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Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Make Your Own Kitchen Tools
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Showing Off: The Making of an Exhibit
It seems to me that one of the most frustrating things about working in an institution like a museum or a library is having to coax people into your institution. It can be like pulling teeth, but the best ways to do it involve things like programming and exhibits.
But how best to go about arranging an exhibit? Believe it or not there are good ways and bad ways to do it; here are a few things to keep in consideration.
The first concern should always be the safety of the materials that are being put on display. Depending on what they are, there are preservation and security issues that need to be taken into account. Preservation concerns are dependent on the objects being displayed: what material they are, how old they are, their size and structure, as well as the length of the planned exhibit. Harsh lighting can and will cause damage and deterioration to paper materials, along with fading of ink and paint. Precautions such as cases and rotation of materials for long exhibits should be taken; even something like turning pages in books can help minimize the damage caused to them. Proper support should be given to objects and books to put the least amount of strain on them as possible. If you are unsure about the preservation needs of any of the items you plan to put on display you should consult a professional.
Security concerns are related to the value of the object and the location of the exhibit. If at all possible, avoid putting a valuable object on display. Instead put a less valuable reproduction of it; such as a reprint of a rare book or professional-grade photographs of objects. If your institution has security cameras the exhibit should be placed in a way that it can be easily monitored, and staff should be able to have at least one eye on the exhibit at all times when it is open to the public. This is especially relevant if the exhibit has a tactile element; in this case objects should be closely watched and/or somehow attached to their display podium.
Security concerns are related to the value of the object and the location of the exhibit.
Now on to the fun part: designing the exhibit. Color needs to be considered, of both the objects and the background of the cases and/or walls that the items are being displayed against. Background colors should be as neutral as possible, or subtly contrasting to make items ‘pop’. I must emphasize subtle; too much contrast and the focus will be on the background and not the objects. The arrangement of the items should also be taken into account; it is important that each display area is balanced or something will seem ‘off’.
The most easily recognizable form of balance is symmetrical balance, demonstrated in the picture above. This is fairly self-explanatory, the image or display can be divided down the middle with a straight line and be identical on either side. This can be easily done with objects, for example two smaller items on either side of a large item in the middle. Simple and satisfying. Slightly more difficult but most likely more necessary is asymmetrical or occult balance, demonstrated in the image below. This is a more naturally occurring form of balance, and can really only be described as “you know it when you see it.” If you are having trouble with arranging objects or are unsure about the layout you have chosen, ask someone with a fresh pair of eyes to come in and look at your progress so far.
The exhibit should be featured both online and ‘in person’ at your institution, and flyers posted in appropriate places around town can’t go amiss either.
Other concerns to take into account are the layout of the display cases, leave enough room for browsers to walk easily among them, and the advertisement of the event. The exhibit should be featured both online and ‘in person’ at your institution, and flyers posted in appropriate places around town can’t go amiss either. With these elements in mind, you are on your way to a successful exhibit!
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Monday, 30 May 2016
Hacking Retro Tech Gets Me Through the Good Times and the Bad
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Made in Baltimore: Maker Education
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Sunday, 29 May 2016
European Maker Week: 500+ Events and First Maker Faire at the European Parliament
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This Week in Making: Robot Farmers, Candy Machines, and Maker Faire!
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Saturday, 28 May 2016
Weekend Watch: Woodworking Around The World
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Friday, 27 May 2016
How to Make an Alaskan Ulu Knife
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You Could Be Part of the Mind-Blowing Awesomeness of Nantes Maker Faire
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Blind Arduino Project Proves You Don’t Need to See to Build Electronics
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Adorable X-Wing Pilot Costume Comes Complete with Real Wings
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This Functioning Monster 6502 Is a Larger Than Life Version of the Iconic Microchip
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Thursday, 26 May 2016
Make a Pair of BB-8 High Heels
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3D Printers: Program or Service?
I'm always reflecting and evaluating how something is working especially something as expensive as our Ultimaker 2 3D printer. Before purchasing a 3D printer, make sure to have a talk with staff about what they hope to accomplish with this printer. Is it a program? Is it a self-directed service? Is it both? This is true for any kind of new equipment such as video to DVD conversion, scanners, free Adobe suite products, and other items in our digital media lab. Ideally, people would come in, sit down and independently use the equipment for personal projects but some might need that initial tutorial for the confidence to begin.
I don't think we are at a point yet where most people have enough exposure to 3D printers to offer it as just another service (like our ink jet printers) without some beginner programming. It needs highlighting in newsletters, website, social media, etc. Sometimes it just takes that one hour program to encourage the self-directed learning that you hope to provide as a 3D printing "service". Advertising a program like 3D printing and having no one show up? Don't be discouraged. This advertisement has planted the notion that your library has a 3D printer available. Maybe Intro to 3D Printing is too vague? The reference department here did a series of directed workshops like board game pieces, jewelry, hand drawn prints and mother/daughter prints, to provide guidance with their initial printing endeavors. Some patrons gladly went off on their own projects but others liked the narrowed project guidance.
I feel like a carnival barker sometimes but try to bring your printer out in a visible space once in a while before the program itself. If you show it, they will come, eventually. Even a simple display with 3D printed sample items is a real eye catcher and an opportunity for talk at the desk.Since January, I have run monthly 3D printing beginner workshops (6 kids each) with only a few return customers coming back to print more. But the ones that have returned to print on their own made some really incredible things, one even winning a science fair! I am hoping this summer, when school commitments are over, kids will return to designing. We are going to hold weekly classes on Friday afternoons in July.
I have also emailed Boy and Girl Scout troops to offer a programming. I have had one Boy Scout pack visit and two Girl Scout troops this year. Remember they don't expect libraries to be offering these things so you still need to reach out, shout it from the rooftops and have patience.
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How Punch Cards and Arduino Close the Gap on Hacked Knitting
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Spy on Garden Critters with Raspberry Pi-Powered Night Vision
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Wednesday, 25 May 2016
The Great Make: Rocketry Round-Up
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The “America’s Greatest Maker” That Just Won a Million Bucks Is…
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This Amazing Zootopia Costume Was Made in Under 3 Weeks
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Making a Life-Size Tyrannosaurus Rex Skull Replica
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Exploring Public Art at the Forest Park Public Library
This post originally appeared on the LAIP in July 2015. It’s one of our favorite public art projects to take place at a library–just in time for outdoor activities!
Today’s story (and project kit) comes to us from Elaine Luther, an artist whose work with libraries we’ve featured on the LAIP before, and Alicia Hammond, Community Engagement Librarian at the Forest Park Public Library in Illinois. Elaine and Alicia give us the scoop on the process of installation a major public art piece at a library. Enjoy! ~Laura
The finished EXPLORE installation at Forest Park Public Library. Photo by Ralph Romero.
by Elaine Luther and Alicia Hammond
Interactive public art projects are risky, but they work like magic to bring people together, activate spaces and bring energy and excitement to the library!
As part of the Summer of Exploration Summer Program, the Forest Park Public Library’s Community Engagement Librarian Alicia Hammond enlisted artist Elaine Luther to create a very special interactive art installation.
Both of us are very inspired by the work of Chicago artist Matthew Hoffman whose “You Are Beautiful” installations are popping up all over the Chicagoland area and beyond. These outdoor installations feature freestanding or fence mounted letters that spell out a phrase. Elaine had experience creating installations including part of a “You Are Beautiful” installation as well as building the word “LOVE” for a Valentine’s Day themed gallery show.
We selected the term “EXPLORE” and found an open area on the library’s front lawn. However, we didn’t just want to install art in front of the library. We wanted to create an event that encouraged the community to have a hands on opportunity to get creative. After Alicia secured permission from the Library Director, it was all systems go.
