innovation – Kristen Baumlier

Tag: innovation

Superbrushes: Better Than Other Brushes

Posted on April 30, 2013April 30, 2013 by Kbaumlier

Last Friday I attended a launch event by Evan Marcell where he introduced Superbrushes, a set of new Photoshop brushes that he has created for use to paint and create digital images. Marcell created the brushes by taking pictures of textures around Cleveland, editing them, and preparing them as brush files to be loaded into Adobe Photoshop. The abstract brush forms provide a unique shape, texture, and pattern that make it easy to make great images and graphics.

Most of the time we use the standard brushes that come with Photoshop, but Superbrushes introduces a new exciting set of brushes to try. One interesting thing about Superbrushes is that the process of how the brushes were created was through the phenomon of the “butterfly effect,” where one action affects another action. One brush created another brush. This new brush was used to make another brush, and so on. Marcell says that the project and process of reusing a brush to make a new brush was inspired by breakbeat music, where beats are cutup and reused to make new beats.

The goal of the project is to enable artists to make more work, and to appreciate the brush. Marcell writes on the Superbrushes website, “.. artists are possibly the greatest appreciators/would-be art collectors if we didn’t feel obligated to put all of our funds right back into our art. SUPERBRUSHES brushes are beautiful compositions in themselves, enabling artists to fuel their art in appreciation of each gorgeous brush as an artwork in itself.”

At the launch event we were given direction to a webpage where we could download a set of 25 free Superbrushes. We watched a demo of how to install and setup the brushes, which was followed by a live contest – a Superbrushdown, where the audience members who brought laptops, had about 8 minutes to make an image. After the time was up, the group voted by clapping, and I am proud to say that I won(!), and got a prize of the full pack of 125 superbrushes, which usually sells for $20.00 off of the Superbrushes site..

Marcell is working to build a Superbrush community. The website is currently featuring pieces made with Superbrushes on the website. You can download a set of free 5 superbrushes to try, and then submit your image to be featured in the gallery. Why use ordinary brushes when you can use Superbrushes?

Image Source
http://evanmarcell.wix.com/superbrushes
Links:

http://evanmarcell.wix.com/superbrushes

ThePresent: A New Annual Clock

Posted on January 2, 2013January 7, 2013 by Kbaumlier

This time of the year the topic of time seems to come up. January 1 is a time of new beginnings, resolutions, and a new year. Time is something that has been measured with many things including grains of sand, shadows, and hands on a clock.

Scott Thrift and the creative company “m ss ng p eces” set out to make a clock that measures time in a new way, in the form of a dedicated annual clock. The clock makes a revolution each day, and changes color as it moves. With one hand – it tells the story of time in seasons instead of seconds. The clock looks like a color selection from a design program, the full color spectrum in the form of a circle.

ThePresent uses gradients of pure color to mark the Equinoxes & Solstices throughout the year. It uses special German-engineered annual movement that holds the “memory” of where the Annual Hand should be on any given day of the year.

The maker says that the clock, called ThePresent will have a powerful effect on how you can experience time. Check out the video and read more on thepresent.is. Since I read about the clock, it has had me thinking about what color today would be. Maybe a light blue?

Image Source:
http://thepresent.is/

Links:

http://thepresent.is/

Can you build a machine to hammer a nail? The Rube Goldberg Competition

Posted on April 11, 2012April 11, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Rube Goldberg’s cartoons of funny complex inventions that would do simple operations have inspired artists, scientists and engineers for many years. Some of his cartoons included solutions for how to get the cotton out of an aspirin bottle and how to make a simple alarm clock . Goldberg had a background in engineering that informed the contraptions that he drew.

Each year a Rube Goldberg contest is held where college students nationwide compete to design a machine that uses the most complex process to complete a simple task. Past tasks have included put a stamp on an envelope, screw in a light bulb, or make a cup of coffee.

The contest began as a rivalry between two engineering fraternities at Purdue University and was held from 1949 into the 1950’s. The contest was revived again in 1983 and in the past few years the winners often make the rounds of the evening talk shows with their contraption.

