SLQ Wiki engagement:grumpus:workshops

Creative Brief - Community design, prototype and fabrication sprint- Saturday Open Lab Crew

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 17:52:00 +0000

Creative Brief - Community design, prototype and fabrication sprint- Saturday Open Lab Crew

Keen to get your feedback. As per usual just add your comments as a wrap with your initials. Mick

The Saturday Arvo Crew is just one group of people that will be participating in a discrete component of the wider 2021 GRUMPUS Project.

So what is the Grumpus project?.. And how does our little piece of it fit in?

The following brief gives an overview of the wider GRUMPUS project, its goals and objectives. It also details the specific goals and objectives, tasks and milestones of this specific crew.

Having this information spelt out is a process that professional creatives use to make their work effective and efficient. So its good experience for anyone who might choose to go on and do this professionally. It also ensures that we have a clear purpose, can prioritise and have framework to facilitate good communication and collaborative decision making.

Overview of the 2021 GRUMPUS project

The GRUMPUS is a fifteen-month community engagement project that’s happening at the State Library of Queensland in 2021-22. The project will culminate in The Great and Grand Rumpus exhibition of beautiful sculptural, digital and immersive installation that captures a sense of play and whimsy in the SLQ Gallery Level 2, opening in December 2021 and open through July 2022. A bespoke and interactive online presence will be developed in collaboration with State Library participants and public libraries.

The project origins lie in the limitless imaginations of children. Children from around Brisbane are being encouraged to exercise and expand their imaginations, and in doing to dream up and catalogue a collection of the most fantastic, astonishing and magical things you could expect to see in the Great and Grand Rumpus - a make-believe place that will spill from the SLQ Gallery at State Library for time of the exhibition. The ideas (which we call Things) will be teased out of the children's imaginations with skilful encouragement from a team of professional artworkers, and will be collected, catalogued and placed into The Well, a digital repository of things on the SLQ Wiki.

From here a community of Makers, Volunteers and creative industries, arts and design students are being invited to bring these things to life as a series of giant sculptural and interactive installations. There are a range of in demand skills and experience that participants these adult participants can gain through the project that will assist these people in developing a career A focus will be placed on making use of sustainable materials and practise. A majority of the exhibition will be built from recyclable materials and the process focuses on building community capacity through the development of new skills and documenting the process as a resource so regional libraries and other interested organisations can replicate parts of the work in their own communities.

Throughout the process a conscious effort will be made to respectfully capture and document the diverse voices of the communities engaged in the program. The Grumpus will focus on empowering the creative expression of children and exploring how that creative expression informs the creative process of adults. This is an inversion of the general community practices when working with children where children are taught how to think by adults. The engagement is intergenerational and focuses on building strong communities of practise through community arts and technology engagement frameworks.

The project will not finish when the exhibition opens, Designs will continue iterating over time as children playtest the installations. Ongoing public programming throughout the exhibition will further activate and embellish the exhibition with new content to be installed in the exhibition, providing opportunity for return visitation as the exhibition evolves. During the development and delivery of the exhibition, there is opportunity to expand the exhibition to other spaces across State Library. The exhibition will integrate with exiting State Library program offerings such as Summer Festival.

GRUMPUS Target audience

Children, young people, their families and the young at heart	>	Participants in Well Making Workshops, the online and on-site exhibition and activation program.

Primary schools and community development organisations working with people from diverse backgrounds	>	Participants in Well Making Workshops, the online and on-site exhibition and activation program.

Anyone who wants to explore collaborative making. Especially those who want to gain experience utilising community arts and technology engagement frameworks.	>	participants in Design prototype and fabrication process, the online and on-site exhibition, activation program and via SLQ wiki.

Key messages & takeaways from the GRUMPUS project.

Key messages describe message and or sense we want people to get from interacting with our projects. It's useful to also know what we want these people to do as a “call to action”

“Creativity and imagination are like a muscles… the more you use them, the stronger they will get”

The library is a great place for people of all ages to exercise this muscle.