Elaine decided on creating four foot tall letters out of wooden boards. The letter “O” was selected to be three dimensional to play off the exploration theme and create visual interest and variety. She concentrated on creating letters that would be able to weather rain, some wind and the humid heat of Chicago summers.
Letter being assembled. Photo by Ralph Romero.
The color palette was selected to match the Summer of Exploration program’s marketing materials (designed by Yearbook Studios).
The day of the event brought a beautiful summer day. The letters were installed into the ground and we brought out a table with paint, brushes, water, and hand wipes. The color palette remained simple with red, blue, and yellow paint in order to remain cohesive.
Letters installed. Photo by Ralph Romero.
We weren’t out there long before people started showing up and painting. We had about 15 people signed up for the event but were more than open to drop ins. We invited anyone who walked by to pick up a paint brush and contribute. The kids were more than happy to jump in but some of the adults took a little more convincing. Several told us there were too old to paint or were afraid to mess up our project. If an adult was hesitant, Elaine would encourage them to start small and make dots with a cotton swab. That worked. Anyone can make dots! (Next time, we will bring smocks also to eliminate the fear of getting messy.)
Participants painting letters. Photo by Ralph Romero.
Participants painting letters. Photo by Ralph Romero.
Altogether about 30 people stopped by to paint. However, the reach of this event and piece of art is much more. The installation will be out in front of the library for about two months. We truly activated the space, it was so exciting! We even slowed traffic as drivers slowed down and rubber-necked! A few drivers honked and waved to show their approval. Neighbors who knew each other by sight but had never spoken before met and had conversations!
Below is the materials list, instructions for building the letters. Following that we have suggestions for variations, things we learned might do differently next time.
Below is the materials list and instructions for building the letters. We have also included variations and things we might do differently next time.
Materials for the building of the letters:
- 9 boards – 1” x 8” by 8’ (Elaine chose 8’ boards because that’s the largest she could fit in her car.) You can make all the letters to spell out “EXPLORE” (except the O) out of eight boards. Think about including one or two extra boards in case of errors.($64)
- Wood glue
- Screws
- Electric drill
- Screwdriver
- 12 plastic strips for the “O” from the Re-use store. ($6)
- Drill bits to match the size of the pop rivets. Elaine used 1/8 and 3/16 drill bits and pop rivets
- Pop rivets ($10.14)
- Pop rivet tool (about $2o)
- Exterior primer and paint. Elaine used exterior oil based primer* which cannot be used indoors and may have been overkill.
- Colored exterior latex. (4 quarts of paint x $16.68 each with leftovers.)
- Plus one gallon of paint donated by the artist.
- Garden stakes, we used steel stakes, 4’ and 5’ ones (8 x $4.99, 1 x $5.99)
- Zip ties (for the letter O) (11.99, with leftovers)
- Screws and washers (insignificant cost, we used what we had on hand in the basement)
Supplies for the day of:
- lots of baby wipes for cleaning patron’s hands
- plastic cups to pour paint into
- a bucket of rinse water
- paper towels
- bottled water for patrons, esp. if it’s a hot day ($4.99 for a case)
- paintbrushes ($0.69 each x 12)
- table to hold paint and supplies, covered with a plastic drop cloth
- cotton swabs for detail work and because they are less intimidating than paint brushes
- trash can
*oil based primer can be used under latex paint and increases the water resistance and longevity of the paint job. It also makes the top coat of paint glide on smoothly. It’s recommended if possible, but is not totally required.
Variations
You could use the words for a summer reading theme, a 100th anniversary, or to highlight a new product or service at the library. For example, the Forest Park Library has wifi hot spots, they could have 4’ letters outside saying, “CHECK OUT THE INTERNET.”
Instead of painting the letters with a color, they could be painted with chalkboard paint and patrons would be invited to answer a question in chalk. The question could be made out of 4’ letters, or it could be on a nearby sandwich board.
