On April 20th and 21st, the 2018 Digital Fabrication Symposium was hosted at Texas Woman's University (TWU). This two-day symposium brought together an exciting group of artists and researchers to share their work through moderated panel presentations, workshops, roundtable discussions and a corresponding group exhibition.
Registration
$10 - Student; $45 - Standard Registration
Registration fee includes both days.
Deadline is APRIL 1, 2018.
Panel Presentations
Embodiment & Technology (FRI 10:30-12:00 ASSC 259)
Frankie Flood (Moderator) | Hector Siller | Brittany Ransom | Sophie Kahn | Caitlin Skelcey
How do digital fabrication and physical computing relate to the body? This panel deals with body augmentation and aesthetics in regards to prostheses, and also includes more speculative considerations, such as cyborgs and interspecies communication.
Adaptation & Play (SAT 9:30-10:45 ASSC 259)
Nick Bontrager (Moderator) | Jeff Donaldson | Dickie Cox | Niki Selkin | Gregory Cook
Explorations of adaptive playful approaches to digital fabrication and interaction. How do we integrate opportunities for adaptation and reconsider failure as a generative playful practice?
Process & Practice (SAT 10:45-12:00 ASSC 259)
James Thurman (Moderator) | Andrew Scott | Jonathan Hils | Gabrielle Duggan | R. Eric McMaster
How are digital fabrication processes impacting individual studio art practice? This panel brings together artists and researchers working across processes and techniques.
Workshops
Guided Mis-use: A Tangible Introduction to Small Electronics and Reactive Sound-Generation (FRI 1:30-4:00)
Gregory Cook
What happens when your access is lost to the complex tools necessary for the creation of digital work? Can you start or continue a studio practice from scratch? For next-to-nothing? In this workshop, I give strategies for building a low to no-cost digital studio practice from scratch utilizing found or rescued hardware, and open-source software (Ubuntu Linux and a suite of free/open-source creative software for visual work, sound recording, and synthesis).
Handcrafting Soft Circuits (SAT 1:30-4:00)
Niki Selken
Making Crafts in A Digital Economy focuses on ways to bring crafts into digital learning spaces. Beyond the value of crafts as creative practice and art, they provide a respite from the tyranny of the screen in learning environments where students primarily engage with computers to learn/make. From soft circuits to pen and paper drawing we will examine the ways educators can incorporate "working with your hands" into spaces of digital learning and why that is valuable to the creative process of code based education.
Creating Microscopes for Cell Phones (FRI 1:30-4:00)
Brittany Ransom
This workshop will give participants the opportunity to create a custom microscope for their cell phone using laser cutters and 3D printers. This workshop utilizes Adobe Illustrator and Fusion 360 (free 3D modeling software) and is suited for beginners with little to no modeling experience. This workshop is suited for 20-25 participants.
Conscious Machines: An Exploration of Work in the Machine Age (SAT 1:30-4:00)
xtine burrough | Sabrina Starnaman
Conscious Machines is a workshop that combines craft and technology to study the embodied crowd worker in today’s virtual factory. It bridges the space between digital job platforms and communities of learners in discussions about labor and bodies. Workshop attendees become invisible laborers—like workers of the sharing economy—who craft and design the voices of crowd workers or their own voices for a pop-up exhibition onsite in the TWU workshop space, or for a keepsake to use as an example for a future class assignment.
Artistic Use of CNC (SAT 1:30-4:00)
Frankie Flood | Travis Donovan
This workshop will focus on harnessing the power of 2.5 axis and 3 axis CNC milling machine for an aesthetic intent. It is easy to be become overwhelmed by the numerous options that most CAM software packages allow the user to set. In this workshop, you begin to understand the effects of these parameters and how the user can become empowered by the process of programming via CAM software.
Data Weave (FRI 1:30-4:00)
Gabe Duggan
This workshop gives participants an introduction to digital Jacquard weaving in creative practice. Looking at the history and evolution of technology applied to traditional fibers techniques such as weaving, participants will get to experiment with a Tronrud TC2 loom, as well as learn software processes for pattern making.
The Digital Fabrication Symposia are coordinated by the North Texas Digital Fabrication Group. Through the support of a faculty mentoring grant from UNT, the Group has connected faculty from numerous North Texas institutions to facilitate mentoring through shared research interests. Activities of the Group are regularly publicized through the Facebook group, “North Texas Digital Fabrication Group” at facebook.com/groups/NTDFG.
More Info:
Visit NTDFG on Facebook
Visit Texas Woman's University website