Maker: The New Art Class - Film

(contemplative music) - As far back as I can remember, as a little kid I was always just making things. Feeling a drive to take things apart, try to put them back together, maybe put them back together differently, maybe combine two different things together. And that really took me into this natural drive and curiosity to take things apart, and see how they work, and think about how they work, and think about what that means. The do-it-yourself little CNC router is a really fun collaborative project that I've worked on with Taylor Hokanson, who is an artist in Chicago. This is a machine similar to a 3D printer. The difference is that with a 3D printer you're sort of building up layers, it's an additive process. With a CNC router you're subtracting. So you're starting with a block of material and you're carving away. So we wanted to build a version of one of these machines that normally is very expensive, normally is inaccessible to regular people. We put a design together that is built out of mostly stock hardware, nuts and bolts, plywood, a couple specialty things. It runs off of open source software and it can be built for about $700, depending on where you source your parts. The current design we can actually fabricate all of the custom wooden parts which we would need to make another duplicate version of the DIYLILCNC. The digital fabrication class is relatively new in our department at Eastern Michigan University. It started, I think a year or two before I joined the department, and Jason Ferguson had been involved in the first couple instances of that course. And his work is really interesting. I think he brings a really unique approach to dealing with objects. I had been exposed to some of his work and was really impressed with his creative approach to thinking about what objects mean in both the physical format and in the function and the way that people are asked to maybe use an object, or perform with an object. - I like a little bit of delinquency, or maybe something that's not really allowed. So the mesh bombs, I go into local establishments and I'll borrow objects from the space. And then I would design and print some objects, bring them back to the site, and create a sculptural composition with the original object so that people come into the space and they recognize that something is out of place, or a little bit unfamiliar, and it gives them this kind of strange moment to start their day. - This semester we're team teaching a digital fabrication class that's a really interesting class. It's kind of like a hybrid of a sculpture class and an art and technology class. - I think that I actually got involved in teaching because that community of minds really fueled my work. I'm able to work with grad students, work with undergraduent students that are really interested in new technology, or just new directions in art, and keep that dialog going. - Digital fabrication is a very tech-heavy class There's a lot of high-tech equipment in that room. The 60 watt laser cutter is of course the big one. That's the one that everybody wants to use. Only trained professionals used to be able to do stuff like this. But now even a guy like me, who doesn't really have an engineering background could probably figure out how to build one of these 3D printers on my own. Yeah, everybody loves this class. - When students come out of the digital fabrication class we hope that they have a good base of skills that come along with making things, whatever those things may be. And to me that's the really valuable thing that we can add as artists, that it's not just the tech, it's not just engineering, it's thinking about what objects mean. It's thinking about how those objects influence our daily lives; About how we ask people to use objects and where the points of interest are in asking students to engage with that, created with that thought side of sculpture written objects. Jason and I ask the students as one of the projects to make an artifact. That's an object that should be based on a personal memory or an experience that they've had in their lives. - We're challenging our students to go into their personal pasts, their histories, and pull from that personal history some sort of imagery that could be interesting and an object, and to think about how you might approach that through various new technologies that they've been exposed to, and also think about how to combine various materials and processes to produce this thing. And then you have the choice about how much information you give the person that sees it. So I think that's where it's really interesting is, this kind of editing process that students or you have to go through. - This is a sewing kit, and this belonged to my grandmother. She's passed away now but-- So this is one of the things that I sort of inherited from her. And this, to me, it's really special because she taught me a few things about sewing but she was also a home ec teacher for a long time. To me as a teacher, this is really special to me and feeling that connection to her through this object is a really powerful thing. You know, you could get these at a dollar store. None of these are really special, unique objects. But they're still functional so I can use this to actually sew things. But at the same time it's a really strong connection to her and to the memory of that relationship. So this is a good example, you know, of an artifact that already exists. Once you start to look around you you start to see all these different examples of artifacts. From there you can really start to springboard into, you know, what would a new one look like. Jason, you're going to help me bring a linguaphone of tremulous communion today. So this is a really special musical instrument. I think a lot of the