Notes on construction
For this project, Elaine learned to use a table saw and built the letters by assembling them with wood glue and screws. While it’s very straight forward for the E and L, it was a little tricky to to figure out the angles and method of construction for the P and R.
If you aren’t able to find an artist to run the entire event, the library could break up the project and have a woodworker build the letters and an artist choose the paint colors and run the workshop.
Another option is to have the letters custom cut using a CNC router. Creating the letters was extremely time intensive and took multiple trips to the hardware store. The additional cost of CNC routing may be off-set by a reduced wood cost, as a less expensive type of wood (plywood) may be able to be used. Another benefit of CNC routing is that it could be used to draw in additional populations at the library. For instance, teens could be invited to create the digital files (perhaps using Inkscape, a free, open source program) for the letters.
A related workshop could be held where teens use a Silhouette Cameo to make vinyl cut letters to decorate an indoor section of the library (I believe the Silhouette company makes some low tack material for applying removable decorations to walls and cabinets). This would extend the project and theme to the inside and outside of the library and generate buy-in for the program with teens.
Here are some close-up photos showing the installation method.
Further reading:
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Tuesday, 24 May 2016
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
This post was originally published on May 28 2014
Migrant Mother. Dorothea Lange, 1936. From the Farm Security collection.
by Angela Terrab
It’s a catalog! No, it’s a digital gallery! No, it’s both, and a resource guide to boot! The Library of Congress’s Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) is a marvel of both depth and breadth, and a must-see for students, researchers, and American history buffs.
As a catalog, the PPOC displays the detailed and diligent metadata one expect of the nation’s premier library, with full MARC records for 95% of the collections 14 million holdings. To do the math, that’s records for 13.3 million images, covering an enormous breadth of American visual history:
The collections of the Prints & Photographs Division include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the United States and the lives, interests and achievements of the American people.
Dan Sullivan card from the Prints and Photographs featured collection on baseball cards.
More than just a catalog, though, the PPOC contains embedded images for over 1.2 million listings. While this only begins to scratch the collection overall, it is more than enough to provide access to a rich digital gallery. Many records, especially in the featured collections, contain either thumbnail or full-size downloadable images.
In addition to item-level cataloging, there are in-depth collection descriptions for 70+ collections, covering such Americana from baseball cards to Spanish Civil War posters. Collection-level information contains essay-style narrative on the historical context, a bibliography of resources on the topic, and rights information for the images on display. Select collections also contain detailed information on original formatting and the digitization process. (See, for instance, the information on Mammoth Plate Photographs and digitization connected to the Detroit Publishing Company collection.)
While this site is not as updated or visually polished as standouts like the New York Public Library Digital Collections, it is well-organized and fairly intuitive to navigate, with a prominently located search field and navigation links in the page-left sidebar. After all, the PPOC is a self-described catalog, and it certainly offers users this functionality. Everything extra is just cherry.
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Sunday, 22 May 2016
Adam Savage Telling Stories at Maker Faire Bay Area
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Is This a New X-Carve CNC Machine?
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Making Ukuleles with CNC Router Parts
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Saturday, 21 May 2016
Good Lord This Gyrating Giant Mechanical Squid Is Gorgeous
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What It’s Like In Space: Weird Stories from Those Who’ve Been
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Weekend Watch: Transforming Timber with Trustin Timbers
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Friday, 20 May 2016
The New “Arduino Create” Makes for Easier IoT Dev, Better Collaboration
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New 3D Printers Unveiled Today at Maker Faire Bay Area
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Make: Partners with Hackster and GE to Offer Lights for Life Challenge
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Amateur Scientists Will Love Science Journal, Google’s New App
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5 Essential Meta-Level Tips for Makers
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Qualcomm Showcases DragonBoard 410c’s Expanded Developer Options at Maker Faire
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Live Updates: Maker Faire Bay Area 2016
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5 Girl-Powered Presentations to Watch at Maker Faire Bay Area
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