Gaskins addresses some very interesting topics in her videos, some of which being Tinkering, Remixing, and Physical Computing. Essentially, tinkering is playing around with materials, and inventing, creating, and making. It involves research, brainstorming, and improvising, and materials can be whatever is on hand or available. Gaskins makes the point that in tinkering failure is ok, as it just leads to improvement. Remixing is somewhat similar to tinkering but focuses more on recreation. In cultural remixing, an example is reappropriation, where “artifacts are reclaimed from the dominant culture and environment”, and sort of re-envisioned and recreated.

Physical Computing involves a sort of interaction between environment and technology or the individual and technology, hence the physical aspect. An example is Onyx Ashanti, who creates a sort of electronic jazz through digital fabrication, which he calls “beat jazzers”. Using a smartphone, mouthpiece, and an accelerometers on each hand, he is able to “atomize music culture” through a performance with the instrument he has created that responds to his actions. In doing so, he fuses cultures and past with present. Another example of Physical Computing is Gaskins’ Sound Glove, which coverts colors to sound and consists of a glove, computer, audio board, speakers, and color sensor on the fingertip. Kids can see it, take it apart, and recreate it, which “begins conversation about what’s possible” – inspiring kids to think about the future. It works by reading a color and producing a sound, so you can essentially “play a painting”.

Another thing Gaskins touches upon is Inclusive and Culturally Responsive Art Education, through incorporating culture into education and inventing. Technology can be used to infuse culture into design, as was the case with James Brown’s Cold Sweat being represented on boots through African Textile or in the example of using Black Panther as a teaching tool or even Afrofuturism. When what they’re creating is culturally relevant and has a personal meaning, students can feel passionate and inspired and have an intrinsic motivation to accomplish their project regardless of obstacles – as Gaskins describes it, “students figuring out how to cross over boundaries on their own”.