Baltan Session: Tools Series #3

  • After the bit rush 

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    Workshop by Lucas Maassen and Unfold

    Digital tools are often based their analog counterparts. But in their digital context they are used to perform very different tasks. Many times they evolve into new independent digital design tools. Is it possible to do the same thing in the reverse? Can we create analog tools based on their digital counterparts?

    During the workshop, participants will explore these possible transformations with designers Lucas Maassen and Unfold. In the evening, we will present the results of the day-long workshop during which participants explore this challenge.

    In the workshop, participants will specifically be asked to:

    1. Translate an existing digital design tool into an analog counterpart.

    • Find a tool in a digital design application like Photoshop, Illustrator, Rhino. Try to stick to tools that rely on (apparently) basic principles or actions like copy-paste, blur, scale, undo, crop, mirror, paintbrush, sharpen edges…
    • Thoroughly analyse the behaviour of the tool in the original digital context, observe what the tool actually does as modification to the pixels or vectors. For example a scale-down function will remove pixels, a scale up will copy pixels and add them to the existing pixels. What if you do this multiple times? What if you push the tool beyond its intended use?
    • Translate and appropriate the behaviour into an analog counterpart. How can you make a physical tool that has the same effect on real world objects? Don’t stick with one possible solution but explore various alternatives.

    2. Explore/use/exploit one of your colleagues design tools

    • Choose one of the tools made by a fellow participant. Start by exploring its functions like you did with the digital tools, look at the various ways the tool can be used and misused. Which action leads to which reaction?
    • Select one existing 3D physical object that lends itself as subject to your tool’s action. Appropriate the object with your tool, this can be a single action or multiple iterations of the same process.

    To participate in the workshop, please send a short bio and a short motivation about why you would like to join the workshop to info[AT]baltanlaboratories.org by December 5, 2011.

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    Something completely different:

    Or maybe try this for a change: