We had a hard time getting started and trying out these prototypes because we needed our box, pieces cut in the wood/vinyl, and all of our materials in order to get started. It was difficult to create any kind of fully realized prototypes because of the layers we needed and waiting on multiple materials. Our first attempt at a solid prototype was the night before we had to come to class with a prototype to show. We spent hours on to realize it would not work because of the placement of the battery and we got to a point of frustration that we had to call it quits for the night. We also did not have enough materials with us to make more attempts. I felt so defeated. Throughout the whole process I was concerned our project would not work even at all, but I wanted to see this through. That morning I worked at 5am and I was talking to my coworker about the project. Suddenly it hit me, and I immediately pulled out my sketchbook and drew it out so I would not forget. That ended up being our final result.

The way this idea would work is that there would be one circuit connected to an LED light and a motor, in order to signify that it was on and begin spinning the vinyl. This was done by creating a break in the circuit and using a switch to compete the negative side. On a separate, but connected circuit were the LED lights and sound systems. Each light was connected separately by the negative lines, however the positive ran together up through the box by a copper spike to touch the vinyl, then conduct through the copper needles and be redirected based on the position of the needle to the positive of either light.

At this point I was still nervous it would not work because it relies on multiple poor connections and if the lights under the box shut off even just a flicker the entire song restarts. We also had to work in a really small space. A lot of questions came up during the process: what could we do so the disk had to be flipped, how can our songs play at certain times, and why are things not working as anticipated? We were looking into ways to prevent conducting through portions of the disk depending on where the needle was places. Andrea suggested using clear nail polish. We ended up not using it and though we definitely still could have, we were already having difficulties getting the connections to work that it would have made things more difficult than necessary. I would like to revisit using that for other projects in the future though.

In the earlier design we thought we would have to box in the LED lights with sound systems so that the lights would not turn on both at the same time. However, we encountered an issue that light still happened to make it into the box through the cracks. We ended up leaving the cap on the sensors and placing the lights very close so the light could reach inside the cap. This way it solved the issue of light reaching inside and we did not have to box in each sensor. This also saved our ears from hearing the songs go off even more times than they did.

Once we had the idea constructed, it was working, but not well at all. Big achievement though. We ended up pausing for the night and coming back to it again the next night. We spent some time trying to understand how to get better connections. We were also having difficulties with the batteries in that it seemed we needed lots of pressure in order for them to work. I think we managed to short circuit and burn out a few during the process as well. Another issue was the disk seemed to be too heavy for the motor and the battery we were using. We ended up calling my brother to see if he could help us. He gave us advice on stacking batteries or using different types of batteries. We also glued these batteries in an attempt to hold better pressure. He also mentioned that the adhesive on the copper tape was likely creating connectivity issues. Using multiple batteries created problems with the red LED light because it could not withhold that much power. That was something I did not know could be a problem, so it is something I am glad to have learned about now. Ultimately though, this helped our project function better overall. Something else we did was we added rubber to the piece we put between the motor and the disk to create more of a catch for it to spin, which it was spinning fine last night. My brother suggested using pager clips on the needle to give it some weight and a better surface touching the vinyl. We didn’t like the look of that but at that point we just wanted our project to work better than it was.

SONG MAKING PROCESS:

This part was a very fun and creative process. I think this all came naturally. There really wasn’t a point where we weren’t on the same page because we were both open to so many ideas. We really just wanted to have fun by this.

For our first song we wanted to create something a bit more serious and entirely contrast that on side B. Sean and I both have experience with classical music and went in that direction. Around the time Sean came up with the name of our band he suggested wanting to write a song in Swedish and ended up composing Side A. I added in some vocals and improvised my guitar based on the melody. We listened to some Nordic music online to get an idea on what they music traditionally sounds like. We really liked the characterized sound of the bass vocals, drums, and both of their wind and string instruments used.

Side B was really a collage of everything we wanted to do. We did actually have a lot more ideas for it and we likely would have added more if we had the time for it. There was one day where Sean came to my house with all of his equipment, including a full drum set, a bass with an amp and more. We fit all of this in my living room and just had fun with it. I haven’t had too many experiences where music wasn’t taken as a serious matter where it could just be playful noise making, careless whether or not it was good.

