Month: March 2015

Roy

Skinner – Posthumanism

Thesis: As humans produce technology, they, as a species, are becoming data, portraying themselves to the world through wires and numbers.

Research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC2liU3cFR8 “PostHuman”

This video shows the potential of technology and how a cyber network could function. It also shows the danger of this futuristic weaponry and its affect on humanity. As humanity progresses and technology continues to evolve, humans are becoming more natural at a decreasing rate, while technologically formed humans are increasing.

Greg

3D Scanning – Greg

I thought that KScan was the best option. It allowed you to edit meshes the best. The makerware digitizer was pretty bad. You can only scan small object, and it usually doesn’t come out well (like my wallet). 123D Scan worked okay, but it took way too long for me to consider it the best option. It also cut out the back of the head.

Feed Heather

3D Scanning – Heather

Below are three 3D images created using three different scanning technologies. The Kinect created the best images as both the Digitizer and the 123D catch app created weird geometries that had holes depending on the picture angles.

Heather’s Face created using the Kinect 3D scanning technology.

3D image of a banana creaetd using the MakerBot Digitizer.

3D image of my computer mouse crated using the 123D catch phone app.

Uncategorized

Scanning

I have tried the maker bot scanning but it failed miserably during the class, unfortunately I have discarded it. I haven’t got a chance to try the other scanning tool in the library yet. Among all the 123D catch has the best results yet.

Uncategorized

Project 2 -Post Human-Erim

Post author By erim yildirir
Post date March 31, 2015
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Thesis:

With the rate we are consuming resources and the consumerist social system, I don’t see and utopic picture. I want to fantasize on what would happen at 2400, as in my mind humans fully mastered their bodies and augmentation became the new consumerist behavior. However a pharmaceutical company had some security issues and all the man kind has been erased from earth.

Research:

I have read articles about the society and temples for Greek and Egyptian and some Anatolian civilizations. All these civilizations had been long gone and their structures are still present to present them quite spectacularly. Different pastes used by both Egyptian and Greek are unknown to us, we know the formula but don’t how to produce it. One could say that they were really advanced. We resemble the post human to them. The question is, will the history repeat itself and this consumerist society will end just like the others? I think yes, I have watched the movie 12 Monkey’s a movie taking place in future and some ‘company’ releases a virus. No, more spoiling.

Zander

Project 2 – Posthuman

Thesis: Humans have evolved to have organic computers. For this project I wish to investigate the capacity for organic computers of other animals to connect with the inorganic computer. Is there a way we could become in tune with the feelings of animals or other life through use of technology?

Research: The brain communicates with neurons, which fire along their axons. The firing of axons are axon potentials where a pulse is sent down an axon by opening and closing sodium-potassium gates. Neurons act in synchrony, stimulated by neurotransmitters that are released by connecting neurons. The decision of a neuron connected to other neurons is a summation effect that is either on or off, pulse or no pulse. This core functionality parallels modern computers in the method of operation through binary.

Neurons have a variety of different concentrations in animals. A sponge has no neurons, but a Jellyfish has 800. It is unclear whether the mental processes of other organisms is similar to humans. It is theorized that primates have the most similar mental processes while other organisms might have more reactive mental processes.

Eric

Project 2 Thesis and Research- Eric

Post author By fws006
Post date March 31, 2015
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Thesis:

Thanks to the rise of popular smart phone apps like Tinder, Hinge, and Friendsy, online dating has become more and more common over the last few years. Of course, there is still a stigma associated with these apps, a slight sense of shame in the presumption that one couldn’t just go out and meet someone in the real world. However, in the post-human era, this stigma will dissolve, as online dating will reveal itself as a much more efficient way of finding the ideal mate, through advanced search engines and match-making algorithms. Further still, technology is developing to the point where entire sexual relationships can theoretically be maintained without ever meeting, whether through customizable bots, remote controlled pleasure giving devices called teledildonics, or virtual sex simulators using Haptic technology. With these new, highly-accommodating and personalized options of sexuality will no doubt come its detractors, as well as a new subgroup of humans who have a strong preference for this type of activity- the Internet-Sexuals.

