a bit different than many that I had done. It was about taking just concepts and stories and making them into what is really an art piece. With this in mind for me, it was difficult because I am used to a challenge and then working on a solution. Due to this I grew in many ways developing my design process. First off, on iteration I had struggled coming up with ideas and had changed my concept three times over but producing iteration after iteration is what got me to my final goal. Next is feedback; this goes along with iteration because it is what guided me through the changes and taught me to try to find ways to incorporate the right amounts of feedback to keep the project going. Third is express which is one of the biggest skills to develop throughout this project. I needed to show story and emotion. Lastly, coding is something I'm used to but still love to learn. I was taught different ways I could go about doing my project just through code. Overall this was a very fulfilling studio in which I improved upon some key skills.