We both agreed we wish we had more time to clean up our songs and record more. Yet, what we did get out of exploring programs was useful. I had used Garage Band on my phone for my tribute card, but it was really hard to do that on such a small device. We ended up downloading a program similar to Audacity called Audio Tonic on my laptop, watched a tutorial online and started messing around. Some of the prototyping you can hear in track 3. We found problems with the software in that there were difficulty picking up sounds, playing sounds without overdoing the gain, adjusting volume, and that tracks needed to be muted in order to record another layer. It became a guessing game for rhythm. This was an issue I had in Garage Band too. Out of frustration we started just jamming/ sound making for a bit and I happened to catch some really nice stuff that was placed into what is heard in Side B.

Since we had issues with Audio Tonic, Sean searched for another program to try called Audio Desk. He was able to set this up with a small microphone and play through earbuds so that we could listen as we were recording. We still had some similar issues with this program but being able to solve the issue of having no clue rhythmically where the track was at underneath helped so much. We finished Side B in Audio Tonic but created all of Side A in Audio Desk.

What did I personally get out of this project?

I feel a lot more experienced using “simple” circuits and general problem solving. I got to dabble into cutting wood again. I gained experience using alternative sound recording programs. And I worked on learning how to collaborate with one of the best partners I could have had.

Viking Funeral: Band Camp, SoundCloud

PROTOTYPE 2:

Prototype 2 involves lights and a sound system. I really like plants and wanted to make meaning involving that. I thought it could be funny to create a plant that could actually talk to you. I used simple circuits and I used Audio Tonic again to put the sound together.

What would students get out of this lesson?

The idea in our lesson plan is that students would strengthen knowledge of materiality. They will learn about what makes an object have meaning/personal value and how that can be made to be expressed to others. Students can learn to seek value in the things around them. I think that the project Sean and I did was really ambitious, so I feel like a more developed version of prototype 2 might be a little closer to what I would expect from students.

As frustrating as this class can get, I am so happy with what I got out of it. It feels empowering to have learned to do things I never thought I would be able to do.

In this docudrama, the fictional character(s) dramatize the lure and trap of social media, especially for teens.

1. Does this ring true for your own experience growing up (and watching others grow up) with social media? Why or why not?  In particular, describe what aspects of Ben’s engagement resonate or contradict what you may have directly experienced or witnessed?
2. What, as art educators, can we do to minimize the harmful effects of social media and even harness positive aspects?
3.  Overall, what did you learn (if anything) from watching this docudrama?

I have seen this film twice. My first time seeing it I remember being disgusted not only by how invasive companies are but also that i have such a reliance on my phone and that companies are more to blame than I thought. So yes, I did/do have a similar experience, but I certainly don’t try to prevent this dependence. Ben was obsessed with others interacting with him and I feel that I am constantly checking my phone for new messages too. He got very irritable being away from his phone and I feel that I would get anxious too. I also feel that some insecurities that I have are related to social media use and beauty standards that are promoted through these platforms. I am very proud of the growth I have made in developing self-confidence. From middle school to early high school years I used to be extremely insecure about my acne. I am still insecure, but I used to cover my face with foundation every day, even on days I stayed in. It wasn’t until a friend challenged me to go an entire summer without concealer or foundation that I began to sort of embrace it. Now there are days I don’t bother covering it, something I would have never done.

This film had made me a lot more aware of some of the tracking and manipulative ways companies try to get you back online. Prior to unfollowing my ex on Instagram, I would get a notification anytime he posted something. Yeah, sure Instagram sends notifications all the time, but I think it was no coincidence I was getting all of those notifications directly after we broke up.

My questions are how do we effectively give ourselves boundaries from our phones? How can we minimize within education? This movie taught me about the exploitation, but not necessarily how to eliminate. Also, it is difficult to disconnect yourself from your phone because our whole lives are woven into them. What if there is an emergency, or what if I need to be contacted for work purposes? I think it comes down to self-regulation. In the classroom there may need to be some kind of limitation for phone usage, but would this cause students to be more distracted out of anxiety and not knowing? Another way that to prevent harmful effects is to discuss them. This could be integrated by utilizing artists whose art focuses on this issue. Ai Weiwei’s “Hansel and Grettle” exhibition or Mike Campau’s “Antisocial” series would be good examples.

I am working with Sean for the final project. We are making a functional record player using, copper vinyl, simple circuits with LED lights and motors, and sound module musical boxes. Sean came up with the concept and had asked me questions about the music box I used in one of my previous projects. Since I was considering working with a music box again we joined forces to do it together. Based on what we have prototyped so far, I think this will be a fairly ambitious project. We are aiming to create our record out of copper, which will spin with a motor, and will conduct to start the sound. This record will also have a funky Side A and Side B, triggering two different original songs, by the hit new group “Viking Funeral”. I am really excited for this project because I think Sean and I both have different strengths that will work well for this project: his developed knowledge of circuits, and of course humor, and my background in music, recording and understanding of the sound boxes.

