Art Finals Part 1

Leah C.

December 14, 2009 - 12:00 PM

Yes, art students have finals, and sometimes we work as much and as long as any other student. Just because I'm drawing, painting or thinking about colors, doesn't mean I have it easy. It takes time to create a piece, and in order for one to truly present something that is acceptable, it can take up many hours and even days. For me I am never finished. I always seem to find something that needs to be added or changed. I tend to be a perfectionist and I always try to find ways to better my work. This is probably why I always doubt the quality of my work when others see nothing wrong.

For my last two digital arts projects, we did critiques instead of tests. Students would present their projects, and the entire class would give comments and feedback. I had two digital arts classes this term, Programming for Artists, and Digital Imaging. In this blog I will talk about my programming class first. Programming is like a new language for me. I am still having trouble picking it up. There is a lot of programming for those who are unfamiliar with digital arts. Artists who are interested in web design, animation, or interactive art would need to know how to write codes. I myself am more interested in illustration and print design which makes this class somewhat irrelevant in my focus, but still very interesting to take. For the final, the main objective in our project was to create something with what we learned in class involving Arduinos.We programmed Arduinos, a sort of chip (that can have parts attached) in order to make motors move, or lights flash. One would than connect the Arduino through an USB cable to their computer, and from there you can feed information on what you want your creation to do, as well as providing it a source of power.
My partner and I decided to make a ball maze contraption with an accelerometer and two servo motors. The accelerometer is a small device that detects movement, and can be directly attached to the board. For our project, it reads the angle of the tilt which in turn controls the tilt of our servo motors. Depending on the x and y axes of the controls, one servo motor moves one of the boxes according to the x coordinate, and the outer box the y coordinate. This helps move the ping pong ball move up, down, left or right into a hole at the end. We also built the maze out of foam board, and rubber cement, giving the actual form durability as well as a light body. Please check out a video of our project here:

While we did a maze, other students brought in some very interesting creations. One student hacked a Wii remote and incorporated it into his gloves to control lights. Another made a fortune teller with a display screen based on the amount of pressure you push on the device. There was also a car that can be controlled by sensing the presence of your hand, moving itself in the opposite direction. This class is great for those who are interested in building and programming. I myself found it enjoyable despite my lack of interests in writing codes. I will end part one of my blog here and call it a night. I am eager to show off my CD cover design in my next blog. Until then, stay warm and goodnight!