Join our mailing list today

“Ideas are great but actual getting involved and making something can change the world”

The library has resources and people to help you get started making.

Check out our resources on plan my visit.

“Connecting with people who share your interests is great fun”

Attending in a library talk, workshop or meetup is a great way to connect with your community. Check out the range of programs on our Whats on page.

“Don’t be scared of failing at something new… the worst you can do is fail to start”

Checkout how you can get involved and come along with a friend

Barriers to Engagement

Usually in a brief, this is where the competitors and point of difference are identified. In this case we will give an overview of barriers to engagement and how we will seek to address these barriers

Barriers to engagement	What People Say	how we want to address these barriers
1. A lack of awareness about the resources available at State Library of Queensland.	“What a great resource! I never knew…”	Work with State Library’s marketing team promote the project and showcase our resources.
2. Peoples’ lack of confidence in expressing themselves creatively or trying something new.	“I'm not a creative person”	Explain that participating in the project will build peoples skills and confidence and that experience maker will be here to assist
3. A lack of motivation (procrastination, apathy, value proposition, perceived cost) or	“I never seem to have the time”	Show people how much fun it is and what you can go home with.
		Attract people by documenting the process- making it visible
		Attract people by promoting the idea of contributing to Qld's Memory
4. Administrative friction, perceived, and actual difficulty involved in participating (“it's too hard to book-in, find information on your website, check-in when I arrive.”).	“I'm so confused… I can never seem to book”	Make it as easy as possible to participate and focus communicate clearly on how you can connect

Organisational Background

Founded in 1896, State Library of Queensland is the leading reference and research library in Queensland. State Library is responsible for collecting and preserving a comprehensive collection of Queensland’s cultural and documentary heritage, providing free access to information for all Queenslanders and for the advancement of public libraries across the State. State Library captures and preserves Queensland’s documentary culture and heritage ensuring that the diverse stories of Queensland are captured for future generations.

State Library plays a lead role in serving all Queenslanders, through state-wide library services and partnerships with more than 320 vibrant public libraries and Indigenous Knowledge Centres in Queensland.

State Library also create events and exhibitions for, by and with our communities, inviting engagement with our collections and services, and fostering connections between individuals and groups. State Library also supports specific communities of interest: Aboriginal People and Torres Strait Islanders (kuril dhagun), design (Asia Pacific Design Library), the literary community (Reading and Writing) and The Edge. The Edge is State Library's space for creativity, ideas and experimentation and the Applied Creativity (AC) is the team at the State Library of Queensland that manages & coordinates a range of programs and public facilities at The Edge. Applied Creativity seeks to empower creative experimentation in the fields of arts, science and technology. It manages the SLQ Wiki, an online working knowledge base developed to reflect State Library's commitment sharing best practice in this growing area of activity, and it regularly coordinates large scale community engagement projects like the Great and Grand Rumpus. You can check out Applied Creativity’s previous community engagement work (including the 2018 Great and Grand Rumpus) on the State Library website here and the SLQ Wiki here.

Key features of the 2021-22 Great and Grand Rumpus

The latest Great and Grand Rumpus will be even bigger and better than the last one! The Grumpus will be in a larger space with bigger sculptures and will involve even more people from the community - dreaming up and making an amazing space for imagination and play.

The Grumpus project can be broken down in 4 main parts:

Stage 1. Filling the Well - The Project kicked off in May with Well Making workshops in primary schools around Brisbane. In Well Making workshops arts workers and with children develop creative concepts for use in the Grumpus workshops. As part of this workshop process, each young creator will be engaged to produce a description, in their own words, of the story behind their artefact, and give context and narrative richness to accompany their creation. These creator's stories are being captured using digital text (either contributed directly, or scribed for them) and short verbal responses captured as a digital recording. This information. (scrubbed of personal identifiers), will provide the content of a page of unique digital content, linked by QR code to any physical product present in the exhibition.

Stage 2. Designing & Prototyping Installations

Stage 3. Fabrication and Install

Stage 4. Exhibit, activate and reiterate Document and learn from the process.