The 2012 contest happened on March 31^st at Purdue University where the task was to inflate and pop a balloon. The winners were a team from St. Olaf College and their machine had an end-of-the-world theme that incorporated music ranging from the “Jaws” theme to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony to the “Indiana Jones” theme.

The scoring system rewards machines that combine creativity with inefficiency and complexity. Machines have to have at least 20 steps to complete the task in less than two minutes.

The St. Olaf machine had 191 steps. The team completed one perfect run and one run with one human intervention.

For 2013 the task is to hammer a nail. Details on the upcoming contest and other Rube Goldberg contests and activities can be found at www.rubegoldberg.com

Image Source:
Youtube video of Purdue team breaking the World Record
Youtube Video of the 2012 St. Olaf machine
www.rubegoldberg.com

Links:

Youtube video of Purdue team breaking the World Record

Youtube Video of the 2012 St. Olaf machine

www.rubegoldberg.com

Think[box] 1.0 – a Place for Tinkering and Ideas

Posted on November 21, 2011November 21, 2011 by Kbaumlier

On the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH is the beginnings of a Think[box] 1.0 – a place for ideas and “tinkering.” I visited Ian Charnus, who is Operations manager of the new center last week – and got a tour of the current facilities.

The center will be a place where engineering, design, arts, science, medical and business communities can interact in one location and will be a place where educators, advisers, mentors, and facilitators can assist students and faculty into becoming entrepreneurs and technology leaders.

Currently at the entrance of the Glennan bulding on the CASE campus is a display from the “What’s in your think[box]? Contest, a contest where student teams from CASE created design proposals of what the entrepreneurial activities in the new space will look like, and what activities it should house.

The proposals included plans for these activities:

traditional and distance learning courses
fab labs and tinker space
digital and traditional manufacturing
creative design
formal and informal meeting areas
multi-media conferencing
relaxing and eating space
student competition space
performance facilities
gallery display areas

One of the proposals has a large whiteboard space, a lego building area, and a giant pool of balls. These types of fun activities might seen frivolous – but many of the high-tech technology industries provide fun and game areas at the workplace, since it encourages employees to think creatively and also often gets people to stay at work longer. All of the proposals had “green roofs” and a cafe/coffee space.

The announcement of the winner of the contest will occur soon, and the winners will get $2000.

Charnus has been hard at work ordering and setting up new equipment for the center which is currently located in the downstairs of the Glennan Building on the CASE campus. A 3d printer, laser cutter, new computer workstations, an impressive workshop with every size of nuts, screws and bolts and new worktables and chairs are in the space.

The center is in its infant stages – but there are big plans. Case Western Reserve University received a $5 million gift from Joseph B. Richey II and A. Malachi Mixon III , founders of Invacare Corp. to support a building to house the university’s “think box” programs—a collection of initiatives that seek to support Case Western Reserve University and Northeast Ohio’s culture of innovation.

Some of the current and planned facilities include the Prentke/Romich Collaboratory to support prototyping and translating concepts into products, the Sears Undergraduate Design Lab to support electronics, the Reinberger Design Studio with high powered computers and a mini-milling center, the Bingham Student Workshop which will support undergraduate courses and will have machines and equipment to support wood and metal work, and the Virtual Worlds Lab, which has high-powered gaming machines and gaming/interactive development.

Charnus has experience with innovation. He has done his own projects which include the Tesla Orchestra:a high-voltage fusion of music and technology using a tesla coil, the waterfall swing” an interactive waterfall swing set, and other projects. He is an alumni from the Engineering program at case in 2005.

Charnus talked about how the center is meant to be a exciting place of collaboration. A dynamic place where students and community members, engineering and design, and innovation are fostered.

Got a great idea or just want to get inspired? You’re in luck – Think[box] 1.0 is coming our way.

Links:

Think[box] 1.0

Video about Think[box}1.0

Tesla Orchestra Project