Research:

For my research I read several articles about the rise of online dating and where it may be heading. The article that most shocked me was called “Predicting the future of online dating” by Emma McGowan. She covers a very wide range of specific topics in the subject, but what I found most jarring and relateable to the idea of post-humanism was her claim that we are already raising a generation of “Internet-Sexuals”. This quote in particular struck me:

“Some of us—and I bet the number is higher than you’d think—have already had sexual relationships that existed solely online, without meeting our partners in person.”

This made me wonder: how far can these Internet-based relationships actually go? Through the use of teledildonics, which she mentions later, how much would the Internet-Sexuals really be missing from the human experience? Is it possible that being Internet-Sexual could be beneficial in some ways, such as eliminating STDs? Is it possible to have a full, loving relationship without ever coming into real, human contact? Is any of this even our place to judge, or will the Internet-Sexuals grow into a vocal minority (or majority) that demands the same rights and respect as everyone else?

http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/features-issue-sections/11623/future-online-dating-facebook/

http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/features-issue-sections/10463/remote-sex-toys-ohmibod/

http://kinkandcode.com/haptic-technology-and-romance/

Lily Uncategorized

Mankind’s physical crutch: technology

Post author By lpr005
Post date March 30, 2015
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Thesis: We are living in an era dominated by smartphones and their pitfalls- the constant distraction from one’s immediate surrounding and the people within them. Everything today is instantaneous and the expectations of immediate gratification/knowledge is assumed. With such advancement in resources, it is rather ironic that we actually have lost some basic skills of communicating and forming personal relationships for future generations. People, myself included, rely on text messaging, snap chat and other social media posts to stay connected as an equivalent replacement for face-to-face contact with people. Whether it’s the constant click of the ‘refresh’ button on your Facebook feed or your best friend’s newest instagram post, we crave to be stimulated by something ‘new’, and see ourselves involved in that ‘new’ post. Unfortunately this hunger comes at a price: our social skills and our isolation.

My research: The relationship with technology (especially my generation) has been a subject that I have been fascinated with, and I have done a tremendous amount of research in evaluating this relation over the year. For this post-humanism project, I am continuing to evaluate the technology’s role in communication, with a commentary that it has become a distraction. One could argue that we are becoming self-obsessed, and insatiable by the newest information due to technology’s advancements. Technology is becoming a crutch and a handicap for the upcoming population, and we are hiding behind our devices instead of being present in the moment. I took a course last semester that focused specifically on technology in art called “Creative and Critical Approaches to New Media’ that examined how new media influenced the disciplinary lenses of music, visual, art, design and marketing. It evaluated how technology is changing art, since computers and their advancement hasn’t change art, but rather enabled more to happen. We have higher resolutions, longer lengths of films, and more color variety, more tools, options and new ways to stimulate people’s senses. This new vocabulary within the art world is constantly expanding, and today we are seeing a big breakdown in how people use traditional media and performative installations. The art making experience and art genres are becoming blurred with new ‘mixed’ media, just like our daily interaction with technology versus interaction with individuals are interconnecting. This second project will be a series of daily life scenes with a text overlay that comments on our lack of recognition of our immediate surroundings, and the isolating behavior caused by our dependence on technology as a species. The scenes will have an incredibly rich and saturated color palette that suggests a vibrant, lively scene like a digitized image, but will appear almost artificial, zombie-like or robotic because of the lack of presence and actual interaction that is occurring.

Joey

Post-Human Research Stadel

Post author By Joseph Stadel
Post date March 30, 2015
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Thesis: The proliferation of social media has fundamentally changed the way we relate to others to an extreme. So much so, we are becoming a society that is incredibly dumbed down, similar to the plot of Mike Judge’s movie Idiocracy. As a result we are transforming to a mild form of the very thing we fear will end the world: zombies.

Research: I watched the movie Idiocracry, a movie where an average man from our era is put into a hibernation program spearheaded by the Pentagon. He is forgotten about in the incubator until five centuries later. As he orients himself to the new era, he realizes that people have become so dumb, that he is the smartest man alive. What I thought was really interesting about this movie was the way the people in the future acted. They moved oddly, they talked in sentences that were almost cave-man like. They were a dumbed down human. I saw similarities in the way the people acted and how we currently depict the zombies in the zombie apocalypse. To find examples, I looked at AMC’s The Walking Dead, which is a TV series that has humans running away from a zombie apocalypse, similar to the video game Left for Dead, and the movie Sean of the Dead. I want to show in my Post Human Project how technology and social media is ruining our intelligence and bringing us to a dumbed down state. A state which resembles a mild form of the way we currently depict zombies, not in image but in actions.