Goals and objectives of the greater GRUMPUS project.

The goal of Great and Grand Rumpus is to empower the creative expression of children and explore how that creative expression can be used to stimulate and inform creativity and lifelong learning in adults. It sees the creative practise of the community highlighted in State Library spaces and encourages active engagement and public ownership of these spaces.

The central objectives of the project are to provide:

1. Fun opportunities for children, young people and their families to engage with activities that develop literacies and connection with community and that celebrate their creativity.

2. Meaningfully opportunities for student and community makers / designers to actively engage with State Library via a significant community arts project.

3. Practical, hands-on opportunities for student creatives to develop in-demand industry skills and experience.

4. Accessible opportunities for community makers from a range of backgrounds to develop skills and the confidence contemporary digital storytelling, design, and fabrication.

5. opportunities for contemporary children and their families, as well as community makers and student creatives to engage with and contribute to the state’s heritage and cultural memory.

6. Provides an opportunity for Queensland practitioners develop and document a best practice approach to engaging community and place making that can be rolled out in Libraries and other cultural organisations.

Project timeline

May

• Well making workshops conducted in primary schools around the greater Brisbane area.

July

• Design, prototyping and fabrication processes with community makers (Saturday Arvo Crew), secondary schools (BSH & BSSSC) and university student cohorts (QUT CI 3rd year students and Griffith 1st year Art and Design students). • Well making workshops at the Murry school and QPASTT

September

• 1st collection of installations complete • Collaborative Exhibition curatorial process commences. • Crews commence design of 2nd Design, Prototype and Fabrication Process

November

• 2nd collection of installations complete • Exhibition installed • Install wrap parties and Media and VIP preview

December

• Exhibition opens • Exhibition opening activities and activation activities commence (including extensive playtesting)

February

• Activation activities continue • Playtesting learnings compiled

April

• Design reiterations based on playtest learnings

Who is the Saturday Arvo Crew?

The Saturday Arvo Crew Is anyone from the community who wants to get involved in the Grumpus project. You just need to be eligible* to use the Fabrication Lab and agree to its term and conditions. * anyone over the age of 16 (or 12-16 year olds supervised by a responsible adult). What are Specific goals and objectives of the Saturday Arvo Crew ? The goals and objectives for this crew are:

Fun and problem solving

1. We want people to have Fun and rediscover the joy of creative play

2. Some people get a buzz out of creative problem solving

Make great art

3. We want to create a visually dynamic and interactive sculptural installation that:

1 Respectfully responds and builds on the ideas of the children that have contributed to the Well,
2. Addresses the literacy, cognitive and social development needs of children.
3. Captures the diverse voices of the people engaged in the project.
4. Is built out of reusable, recyclable and easily accessible (off the shelf) materials– primarily cardboard and hotglue.
5. Safe
6. Explores the use the digital media and fabrication tools available at The Edge
7. But also considers fabrication methods that don’t require specialist equipment available at the Edge.
8. Connect and compliment the other installations that are being built by other groups.

Objectives for individuals

4. We want people to develop skills and experience and become confident in their ability to express their creativity and make things for themselves.

5. We want everyone to meet new people and possibly even find their tribe.

How we want to work

6. We want to work collaboratively and for participants to be able engage in all aspects of the design, prototype and fabrication of installation and to be able to move in and out of project when they need to Documentation 7. We want everyone who worked on the project to be involved in the documentation of this process so we can capture what we learn as we progress, and make this available other people who might want to replicate this process in their own communities. Advocacy 8. We want participants to help us promote Libraries as an important public resource and a space for collect and explore our cultural memory and a place creating community and making the future.

Discreet Tasks and Deliverables

Design, Prototype and Fabricate

Drawing for concepts contributed to The Well, and informed by the goals and objectives above, design, prototype and fabricate one of the nine installations that will form the core exhibition. We aim to have a first one done and ready to install by the end of September.

Documentation

The Saturday Arvo Crew will document our process and learnings as we go, we aim to make written records and capture images of our process and what we make every session and will make video or audio recordings of relevant highlights as we go.

