Digital Prototyping For Design¶
Course Website¶
Week 01¶
Robots¶
Reflection¶
In today’s class, we had a basic understanding of robots. In everyday life, we interact with robots more than we think we know. A normal kuka arm robot has about six axes, and the way to count it is to see how many joints that they have. With a robot, we can do almost everything. I know that for putting together electronics or things like laptops and handphones, robotic arms were used to put them together for precision.
We had a basic understanding of the type of robots and the systems behind it. We saw a lot of robots use wood assembly, cutting, etc. We also see the system behind the robots. In robots, there are many kinds of joints, such as polar, cylindrical, cartesian, jointed arm, and SCARA. The different types of joints will dictate what kind of movement the robot will be doing. There are two types of coordinate: base coordinates and tool coordinates. How a robot moves also will be different depending if it is a joint or linear movement. The difference will be their orientation and velocity.
The Kuka robot has no sensor so it will be quite dangerous. When you are using a robot, you need to know where the switch is. There are three states: press, and not press, and all the way. There is a way of controlling the robot with rhino - grasshopper. We spent the rest of the class to learn how to use grasshopper to install Rhino.
Pictures and Exercises¶
As a class, there was a demonstration on how to use grasshopper for stimulation. Shortly after, we tried it out in class.
Trying out scripts on my computer:
Trying out together with our friends:
Process Images
Process Video
Grasshopper Scripts
Grasshopper Scripts for first test.
Grasshopper Scripts for second test.
Grasshopper Scripts for third test.
References¶
For this class, I am mainly looking at the lecture resources here.
Learning Outcomes¶
My personal learning outcome for this section is to have better understanding on robots and understand how to use Rhino and Grasshopper as a tool to create stimulations.
Blender¶
Reflection¶
Today, we learned about Blender. We learned about why it’s important to use Blender. Blender is not intended to be a CAD tool. The main reason why we use a tool is how we feel when we are using it. Freedom is more important than ability.
When using a tool in any discipline, the tools shape the results in any discipline, the tools shape the results of your creation. This is because when you are not sure what you want to do, you will let the tool guide you, then it will shape your creative work. Then, there is a danger of creating homogeneous work. Before using blender, it is important to understand why the tool we are using is the way that it is. The main point is for selling licenses and monetization. Thus, the tool designed will be designed to appeal to how the majority will like it. That means that if you are the 2% chances are your needs will not be attained.
In this case, there will be misalignment from the business to the user. They sell the concept of an intuitive tool. But the truth is, something that is intuitive does not require the user to put in much effort, this is why the results are similar. Nowadays, people don’t like to go through too much trouble, they care more about feeling good and showing that they are amazing without really considering that what they made is exactly the same from other people. Thus, the ability to modify the tool is extremely important as a designer. We also learned about the concept of Free Software. After that, we learned about the brief history of blender and had the rest of the class learning and exploring about blender.
I think what Victor shared is really valid. I appreciate understanding this before learning blender because it gave me an insight on how design tools work. Personally, I really enjoy using Figma and I do find some similarities from Figma and Blender.
Pictures and Exercises¶
I have downloaded Blender on my computer and will try it out accordingly.
References¶
For this class, I am mainly looking at the lecture resources here.
Learning Outcomes¶
My personal learning outcome for this section is to feel more comfortable with Blender as a tool and start some projects using Blender.
Week 02¶
Life Coding As a Human Interface¶
Reflection¶
Today, we learned about human interface and explore how to use coding to create interactive interface.. We got insights about program language, device interfaces, data interfaces, wireless connection, and the other how to potentially appling it on art projects.
It is interesting to see the connection between interaction, electronics and embodiment comes together with performing art and electronic art. We also saw some cool projects, and it inspire me to think about how I can potentially apply this on our final interventions.
We were also introduced the concept of live coding, as it allows us to generate and think content in a non-linear format. They have also shared a video from ALGO polis 2022.
Pictures and Exercises¶
We tried a couple settings on the Hydra website in class.
References¶
Learning Outcomes¶
My personal learning outcome is to be able to try out different ways of creating interactive interface with coding.
Blender IO¶
Reflection¶
We learned about how the concept behind blender and python and see how we can control it. Personally, I find it insightful because this allows me to have a deeper level of understanding on the capacity of Blender. Most of our class time were spent in trying out demo and understanding the concept of using Blender IO.
I really appreciate this method of teaching in the seminar as we are able to follow through the lessons. I feel so guided and taken care of during the entire class time. If there is future possibilities, I hope there will be more classes like this. I sincerely enjoy my classes with Victor, as he is really patience and explain things well. He made sure everyone to be able to follow through his demo.
Pictures and Exercises¶
As a class, we tried to run python in class in Blender together.
The command we used is add > mesh > monkey
This is Suzanne the Monkey.
I also learned that using bpy. we can have access to a lot of possibility.
We also tried to array ten monkeys and executing it in class.
After, we tried to rotate Suzanne with our phones. Since I am using an IOS devise, we need to find an application that can read the sensor. After that, we were able to do a demo on arduino as well.
We were trying to control LED strips using blender and arduino.
References¶
For this class, I am mainly looking at the lecture resources here.
Recomended software for phone here.
Blender Files
Learning Outcomes¶
My personal learning outcome for this section is to be able to use Blender independently and imagine possible outcomes to incorporate it to my projects.
Week 03¶
Microchallenge III¶
Reflection¶
During this week, we had micro challenges on the interface. We need to consolidate what we learned in the past and apply it to our project.
I think one key thing that I learn is to ask GPT the right questions. One of the important things that we learn is also to be able to list out the system diagram as one of the feedback sessions. Me, Ariel and Jime spend some time studying and figuring out a more detailed diagram to further complete our documentation.
Project Topic¶
This time, our project topic is to visualize the futures imagined by children in our first intervention creating collages with them. We also hope to create a digital gallery that can act as an exhibit that we share back with teachers and parents to raise funds as NFTs.
Our aim was to develop a digital interface that allows children to create imagery out of the futures they create during the futures literacy workshop.
Explain your contribution to the project¶
In terms of personal contribution, me and Ariel worked together to find the right code to execute for our project. We realized that the previous year example has some problems. There is trouble connecting to the server and the code is not working. Therefore, we had to troubleshoot and find new resources.
Also, as a UX designer, Jime and I contributed some inputs on usability, microcopy, web aesthetics to make our final product more desirable.
Reflect your learning goals¶
I think as a team, none of us have a solid coding experience thus this is a very intimidating process. We tried many things: such as html, collab etc. Thankfully, with the help of ChatGPT and online resources, we are able to make it work.
Even though we are using ChatGPT in our project, we also realized that you need to have some basic understanding on how the code works in order to ask ChatGPT the right questions. This is because sometimes, there would be trouble in comprehending your request and the code will break. Therefore, while we got help from ChatGPT, in the asking process, we also learned about how the system actually works.