Being someone who doesn’t even like to accept plastic straws in restaurant, I was quite timid about the notion of 3D printing because of the fact that I only was aware of objects being three dimensionally printed in plastic. My eyes were opened when I realized that you can print in 3D using other materials as well. There are 3D printers that print in clay and even food to create intricate and elaborate culinary presentations. I soon became more comfortable with the idea of 3D printing as I know that there are many ways to 3D print that will not hurt the environment and contribute to the already astonishing and devastating plastic problem that we have today.
For my 3D modeling project, I wanted to make something that either solved a problem that I had (similar to littlebits, see post below) or something that would be useful to me in my life. Using a digital platform known as Tinkercad (https://www.tinkercad.com/), I was able to build my own 3D object that I would then be able to print. Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/) is a website that allows for the sharing and exchanging of 3D models. People can get inspired by the designs and ideas of others and even build off of or modify uploaded designs. This teaches students the importance of being a part of a learning community that promotes the collaboration and of contribution to the art and technology world.
I thought long and hard about what I wanted to create because it was imperative that the object that I designed held a significance in my life. I started off by thinking about the things that are important to me in my life. I thought of my family and boyfriend and my pets. I have created a pet/animal theme for this art and technology blog, so I decided to stick with that. Every night I check on my hedgehog Hazel. This is when I make sure her water and food bowl are filled. When I first acquired my hedgehog from a family friend, I noticed that she had difficulties sucking the water out of the water bottle that hangs on in her cage. I ended up adding a small bowl to her cage filled with water to give her another option for drinking. She only drinks out of this bowl now. The problem is that being a hedgehog, she is low to the ground. Hedgehogs have very short legs and not the longest of necks. In order for her to access the water inside of the small bowl she holds onto the side of the bowl with her paws. This works out most of the time however I do find the bowl spilled and turned over in her cage sometimes. This worries me because hedgehogs must stay in seventy-five to eighty-degree climate at all times. If the water spills onto her because the weight of her holding onto the side of the bowl makes the bowl turn over onto her, I worry that she will get cold due to wetness. If she gets too cold she can get sick and even enter a permanent state of hibernation. To keep my hedgehog Hazel healthy and happy, I decided to make a bowl for her that is spill proof and allows her to climb up a set of little stairs so that she can easily reach the water without strain or having to hold onto anything while drinking. This bowl has a flat foundation that doesn’t allow for spillage. The small stairs make it easy for hazel to climb up and down on. 3D modeling in the classroom acts as a substitute to traditional art making methods in the classroom in the fact that the printer substitutes for actually creating art physically. However, 3D printing redefines the art world because of its efficiency and ability to attend to meticulous detail. Students can explore the different materials in which they would like their design to be printed, in a way that effectively expresses the concept behind their design as well as watching their object come to life in 3D.
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"If I fits I sits... Little Bits, Modular Electronics" is a title that is a play on words paying homage to a part of visual culture that is popular for people to post about on social media. People share their cat sitting in the strangest places simply because they fit inside of it or on top of it. You can google "If I fits I sits" to discover hundreds of videos of this. It just so happens that my creation using littlebits is for my cat and she actually does end up sitting inside of it so I found this title to be the perfect fit. Pictures showing my cat sitting inside my creation are posted below.
Ayah Bdeir is the founder and creator of littlebits modular electronics. Her goal was to encourage normal people to still create using electronics that are user-friendly. Littlebits are small individual modules or circuit boards that magnetize to each other in order to form a new invention or full-forming circuit board that functions altogether. “These electronic modules each have some very simple and some very complex functions, but they all work within the same system to make their iteration with hardware very easy. The goal here is to put the power of electronics into everyone’s hands” (Bdeir, A. (2015). Technology can be intimidating and that intimidation can cause a person to avoid it, but the truth of the matter is, technology is everywhere nowadays so we must not be scared of it. We must experiment with it and embrace the fact that we have it in our society and that it helps people’s lives in a variety of ways each and every day. The beauty of littlebits is that you don’t have to a pro with technology in order to use them. I had no idea what they were or that they even existed until this project. “Today, the littlebits library contains close to 60 modules, and there are another 40 on the way. This is a really extensive and powerful, but also easy-to-use modular hardware library. It enables people with absolutely zero experience to create highly complex behaviors with electronics” (Bdeir, A. (2015). This is comforting to hear and great for students who do not have experience with technology. Not to mention, another way for students to make art using technology if they lack the technical skills or do not like making art in the traditional sense.
https://bluefletch.com/blog/technology-and-smiles-at-operation-peace-2/
Ayadh Bdeir says that solving a problem for one person is beautiful. (Bdeir, A. (2015). This is where I really felt connected (no pun intented) to the littlebits and the reason for their creation. They exist in part to aid people to solve everyday problems that we have. In this way, these small little modular electronics that are still technological by nature become humanized as they help people figure out ways to solve individual and unique problems. Ayadh Bdeir stated, “We want to enable people to create solutions that can solve a problem for one person. They are solutions for people that won’t have a manufactured product created for them” (Bdeir, A. (2015). I am inspired by this personally because a lot of the times I feel as though I need to always think really big, with littlebits, you can accomplish and learn through an idea that is more individual to you. This notion has the power to benefit students so that they too can create using electronics in an introspective way.
For my project, I decided to create a cat toy. It was important to me that I try to fix a problem that I have in my life using the littlebits even if it is a small problem. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my cat with all of my heart. People have called me a crazy cat lady even though I have a dog and a hedgehog whom I love equally as much. However, my cat is very needy. She is one of those cats who actually wants to be played with. She doesn’t just spend her days laying around; she wants all the attention. I decided to create the ultimate toy box for her including all of the things that I know she enjoys playing with. I started with a plain cardboard box that I weaved the same material that scratching posts are made out of around the whole thing. I then included a montage of feathers and puff balls along with a stick where she can play with the feathers and ribbon that hang from it. Flowers were also an important part of this toy because she tends to bite the plants in our house all of the time. She enjoys rubbing up against them as well. The last addition was the sheet protectors cut in half that I glued to the inside of the walls of the box. This was the most important aspect of the box because ever since she was little, she has always had a thing for plastic. She chews on it constantly. Not enough to where it is dangerous and to the extent to where she is swallowing it, but she gnaws on it whenever she has the chance to. All of these items included in her toy box hold a significance to my cat Monet. I have provided some photos and videos below of her interacting with her favorite things and why I chose to make them a part of her toy.