Social Media

The Saturday Arvo Crew will have the opportunities contribute/pitch stories/content for the libraries official channels and might want to share the fun we are having through their networks.

How we want to communicate

MS Teams

We don’t want progress to stop just because our formal session is over. Technology allows us to collaborate in-between sessions

Open and honest but always respectful

How we’ll document our process and learnings

SLQ wiki

End of session form and uploading media

Creative Decision making process

Any important decisions we’ll discuss as a group using the principles outlined goals and objectives to identify priorities.
At the end of the day if we are struggling to build a clear consensus, the project manager, Daniel Flood, will step in and make a decision considering what's best for the community, the long-term strategic goals of the library and what's best for the project

Things you need to know about making at the State Library of Queensland

Fabrication Lab
Participants need to abide by Fabrication Lab Safety System, Fabrication Lab terms of use at all times. Participants wishing to continue on with their work in the fabrication lab outside of our dedicated sessions will need to complete relevant General and facility inductions
State Library Policies and Procedures

Patron responsible conduct policy,
COVID policy and procedures
Intellectual property rights and the SLQ Wiki

• the implications for individuals contributing ip to a community project and or the SLQwiki

State Library intellectual freedom policies and appropriate community standards

How the library will reserve the right to decide what are appropriate community standards for a SLQ community led exhibition.

Who to contact if you want specific information or you have a problem.

Grumpus Design, Prototyping & Fabrication Sprints

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 16:17:21 +0000

Grumpus Design, Prototyping & Fabrication Sprints

Here you will find support for the community, school and university based making programs for the Large Sculpture creating. Each group has it's own page, which can be found below!

Goals

Welcome to the Making of the Grumpus!

This extraordinary project is a celebration of creativity, community, and is happening throughout 2021. This section of the Wiki is to support the groups of students and community makers.

In the Great & Grand Rumpus, children are the creative visionaries tasked with imagining the world that is to be created, a dream-like work full of fantastical creatures, spaces, sounds and sensations. Over the coming weeks and months, children in primary schools across the city will dream big and imagine this imaginary world, creating drawings, sculptures, stories and more. These ideas will be documented by the children themselves, and catalogued in a growing online collection of inspiration, available for others' view and use.

This is where you come in. We are creating a team of enthusiastic student and community designers. Their task: to take the incredible ideas children have created and use them as the starting point for a creative process leading to the development of ready to build designs, for The Great and Grand Rumpus Exhibit.

Finally, utilising State Library’s very own makerspace at The Edge this team of student and community fabricators will bring these ideas to life, building them in large scale, ready to exhibit, and eventually for the public to enjoy!

Check out the video from the 2018 Great and Grand Rumpus.

Updates

Designed Things Running Updates

Workshops

During the making of the Great and Grand Rumpus, we collaborated with school, university and community groups to bring children's drawings to life!

QUT

The place for our QUT designers and makers QUT

Saturday Arvo Crew

The place for our community designers and makers Saturday Arvo Crew

Brisbane State High

The place for our Brisbane State High designers & makers Brisbane State High

BSSSC

The place for our BSSSC designers & makers BSSSC

West End Primary

The place for our West End Primary designers makers West End Primary

Griffith Southbank

The place for our Griffith Uni Southbank designers & makers Griffith Southbank

Griffith GC Group 1

The place for our Griffith Uni Gold Coast Group 1 Griffith GC Group 1

Griffith GC Group 2

The place for our Griffith Uni Gold Coast Group 2 Griffith GC Group 2

Facilitator Tasks

If you are facilitating one of the workshops;

Please make sure to get participants to complete a SLQ Consent Form so we can capture photos and video at the very beginning of the workshop series. Forms can be downloaded HERE

Please make sure participants fill in the Designed Things submission at the end of you session; A PORTAL FOR DESIGNED THINGS

As the facilitator, we also ask that you create a session plan. These are located under each of the workshop groups below. You will also be required to fill in the Reflection Report - Well Making Design Workshop - Reflection Form

Giant Cardboard Structures

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 16:08:25 +0000

Giant Cardboard Structures

This part of the Grumpus project will involve volunteers and design students working in collaboration with AC staff.