artwork that I make-- actually, pretty much all of the artwork I make, would count as an artifact. I think the linguaphone of tremulous communion is a great example of that. It's for two players to play at the same time. You and I are going to play this by biting down on either end. And part of what makes this so cool is that only the people who are playing it can hear it. People nearby can't really hear it. It makes a little bit of noise but when you're biting it it transfers the vibrations through your teeth and-- yeah, go ahead-- uses your head as like a resonant chamber so it's really loud when you're biting it. The linguaphones are built in a participatory workshop. That's the format of this artwork, it's something that people can not only attend but they can participate in, so they can sit down, they'll get a kit of component parts and they will build and customize their own linguaphone of tremulous communion and they get to keep it. Want to give it a try? - [Jason] Yeah, let's do it. It's awesome, it really is. - [Chris] How does it sound? - [Jason] It sounds great. That's amazing. - Art to me, it's not just arts and crafts. It's about this mindset that I can bring to the world and to problems. Doing things that are unorthodox or unsactioned, or not in the manual, are very often the best ways to make new, exciting discoveries. - It's a way of using technology in a way that maybe is not reserved for industry. So it gives you the freedom to use all of these industrial tools in a way that was previously maybe frowned upon because it had a purpose. And now you have access to this equipment and what do you do that is more interesting and just kind of directed by your imagination. My most recent approach to this idea, walking into the coffee shop I noticed that they had this really cool marble skull. So I took a scan using my phone. I decided to match that up with a well-known character from pop culture, combined the skull that I scanned inside of the head of the character and then subtracted the skull out so we have this perfectly formed outside form of this character's face and then inside there's a perfect hollow negative of the skull. My goal is to take this back to the coffee shop and crack it open with the original skull inside so that you see this well-known character and this existing marble skull inside of it. Hopefully that's an uncanny, strange moment for people that have seen the skull but never saw it in this context. As my more advanced students wrap up their academic career, it's kind of intimidating. They had access to all this really interesting and exciting, and kind of expensive equipment, and now they don't have that so how do they continue to make? So we usually do a field trip towards the middle of the semester where we talk about really soon you're not going to have access to any of this stuff. But if you look into maker spaces like Maker Works, we do a field trip to one of those spaces and talk about how this community exists outside of academia, and it's affordable, and welcoming, and they should get involved. (bright music) - Here at Maker Works as the artist in residence I have use of all of the awesome facilities. We just passed the common area and the computer lab. We have all kinds of machines that work with digital files. We have a couple of laser cutters in here. Maker Works is a community maker space, so it's kind of a combination between a wood shop and a gym, and a library, and a school. - Maker space is kind of like academia without the structure. - And it's great because it's a really diverse group of folks who come here, so it's a very open place, and I like that because a community can really form and come together, and that's something I'm really excited to be a part of. - For the people that are not involved in the community yet but want to get involved, I think that online communities are great. I think maker spaces are fantastic if you can find a maker space in the area. Those are usually very accessible, open doors, they want you there. They also try to make it affordable. - Get online, do some searches. See if you can find your local maker space. Talk to your local library. If, on the off chance you can't find someone near you, get online anyway, find a user forum. Places like instructables.com are really great. Lots of people there that are really willing and excited to share their knowledge of these processes with you. It's really not that hard to find a place that's similar where there are lots of people with skills, and experience, and knowledge. But most importantly, lots of people that are excited about learning these processes, about doing creative things, about using these tools together in ways that no one has thought of before. - [Jason] It's a laser cutter on steroids. - You can start small. You don't have to think about buying a $10,000 3D printer or laser cutter. You can access free tools, even do 3D scanning on your smartphone. You can use free software like SketchUp to start getting your feet wet. - If you don't have your own printer you can even send it to Shapeways, or a company that would produce the print for you and send you your object. - Start thinking about all of the objects around you in a different way. Not only the things you see that are there but what isn't there, what's missing. How could you creatively remake your world. - The first and only definition that I really want my students to remember is that design is creative problem solving. It might not be the textbook definition, but that's what design is. - Pretty much anyone that has the right attitude that goes through a few steps can figure out these tools, figure out these processes. That is so exciting because that allows things like creativity to flourish much more freely than they would have in the past.