The problem that really lies here is the fact that my cat Mo always wants to play with me and is such a distraction to me. She even lays on my homework as I am trying to work on it as showed in the above picture. She chews through my sheet protectors that I keep school work in. So yes, I can actually say, “My cat ate my homework.” With the toy that I put together I decided to augment my cat’s playtime experience using these modular electronics. With the little bits I included a vibration motor that I covered with puff balls so that when the power unit was on the puff balls would move around in the box. I also had two littlebit led lights incorporated because Monet likes to follow around laser lights around the house. I thought these lights would be intriguing to her in this way. The key component to Mo’s toy box is that the one side of the line of circuits functions with me just switching the toggle switch on. The other side requires me to press a button for the littlebits to work together. This allows me to play and interact with Mo some of the time by pressing the button to operate the one side, but other times I can just switch the toggle switch and the littlebits will function together automatically if the switch is on without me having to do anything else but turn it on. I can play with Mo some of the times by pressing the button on her toy, but if I am too busy and she is wanting attention, I can switch the switch to “on” and occupy her that way.
Littlebits are a way for students to interact with technology and create in ways that suit their personal needs in an impressive way. Little bits enhance the way students create just as the addition of the littlebits in the cat toy I created augments my cat’s playtime experience. Even though she did not ever get to experience her toy box with the little bits incorporated, she seems to enjoy her box without the technological advancements. Below are pictures of her more than interested when I was creating her toy box and her interacting with the toy when it was completely built. I can only imagine how much fun she would have with her toy box if she got the chance to experience it with the inclusion of the littlebits. Littlebits are a way for students to personally connect with technology and create so that they are proud of their work and feel like what they have made has a use and clear purpose deepening the value of technology in art. Bdeir, A. (2015). The internet as material: Empowering the next phase of connected hardware innovation. O'Reilly.
Photography is so prominent in the world we live in today. In fact, if you have a smartphone, you have a camera as well! Photography first began as a way for people to document pivotal moments in society and life. While that still stands true today, there has been a shift from the documentation of main events to documenting anything and everything. Sacred moments seem to have become a bit more mundane with the overproduction of copies and images. This seems to be making a statement in and of itself. “Digital imaging offers potential for new constructs, will permanently transform visual arts and extend our notion of art, and necessitates new ways of perceiving, knowing, and judging art” (Witte, M. S. (1994, October 12-16). Photography as an art form is changing the way we see and view reality with its ability to mass produce images as well as with digital editing tools that are so readily available to manipulate images altogether. “These rapidly developing technologies continue to blur distinctions between actual and represented reality and alter both the technical and philosophical points of view regarding image making” (Witte, M. S. (1994, October 12-16). It is important to realize that our world is always changing with new inventions and technology, what we perceive reality to be can and will change and adapt right along with it. Erasure art is the process by which part of an image is deleting or erased from a digital photograph. With the deletion of object(s) from photos, the original meaning and intent of the image changes to create an entirely different conceptual idea. This redefines the way that one sees and makes art. “As new tools were developed to reconstruct ‘reality’ some artists responded by generating ways to deconstruct that imagery” (Witte, M. S. (1994, October 12-16). By omitting parts of a photo, this new deconstructed image turns into a new idea and form of expression. “Images manipulated by the computer further subvert the ‘realism’ associated with photography and invite new quests in visualization” (Witte, M. S. (1994, October 12-16). Nowadays just about anyone and everyone can manipulate images effectively using simple software and/or applications on phones. I see people on social media creating new “memes” everyday by taking an image and putting a caption on it that fits the mood of the image to convey a meaning behind it. That’s just one example of the way that people manipulate photographs in a daily context where the process in manipulating is ready and available to them with the technology that they know and use every day. “Digital information is easy to manipulate, recombine, and transform…it is infinitely malleable” (Witte, M. S. (1994, October 12-16). You don’t have to be well versed in the art of photography to be able to edit an image. This is where the reason why you’re editing the photo becomes important and more of the main focus with this art. We must realize that all the students we teach are not going to absolutely love art. While we can only hope to inspire them enough and to a degree that will change their mind in how they perceive art, there will be students who just may not like it. Erasure art is a great way for students who may not be entirely into art in a traditional sense to connect to artmaking in a different way. It introduces them to artmaking in a newer and more modern way with the essential deeper conceptual thought process required and photo editing programs that students use on their phones without even knowing. This redefines art for students and engages them to further explore the visual culture that they are a part of. While this project only called for the erasing of images in two different photographs, I chose three different photographs to “erase” because I was enjoying it so much. I used Photoshop to create these new images The first image that I chose to “erase” is a picture of me looking at one of Monet’s waterlily paintings at The Art Institute of Chicago. I decided to remove the painting from the wall in this image. By doing so it becomes a picture of just me staring at a blank wall and what I am trying to accomplish with this is the notion of art, the absence of art, and how we view art. Because viewing art can be a different experience for everyone, with the painting being deleted entirely, is a portrayal of how we wouldn’t be able to view art and form ideas and opinions about art if it did not exist at all. If art did not exist, we would not be able to see how different people depict and view our culture and the society that we live in. Not to mention, I have heard people say that traditional art forms are dying. The absence of this painting represents the demise of a piece of art work that was traditionally made using oil paint. Without the piece of artwork hanging on the wall, the girl in the picture that happens to be me, stands there appearing to be looking at nothing at all. The second image depicts a pin pad used for credit or debit card transactions made at stores with a card being slid through the card slot. I removed the card being slid through the slot out of the person’s hand so it appears that the hand isn't sliding anything through the slot. This is a commentary being made on the overspending and reliance on material goods that appears to be a theme in society today. The absence of the card also can be symbolic of people making purchases with credit cards but don’t actually have the money to be doing so. The third image is a picture of me in San Diego at La Jolla Cove. A place where many sea lions reside. These sea lions lay sunning themselves all day on the rocky terrain and/or sand of the beach. I erased the sea lion to symbolize how sea lions are in fact considered an endangered species. While they seem to be in abundance in La Jolla they are threatened because, “They are vulnerable to the effects of climate change on ocean currents, which impacts their fish prey abundance. They are also victims of bycatch in fisheries” (https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/sea-lions). This speaks for many of the endangered animals out there. Many are at risk because of similar situations and their stories deserve to be heard and shared. I hope this image says something about this issue. While erasing images I experienced difficulties just as I would if I were creating using traditional media. One of the difficulties I experienced was in the first image because of the differences/drastic lighting changes. When using Photoshop’s content aware option, the computer had a hard time figuring out what color to make the wall that the painting is hanging on because of the dramatic light change. The lighting is bright on the left because of the overhead lights and becomes darker to the right. In the second image I found erasing images that overlap with other images to be quite a challenge. I also experimented in Photoshop and discovered new things like how to fill in certain sections that I had erased with its original content if I need be. All in all, I felt control over my images and that I was the one making the decisions. The computer wouldn’t do what I wanted it to do without my intent behind it. Students can learn the importance of focused decision-making with art to create a conceptually sound new idea. Students who may not like traditional methods of art making can relate to this form of art and develop a new opinion on how far we’ve come with creating in the twenty-first century. Erasure art gives them the opportunity to take a stand and create meaningful works of art while exploring different computer software.