By some process a single idea will be drawn from the Well that has been filled with the products of children's imagination.

Design students will then work to develop a prototype concept that can be constructed at large scale (~5m), using either digital or physical manufacturing techniques. Students and volunteers, working with AC staff will then build the object using cardboard (or other cellulose based materials) for installation at different sites during the Grumpus program. The constructs will be modular, and so able to be dissassembled and re-assembled at different locations as the need arises.

During design and construction, other elements may be added (sound, lighting, motion) using electronic or other technologies. Decorative treatments will use a strict colour palette determined through the visual identity process.

At the end of the project, electronic and mechanical components will be recovered for re-use, and the cardboard will be recycled.

This documentation by Peter Musk, 2021

Making Giant Things from Cardboard

Cardboard is ubiquitous, cheap (or free) and recyclable. Most people have had experience working with it, and there are widely available and well resourced methods for cutting and joining it. These are some of the reasons that State Library chose cardboard as the medium for our first foray into making giant things, as the Great and Grand Rumpus filled an entire floor with the materialized products of young children’s imagination in 2016.

We would like to invite you and your communities to explore this creative space, too, as part of the Greater and Grander Rumpus (or Grumpus, between friends) in 2121. And since libraries are fundamentally public spaces for information sharing, we would like to share what we learned about working with cardboard at grand scale.

All Ideas are not Equal: Turning Concepts into Cardboard

Assuming you have chosen a few ideas from the apparently bottomless well of children’s imagination, what might you think about before firing up the glue guns?

Gravity is a thing.

Making something that does not rest securely on the floor will be harder. Big things made from cardboard can still weigh a lot, and an object that is cantilevered or top heavy will need an engineered solution to avoid collapse and the crushing of spectators. Counter weights, internal supports or even suspension can be a solution (this is how we made the 3m moon hanging in our auditorium), but you will need to get advice from safety professionals, and maybe engineers.

Doors and floors.

Not many buildings are made with Giant Things in mind – and if you are going to make something somewhere other than where it will be displayed, then getting it through the door or up the stairs can be an issue (speaking from experience, here). In the absence of accommodating facilities managers, you can make it in segments, or build it on site. A public build is also a great way to generate interest (and maybe attract volunteers), but can get untidy.

Right brain vs left brain.

This choice is founded in the skills of your crew, and your volunteers. Fundamentally, it is whether you take a fabrication approach (scale drawings and digital models) or a sculptural approach (adding detail to a stable skeleton and building in the moment). Some things lend themselves to one approach (a giant snot monster is not going to need orthographic drawings, for example), but either way can work. More on this, later.

Passive or participative?

Experience beats observation every time. Making your giant things available for visitors to climb through, pull on or open and close will create a deeper engagement, more interest and headaches for the OHS officer. Things need to be made very robust to survive contact with the audience, and you will need to allow for repairs. This is also where sensors, servos, flashing LEDs and Arduino controllers can come into play – if you have experienced talent on hand. Including technologies means designing for wires, holes and power supply from the outset.

The vibe

Cardboard can be ugly and monotone. While there are some surface treatments that can be used (more on this later), it is the skin of your thing that people will respond to first – and especially the face, if it has one. This is where art workers are gold – sculptural techniques and a sense of line can bring a hulk of dull cardboard to life. Painting and decorating is a curatorial decision - and a lot of work (since that material needs to be sealed to take paint well). Sticking to a defined and limited palette helps. You can also use digital tricks (like projection mapping or AR) which have the added benefit of being interactive.

Still reading? If all that has not frightened the idea out of your mind, then more practical tips and hard earned learnings follow.

