3rd Period Stop Motion Projects

4th Period Stop Motion Projects

Menger Sponge

This is a tutorial for creating a gracile variation of a three level Menger sponge in SketchUp based on a six inch cube:


Create a 6" square at the point of origin using the rectangle (r) tool.


Extrude square upward 6" using the push/pull (p) tool.


Offset the edge of each face by 1" using the offset (f) tool


Push through the cube from top to bottom using the offset (f) tool. Snap to bottom.


Push the inner square on each face inward 1" using the offset tool.


Erase the inner walls remaining after pushing inward by right clicking on the surfaces and selecting Erase.


Click and drag a rectangle over the cleaned up cube to select it. Right click on the cube and select "Make Component".


Name the component "cube_1".


Copy (ctrl+c for Windows, command+c for Mac) and paste (ctrl+v or command+v) the component next to the original.


Place six units in a row.


Copy & paste the entire row and set it off to the side.


Using the orbit tool (o) click and drag to rotate the work space 90˚ to the right and place four units extending off of the back corner perpendicular to the original row.


Copy and paste the new row of four and move (m) it to the front corner. Be sure to grab the lower right corner of the row you are moving so that it can snap to the lower left corner of the original row. Do not attempt to "eyeball" the placement.


Select the copy of the original row.


Line it up with the rest of the base.


At this point you should have a square six units across on all sides. This is the base (and also the top) of your 2 level Menger Sponge. Copy/paste it, and set it to the side.


Copying the original unit again, build a tower four units high at one corner.


Copy the tower and paste it at each corner.


Select the copy of the square for the base and move it to the top.


You should now have a 6x6x6 unit cube. Make sure it has the correct number of units on each edge, and make sure all units are properly aligned: no overlapping units or misplaced rows and edges. Select the entire cube and right click on it. Select "Make Component" and call the componenet "cube_2".


Copy the new unit and repeat the previous steps.


Row of six.


Copy/paste row. Set it aside.


Perpendicular row of four. You may need to zoom in as you place the units as there are more endpoints to snap to in this component than in the smaller one.


Select. Copy.


Paste.


Select.


Align.


Copy. Paste. Set aside.


Four unit tower.


Copy/paste to each corner.


Align top.


Congratulations! You have created a gracile (slimmed down) version of a 3-D fractal known as a Menger Sponge


Inspect it for any imperfections.


The original Menger Sponge is based on units that are only three inches across, and each cube only three units per edge. Even at that size the shear number of units will bog the computer down at four levels of magnitude. Below is a video of a 6 level Menger Sponge as well as a high resolution graphic of the same.

Nuestra Muy Querida Lililóm

Our beloved Lililóm (aka Lidia Ortiz) talking about why flea markets are awesome (i en català també).

Some Lines for Chuang Tzu

i am the water that flows
through the catchment in the spring.
i am the catchment
through which the water flows.

my anger is like the catchment
trying to change its own shape,
but it cannot:
the water shapes it.
my anger is like the water
trying to change its own shape,
but it cannot:
the catchment shapes it.

also,

there is a crawfish.

Unas Manos Más

Penguin Bullies

Some penguin on polar bear violence from my 9th graders. South Pole Rulz!

Turned AK-47 Parts

Las Manos Negras Woodcuts

We had a productive weekend making some preliminary prints for LMN. Boy R helped design the more spontaneous one on the bottom.

Notes on Shepard Fairey

Pictured here is a very tired Shepard Fairey. My students and I were invited last minute to attend his talk with Pedro Alonzo of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston at the Dallas Contemporary on Thursday the second. None of the students could make it, so Jami and I had a date. The following are my usual haphazard notes:

**********************************************************************

Shepard Fairey &
Pedro Alonso → [Institute of] Con[temporary Art/]Boston
               spank the monkey


3rd x in Dallas
[has been to] most SxSW since '99

music - portraits of favorite musicians
           hasn't met Bowie [yet]
my heroes don't appear on postage stamps

use the devices people respond to while asking them to question the device

g-ma felt Marley was safe

Joe Strummer (Clash) - can be cool & socially conscious at the same time

cool to care

Chuck D - reach the bourgeois and rock the Blvd.

             Peter-
[invited SF to] "do a bunch of murals & DJ"

invited to museum and [but] showing outside

cross-pollination accessibility [of the street]

things in museums have been vetted
street art is like free speech
can say nything you want to say, but you risk getting arrested

bought screen-printing equipment

"Andre the Giant has a posse"

t-shirts        posters
contract printing for bands
(sonic youth stickers)

came upon screen printing & became a graphic designer

RISD '88-'92

had to [begin] charg[ing] a dime for stickers
                                                       ↓
                                             skateshops [then]
                                               sold them for
                                                  a dollar
undercut market

sticker couldn't be a commodity

xerox template sheet [for wheat-paste]

make people feel like they're in the know

1989 ATGHAP
"Andre's posse's taking over"
[make things] more exclusive
[something is] played out after 5 people know
"this posse's exclusive"