Witte, M. S. (1994, October 12-16). Photography/digital imaging: Parallel & paradoxical histories.In: Imagery and Visual Literacy: Selected Readings from the Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association, Tempe, Arizona I’m sure we all can relate to experiencing technological malfunctions if not once, but numerous times in our lives. This may be a frozen screen or clicking a link that reveals the wrong page, these technological errors are known as glitches. Hiccups in technology happen and that’s just something that we must accept. Artists have taken this notion and started to create with this idea as inspiration. Thus, glitch art is born. Glitch art celebrates the beauty of “errors” in code. I put the word errors in quotes because are they really errors if it is one’s intention to make them and break a code? “In a world of innovative technology, glitching explores the beauty of faults, bugs, and glitches in digital files. Glitch art is made by purposely corrupting files by altering their code or forcing a file to break in a specific way” (Dallas. (2013). With the corruption of these codes, one must reflect and explore why one is glitching the art in the way that they are. The conceptual thought that goes into glitching deepens the meaning of the piece/work of art entirely. “Glitch art is the cultivation of these errors, an embracing of machine failure as an aesthetic” (Donaldson, J. (n.d.). This makes me think of Bob Ross with his “happy little accidents.” Just as Bob Ross embraces his mistakes in his paintings, glitch art embraces the error in code as a work of art. Glitching art for me was liberating in the sense that I was not afraid to make a mistake as the whole piece is technically compiled of mistakes of code. “The fractured aesthetic of asymmetical repetition, the jagged, broken image becomes the identifying character of the form” (Donaldson, J. (n.d.). While perfection if often times what is strived for, glitch art cultivates the beauty of imperfection which is a powerful parallel to ponder. “Each machine and file format has its own flavor due to its bit depth, codec, or resolution, and each one glitches differently, beautifully. (Donaldson, J. (n.d.). This is also part of the fun with glitching. Each and every image glitches in a unique way adding profound originality to the work. Sometimes you may not even see a difference in the way you glitch one image but may see a huge difference in another image that was glitched in the exact same way. For my three images, I decided to explore the concept of body image and the media and its heavy influence that it has over impressionable young girls. I chose three different images of three different cousins of mine who all represent a variety of age groups. The first glitched image below that is is a picture of my cousin Scarlett at the age of five. As a young girl, one of the most influential images pertaining to body image at this age is Barbie. At this age girls play with Barbie and become exposed to beauty ideals that Barbie portrays with her figure and looks. To glitch this image I replaced all the letter S’s in the code with the word Barbie. I chose S simply because this is a picture of Scarlett and her name begins with S. In this glitched image, you can still make out Scalett’s face, however, some people may have to look harder to find her face. This shows how much of an impact the media, specifically Barbie, can have on girls who are very young. This next glitched image is a picture of my cousin Gisele with one of her friends. I chose an image of Gisele with her friend because in these pre-teen years, friends become very influential and important in a girl’s life. I glitched this image by incorporating the words “friends,” “peer pressure,” “perfection,” “body image,” and “media” randomly into the code. These words all have to do with the trials and tribulations that middle school-aged girls are introduced to and have to deal with pertaining to the media and its influence. The last glitched image is a picture of my cousin Jessica who is nineteen. Jessica is an active user of social media, so I decided to incorporate parts of a code from a picture that has a bunch of social media platforms on it into the code of the picture of Jessica. I also deleted parts of the code of Jessica as well. This was done to represent how social media and the act of comparing oneself to others on social media can wear at and diminish how one feels about and perceives themselves. I found it interesting that all the images that I glitched ended up having a feminine feel to them. This of course was not intentional but has proved to strengthen my concept overall. This shows the beauty of spontaneity in glitch art and how things may happen through glitching that can end up benefiting you’re the final product of your artwork. All these pictures are meant to show that the media has an influential role in “glitching” the way women feel about themselves to the point where women can lose themselves just as the original picture of these girls has been lost. Bringing glitch art into the classroom has the ability to enhance educational experienced through deep conceptual thought processes along with the usage and understanding of manipulating code through technology. These images have the power to redefine the way that people view and make art. Students will have a greater appreciation for strong conceptualization and how that relates to not only works of art using traditional media but works of art using new media technology.
Dallas. (2013). Glitch art (Part 1: The basic databend). Retrieved from http://blog.oskoui-oskoui.com/?p=6161 Donaldson, J. (n.d.). Glossing over thoughts on glitch: A poetry of Error. Retrieved from http://artpulsemagazine.com/glossing-over-thoughts-on-glitch-a-poetry-of-error
For this next project, we were required to make a video game controller that responds and correlates with our video game that we coded in Scratch. This was a difficult task because some engineer work was required along with working and operating materials that one may not feel as comfortable working with. The controller that I have created combines the usage of the makey makey invention kit, a phone cable, and craft materials to function as a sustainable and working controller.
