Looking back

In the beginning of this semester, the learning objectives that I listed out are


▫️ To apply some new media and technologies into practice

▫️ To understand the technology used in art education from a critical perspective

▫️ To understand the affordances and constraints of different media

▫️ To research on an artist who has been placed in the intersection of new media art, learning and technology

▫️ To understand artistic practices powered by VR/AR technologies

I can tick out most of these objectives one by one.

First, I have many opportunities to engage in individual projects or group projects, where I can try different media out and apply them into practices. For example, prior to this course, I have never used circuit. In this course, I learned how to build a circuit and use it to create an artwork.

Second, I have read many recommended articles assigned by the instructor. Through these readings, I gained a comprehensive view of the application of media and technologies in art education at school settings. I also contribute my own views of the related topics in the key takeaways as assignments. I have a better understanding of the affordances and constraints of technologies and tools.

The third objective is similar to the second objective. A critical view of technologies means knowing the affordances and constraints of them.

Forth, I appreciate the chance to lead the digital steward in this semester. It is a great research experience for me in this course, through which I can dive deeper into an interesting topic. Research on artists specializing in 3D printing is interesting since I browsed so many 3D printing artworks and understood the unique thoughts expressed by different artists using 3D printing.

Fifth, in my final project, I explored VR/AR technologies in artistic practices. I do think they are good methods to optimize the user experience in museum visiting or other tours. For example, if we can create a AR Columbia Tour, where visitors can use phone to scan around the campus and learn about the history of the university, visitors can still have good visiting experiences without a guide.

Lesson Plan

 

3D Fabrication Lesson Plan

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fy2sO8_EXh0caELnUM-8V1JgBKM14yyhsIvQXZERltg/edit?usp=sharing

 

Lesson Plan 1 

Learner 

Middle school students 

Learning Objectives

• Learn about mathematical frameworks for modeling objects in two dimensions and in three dimensions

• Learn how to model objects using CAD

• Learn about design for manufacturing

Curriculum 

Unit 1

The introduction of mathematical basics (two dimension, three-dimension) and  3D printing foundations (principles, process, technologies)

• Material: slides, videos 

• Practice: Quiz (some questions to test students’ knowledge of dimension and 3D printing)

Unit 2

Observe 3D Print work and the process of 3D printing

Learn to use the tools

• Material: 3D printing tools

• Practice: Draw out the whole process of printing a 3D object 

Unit 3

Group work - Create Emoji using 3D printing

Students will follow design process, from brainstorming and taking measurements, to modeling, 3D printing and analyzing their product

• Materials: Paper, pensil, 3D printing tools 

• Practice: Group Project work

Lesson Plan 2

Learner 

High school students 

Learning Objectives

• Learn about the learning environment and the elements

• Learn about the concepts of 3D modeling and printing

• Learn about how to use tools for 3D modeling and printing

Curriculum 

Unit 1

Observe the learning environment

By gathering students' opinions through a class questionnaire, positive and negative aspects of the current classroom layout are identified.

• Material: Paper, pensil, slides, computer 

• Activity: discussion

Unit 2

Introduction of 3D modeling and printing, and the related tools using videos and lecture

• Material: slides, videos 

• Practice: Quiz 

Unit 3

A group project which consists of 6 steps:

Step 1 - Group idea  Step 4 - modeling

Step 2- Brainstorm  Step 5 - Printing

Step3 - Draft  Step 6 - Assemble

• Material: Paper, pen, 3D printing tools, computer

• Activity: group project 

Unit 4

Showcase. They can present their ideas with other people and  get feedback from other students and teachers. 

Final: Voice + Sculpture + Digital Drawing

 

 

My final project is Lion Roar, which is an AR digital project that I made using Unity. In this project, I combines the three keywords I got: voice, sculpture, and digital drawing. How do I combine them? Here it is. When the user opened the AR app and used the camera to scan a digital drawing of a lion, a lion sculpture will show up in the scene. In the interface, there is a button saying lion Roar. When the user clicks the button, then the voice of the lion can be heard. 

When I got these three keywords, I felt a little bit panicked because I got no idea how to combine these seemingly-irrelated three things. At the ideation stage, I chose to broaden my view by talking to friends, hearing their thoughts, and considering it with other courses' content. Finally, I got an idea to complete this project using AR technology. I thought it would be interesting to connect what I learned about AR technology this semester to this course. AR technology is one of the cutting-edge media for people to express and create. 

Therefore I made a plan to complete this project: 

1. Test the AR image recognition feature 

2. Learn how to add sound and buttons to the project

3. Prepare a digital drawing

4. Search for a 3D model sculpture 

5. Create an AR image recognition app 

For the first two steps, I referred to the learning materials and made sure the project worked, even though it took a long time to debug. To add a button to allow users to interact with it, I search for solutions on the internet and learned how to do it by following a youtube video. That was helpful. After these two steps, I drew a lion using Adobe illustrator. Since I used AI a lot, I did not come across challenges. For the 3D model, I luckily found one on Unity Assets for free. After preparing all these stuff, the following step is to create an AR app using Unity. Everything went well during this process.