We’re already half way through the semester and finished our third assignment for Electronics and Sculpture last week. Assignment 3 requires analog input and output for the project. (Assignment 1 is purely digital, and Assignment 2 requires analog input for control.) And yes, the class is called “Electronics and Sculpture” but it could just as easily be named “Arduino for Artists”.
Projects have varied from very interactive to installations to mostly sculptural with some electronics added in. I find that students do the best work when they can take what they are learning in class and combine it with their own practice, or what they are learning in other classes. The Digital Fabrication students definitely have an advantage here, and I wish all of the students had access to digital fabrication tools, though we just wouldn’t have time to cover it all in the 318 class. (That’s not to say the work of non-Digital Fabrication students is lacking in any way, and I’ve seen some great work using very simple material and tools. As always, art is a combination of things, including concepts, themes, ideas, technical skills and abilities, and more.)
We’re currently in the middle of the midterm project, and things are coming together quite well. Critique is in two weeks, and after that we launch right into the final project. (Since there isn’t an Arts+Tech Night this semester, we’ll probably just push the final critique onto the date that our final exam is scheduled for.)