week #8 excerpts

Engineering Open House

METRO:

I was really happy with the software that I created. But, since this was a collaborative process, I ended up using pieces of it and merging it with another project that one of my teammates was working on. The end result was better than I could have expected. We ended up using my particle physics and fluid simulation to encapsulate each user’s body. As they walked into the (virtual) space, meteors would fly randomly onto the screen. Each user’s hands would have gravity, so the meteors would become attracted to theirhands and start orbiting around them. Allison: What's important to note here is the fact that left and right brain individuals are able to coexist in a space such as this. Finding overlap between engineering/science and art/design has been a college-long crusade of Metro's, as evidenced by her work for our design classes and blatant dedication to her non-art extracurriculars, and here in this room a union occurred. She used her skills to bring an inexplicable elegance to an engineering exhibit. Well done, Miss Metro.

Christian: Conclusion.
-Why is the engineering quad so far from the Art building
-Why is it so secluded
-Why is collaborative peer-to-peer interaction always good
-Why are engineers to myserious
-"Engineering Design Algorithm" (algorithm; noun, a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, esp. by a computer)

1)Identify the problem or design objective 2)Define the goals and identify the constraints 3)Research and gather information. 4)Create potential design solutions. 5)Analyze the viability of the solutions. 6)Choose the most appropriate solution. 7)Build or implement the design. 8)Test and Evaluate the design. 9)Repeat all steps as needed.

Courtney:  My final stop was to the civil engineering building where I explored different booths. I made my own cement coaster, learned about an amazing water prufication system that is used in Guatemala and that only costs 30 dollars to make and lasts for at least 10 years and I saw a working canoe made of cement.  

Tessla Coil Concert.

 Alex:  Literally the coolest shit i have witnessed in a long time.

This week, i went to the Tesla Coil Concert near the engineering campus. I met up with Anne, Molly, and Bri, as well as a few of my other friends outside of Mining. This was an event held during all the fanfare that went along with the engineering open house last week.  Harrison:  A lot of the songs played were sci-fi theme songs (Doctor Who, Star Wars) or video game music (Mario, The Legend of Zelda). They knew how to play to their audience. The crowd loved it.

Here are some cool videos I found online. I was far away 

from the action on Friday night because there were 

thousands of people at this concert:

HK Associates

Shannon: I was expecting the lecture to be very technical and hard to follow for someone who doesnt have a background in architecture. I was surprised when HK's main focus was on the concepts and processes of their work. Because of the nature of their lecture, it turned out to be extremely valuable for me even as a graphic design student. Erin:  My curiosity brought me to a lecture on architecture and why they think and perform the way they do. In my opinion architects are boring artist, but, thats my opinion.

Gunning For Campus:  Examining the Impacts of Gun Violence on College Universities.

Gino:  When I showed up to the lecture, they had a huge buffet and a line of people waiting for their free lunch. This guy sitting in front of me ate like a barbarian. Snapping his gums all disgustingly. Ew!  Of course I didn't have any because I haven't eaten anything since 1997. Anyway, I went to a lecture in about gun violence which was lead by Dr. Nicole Anderson Cobb. She is a member of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.

Bill:  I attended the "collecting impulse" symposium that was held over the weekend.  The keynote speaker was an english professor from the University of Chicago named BIll Brown.  He is most known for "thing theory," and as you can tell it is a theory involving things and thingness, and when an object becomes a thing.  I have read, and enjoyed some of his writings before.  (is it wrong that one of the reasons why i like it was because it shows me that academic writing can be a more refined, peer reviewed version of 19 year old stoners contemplating the existence of a bong?)

 

Hitchcock à La Carte
Jan Olsson (Stockholm University)
Response by Pat Gill (Communication/Gender & Women's Studies)

Carolina:  Alma, Hitchcock's wife, was mentioned during the talk as well. Olsson points out her importance to Hitchock personally and her value as one of his greatest collaborators throughout his career. It was interesting to hear that mentioned and then realizing that many of his films not only portray women as weak characters who are often killed or strangled but also are portrayed as deadly temptations, hard to resist. Pat Gill, the other speaker also mentions how eating, when examining Hitchcock's films are read as metaphors for sexual desire and how the death, killing, or in particular, strangling the sexually desired body reflected the idea of punishing for one's appetite.  Hugh:  Hitchcock features chicken and turkeys often in his films. Whenever a "sexy lady" was part of the film, they would almost exclusively not be featured with film because that would be "too sexy." Instead, women who appeared in the kitchen or with food tended to be killed or were killers in his films.  Food was seen as a way to display desires.

 

MUWAH>3