My particular controller was enthused by my video game, “It’s Raining Cats and Dogs.” In this game one must avoid the raining cats and dogs and try to catch as many falling umbrellas as they can to earn the most points as possible. Not only are there cats, dogs, and umbrellas falling from the sky, but also raindrops of varying sizes that fall and lightening that strikes different places of the playing environment. If you’re not a little bit anxious just hearing about all those things, you should try playing it. While my video game is not to scare people, I did intentionally create an environment with images and effects that are meant to induce a bit of stress in order to further engage people in the game as well as make it a good challenge. The goal that I had in mind was to create a controller that helps relieve some of the stress that my game naturally may induce. “…the way that our body interacts with the environment is affecting the way we perceive the environment” (Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Kim, W. W., & Patel, D. (2007). What better way to physically reduce stress than the use of stress balls to experience the relationship between physical body movement and overall environment of the game! To create this controller, I first got my hands on four symmetrical “squishies.” For those of you who are unaware of what squishies are, they are toy objects that allow for ultimate squeezing and reform to their original shape after being squished. They usually are in the shape and design of another object and are super popular with children these days, so I thought that this would be a great way to engross myself in the visual culture of children by using them for this project. When I started this project, I knew that I wanted my character in the video game to move left by squeezing a squishie on the left and move right by squeezing a squishie placed on the right; however, I was not sure exactly how I was going to make this happen when I first started the project. This speaks miles in the fact that sometimes as an artist you might not be entirely sure on what you want your piece to become until you actually start working on it. Sometimes ideas sound great but until you actually go to execute them, adjustments must be made in order for everything to technically and conceptually work out. Students need to feel comfortable taking risks with creating because they may be unable to see the final product when they are first starting a project and must take these risks in order to accomplish what they wish to. Examples of Squishies
I began to bring this idea to fruition by sticking one of the individual wires from the phone cord through one of the squishies. I then placed another squishie on top of that one. I attached tin foil to the squishie on top to conduct electricity. I had that wire sticking out of the one squishie just ever so slightly to where you almost couldn’t even see it. I repeated this process one more time with the two other squishies so I would have one control that would move to the left (the cat) and one control that would move to the right (the dog). Images below will help this make more sense. Together, they are my controller. I chose a cat and a dog to match the theme of my video game and they were made by covering the squishies in felt. There was not enough connection for my sprite to move left and right for just the wire punctured through the one squishie to be touching the tin foil on the other squishie, lucky for me. In order for there to be a strong enough connection, one must push down/squeeze the dog or cat so that the wire will fully and completely make contact with the tin foil. Accordingly, “…the controller itself plays a critical role in creating a more complete experience. By inducing body movement, the device resulted in a higher sense of engagement in the players and mediated a feeling of presence in the digital world” (Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Kim, W. W., & Patel, D. (2007). With the players of my game overwhelmed by the graphics, the use of the controller that I have created is meant relieve some of this stress by squeezing. This is much like a stress ball but with this, the act of squeezing and relieving stress operates the sprite to play the game. This directly connects the environment of the game to the usage of the controller to fully immerse players into the game. “Gaming was no longer only a question of challenge; it was the experience itself that rewarded the players” (Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Kim, W. W., & Patel, D. (2007).
By giving students the opportunity to construct their very own controller that corresponds with a video game that they created gives them the time and space to reflect on how they can make an effective controller that not only fully immerses players into their video game but enhances the video game’s overall concept. The creation enhances the art making experience in the fact that technology acts as a substitute with functional improvement to the overall work. This sort of project can teach students the importance of knowing how to properly manipulate traditional art materials along with technological materials to create something entirely new and different. Projects that use both new media and traditional media provides students with the chance to flourish as they most likely will be able to effectively use one or the other. In this way, a project such as this may not feel as foreign because they will use some materials that they feel more comfortable using. Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Kim, W. W., & Patel, D. (2007). Does body movement engage you more in digital game play? And Why?. In International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction(pp. 102-113). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
I have told a couple of people that I have coded my own video game and the reaction that I have been mainly receiving is one of dropped jaws. While it does seem rather impressive, a program like scratch breaks down the process in a simple and engaging way like mentioned before. Exploring Scratch and all of the art games that are on there, students can be inspired by the community of artists and their ideas. The color-coded command blocks help guide the creator’s artistic decisions into a functioning video game by only allowing only logical attachment of blocks to happen. As video games are so commonly played by children and teenagers, being able to code one’s own video game is a fun and exciting way to connect with students so that they are learning through their interests.