This project builds on pervious knowledge of things focused on in an academic year. Our project is designed for a final project for students, where they would be challenged to develop an idea using multiple things we learned from different projects. I think it would be worthwhile because it is student led, allowing them to explore alternate project uses for what they learned, as well as explore ways these materials/ projects could be tied together.

As of right now for our project we have been looking at different types of sound boxes and our current idea involves one from the same company that I used, but rather than using the pull tab one we are using one that is activated by light. We did some experimentation in class to see if LED lights could activate it. We are also really excited to write some music together. I think it will be really fun to collaborate on that. Since there are other options students can pick from, I may need to have a deeper background in some of the materials they can pick from in order to be a better resource.

Hailey and I worked together on this project together. It took us some time to come up with an idea that we were both interested in. We decided on basing our game on someone who is interested in art deciding on a major. I feel like a lot of people who want to focus on visual arts struggle to make that decision because they are constantly told they won’t make it in life. It is something I questioned earlier on, but ultimately I am really excited to become a teacher and I know that I can still work as an artist too. We wanted to reflect on how people always have something to say on life decisions.

We started with compiling ideas for our decisions and then Hailey began drawing each of our sprites as I started to prototype some coding. Initially the sprites were drawn out for planning purposes because our original planning page was fairly messy, but we liked the designs and tried to figure our the best way to upload them. We tried using Photoshop, but we both had a hard time with it and decided to use Scratch. Hailey and I had both spent a while using the design features for our sprites for our last project so it made things a lot easier. As she uploaded those I had time to work on the background drawings since we could not be in Scratch at the same time. Hailey also did some prototyping by filling in the backgrounds as different colors to sort out the coding before the backgrounds were finished.

I feel that often people second guess their decisions in life, especially when deciding on a major, because you are essentially guiding yourself towards a career that you are expected to hold for the rest of your life. It is not an easy decision to be made. With every choice their was an option to rethink and go back. However, there were consequences in that if you went back and switched your major, you would end up with less money at the end. We wanted to make sure that each outcome involved art somehow to show that your decisions do not have to limit the things you enjoy.

I added a song that I recorded on my guitar. Then I added my voice over top as the comments coming from outsiders. I tried to keep them as accurate as possible to how people often respond. I also really wanted to apply our GIF project to this and so I tried adding that but ended up having to add the backdrops and code them to look like GIFS because scratch does not allow that.

Something I learned by working with a partner, was timing our work to meet the limitations of Scratch. It was also interesting to learn how other people went about picking their major.

1. How does this relate (or not) to your prior experience of art and art ed?
2. How might you apply this in your classroom?

I don’t feel like in terms of technology aspects this related to prior experiences. STEAM was not something at all used when I was in high school. I also think it is interested that I have had prior experience learning Scratch in middle school, but was never asked to use my own art or create my own sounds. I think it would have been fun to be able to expand this way.

I don’t feel I would use this in my classroom, at least not as a partner project because of the way Scratch is set up. I think also the way we were forced to distribute the work gave all of us different experiences. I think Scratch also came with more limitations among that, but I do think it was worthwhile to learn basic coding.

Creative (and Squishy) Circuits (pg. 125)

I chose this chapter because I have a bit of a background in ceramics and I find the idea of clay/ dough as a material that is malleable really cool. When it comes to ceramics many peoples goal is to push past that quality of the material and be as controlled as possible. It would be fun to explore malleability of art with students. I was fascinated by the dough being either insulating and conductive. I initially thought the project was using regular play dough and using normal circuit supplies. I would love to learn how the dough is created and works.

Confessions of a Maker Educator (pg. 96)

I liked this chapter because it was about a teacher teaching about technology without having an education background in STEAM or even art.  I like this class, but I sometimes wonder if these are all things I would be comfortable teaching about. It was interesting to read about this teachers experiences of wanting to try new things and the excitement the kids had from it. This chapter also included how parents and administration responded to the ideas as well. I think something worthwhile she wrote too was “If I’m bored, my students have to be feeling similarly.” In the times I have worked with kids and even adults, if you are not excited about the things you are talking about, they will usually have the same energy you do and it makes it much harder to engage students. You have to be able to give them a reason to care.

