Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/1077063
Arts ARTISTIC INNOVATION Upper school art teacher Derek Haverland has been teaching art at Latin for nearly 19 years. With the addition of the Citadel Innovation Studio within the Learning Commons space, he was eager to find a way to utilize it with his art students and in his curriculum. Working with Shane Enderle, manager of the Innovation Studio, they developed a new take on a standing project in the Computer Graphic Design class. Haverland planned to have students' Day of the Dead-style skulls carved on plexiglass and then add electricity to bring color and light. He began by breaking the project down into small, manageable steps. First, students put on their computer science hats to determine the computer application and file type to successfully translate into something the printer would understand. Next, they donned their artistic hats to imagine and plan their skull designs. Once the files were ready, the class relocated to the Innovation Studio where they engaged in the mechanical process of soldering. e students soldered all the components together and assembled them inside a box made by the 3D printers. By this time, the plexiglass pieces were complete and fitted into the slots of the box. e project involved using the Glowforge printer – a recent addition to the Innovation Studio's line up of maker devices. e Glowforge uses a beam of light the width of a human hair to cut, engrave and shape designs from a variety of materials, including wood, plexiglass, leather, fabric and cardboard. While traditional 3D printers use additive manufacturing to build up material layer by layer, a Glowforge printer uses subtractive manufacturing to carve out material using laser light. Finally, students downloaded Arduino software and began working with code to illuminate individual slots and the corresponding piece of plexiglass. Altering the individual red, green, and blue (RGB) values created unique colors for each piece of plexiglass. Students were also able to create multiple color sets, allowing for the same design to be viewed with a different set of programed colors with the push of a button. e result is a visually compelling and beautiful integration of art, computer science, mechanics and electricity. 18