First of all, it is important to realize that video games serve more than just entertainment and fun. While they most of the time are both entertaining and fun, video games actually have a variety of uses and benefits to people. “…games have evolved in as novel and effective teaching tools (Gee 2003, 2005; Gentile and Gentile 2008). They also fight against declining mental capacities in old age, promote job-related skills, and offer models to teach children complex tasks and abilities” (Eichenbaum, A., Bavelier, D., & Green, S. C. (2014). As an educator, you can only hope to make what you are teaching fun for your students. I would never want to be the class hated by students because it is never any fun. Video games sort of get a bad rap when in fact they are helping people in many ways that may get overlooked. "By incorporating massively multi-player online games (MMOG) and other gaming-related research into their curriculum and by providing teacher trainees with the opportunity to apply this research in their course design projects and other activities, these programs can help their trainees discover new strategies for effective implementation of these tools in their teaching" (Schrader, P. G., Zheng, D., & Young, M. (2006). This allows for the effective use of video games in the classroom while connecting with students through a visual culture lens. With this project I had to put on the hat of a game designer and think like a game designer. There is a lot that goes into making a video game that you may not even realize while playing a video game. For example, “Essentially, a game designer needs to ensure that players do fail (if they always succeed, there is nothing to learn) but that this failure does not seem insurmountable, that it even seems fun” (Eichenbaum, A., Bavelier, D., & Green, S. C. (2014). I highly considered this when creating my video game “It’s Raining Cats and Dogs.” The goal of my game is to avoid the fallings cats and dogs by moving left and right and to see how many points you can earn. You earn five points each for every multi-colored umbrella caught. When I originally started planning out the concept for my game I was going to have the player win if they catch an umbrella that would only fall down from the sky once in a while. I decided that this would be too easy for the players and they would not much to work towards. By incorporating a scoring system into my game, this encourages people to play my game as much as they would like by the constant challenge of trying to beat their high score. Finding the proper rate at which the cats, dogs, and umbrellas fell from the sky was something that I thought long and hard about also. Again, with this I was considering how I wanted the game to be difficult enough to where people felt challenged but easy enough to where it did not feel impossible. “Timing, too, is crucial: reinforcement must come at proper intervals and in proper relationship to in-game events” (Eichenbaum, A., Bavelier, D., & Green, S. C. (2014). I decided to have cats fall at an interval of one to three seconds, dogs to fall at an interval of one to two seconds, and umbrellas to fall one to ten seconds. I decided that I wanted the animals to fall more frequently and the umbrella which is what the player is working to catch less frequently. I felt that this allowed for a fair level of difficulty altogether. This experience was full of much tinkering and problem-solving. I would get so frustrated at times but would work through the frustration by experimenting and trying new things in order to achieve the function that I wanted. Through the hours that I put into making my video game I have realized that just like creating a work of art using traditional media, I never know when to call my work of art finished or complete. I felt the exact same way with the creation of my video game. For example, I got my umbrellas to work with the scoring system that I coded but thought the umbrellas should then do something more exciting instead of fall ordinarily like the cats and dogs do. This is when I decided that the umbrellas should be differentiated by changing colors as they fall from the sky. This is more intriguing to players and I feel makes it more obvious that the umbrellas are what you should catch as they are made more special by changing color. Once I would get something to work properly and how I wanted it to in my video game, I would want to add something else to enhance the game even more. This is a way in which traditional media and new media are alike. The trial-and-error process as well as the critical thinking and problem-solving that coding this video game required makes me realize how much students could benefit from doing a project such as this. It promotes risk-taking by testing out new ideas and theories through a platform that allows one to test what they are doing immediately. Not only are students coding, but they are creating characters and environments in which these characters will interact with each other using other applications. For example, I created all of my sprites using Piskel. However, students can create their characters and backgrounds using other applications that they so choose giving them the element of freedom in their designing process. Art video games redefines the way students work with materials in the art classroom in the fact that it directly involves the use of technology along with the willingness to take risks and problem solve in new and different ways throughout the process of creating. Eichenbaum, A., Bavelier, D., & Green, S. C. (2014). Video games: Play that can do serious good. American Journal of Play, 7(1), 50-72. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1043955.pdf Schrader, P. G., Zheng, D., & Young, M. (2006). Teachers' perceptions of video games: MMOGs and the future of preservice teacher education.Innovate: Journal of Online Education, 2(3), 1-6. Play "It's Raining Cats and Dogs" below! It has always been a goal for computer programs/software to be user-friendly or easy to use since the beginning of the inventions of computers. We all want the computer to speak our language rather than having to adapt to its own language. The visual program Scratch easily allows its users to create games and animated stories. Learning the language of Scratch is painless and a lot of fun! I knew that Scratch was user friendly when I figured out how to connect and use my makey makey with the program. I sort of just figured it out on my own through experimentation which Is exactly one of the intents of the format of Scratch.
The really nice thing about Scratch is that you don’t need formal training on how to use the program. “Scratch added programmability to media-manipulation activities that are popular in youth culture, and it encouraged young people to learn through exploration and peer sharing, with less focus on direct instruction than other programming languages” (Maloney, J., Resnick, M., Rusk, N., Silverman, B., & Eastmond, E. (2010). I have always been someone who has learned through experimenting/experiencing by myself. Even if the outcome was not a good one, I learn the best this way and I think that is why Scratch and I get along so well. Like I mentioned before, I figured out Scratch on my own and I learned as I went which was a unique and effective involvement in and of itself. The format of scratch is also easy to use in the fact that the command blocks to program are color-coded by category and this helps users find blocks related to that particular block. It also does not let you complete an action if it does not make sense or it will not work together. The color blocks work like puzzle pieces together. If the two puzzle piece commands don’t fit together, it doesn’t even let you try it because these color block expressions are not put together in a meaningful way. This eliminates a lot of other issues that one may not even think about or realize in the coding procedure. The other really important feature of Scratch is that it allows you to “test” your progress in the moment. Whenever commands are put together, users can test out these fragments right away. This “tinkerability” allows for immediate hands on learning and total engagement throughout the development of creation. All in all, more programs should be as user-friendly as Scratch. Speaking a computer’s language is, more often than not, difficult! Anything to make that process a bit easier and not as frustrating is worth the time and energy of making and investigating. Maloney, J., Resnick, M., Rusk, N., Silverman, B., & Eastmond, E. (2010). The scratch programming language and environment. TOCE ACM Transactions on Computing Education Trans. Comput. Educ., 10(4), 1-15. Gifs. They are practically everywhere on the internet. You pretty much can't avoid them. Now you can even insert gifs in text messages to convey a feeling through the movement and action of a gif. A gif is an acronym that stands for graphics interchange format. Gifs are comprised of images that play on a loop together in order for the images then be appear as an animation. This allows for students to see images moving through time and space while exploring what it takes to animate images. The 8-bit style of art that my gif is created in was made through a free application called Piskel.
I first started this project by thinking of something that I wanted to animate. I have a thing for idioms, so I decided to make my project based on the idiom, “when pigs fly.” I thought this would make for good images to see moving together on a loop as the action of flying naturally involves movement. The piskel application is very user-friendly. You draw the image that you wish by simply dragging the mouse in the available space. Elementary school aged students could most definitely get the hang of this with minimal issues. Each image that I drew out and created is known as a sprite. In order to achieve the desired movement, I duplicated that sprite and began to add or subtract to that sprite to show change between the two objects. It’s important to understand how much change you want between each sprite, so you know how gradual or drastic to edit the image to convey the overall mood and message of your gif accurately. You can see all the sprites that comprise my gif above on what is called a sprite sheet. Each of my sprites show change within the construction of wing, legs, and tail. Just as one must create change in traditional media in order to show volume that images have through appropriate usage of lights and darks, gifs require us to show change through additions and subtractions of images. In this way, technology augments the artmaking experience. Gifs are an effective way to communicate, especially nowadays as social media platforms are cluttered with them. Social media plays such a big role in children and teenagers lives, so giving them the option to create their own gif allows for them to explore their own creativity while feeling involved with the visual culture that they are surrounded by. Not going to lie, the title of this article was a little intimidating. I had no idea what autoethnography meant before reading this article. While breaking down the word, auto meaning self and ethnography meaning a more scientific description of a person and/or their culture, I was able to identify and wrap my head around what the core makes up an autoethnography. Throughout the article it actually talks about the different ways in which people define the word autoethnography. The key components to the term is that it involves the self and the social/cultural context that one is in or placed in. ‘“Autoethnography has the capacity to provoke viewers to broaden their horizons, reflect critically on experiences, enter empathetically in to the lives of others, and actively participate in dialogue regarding the social implications of the encountered” (Ellis & Bochner, 2000)’ (Blair, J. (2014). By learning about autoethnography and what autoethnography embodies in art, students get an education through a visual culturally enriched lens.