Greg

Posthuman Project

Thesis: As humans begin to blur the line between themselves and technology, traits or characteristics could soon become downloadable information like a song. As this soon becomes attainable, a person could upload their athletic abilities to simple USB drive and have the rest of their teammates download their skills. It could create fully customizable humans with various traits and characteristics.

Research: I have spent plenty of time watching the training montage between Rocky and Drago in Rocky 4. It helps me looking to a human training for a fight and a “cyborg” type person. Watching the Drago portions gave me a good idea of human interaction with computers. I think it also gave me an idea that a regular human could be greater than a perfectly customized human. I think that this will have a big impact on the story I will try to portray.

Andy

Project 2 – Posthumanism – Andy Loeshelle

Post author By Andy Loeshelle
Post date March 30, 2015
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The thesis that I want to explore with this project is: Due to 3D printing technologies, humankind will reinvent itself and will try to visually perfect every aspect of our human existence. I chose this thesis because of the additional resource I did. I read an article on CNN’s website called, “The Next Frontier in 3-D Printing: Human Organs.” I find it incredible that humans have created a technology that can reproduce human cells and print human organs that could potentially aid in supporting life. As a result, humans could live for much longer. As humans live longer, they may choose to replace their body parts that no longer function with 3D printed elements that are more beautiful. I once heard an architect lecture about the human desire to perfection nature; he explained that humans have built dwellings the same way for thousands of years, but the advancement of technology and the culmination thereof will allow for humans to produce buildings that they could have never dreamed of in the past. He went on to explain how this fits with the development of the airplane. Humans designed the airplane to look the way that it does now so that it could be efficient in the transportation of humans. However, when designers were creating the first unmanned aircraft, they had an opportunity to reinvent the wheel as they no longer had to design around the human element. Maybe humans will recreate themselves with these 3D technologies. Why make an arm look like an arm, when there may be a more efficient design solution?

Feed Heather

Project 2 – Posthumanism – Heather Bothwell

Post author By hnb004
Post date March 30, 2015
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Thesis: According to some, one of the goals of a posthuman society would be to eliminate human suffering, including negative emotions such as sadness and anger. As people work to achieve this goal is is possible that technologies that are currently being developed to treat serious neuro-developmental and neuro-psychiatric disorders will be used to eliminate unwanted emotions. As this process occurs, we run the risk of eliminating all emotion from people and creating a monotonous society run more by technology than humans themselves.

Reference Photographs:

Additional Research: After conducting research on my idea, I realized that I inadvertently decided to create a project around the idea of bioethics abolitionism, which is a school of thought in which all suffering, no matter how small should be eliminated. The main problem that people with this believe face is that much of the suffering that we endure is genetically inherited and is largely biological and therefore it can be difficult to eliminate from a society. The Abolitionist Society was founded by David Pearce, Pablo Stafforini, Sean Henderson, and Jaime Savage. They believe that through the use of neuroscience, biotechnology, nanotechnology, genetic engineering, and psychopharmacology, that depression and suffering can be eliminated from our present society and also stopped from being passed on to future generations. This process is known as the Hedonistic Imperative. The abolitionists beleive that suffering should be eliminated not only from the human race, but from the entire living world. http://www.hedweb.com/transhumanism/bioethics.html

Son

Son Pham – Sec2nd Project: Overgrowth

Post author By Son Pham
Post date March 30, 2015
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Concept

Human beings are not capable of controlling their own states once they grow more than they sustain. Overpopulation, Industrial Revolution and the rise of technology have all impacted human’s lives in the most fundamental ways. It always seems that there is a constant fear that the process is unsustainable, and that human beings can do nothing once things get out of control. The project attempted to represent human beings’ “overgrowth” through the lens of overpopulation in a surrealist city.