Design

Translating an idea from the Well into a viable plan for construction needs to involve considering the intrinsic nature of the material, basic engineering principles (gravity, again) and authentic artistic interpretation – which is why getting some experienced industrial designers on board is a very good thing. A professional looking design concept still has to survive the realities of fabrication, though, and so always be prepared for some fine-tuning along the way. This might mean the sacrifice of delightful, but impractical ideas to the implacable gods of time, money and cardboard. Our experience is that the magic of grand scale and childlike whimsy will still be actively in your favour, and the visitors will not ever know what they are missing. Simple is good.

An agreed concept drawing is an essential starting point, and adding a scale is also vital. Artistic renderings can suffice, especially if they include views from different angles. Having these drawings in physical form for fabricators to have at hand for quick reference is also a useful thing. If they are hand drawn, make sure there are copies made. Annotation of changes should be part of the fabricators job, and helps make for a more robust and reliable process – having the sole keeper of knowledge absent for whatever reason can needlessly complicate the build.

Your solution to designing will depend on local circumstances, and there is no best method. Sculptural approaches can be quicker, if talent is available, but the result will tend to be more an interpretation than a faithful reproduction. Digital methods are reproducible, transmissible and can activate advanced manufacturing technologies if these are available.

Sculptural techniques.

Talented 3D artists can apparently pull things from the air, but if you are less gifted, or a beginner, then a few tricks seem to be commonly involved:

Reduce to some simple geometric primitives to start. An elephant can become a few various ovoids on top of some cylinders, for example. These basic shapes can then be reduced to a skeleton with joints and ribs to carry the skin.
Build a skeleton to bear the load and carry the profiles. Arches are good, or angles with gussets for strength. Adding a profile piece around two or more rigid bones will keep it in place, and spread the load. Triangular section beams are less prone to collapse than rectangles or squares.
Work the cardboard into shape mercilessly. Creases, folds, twists and rolls can all add suggestive detail to your shape. Lightly spraying the cardboard with water will relax the material, and make bending into curves easier (but might repel the glue).
Add lots and lots of bits. Build up the shape with many small additions, rather than trying to make it all happen in one piece, a bit like sculpting in clay. This is especially so when you come to the final skin – lots of detail (scales on a fish, for example) is visually entrancing, but also lots of work. If you can use repeated elements that can be produced easily (with a CNC for example, or physical jigs) time can be saved.

Digital techniques.

Commercial 3D modelling software is widely available for engineers and artists with the budget. Free open-source varieties are available, too: Tinkercad builds from simple primitives, but is easy to learn and surprisingly versatile (if you have the time); Blender is complex, detailed and poweful (if you have the time). Both have legions of enthusiasts on Youtube happy to guide you for free. Slicing a 3D model can produce ready made profiles, but you will still need a skeleton to hold them in place. Again, some tricks are ubiquitous:

File security and version control are fundamental. Having all the design files on one laptop that can break or be left at home is courting disaster, and informative file names are a help, too. The cloud can be a wonderful thing.
Not all files are the same. Commercial software especially seek to deter competitors by using proprietary file types that may not travel well between software packages. Use a 3D file type (not an image like jpg or png) that works across platforms - .obj is our choice.
Slicing the model can be done using a free download from Autodesk (Slicer for Fusion 360 – see details later), or more laboriously using Meshmixer (another free download). Slicing in two dimensions (X and Y most commonly) will produce 2D shapes that can interlock to give a 3D shape. You still need to build something to hold everything in place, though, and using a registration system to align the parts in space is vital.
A foldable net can be made from the surface of your 3D model (details later), but this can produce a fiendishly complicated puzzle of pieces, and is almost never done. It could work for simple shapes, with a few flat surfaces, or a low poly model made with this in mind.
Digital design can be very time consuming, especially for the keen novice. It is easy to be consumed by details that will not be significant in the final build.