While the assignment that was allocated to the students in the article had several components, the essence of the assignment was to create a stop-motion animation that was comprised around self-reflective questions. Some of these questions include: “Which one of my socially constructed flaws do I embrace?” “What was the happiest day of my life?” “What makes me feel most vulnerable?” “If my memory were erased tomorrow, what would I want to relive?” (Blair, J. (2014)). Art is the one subject that combines feeling/emotion with subject matter and that is just one of the many reasons why art is imperative in education. Students need a space and a way to make sense of who they are and the way that the feel about the world. Art gives students the ability to do all these things and more. Students in this article realized just how personal artmaking can be. These personal experiences can be so rewarding in the discovery of oneself; they can even be so much as therapeutic. Reading about some of these stop-motion animation projects that students created and the way that they showed such vulnerability is simply breathtaking and inspirational. I myself have a hard time digging deep into the way that I feel and presenting that in my work. People ask me why I paint so many landscapes -- my answer is simply that painting landscapes comes easier to me and I feel happy while painting them! I am challenging myself to be as vulnerable as these students were in the article. It was comforting to read about how the class was extremely supportive of the students and their self-origin created. With an assignment that is so emotion-based and emotion-heavy, it is crucial to ensure that students have and feel like they have a safe space to share. These autoethnographic projects made me realize how art can be a powerful way in which people feel comfortable expressing their true and most vulnerable selves that they may not feel comfortable expressing in other ways. Not only can one express themselves comfortably through art, but art is also a way to connect to one another. “By expressing ourselves in works of art that enclose our crystallized feelings and attitudes, we are revealing ourselves to our peers in the hope that others will identify” (Blair, J. (2014)). Through the sharing of personal events, people just like these students, can relate to and empathize with others. Empathizing is something else we do not see other subjects encouraging or even discussing. Blair, J. (2014). Animated autoethnographies: Stop motion animation as a tool for self-inquiry and personal evolution. Art Education, 67(2), 6-13.
https://televandalist.com/post/50428860478
Being that I have a music background, I was thrilled to be working with and composing music. I played the violin for six years along with being a part of my school’s choir for eight years. Throughout middle and high school, I was involved in musical theatre. I can pretty confidently say that I understand a good amount of music theory, but it was certainly a different experience being exposed to this new way of thinking through a technological yet musical perspective. Music has given me a more holistic appreciate for the arts and I just could not wait to dip my toes in the waves of sound with this project.
For the creation of this 8-bit soundtrack I first started off by using a website called Pulseboy. This was to make the different components of my song. I tinkered around in Pulseboy while coming up with the main parts of my song in hopes that I would come up with a catchy melody. The melody is most of the time what people hear and remember the most from a song, so it was important to me that I come up with one that I liked in hopes that other people would like it as well. I did this by experimenting with different octaves and frequencies and paying attention closely to combinations of notes (chords) that I liked to create a song that felt cohesive when played together. Once I was satisfied with the melody that I came up with, I then loaded the sound file into Garage band. I was familiar with Garage Band because when I was younger my friends and I would mix songs together to create a mash up of music we would make up dance routines for. Either way, it is not a hard software to get used to using which is why it would be an asset in the classroom. Soundtrap is a free digital platform that performs the same major functions as Garage Band as well that could also be implemented in the classroom. Using garageband, I was able to copy and paste the segment that I created in Pulseboy over and over so that it repeated or looped. I then followed the same procedure to create the other parts of my song so that I ended up having an 8-bit soundtrack with separate parts that loop and form a song together. It is quite a magical to hear all of the separate components of the song stacked together. Everyone loves some type of music. Music connects people from all cultures and all parts of the world. Not to mention, music involves the engagement of one’s sense of hearing to connect. Music and the visual arts have always worked hand in hand with the power that they omit in their ability to freely express emotions and thoughts. This this being said, students have much they can learn by widening their artistic horizons in learning about the influence that sound has in society. Especially nowadays with YouTube as wildly popular as it is and concerts selling out the way they are, having a basic understanding of music and how it impacts society is crucial. With this being said, giving students a foundational understanding of music, technology substitutes for more traditional ways of experiencing music. This substitution in the classroom can be more interactive and engage students at a deeper level because not all students may feel comfortable interacting with musical instruments, but most students will feel comfortable operating music software as most children interact with technology on a daily or even hourly basis. I included two different soundtracks. The first soundtrack is the soundtrack that I discussed the making of in the paragraphs above. The second soundtrack that I created was with the help and inspiration of my boyfriend who is very much so musically inclined. We used the same basic melody and components of the first soundtrack but enhanced them with the use of my boyfriend’s MIDI keyboard. This keyboard recorded the notes that he would play which hooked up to his laptop. The recorded notes sync up to Garage Band and transfer over the played notes to the musical score/staff on Garage Band. We played around with some effects in the making of “Soundtrack 2” as well. This showed me that people are artistic in many different ways and some people are stronger with certain art forms than others. In the classroom, students who are more comfortable and interested in music can help other students. This in turn creates an open and collaborative learning experience for students. Each and every student brings something to the table and as educators it is our duty to ensure that our students still have the opportunity to always shine bright even if they are not inherently successful at every project. With the help of a classroom built on the ideals of collective learning, students can think together, work together, and most importantly learn together and from each other through the creation process.
"Soundtrack 2" was enhanced with the help of my boyfriend with additional sound effects and a MIDI keyboard as explained above.