Biomimicry (pg. 166)

I picked this chapter because I personally love nature and I think it is something good to base assignments on since everyone has access to nature. It relates to art education in that it applies the design thinking process. Students are asked to brainstorm, prototype and execute their projects considering aesthetics for their invention. This is a project that can be very open ended that students can really explore ideas with nature and can be expanded to include more complicated ideas for older students. I am not sure about the kind of inventions I would expect to see, but I think this project would be a good way to talk about sculptures and form. My senior year of high school I made a multimedia tree out of ceramics, wire and glass. I think it would be fun to focus more in a sculptural direction and look into light systems, 3D printing or any other STEM related materials.

Name Prototype:

Click Game Prototype:

Final Game:

I learned Scratch when I was in middle school and honestly I was not excited about this project. I feel like the program is visually geared towards young children, but I wasn’t aware of all of the things you can do with scratch, like adding in your own art.

I started with prototyping my name and focusing on graphic design elements, aesthetics, changing costumes and some of the features coding.  After that I followed the balloon click game tutorial to develop an understanding of how to code a click game and come up with some ideas of what I wanted to make. I started my bug game by designing my bug and net. I chose bugs just because I really like bugs. I was pretty frustrated learning how to design them through Scratch, especially the net, but it did give me an opportunity to really understand how that part of the program works. As for coding, I copied the coding from the balloon click game for my bug and then attached a few extra things like the speech at the end. Figuring out  how to code the net was the challenging part. I wanted it to follow the mouse as if we were using a net to catch the bug. I also wanted to find a way to have the net flip to catch the bug. Here is the coding I used:

I was feeling quite limited by coding offered because I was trying to figure out if I could use the “when this sprite is clicked” option (bug) and apply that to change the nets costume.  However those don’t crossover. It took me a while to find the “touching bug” option. I felt that was having to find difficult ways around something that could have been easier. However, I am glad that it was not as thorough as Photoshop because I could see myself getting very overwhelmed.

Things that I picked up on from my classmates was understanding how to upload a drawn sprite. Nina showed me an app she downloaded on her phone to cut out the shape and remove it from the paper. I also really enjoyed Pedro’s game because it was awesome to see how he applied his previous graphic design background. I also liked that he had an introductory screen.

Ways that this relates to art and art education is that the main focus is graphic design, but can also involve other interests like drawing and painting, or even music as sounds. I think there are also ways to incorporate art history by finding a mentor artist or create scenes based around certain artists.

If I were to use this in a future classroom (high school level), I might consider skipping the chase and click games or give the opportunity to do a choice based game as that project as well. If I were to skip those games I would ask them to watch the tutorials or create prototyping videos to show so that they don’t feel like thy are missing information. Maybe it is just me but I felt I was ready to jump into something that felt like a butterfly effect game, but those are also the kinds of games I tend to gravitate towards.

I was only able to stay at this event for about an hour, but I wish I could have stayed longer. I really didn’t know what this event was about and so I was not sure what to expect. I also wish it had been advertised more because I felt it was really important for people to see and learn from. I felt that a good amount of people who were there were there for a class and I would not have known about the event if it wasn’t for this class.

Picture 1: One of the rolls of paper that are placed along the paths in front of the library. You can also see someone adding a drawing. In the back were silkscreen prints strung up.

Picture 2: A man on the stage showing his grandfather’s drawings. This was both a celebration of his work and a quick discussion of how people of color were/ are displayed on TV.

Video: An original song about people viewing people of color as tokens in their rising awareness of BLM as well as their expectations of black individuals to step up and lead/ share their thoughts.

One thing I did not get pictures of was a large wall in the back timelining historical dates and images of important events.

This event did not really feel like a protest in that it felt to not be backed with anger. It was more of a gathering of difficult experiences told in a beautiful and emotional way. And while focused mainly on black issues, there were also discussions of fears being a woman and welcomed human experiences from all races. This event came out of frustrations with the creation of the Sojourner Truth Statue. I would describe the experience as more of a collaborative learning environment.

Ways that this connected to our class and even the design thinking process was that it asked us to consider the issues and solutions. STEM was not much of a big idea, but we saw developments of art, poetry and music, which are all things that can be brought to this class. In teaching we will also find that students are passionate in discussing these kinds of experiences with art. Sharing stories is a really important aspect of learning.

GIF 1

I learned about how I can manipulate images to move and further develop meaning. I felt slightly more confident about this project because I did already have a bit of experience with photoshop. I did get frustrated with some of the tools and I often find technology to be finicky. Yet, I did find it fun deciding what I wanted to have move and to see the end result. I started by watching the demo bouncing ball video since it involved parts of photoshop I haven’t used and since I felt I understood, I didn’t finish the bouncing ball GIF and I started working on the apple images GIF. The pictures I used in that GIF were taken as reference images for the following GIF in which the original piece was intended to imitate a time-lapse in one.