[local] newspaper [offered a reward] asking [for information] about AG sticker campaign
dropped of a bag of stickers [with a note] saying
"[I] can't tell, it would spoil it, but here are some stickers if it's any consolation."
[the paper ran a second story saying "now we have a handwriting sample"]

impressions of image
([there were only] 1,000 stickers @ the time)
[the two newspaper articles] more than quadrupled [impressions]

peace               love
rebellion           anger

meditation
(not supposed to be thinking of anything, but he cheats & comes up w/ ideas)


wheat-paste                          │        illegal spaces
       grid of posters                │
stencils                                  │

painting                                 │        legal spaces

can't be too precious about street art
       the site is democratic
designed to take over [a] space

[has designed] the cover of Time Magazine 2x
circulation of 25 million

occupy work
protestor

[without campaign finance reform we have] a political system geared to return favors

votes don't have equal weight

unfairness of bank bailouts when mortgages are upsidedown

[makes about] 40 prints per year
$45 - $60
$10+ goes to a cause
socially conscious capitalism
charity is a luxury

guy fawkes mask

can't be used [for anything unrelated to V for Vendetta]
even through legal chanels

Obama image?

a visual language that uses known references

what if the ☮ sign were trademarked?

believes in copyright to prevent bootlegging w/out transformation

sued by AP for basing HOPE poster on AP image
[Allegedly photographer Mannie Garcia retained copyright as stipulated in his contract with the Associated Press, but the AP sued Fairey anyway.]

a pose that reflected leadership & vision similar to JFK poster

copyright was supposed to encourage creation

mission creep

the law and [its] interpretation ha[ve] been changed to benefit those in power
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Obama was inspirational

the challenge [in art] used to be generating an image
now the challenge is generating an image anyone cares about at all

the more people live in virtual bubbles
the more they crave something real

--[arrested] putting up Obama poster--
cops in Denver called him an anarchist
because "only anarchists wear black"
[they] saw [the tube of] his insulin pump [under his jacket]
one cop said to grab it,
another said, "no, no! that goes directly to the pancreas!"

importance of accessibility
intention

not interested in curators, or even [in the] art world
he's interested in "you"

[the] art world [is] interested in mystery
which requires critics and curators to translate

[he] doesn't want people to feel unqualified to interpret [his] work

Obama
most politicians are horrible people
feels O[bama] is well intentioned
but [that the] system is broken
felt he might be a Trojan horse for good ideas

[in the most recent] State of the Union
Occupy & their talking points set [the] agenda

stop waiting for the art world to come to you [young artists]

[he] didn't hope to impress [the] art world

you're not a hypocrite for doing a gallery show

some artists try to interpolate the way the art world is going and work w/in that paradigm

Mr. Brainwash[? Yes, he is a real person.]
Exit Through the Gift Shop

Art Basel Miami
Toni Goldman
boosting real estate values or supporting the arts?
[he feel's Toni's heart is in the right place, so what if he makes some money on the back end selling a few extra martinis?]

Andre's family?
his daughter says her mom was really mad
[Offered her a run of all prints using Andre's image, she turned it down, not wanting to get in trouble with her mom, but the offer still stands. The collection would be worth a couple hundred thousand today.]

OBEY -- encourages you to question

What happens to rebellion when the rebels win? [asked by my buddy Chris Grider]

grunge displaced hair metal
there should be turn over

"go ahead & shake that tree, then I'm gonna comeback tomorrow & fix it, & then I'm gonna be in 10 other cities you can't afford to go to wreaking shit."

****************************************************************************

I usually like artists after I've heard them talk about their own work, and that was certainly the case with Fairey. We lingered a bit longer than usual with Christian Yazdanpanah's group of kids from the West Dallas community where the murals were painted, and I had a chance to witness some of the fawning for attention that I usually bypass by heading home to our boys after the talk is over. One artist had brought along a piece of wheat-paste art affixed to a substrate of precisely cut plywood as a gift, and spent some time chatting with a cordial and appreciative Fairey. Another artist nervously hovered around while this was going and then leaped in at the last moment to invite Fairey (repeatedly) to his studio. Fairey apologized, referring to his busy schedule, and moved along. Those two exchanges turned my thoughts to the overlapping of commercial, and social, and gift economies. The first artist was fully immersed in the populist free-as-in-speech/free-as-in-beer gift-economy in which Fairey operates. He knew, whether consciously or not, that the way to get the polite attention of a man who gives things away, is to give him something back. The second artist was simply seeking Fairey's attention as a means to self promotion. He was begging for social capital in the form of attention and reputation, while offering nothing in return. We were a bit surprised by the rock star vibe as we waited in line to be allowed in to the talk, and felt a bit bad about the fawning afterward. I felt guilty to be adding to the warm bodies making up the throng, but Fairey was very generous with his time, and was hopefully whisked off to to a warm hotel shortly thereafter.

The teaser below is from documentation of the Fairey's visit shot by TZOM Films.

Shepard Fairey visits Dallas (teaser) from TZOM Films on Vimeo.