As mentioned before, sound is powerful! By involving one’s sense of hearing, the possibilities of what can be done with the incorporation of sound are endless. There are so many ways to stimulate not just your sense of hearing but even your sense of touch with sound through feeling a speaker vibrate as the sound comes through.
In the 8-bit video game era, sound played a major role in creative composition considering the limitations of technology. There was a necessity to come up with aesthetic decisions to compose in order to overcome these limitations of technology. Sometimes these limitations actually ended up helping the aesthetic of the composition as a whole. The limitations of technology forces composers to be creative. Film audio mainly operates using diegetic or non-diegetic whereas gaming audio operates through interactive audio. Interactive audio involves sound that occurs due to gameplay/the player. Adaptive audio is the sound that responds to the environment of the game. Both interactive audio and adaptive audio can be grouped together and called dynamic audio as they both occur in response to the gameplay or player. Adaptive sound allows for immediate feedback whilst playing which fully immerses players in the game that they are playing. Because audio programmers and musicians worked together and audio programmers were not usually not actual musicians, it was a combination of technological constraints of storage and social constraints of the proper knowledge to engage the sound chips that contributed to the creation of the unique 8-bit sound. Looping was just one very important way that video games saved memory as there was limited memory available. Looping, which is a set of sounds that repeat, therefore contributed to this sound of the time. This repetition of sound creates a unified pattern of sounds. The underlying concept here is that the creators of video game audio had to push past these limitations of technology and work with what they had in order to create their “masterpiece.” This lesson is an influential one and can be shared with students to encourage them to push the limits that they might put upon themselves. Also, the fact that just because one may not have the proper knowledge acquired, like the audio programmers not actually being musicians, does not mean that the task is impossible. One must try and work with the knowledge and materials that they do possess in which case, the possibilities of creation are limitless. Collins, K. (2007). In the loop: Creativity and constraint in 8-bit video game audio. Twentieth-Century Music, 4(02), 209-227. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/download/1062746/IntheLoop.pdf Making an instrument sounded very intimidating at first, but with the makey makey invention kit along with the program "Scratch," this task became not so daunting. The makey makey invention kit can be used by artists, engineers, and everyone in between and outside of those parameters, so yes! Everyone! Makey makey allows for one to use the wires provided to form connections using the circuit board in the kit with other objects of choice to create something new and technologically sound. These connections come to life with the proper programming in "Scratch." Simple drag and drop block puzzle pieces are used to create program scripts for the computer to understand, follow, and perform accordingly.
As of late, I have been trying my best to reuse and recycle. It was important to me that I not purchase anything for this project, and reuse something of significance to me already in my house. This speaks levels as an art educator because supplies and budgets may be tight for the arts and one must adapt and be flexible with this. Showing students that they can use materials that they have around the house and that they can reuse materials/items that they never thought they could, enhances their art making experience and overall knowledge and technical ability with different media. Especially with technology involved in a project such as this, students learn that technology can be used and incorporated with materials that they never thought they would use again, let alone see in action with the use of a computer and programming. I chose to take two pairs of my Converse Allstar shoes and deconstruct them a bit in order to create a three dimensional structure that I could connect the wires from the makey makey to, without having the wires be visible. I have had those two pairs of Converse shoes since middle school and I have not been able to get rid of them due to the fact that they have been with me for so long and I have experienced so much in them! While they are not the cleanest and I have replaced them with newer pairs of the same exact shoe, I cannot seem to get rid of them. I preserved their memory through this art making experience and final product of this project. The project meant a lot more to me in general because of that fact. I believe that students can find more meaning in their work by using and incorporating items that mean a lot to them. This in turn actively involves them in exploring the visual culture that they are immersed in and the world that that they live in altogether. I also wanted to bring in the idea that your shoes make a sound with each and every step that you make. When wearing normal shoes, a sound is only made with the action of stepping. Just like my makey makey instrument, a sound is only made with the action of the shoe lace aglet touching the metal circles on the shoe. The sounds were previously downloaded to Scratch where I programmed scripts to play each sound with the touch action. I felt my shoes begin to walk again with the sounds that emitted from them. All in all, students can see that you don't have to be a computer programmer to learn and effectively use programming software. You also don't need to be an electrician to work with wires and cords like I have always thought. Students will also interact with art and technology using a different sense than they are probably not as used to; the sense of hearing.
"The Beeps and Boops of Today" are eight sounds that consist of square and triangle sound waves and noise and sample sound channels. While adjusting musical dynamics such as pitch, sustain, harmonics, frequency, and much more, I was able to create these square, triangle, and noise sound effects using a website called www.bfxr.net. This website allows for a lot of opportunity when making sound effects. This website also what I would consider user friendly. It is formatted in a way that is easy to use and this makes it great for students and/or beginners. "The Beeps and Boops of Today" are the six sounds that resonated with me the most the more I tampered with them.
Once I was satisfied with my six sound effects using www.bfxr.net, I moved on to the two sample sound waves. My sample sound waves are my favorite. Funny story about recording those waves... I really wanted to catch my cat meowing as my cat is, what I would consider, a very vocal cat. She spends much of her days meowing about anything and everything for no apparent reason. Many times over the course of this project were spent trying to catch her meowing on record. One of the times I tried to record her meowing, my dog coughed in the background instead. Hence, the "Dog Cough" sample sound which is the second to last sound effect of this playlist. I wanted to incorporate my pets as my sample sounds as they are a big part of my life and as a future educator I would like my future students to be able to produce work that is important to them as well.
The pulse sound wave is square/rectangular in shape and makes a "boop" sound. These types of sound waves are commonly used to create the melodic line of a song.
The triangle sound waves are are triangular in shape. These types of sound waves are commonly used to create the baseline of a song. Changing the pitch of a triangular sound wave can create percussion sounds as well.
The noise sound channel does not have a rhyme or reason to the shape of its wave. This sound is similar to the sound of white noise or static. It is commonly used for percussion sounds in songs.
All in all, the knowledge of sound and visuals can only help students develop a solid understanding for the two mediums individually and combined. With this knowledge, students can experiment with these two art forms (audio and visual) and enhance their work by substituting these forms in for projects that would not normally include sound. Generally speaking, the inclusion of sound is another way to incorporate one of the five senses into a piece which would naturally augment the project in and of itself.