As for the design thinking process, I did a bit of prototyping to understand different part of Photoshop. I got to use different tools for each one. The first one I focused more on layers and playthrough/ time of each part. The second one I practiced using the selection tool and played with the brightness and contrast, something I was already familiar with. For the swallowing pills one, I tried out selecting and moving pieces and figuring out how to color in the gaps. I think my last one was the most successful because I tried new things and visually I like that the pill disappears when the moth closes, implying more physicality.

This project connects well to digital art, something I am not familiar with. I do think that a lot of students would enjoy this, especially because elements that they enjoy can be added. Photoshop is also a really great application to have students become affiliated with. I have mainly only used it for editing for portfolios, but I think to even know just that is important.

This connects to design thinking because it engages unfamiliar technology and I had to imagine different ideas of what I would want to make. I think this project would be important to bring in especially because the world is increasingly more reliant on technology. I wish that when I left high school, I was more comfortable with technology. I might consider this project to go along with more photography rather than drawings and paintings depending on how much art students have to work with, as well as if they seem to be happy with other work they have. However I don’t want the GIF to feel like a video to them.

https://newpaltz.knowmia.com/Dxgs

The prompt for our tribute cards asked us to think of someone we would want to make a project for. I had a really hard time coming up with someone I was comfortable making a card for. I was thinking about how as kids we would blindly make cards for our parents in elementary school about how much we loved them. I remember seeing my dad as a hero, mainly because he worked as a cop and a firefighter and I knew he literally saved lives, but I think also because kids are desperate to be loved and view our parents/guardians as that source even if thats not the reality. My card represents the perspectives of your parents as a child and then as an adult.

I really liked the exploration days we had before introducing the project. I think it really helped me feel more comfortable, engaged and actually excited about the project. In the pictures above I started focusing on aesthetic with the origami and from there I considered more about function. I was looking into if connecting lights could transfer through each other, how many lights/ colors I could use, and alternate ways I can use the copper tape (not laying it flat). If I were to do this project again, I want to do something a little more complicated with the lights.

My earliest thoughts were about design and aesthetics. I was thinking about the child drawings, my blue house and the piano when first coming up with ideas. My dad was my inspiration to my involvement in music at such an early age. One of my only happy and clearer memories with him was signing “Don’t Stop Believing” with my older sister as he played. It really only felt right to pay something to that, but also relates to how he has missed out on being around to see the things I am really passionate about. I was initially stressed about the piano looking too cliché. I personally feel like instruments or music notes included in art often appear and feel that way. It was not long after the piano idea that I knew I wanted to include sound. I actually wanted one of the keys to be a button that would begin the sound, but I had no idea how to do that and with the way the sound piece functioned, I am not sure that would have been possible.

The words I chose came from a poem called ‘Daddy Are You Proud of Me?” by Nego True. I go back to this poem a lot and I feel like the words phrase every feeling I have had. I think the ones I chose come with a lot of innocence and realization as well:

“Daddy Are You Proud of Me?”

“I wish I could of hired you when I was a kid so I could of spent more time with you.”

“Sending money and spending time is not the same thing.”

I think that as kids we are trained to hold an unspoken expectation we have on our parents that they should be around to see the things we achieve or share experiences and the things that make us happy with them. I hate that I crave validation from someone I will never get it from. I would love to be able to call my dad and tell him about the frisbee tournament I just won or introduce him to the people I care about. Questioning if I was truthfully ever wanted or wanting him to be proud of who I am if we were to ever reconnect is something I come back to probably every day. And as much as I would like to ignore it, I feel like it was ingrained that he was supposed to be by my side and I don’t think there will ever be a time that I am completely past that feeling. Realistically, the only relationship I have left with my dad are the money transactions for child support. Sometimes those don’t exist and sometimes I wish my mom/ family could be financially capable to not need it. I often feel like a burden to him, simply another bill he is supposed to pay. He is the kind of parent who would drive a friend and I somewhere, hand out money, let us do our own thing and consider that spending time together. Things seem to revolve around work and money for him and so the first line really resonated the feeling of that maybe he would be dedicated to his children if he was paid to do it.

Incorporating sound to things that don’t always include that is something I have been excited to try and utilize in the past. I enjoyed that this was an art education project but how this allowed me to reach into music, poetry and STEM. I think there was something really awesome about this project that it also asks you to think for someone else. I think a lot of my art mainly only relates to myself and my thoughts. I would love to take this project into a future classroom because of the amount of exploration of materials it allotted and the creativity and differences found between everyone’s work.