Renders

Important learnings

The most important learning from this project was to separate one big file into multiple files of separate geometry so that the whole process becomes more manageable. The whole modeling process suffers a lot of wasting time from simply waiting for the geometry to work. And separting the file into multiples not only increase the speed of modeling, but also increase the likelihood of being able to import the geometry to Keyshot
I also found that Keyshot has its own limit in the amount of geometries it can hold. Thus, the best way to go with this is to also separating the Keyshot files so that each file render separate objects. As long as the camera angle stays the same, the two renders can be perfectly lined up and produce one coherent final renders. Now, I have to be careful to separate the projects so that most of the important effect (such as reflection) is unchanged in the final composition. For example, I don’t want to render a boat and the water separately because the reflection of the boat on the water will not appear and the final composition becomes unnatural.
For small details such as windows, I can instead use UV mapping since UV mapping will flow through the surface of the objects. While I sacrifice some geometry and the alignment of the windows won’t be “perfect,” my render time can increase drastically (And the windows are so small they obviously don’t need to be aligned with perfect accuracy).

Future additions

I had to drop 40% of the geometry so that the project is importable to Keyshot renderers. Since I figured out how to keep the same angle for two different Keyshot files, there is the possibility that I can render objects separately in Keyshot and assemble later by other photo editing software such as photoshop. I really hope that I can bring out the remaining geometry so that the project would be more complete.

Son

2nd Project: Test Renders

Post author By Son Pham
Post date March 28, 2015
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I am really glad that I was able to bring the model into keyshot to apply material. Initially, I resorted to my old styles which use mechanical and plastic materials. The result looks quite dull and doesn’t have that much emotional emphasis on it. I was initially very unhappy with the result.

I decided to completely overhaul my own style, switching to a more flat and comic approach. The result turns out to have a lot potential! Since materials are almost completely vanished, the focus of the picture was turned completely into form. Even though there are little edges or contour, the form are still very recognizable. The audience would take the form as it is instead of getting distracted by the material.

Several possible modifications for the final render:

+ Make the hour hand and the minute hand more visible.

+ Extending the background to the hold picture frame and add a sun into the background to represent sunset (or the down fall)

+ Adding buildings and windows.

+ Adding sky castles and possibly some more “building circles” to truly represent unplanned growth. The circles right now still look to have some what an order into it.

Lena

March 27, 2015

3/27/15
11:40-1pm

Today I exported the file of the smaller lego piece to the SD card to print. This took me a while to fix because I have the new maker bot software so I had to change the software to accept the older printer. Finally I got the file on the card and printed. The first attempt had to be ended because I hadnt put enough acetone & plastic liquid on the platform and it wasn’t sticking. The next try was able to print the hollow part, but the other part still wouldn’t stick and just came out like a giant squiggle

Son

Third Project Research: Animation

Post author By Son Pham
Post date March 26, 2015
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Description

Animation is a series of images that create a recognizable sequence of motion that is really catchy to the eye. In order to keep things manageable in this project, I wish to do a project exploring the potential of animation in 3D sculpture. The project will be 3 or 4 GIF animation sequences using multiple keyshots render at the same camera position.

Throughout the last 2 projects, I have always have a very “formalist” approach. My concept tends to gradually change over time based on the situation and the geometry that works. Since this project is only 2 weeks, instead of digging deeper into conceptual problem and devise a representation, I want to try to get emotion from the simple shape that I that usually use. The simple shapes of the geometry, combined with the harmonic motion, can produce very emotional effect. Some artists were able to combine animation with simple geometry to produce phenomenal effect.

Visual researches

Intellectual researches

Lena Uncategorized

March 25, 2015

3/25/15
5-6pm

Today I used the newly scaled cathedral to finish maiking new lego attachment test pieces. I did both the large and small types

Also I checked on the first hollow test and it seems to have printed nicely

Ana

PianoWoman

Zander

Skateboarder

Uncategorized

Sunbath in the Forbidden Lands

Post author By erim yildirir
Post date March 24, 2015
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Uncategorized

Jelly Bunny

Casey

Elf Girl

Post author By Casey
Post date March 24, 2015
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Zander

Flask Bunny

Andy

Makehuman Exercise – Modern Knight

Post author By Andy Loeshelle
Post date March 24, 2015
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Son

Sec2nd Project Update – Son Pham

Post author By Son Pham
Post date March 24, 2015
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The sky castle and the tower have some enhanced geometry. I also optimized the building geometry so that the building parts can be copied around. I also finished sketching the overall composition of the piece. Here are the screen shots of each.

The final composition will look like this.

I hope I will finish the geometry by tomorrow so that I have a full Wednesday for doing Keyshot materials and renders. Wednesday night will be reserved for any little problems that arise.