a framework for toolmaking
- RYB, RGB, CIELAB, CMY, CMYK, HLS, HSV, YUV, YIQ, Pantone, Munsell, etc. these are all color models for different media - digital, physical and conceptual. Spend some time converting at least 4 colors between at least 3 of the different color spaces using each of the following tools.
http://www.forret.com/tools/color.asp
http://www.easyrgb.com/calculator.php
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/~wiedeman/cspace/
If you have it: Photoshop color picker (make sure you click on the different radio buttons)
Next Steps
Try building your own converter in your language of choice.
Some math to help you out:
http://www.cs.rit.edu/~ncs/color/t_convert.html
http://www.easyrgb.com/math.html
- Can you add a level that is missing like oil paint pigments? ceramic glaze colors? musical pitch? gestures? What are some of the problems of mixing non-screen based color systems with?
- Basic is fine, but think about layout/usage… do you want to pick up a color in a jpeg, from a video camera, find color harmonies/ see relationships? What about color is important to you?
Options
- If you don’t feel up to writing your own software program yet, how about building a template for a cross-medium cheat sheet for the colors you want to use?
- How about a personal color wheel? http://handprint.com/HP/WCL/color7.html is an example of a water color oriented wheel.
How do you brush your teeth? 15 steps minimum… but wait… write it from the last step first.
Use the Mona Lisa as a template and copy it using your medium of choice… anything other than paint, pastels, colored pencils or classical 2D medium. What would it be like in Flash or C++, ASCII, with Jelly Beans? Motors? As a dance? Could it react to sensors or is stillness part of the work?
Options
You can pick a different painting if you like, but it must be a PAINTING and NO LATER THAN 1900. Really. There is a reason.
What you’ll need:
A white board or a chalk board or a wall with paper taped on it and a marker. Tape measure or string.
Exercise:
Stand with your feet together -
What is the longest, straightest line you can make with your right hand without removing your feet from the floor?
What is the longest longest, straightest line you can make with your left hand without removing your feet from the floor?
Stand with your feet hip distance, repeat.
Stand with your feet 2-3 feet apart, repeat.
Options:
- You can place sticky notes on the wall at your far points if you absolutely can’t find anything large enough to draw on.
- Alternately you can use a video camera and tape a transparent sheet on the surface of the screen and trace your movement.
- How do you think each these alternatives would change your result?
Questions:
- How much further can you go if you allow one foot to lift a little on either side?
- What happens when you try to do the same thing with just rotating your elbow? Just moving your wrist?
- What happens if you change the paper and try to do it again? is your mark the same? What would you need to do to make the mark identical every time?
What you need:
Two boxes, one AT LEAST 3 times larger than the other. Tape, something heavy to fill the small box.
Exercise:
- Take a large/medium sized cardboard box tape it up empty.
- Take a small box (less than 1/3 the size of the large box) and fill it with sand, shot, a paperweight or other HEAVY material and likewise tape it up.
- Try to make the two look as similar as possible from the outside.
- Place both on a table (or the floor) next to each other and push first the large one about a foot, and then the smaller one.
- Wait a little while and do it the other way.
- Drop them both… which one is louder? What are the differences in the sound?
- Try to convince a couple of friends to play… separately have one push the big one first and the other the small one first. How did that impact how much effort they expected to expend moving the second one?
Questions:
What kind of clues do you think you could have given on the outside of the box to indicate their different weights?
Which one would be harder to carry over a long period of time? Small and heavy or big and light? What if the big one was foldable?
Which would you rather do… carry something heavy in on an escalator or something light up a flight of stairs?
What quantity of the following can you hold in your hands?
-Oranges
-Marbles
-Rice
-Sand
-Water
What the highest number you have ever counted to? What is the highest number you have ever seen? How was it written? (1 trillion or 1,000,000,000,000 or 10^12 (10 to the 12th)?)
What’s the smallest number you have ever seen? How was that written? What was it describing?
Starting at 0, counting every integer, how fast can you count to 10 aloud? To yourself? What about 100, aloud and to yourself … 1,000? (or where/what time do you give up?) What if you count by 5? 10?
Next Steps:
- Write a software program that counts up in a way that you can see… printing it out, changing an image. Depending on your programing skills you can be as creative with this as you want. DO NOT use clock/time functions, just increment a variable.
- Give it a stop button and a way to reset the counter.
- Let it run for the same amount of time that it took you to count to 10. What number is it on?
- Now rewrite it so it only displays the number when you hit the “stop” button. Again, let it run for the same amount of time that it took you to count to 10. Does the final number change?
Excercise:
- Write a list of any materials skills… thingsyou know how to make - for example - painting a picture, painting a room or house, throwing ceramics, carving, sewing, silk screening, print making, mosaic, casting, chopping wood…
- Mark which ones do you do because you like them? Because you need to? What age were you when you started doing them? When you stopped? Any groupings you can make? Are they outdoors? Indoors? Mostly with fabric? wood? metal? Mostly about cutting, punching, pouring, carving?
- Set a timer for 15 minutes and write without stopping about any patterns (if any) you noticed
Excercise:
- Write a list of any athletic things you know how to do…for example - tennis, running, ballet, yoga, pilates, rock climbing, hiking softball, soccer, gymnastics, clubbing, biking, spinning, aerobics, walking, rowing, canoeing…
- Mark which ones do you do because you like them? Because they are good for you? What uses a raquet or other equipment, what is just you? Which are team/group oriented? Solitary? What age were you when you started doing them? When you stopped? Any groupings you can make? Are they outdoors, in a gym, near water, a particular season…
- Set a timer for 15 minutes and write without stopping about any patterns (if any) you noticed
What you need:
Printer, pen, tape measure, tape, string (a friend and/or tripod might be helpful, too)
Exercise:
Before you can make a tool that fits to you, you need to know what you are shaped like. This is the type of information that will go into your notebook or project file.
- Decide what area/areas of your body will be using your tool, for now.
- Do a quick search on “Google images” for the word “Anthropometrics” to get a sense of the type of charts that industrial designers use to record measurements.
- Either pick a chart and print it out or, even better, take pictures of yourself to mark up.
- Measure things like how long your fingers are, length of your arm, etc. One option is to cut pieces of string the right length and measure those… or mark them and keep them as your reference.
Options:
If doing a lot with your hands, you might even consider making a plaster molds in different positions.