For the graduate course, Introduction to Fabrication, that I took at Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), I spent a few weeks learning and experimenting with a variety of fabrication machines, tools, and materials. I embraced an iterative approach to fabrication and integrated computational techniques into my process. Here are all my experiments, each linked to its respective post:

I have always wanted to experiment with wood joinery and I finally decided that this is the week. During my research, I stumbled upon this interactive wood joint design system and wanted to create something similar in p5.js.

I was tasked to create an enclosure and I thought it would be fun to design an enclosure with an organic exterior. I wanted to continue exploring computational design approaches, so I started sketching in p5.js.

This week, I have been experimenting with laser cutting. I wanted to continue incorporating computational thinking into my process, so the first thing I thought of was to create a p5.js sketch for the laser cutter. Although raster files can be used for etching, I think it would be more interesting to generate a vector path for the laser cutter.

I have been making and posting daily creative coding experiments (on my Instagram) for almost 2 years now. One of the mathematical functions that keep coming back is a sine function (such as in the sketch below, which utilizes a combination of sine and cosine functions). As I have been studying fabrication techniques and mechanical movements recently, I had this idea of creating an automaton that visualizes a sine wave.

This week, we are studying the movements of our mechanical toys. The first step we were asked to do was to draw all components in Adobe Illustrator. Since I am fairly familiar with Adobe Illustrator, I challenged myself to practice drawing in Vectorworks, which I have little experience in.

Introduction to Fabrication is a 7-week course that I am taking at ITP. While I have already had some experience with fabrication, I think, as I embark on my graduate journey at ITP, this will be a good introduction to the specific tools and machines that are available at the prototyping shop here. I also see this as a great opportunity to experiment, fail, and experiment again, a lot!

This year, I am starting a new chapter of my life as a graduate student in the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at Tisch School of Arts, New York University. As I pursue my graduate studies here, I will be sharing lots of updates on this blog. One of the courses that I am taking is called Fabricating Mechanical Automatons *Batteries Not Included.