Author: aahdee

aahdee – FinalWIP

I spent the last few weeks devouring Complete Pleats by Paul Jackson. My intention for my final project is computation pleating by using a laser cutter to score paper that is drawn on by an Axidraw plotter. Before knowing how to do that, I need to know how to pleat paper effectively.

I’ve read through approximately 85% of the textbook and created multiple pleating examples that was shown in the book. Even though I have a background in paper arts and bookbinding, the book was rather challenging. Below is a few images of what I’ve created.

These were all created by hand and there are multiple failures behind it. After that was done, I decided to head to the laser cutter to attempt to pleat some paper. Simply put, it was a mess.

The paper can easily be formed into mountain folds but snaps in half when I tried to fold into valley folds. This may be because I used thicker Bristol 100lb paper. The laser cutter leaves nasty brown marks on the paper and when I attempted to fold it the charred color spread to the rest of the paper. I may just need to work out my kinks with the laser cutter, but considering that I can only access the cutter for 1 hour per day I don’t have a lot of room for rapid prototyping. I also need to research the ingredients of the pens I would use if I cut plotted art on the laser cutter as some chemicals can produce toxic results when a laser is applied. Considering that I’m using a language and libraries that I’m not familiar with, there’s a lot of variables here that I may just cut the laser cutter out of the equation and fold the paper with my hands.

 

aahdee – ProjectProposal

For my final project, I’d like to explore how machines can manipulate the medium itself. So far, we’ve explored how machines can use a medium to produce a drawing on another medium. This includes using the Axidraw to wield a pen or marker that draws on paper. In the latter half of the semester, I want to experiment with what a machine can do to modify paper or other materials. Technically, I would be drawing with a machine onto the chosen medium, but the end goal here is to change the shape and structure of the medium with the help of that drawing.

Golan introduced me to Erik Demaine, a computer scientist who researched computational origami. He has created many sculptures of folded paper creased with curves.

This is done by using a low power laser cutter to slightly score the paper. The paper is then folded on those scores. This is the only way to produce those results.

I’d like to start experimented with that, starting with pleated paper. Ingenia - Applied origami

Id like to incorporate pleating and drawing with axidraws. By next week Monday, I’ll have a pleated paper sample. By Wednesday I’ll have a sample of pleated paper with axidraw plots on it.

aahdee – Hatching

There’s two svgs as I used PEmbroider

I used PEmbroider for the last one. This assignment was one of the easiest and the most fun for me. For the second one, I used some tiling techniques to ensure that I didn’t draw the same line twice. I also wrote the best switch statement of my life for that one. I used the techniques of ordered randomness for the third one to ensure that the crosses are balanced and gives an effect of increasing shading.

The code is below the continue reading.

Continue reading “aahdee – Hatching”

aahdee – LineExercises

 

Dashed line

Living Line

[videopack id=”773″]https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/60-428/f2021/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/livingline.mp4[/videopack]

Spicy Line

[videopack id=”778″]https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/60-428/f2021/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/spicyline.mp4[/videopack]

Circle

Spiral

Parallel

[videopack id=”783″]https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/60-428/f2021/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/DwM_LineExercises-2021-09-14-23-49-37.mp4[/videopack]

Different Weights

Calligraphic

[not an svg – im having some save errors. will add later]

Continue reading “aahdee – LineExercises”

aahdee – LostrittoReading

I enjoyed the reading –  it was an interesting topic and I like to think about the theory of what a drawing is before implementing it in practice. It helps me think of the drawing in abstract terms and opens the door to more experimentation. I agree with Lostritto’s definitions on what a drawing is not, but I am interested in what he thinks about animal drawings. Could an animal have similar skill and autonomy as a human to make a drawing? And if they do, do they have ownership over that drawing? Does the animal have to understand what a drawing is and have intentionality to create one in order for it to be considered a drawing? These are interesting questions to me because I anthropomorphize my computers and robotic tools and treat them a bit like their own beings that have feelings and can act moody. They’re a bit like pets to me – and I’m aware the other people view animals in the same vein as machines. So I wonder what those people think about animal creation and ownership.

aahdee – MolnarRecode

Observations:

  1. The artwork seems to consist of a mixture of square and rectangular cells, but at closer inspection it is composed of square cells with subdivisions.
  2. Each square cell has one or two rectangular subdivisions that are hatched with lines.
  3. The subdivisions are chosen out of a pool of 4 – top, bottom, left, or right. There is no restriction on which subdivisions can be paired with each other – some have top and bottom, right and bottom, top and left, etc.
  4. Most cells have two subdivisions, only a select few have one.
  5. Sometimes a subdivision has two different patterns in it.
  6. The patterns use the same pen weight throughout the print.
  7. On rare occasions the subdivision rule is broken for the following pattern:
  8. The aforementioned pattern breaks the subdivision and cells rule. It bleeds into neighboring cells.
  9. Occasionally, a cell will generate a diagonal line that starts at a corner and ends at a midpoint of an opposing wall or the opposing corner.
  10. Because of the aforementioned rule, some diagonal lines that bisect a subdivision appear to be thicker that others. This is because they are drawn twice in the same place by the plotter. Below is a good example of this:

Recreation

SVG:

Screenshot:

I got a bit too invested in this task. It took me about 3 hours of work in Processing and I definitely got pretty close. The most difficult part was creating the triangle line pattern and reversing it for more variety in my output. I was going to recreate the pattern mentioned in observation 7 but I had gassed out at that point. My code is below the read more.

Continue reading “aahdee – MolnarRecode”

aahdee – PlotterTwitter

I’ve engaged with #PlotterTwitter before – I have an axidraw and I unfortunately use Twitter. I really admire Michelle Chandra and Frederik Vanhoutte’s prints. The geometric repetition of their prints appeal to me.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of interdisciplinary work with plotters and odd applications of plotters on PlotterTwitter. For example, one user posted a video of two axidraws painting in watercolor. The svg files for those plots must be daunting to look at.

I admired the use of multiple different pen thicknesses to enhance different prints, but pens that have a round nib tend to be the standard. I’d like to see what a print from a chiseled pen or marker would look like. I also want to see prints that challenge the purpose of a plotter. Instead of thinking of it as a robotic arm that draws, one can view it as a guide or an arm that can pick up, hold, move, or stab things. There’s this minigame from Rhythm Heaven, a rhythm game I use to play in my childhood, where you control a hand wielding a fork and your goal is to stab food that is flicked to you across the table. For some reason, I wish for an axidraw to do that.

The post that I appreciated the most involves a collaboration of a photographer and a plottermeister (using “plotter” for someone who uses a plotter to generate art doesn’t seem right, but “plottermeister” has a nice ring to it).

I like that this project clashes nature’s randomness with digital precision. It’s a good juxtaposition.