Blog of the Creative Technology bachelor at the University of Twente
- Blender tutorial
First year student Pieter Pelt giving a blender tutorial for the Interactive Visualization course.
- Reprap’s as hot item on fosdem
http://weblogs.nrc.nl/hebben/2010/02/11/je-eigen-hardwarefabriek-de-3d-printer/ Erik de Bruijn (Dutch reprap expert) explains the future of rapid prototyping at http://www.fosdem.org/
- SmartXP lab open!
Today the SmartXP lab was officially opened by the Rector Magnificus of the University. A large number of demonstrations had been prepared by the HMI group and others. CreaTe had been invited to exhibit in the ‘community room’ (read: kitchen).
A tomato-sauce printer (pizza printer) was demonstrated, together with WiiMote controlled vacuum cleaners, John-Chung-Lee screen demo, a multitouch table and the reprap machine that’s build at Living and Working tomorrow. RTV-oost (local news) covered the event, featuring the pizza printer. See http://www.rtvoost.nl/
- Living and Working Tomorrow
The course Living and Working Tomorrow has been underway for two months now. After a decent amount of lectures on future topics and technologies, crash courses in brainstorm – techniques, excursions and intensive thinking four projects are underway:
Reprap Darwin
- Chocolate printer: using a RepRap as basis this printer will print food
- Intelligent refrigerator magnets: This network of light emitting tiles will display information about the internet, right on your own fridge.
- Interactive Brainstorm Table: using back-projection and infrared camera this group is building a new interactive table using handwriting-recognition, all build in processing.
- Intelligent Hand Wash: In hospitals it is very important to wash your hands long enough and well enough. In this project a projection-system will be designed which projects ‘dirt’ on your hands, which you visibly have to wash off..
- project(s) — cycle(s) for life
while my new-born baby daughter takes her first sips of this delicious liquor, the mother breast, my son started his 802 km long journey on bicycle to the Copenhagen Climate Conference to show the world that you don’t need a car to travel, even in winter. See http://www.cyclingforclimate.nl.
However, apart from the climate message there is also the new media message: no project can do without a website, and a (social) network that promotes the project, however crazy it may be, well, considering the rain, I mean. It is part of the technology. Think about it, and spread the word(s).
- reflection(s) — the creative technology war(s)
There is an obscure dividing line between the creatives and the technologists. However, many do believe, with me, that innovation requires joining forces, or what some prefer to call co-creativity. Another observation is, that in a deep sense our culture is playful, but in need of people that can draw a magic circle, and create games or playful applications, that allow us to experiment with technology, reflect on technology and have new and/or old experiences. These people, the creative technology students, are now united in the CTSG network, ready to draw their magic circle(s) wherever they see fit!
- The good, the bad and the worst
In order to learn to do things well, it can be very useful to do them badly. Last weeks’ New Media assignment: make the worst web page ever. Some students succeeded very well, since some of the most horrible pages were published. See for yourself and add a comment to let us know your personal favorite.
- Together they Create
Ever saw a walking fridge in real? Last week students Creative Technology occupied Smart XP and expressed theirselves in an exhibition called ‘Together we Create’. It was the final assignment in the course ‘We create identity’. It was an exiting exhibition. With different kinds of applications – like pong-on-bike, a walking fridge and a touch table - students proved to be creative technologists by nature. UT news wrote an article about the event. Be also sure to check out the clip from Ineke and Reinout.
- The time has come!
Creative Technology has started! Last week, twenty students attended the first lectures. We are thrilled to start with a whole new group of students, exploring new ideas, inventing new applications that will hopefully change the world in one way or another.
The year 2009-2010 will be exciting. We will witness the birth of a bachelor program which differs substantially from the usual programs offered at technical universities. In November, we will know if Creative Technology gets a formal accreditation.
- Opening toss for Chess Tournament
Creative Technology was asked to make a toss game for the Euro Chess Tournament 2009. A processing applet was made which let a ball bounce around a square field with a given start velocity and direction. At every bounce the ball will change color. The output is not totally random, only very hard to control :)
The applet and source can be viewed at this site . In the final version an arduino has been used to generate the start input and direction.
