The Media Center is just one piece of Academic Technology checkout this years newsletter to see what we’ve been up to. http://www.dickinson.edu/homepage/633/academic_technology_newsletter
Category: News & Events (Page 8 of 12)
The lite-brite is a toy I’m sure we all remember from our youth. The simple toy, composed of a back light, plastic shell, and a multi-holed interface for the insertion of plastic lights (the impetus for the namesake “light”). The bright then ostensibly refers to the light waves given off by the refraction of incandescence through the translucent plastic pieces.
These pieces come in an array of natural colours, primary and secondary in order to let the viewer fixate on any artwork imaginable without being taken out of the experience due to a limited palette. The lite brites themselves act as a mirror into what we truly want to create and thus perceive with something more than our minds eye- it must become real and thus is no longer seen as beautiful, but beautiful-seen.
The lite-brite was invented in 1967 as an obvious homage to skywriting, neon as an artifice of direction and enchantment, and the constant shifting of lighted-highway signs. This amalgamation proved to be both a welcome opportunity for artistic advancement in those not naturally gifted, as well as an outlet for the inner light to be reflected in the warm visage of a child’s face.
Either way, Lite on you crazy diamond.
With the rise in 3-d printing and the availability of such machines as an affordable outlet for design and creation with real world application has come the need for reasonable printing design emulators. Sites like thingiverse and shapeways, hundreds of printing designs can be easily downloaded, and after running through the correct software, printed speedily and without hassle. Some of these sites are limited to browsing currently existing designs, and Tinkercad hopes to fill the void between creation and dissemination.
Tinkercad is an online 3-d model planner used to create designs compatible with Makerware and other 3-d printing software. Once the design is created it can be easily imported from tinkercad to these programs, and from there saved to an SD card or USB drive and loaded onto a printer. The “workplane” looks like this:
From here comes the option of combining shapes, letters, and numbers to make nearly anything, within the boundaries of finite detail. Some examples include:
Glasses-
Dice-
And other useful and not-so-useful objects-
The Tinkercad software itself is quite intuitive and easy to use. With dozens of tutorials built into the creator itself, grasping the basics and more advanced techniques with the program is both simple and fun. It was straightforward and uncomplicated for me to quickly create complex objects from the limited but encompassing variety of 3d pieces provided.
After the designs are finalized, they can be easily saved and imported into Makerwrare. After some quick formatting changes, they are sually ready to be printed on either our Makerbot I or Makerbot 5th generation machines.
Happy Making!
https://tinkercad.com/
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- Kia
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- Sondey
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- Marketa
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- Brennan
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- Eli
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- Chris
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- Tommy
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- Tyler
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- Noor
Tuesday, May 6, 10am – noon in the Rector Atrium
The posters will feature an assortment of projects conducted by the students that demonstrate the use of GIS (geographic information systems) for investigating and analyzing problems across a wide variety of disciplines, including environmental assessment, urban planning, historical studies, crime analysis, watershed monitoring, and landscape management. The students will be available for discussion throughout the session. Light refreshments will be provided.
Meet the Newest Member to the Media Center Family (of equipment), The Samsung Sports Cam HMX-W300!
It operates similar to the flip, so it shouldn’t be too hard to learn how to use! I’d like to try it out myself!
Earth Vision Trust, founded by James Balog and the recipient of the 2014 Sam Rose ’58 and Julie Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism, is holding a Nature Photography Contest to celebrate Earth Day this year! The contest is open to any pro and amateur photographers, and the winners will be chosen by James Balog and his staff. James Balog is famous for his nature photography and his award winning documentary, Chasing Ice.
If you’re interested, you can find more information here.
On Saturday, April 26, the media center will be hosting an event to let students share art and music of any form. Music, paintings, digital art, films, and any other artistic creations are welcome! We here at the media center are want to help connect students, provide a small informal art show, and introduce new students to some of the artistic and creative resources that are available on campus. We are still accepting submissions and would love to have your art featured at the exposé! For a submission form or more information, visit the media center facebook page or just stop by the media center! Come have fun and enjoy the artwork and creative expression of your fellow students! The event starts at 7!
Today, our two new Canon lenses, 24 and 35mm respectively, arrived. Both lenses are lightweight full-frame f/2.8 professional ultra-wide zoom for all 35mm auto focus cameras. These lenses are especially efficient in getting a good depth of field. These easy-to-use lenses can go with any of the cameras we have available at the Dickinson College Media Center, including the DSLRs. Remember, you can rent out a wide variety of equipment from the Media Center quickly and for free.
Socialize
