Artiste en résidence Archives - echofab

[EN] Lessons Learned At The EchoFab FabLab Residency In Montréal…

James Abell — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 15:15:15 +0000

It was a very valuable experience at the EchoFab FabLab. Here is a Youtube Video about the important things that I learned. I hope that this might help other people who are looking use this FabLab or others for creative projects.

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[EN] 9- EchoFab Fablab Artist In Residence Day Nine…Get Drawing!…

James Abell — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 03:30:33 +0000

Today, I got the ant and bee prints to a level that I was happy with. I have also printed out a ‘net’ pattern of the final structure to test the shape over the weekend. I am also going to try to use it as a test to add Arduino interactive elements. Today, I really needed to pick up a pen and draw to start finding ‘fluid’ energy lines for the final composition that will be etched on the perspex. Sometimes to start anything, you have to pick up a pen and draw. If it is a piece of art, working out a mechanism or an electrical circuit, we need to sometimes just get drawing and get our minds working!

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[EN] 8- EchoFab Fablab Artist In Residence Day Eight…Fluid Streets…

James Abell — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 02:58:46 +0000

Today was a day to spend away from the workshop. I wanted to get inspiration for the ‘fluid’ composition that will be etched onto the perspex element of the final artwork using the laser cutter. As the fluid lines are to evoke the movement in the city, I decided to spend some time walking around outside the apartment I am staying at the moment. I took some photos, sketched. I will use this outside stimulus to make many drawings in quick succession of one another on a bit sketchpad. This is a process I often use. I then go back through all the sketches and carefully choose which composition is the most fluid and spontaneous.

I also tried to brainstorm how the interactive elements of the Arduino will work, both the programming and the hardware setup. I have little experience with the Arduino so far and getting it to work will be a very interesting challenge! It is late at night now and as I write this, I have just finished the shape of the ‘cloud’ element to something that I am pleased with. Tomorrow, I will attempt to get at least a rough version of it laser cut so I can construct a trial shape of it over the long Easter weekend.

streets like a river

architectural elements of Montreal

quick street sketch St Denis

abstract shape development

Arduino brainstorming

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[EN] 7- EchoFab Fablab Artist In Residence Day Seven…

James Abell — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 23:47:18 +0000

Today a development video. Some photos of the shapes and lights I am playing with. In the video you see the form that I have evolved. For me, evolving a form is only finished when the art-piece is over. I have developed the overall shape I want in 3ds Max as in the video but this shape will change as I construct it in real life.

Also, in one of the photos you can see that one of the legs when printing the ant broke off. The reason for this was that this leg was not attached to the base option that the print preparation Cura creates before a print. The solution to this was to go back to the model in 3dsMax and make a thin flat base on the model there making sure that all legs are attached to it. Tomorrow, will tell what will happen with the evolution of the work!…

leg breaks not attached to base

glowing light

arrangement of elements

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[EN] 6 – EchoFab Fablab Artist In Residence Day Six…

James Abell — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 01:53:57 +0000

Today, I managed to solder a ‘Miniduino’, an Arduino clone that I won over the weekend! Marc told me that makers can often save a lot of money by buying non-soldered kits, this is a good thing to remember as electrical soldering although takes some concentration is not rocket science so most people should be able to do it.

Tomorrow, I will start to develop the form of the final piece. Today, I wanted to investigate how my fluid line sketches will look edge lit on perspex. Basically, this process involves the laser cutter. It will etch lines on perspex and even glass. When lit from the side with a strip light for example, the etches will catch the light and become illuminated. You can convert your traditional work from a scan or photo in the free application Inkscape using bitmap tracer and then use this to print using the laser cutter.

This technique is often used in advertising and show displays and gives an exciting ‘city lights’ effect. In the final piece, I want to use this method for some aspects of the work as I want the ‘fluid’ elements of the work to be from my actual drawing work. I do not want to make a purely precision mathematical sculptural form. I want it to have rough and chaotic elements. I also am printing some ‘nets’ on paper of some cloud forms from 3dsMax. The nets can be created in 123dMake. Watch this space for how this will turn out!…

Cet article [EN] 6 – EchoFab Fablab Artist In Residence Day Six… est apparu en premier sur echofab.

[EN] 5 – EchoFab Fablab Artist In Residence Day Five…

James Abell — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 01:41:31 +0000

Day 5 is Friday. All over the world people get ready to enjoy the weekend. With this general ambience around the lab, I proceeded to develop the sculptural forms that were in my mind and on flat ideas sketches. This is where things come to life, where 2d becomes 3d in reality. Today was also a big day of experimentation with the 3d printer. I managed to print some people from 3dsMax, there were some artifacts. When I tried to print an ant from 3dsMax, it really went wrong! The main problem was that the model had no base, when the printer printed thin legs of the ant, they had no base to hold to so the printing head ripped these fragile elements away from where they should be. A good lesson to learn, the next attempt at this ant, there will be a square base to attach the legs!

end of day sketch and wooden triangles

failed attempt to print the ant

printing walking people

pushing wooden triangles around

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[EN] 4 – EchoFab Fablab Artist In Residence Day Four…

James Abell — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 01:32:30 +0000

After the first three days, I used today to develop ideas for the final art-piece. In my artwork as some of you may know www.jamesabellart.com , I am interested in mixing fluid ‘energy’ lines with monolithic ‘architectonic’ forms. I want to make a sculptural form that expands on these ideas exploiting the technology available to me at the EchoFab Fablab. Have a look at the development ideas here and watch out for more posts…

brainstorm

form development

form development 2

3ds Max shape investigations

Cet article [EN] 4 – EchoFab Fablab Artist In Residence Day Four… est apparu en premier sur echofab.

[EN] 3 – EchoFab Fablab Artist In Residence Day Three…

James Abell — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 01:22:01 +0000

Today I embarked upon learning the Arduino. I thought, should I do this? Will it take me down roads that will take me away from creative artworks. Speaking to other Arduino users in the Fablab, I soon realised that this tool can be used for rapid prototyping of interactive artworks. I want to use it at this level so I decided that yes I have time to learn and incorporate it into the artwork I am making at EchoFab.

I also set about learning the potential of the laser cutter. To quickly make something ‘architectonic’ to test, I used OpenStreetMap to take a map section of Montreal. I then imported this into the 3d application Blender and rendered out the top view. This in turn was taken to the laser cutter. You can see that the result is interesting when I hold it up to the laptop as a quick lighting test.

Cet article [EN] 3 – EchoFab Fablab Artist In Residence Day Three… est apparu en premier sur echofab.