I’ve played my fair share of video games but never paid too much attention to what it was exactly about that video game or video game system that I look a particular liking towards. I learned that advanced game technology are working to focus on presence which is defined by The International Society for Presence Research as “a psychological state or subjective perception in which even though part or all of an individual’s current experience is generated by and/or filtered through human-made technology, part or all of the individual’s perception fails to accurately acknowledge the role of the technology in the experience” (Skalski, P., & Whitbred, R., page 68). In other words, this “presence” comes from sensory and motor engagement that video games provide for players. For example, “high quality HD images and surround sound should create greater engagement or involvement with a medium by stimulating the senses more” (Skalski, P., & Whitbred, R., page 70). By stimulating the player’s senses, the player will get a real full-embodied experience while playing; this is turn leads to a more enjoyable playing experience. This study in particular concluded that sound effected the feeling of presence for players and enjoyment that players experienced more than two-channel sound or image quality. This conclusion really plays homage to the importance and great impact that sound can have. Sound is powerful and can have an effect on one’s everyday life as well. Just the other day I was at Walmart with my dad. We had a whole cart full of groceries. The cashier was about halfway through ringing up our groceries when she noticed that the last couple of items that she scanned did not actually ring up. She said she was unaware of this because the sound that the scanner makes when something is rung up was still sounding. That’s just one life context example of where sound is important! Finding ways to incorporate sound into projects whether they be with new media or traditional media would be a great way to fully immerse students into what they are creating. This has ability to redefine art projects for students by creating a fully immersed art viewing and making experience. Skalski, P., & Whitbred, R. (2010). Image versus Sound: A Comparison of Formal Feature Effects on Presence and Video Game Enjoyment.PsychNology Journal, 8(1), 67-84.
Wow, do I have a lot respect for people whose professions are in the fields of computer programming and developing. I remember as a little girl when I would sleepover at my grandparents house my grandpa would sometimes get work calls in the middle of the night that he would have to answer. He worked in IT. Sometimes I wold get up in the middle of the night with him during these emergency calls, mainly because it was an excuse to get out of bed. I would come into his office with him and he would be on the phone with his computer up. The screen would be filled with letters, numbers, and other weird looking symbols. I remember thinking that it didn't look English and making a comment to him like, "If I can't read this, how can the computer read this?" The key component here is that the computer speaks a different kind of language; this however does not mean that the computer speaks a more complicated language. If anything, the computer needs the language to be as simple as ever, being spoon fed every last single input. I especially learned this the hard way with HTML/javascript coding or learning how to code in general. I quickly was able to realize that I can actually speak the language of a computer, this language is just very picky. Learning the "language" of the computer was a learning curve just like anything else. Having the ability to cope and adapt with a media or program that is so new and different is a very valuable and important skill to have. Specifically for this project we were assigned to make a "Create Your Own Adventure" game. The "language" that the computer "speaks" in order to run the create your own adventure game is HMTL and javascript. This allows the user or player of the game to interact with the browser. I did have some difficulties while making this game, technical difficulties at their finest. Sometimes my problem would be as simple as a missing quotation mark in the code. That's how picky this language really is. I certainly now have a profound appreciation for computers' language and people who work with computers for a living. I have also learned that this process and experience will help students better understand what computers are capable of and how they can enhance the work that they want to create as an artist. Rubber Ducky de-bugging! When trying to solve technology problems, specifically with coding, this technique allows you to explain what you are doing line by line verbally to the rubber ducky and the rubber ducky will sit and listen. The desired end results would be for you to eventually figure out what is wrong with the code with the help of a rubber ducky who is a great listener and provides excellent support through his/her comforting smile. As we can see here, this rubber ducky is for BIG tech problems. The world of art has been transformed with the advancements of technology. Electronic art combines the use of art and technology such as robotic art. This is different from what is known as media art that includes video art, transmission art, and experimental film. This new media art centers around ideas and conceptual thought processes rather than the actual object or form. This is similar to the dada movement that also focused more on concept. The Dada Movement was a response to the industrialization of warfare as new media art was the result of an influx of information, technology, and digitization. Uses of new technology such as smart phones, have the ability to change and enhance learning as well as many other electronic art and new media art. This type of mobile learning (mLearning) has the power to transform the learning environment in a more personal, situated, and connected fashion. The SAMR model helps with the evaluation of mLearning. It is important to note that in this high-tech day and age, the ability to find and access information is a very useful, if not a crucial skill to possess. Cellular devices can be seen as a window into your students’ personality. For example, the type of cell phone, phone accessories, colors, fonts, and backgrounds all serve as a gateway into the personality of a student. Even the content of the mobile device can be personalized. This means that the use of a cell phone is a more personal way to connect with students and engage them in learning. With cell phones being as small as they are, they are extremely portable allowing for learning with the use of them to not have to be restricted to a classroom setting. Learning can take place out in the real world while engaging in real life situations and life experiences. Information can be accessed by just the click of a button in the palm of one’s hands. This efficient connectivity of information allows for endless opportunities to engage with other students making the experience full of involved learning. The SAMR model can be utilized in the process of evaluating how mLearning or technology in general has transformed the culture for students. The SAMR model categorizes technology into groupings of substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition. Activities that enhance learning are said to be substituted and augmented whereas activities that transform learning are considered to be modified and redefined. This model provides instructors with a guideline on how to evaluate how effective the goal of transforming this learning was by using a mobile device. Three different studies have proved that these devices are beneficial as they allow for students to participate in activities at times and in places that they would not ordinarily be able to. While that all sounds great, it is important to realize that the workload for a student should not increase due to mLearning and it’s mobility/accessibility. Recently, it seems to be more and more prevalent that students are bogged down with massive amounts of work, and mLearning is meant to help and not hurt students. All in all, mobile devices and new-age technologies have the capability to change the enrich the learning culture of students. Romrell, D., Kidder, L., & Wood, E. (2014). The SAMR model as a framework for evaluating mLearning. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 18(2). Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1036281 Tibe, M., & Jana, R. (1995). New media art: Introduction. Retrieved from http://www.robertspahr.com/teaching/nmp/new_media_art_tribe.pdf |