Physical Construction

A note about nomenclature

As this document has developed, a way to refer to different (but recurring) parts has developed. Open to discussion, but this is what follows:

element refers to the slices (or layers) made from the 3D model that have been drawn to scale on the CNC, and cut from cardboard. Thus, the verticals in the construct that follows are labelled Y-elements . Horizontal bits (that may be used to transfer lateral shape to the model later) will be Z-elements.

module is used to refer to each of the sections that have been arbitrarily imposed to make the construct relocatable. Simple labels (like Left Hand Side (LHS) bottom) describe how they fit together - remembering that LHS is as viewed from the front.

plate or 'join plate' has been used to label the flat sheets that separate the modules. For example, the lower LHS module will have a plate on top that joins to an identical plate on the bottom of the upper LHS module. These plates are what the wedges press on to hold everything together, and give rigidity to the modules when they are disassembled. The upper LHS module will have a central join plate as well (but not the lower LHS, since this part of the construction is hollow).

rib refers to the triangular constructs used to join the elements. Ribs are supposed to be aligned with the X- and Z- axes of the model (that is, square to the Y-elements, and parallel with the floor)

Ribs

A system of ribs was devised to separate vertical Y-elements. Key attributes:

standard length (46cm) between attachment points. This dimension was derived from the spacing between slots in the 3D models. Using this dimension allows for efficient use of material - two ribs can be cut from each length of pallet pad cardboard. Pallet pads are approx 1150mm square, so half (575mm) gives 115mm excess (or 57mm at each end) for attachment.
triangular section for strength
each face of the triangular rib 35mm (the width of a standard 1m metal ruler), with half that as overlap for gluing closed.
double length ribs used (with the flat side up) as supports for suspended Y-elements

Rib layout, with scoring tool (use the ROUNDED corners so the cardboard is not cut)

Scoring completed - note that cardboard is NOT broken along the score. This maintains strength.

Grain (corrugations) runs across the long edges of the rib for strength.

Cut the rib down the middle of the fourth parallel - this gives a gluing tab to both adjacent ribs.

Remove corners of the tab as shown to make it easier to open up and bend back the attachment tabs.

Gluing the Ribs

After trial and error, the following seems the easiest method for closing the ribs while ensuring a securely glued product:

Start by folding the creased rib along the first complete score line

Continue to the next fold, rolling the triangle towards the glue point. Keep downward pressure on the vertex with your hands.

Run a bead of glue along the glue tab (both ends and a bit in the middle is usually enough).

Roll the rib onto the glue, and hold down ward pressure until the glue sets.

This method gives a firm fix along the length of the rib, assisted by downward pressure along the length of the rib. It is easier to keep alignment along the folds by pressing towards the centre simultaneously. (press down and towards yourself).

Attaching the ribs

The ends of the ribs were opened up by cutting down the vertices to the 46cm mark. Each face was then opened up, and glued flush to the Y-element.

Aligning ribs to keep them horizontal and parallel to the centre axis of the model was an issue (another reason for lots of registration marks).

Ribs glued with a flat face flush to the top edge kept this face horizontal, and gave a surface for gluing on a top plate. (Note that one of the rib glue tabs has been removed, rather than bending it over the edge, and so introducing bumps).

Adding angle supports

A join plate was attached to the module upside down - by laying the plate on a flat surface, and gluing the module onto it, using Y-registration marks added earlier. Because the module was intrinsically imbalanced, extra supports were devised to help keep the Y-elements attached to the plate.

A few rough quadrilaterals were made from waste, then scored and folded along a diagonal axis. These were folded to make rightangle, and glued in place to anchor the end Y-elements

A better (but more labour intensive) design for angle supports

The angle supports used above worked to a point strengthening the join between vertical and horizontal parts, but did not provide much resistance to the vertical elements moving out of plumb. They kept the pieces together, but did not keep them square. Another design was used later, with an extra fold to provide better bracing:

Cut a square from scrap material, with a 10-15mm margin marked all round.

The size of this square will be set by the location of the support - it has to fit between ribs, and away from wedge holes.

The corners are cut out to allow folding

Flip the piece over, and make a diagonal score along the back. On the front, score along the margin lines

Pinch the corners together down the diagonal fold. Fold the margins upwards.

Glue together the centre of the triangle, and press firmly until the glue hardens. Fold the margins out of the way while the glue sets .

Attach the supports by adding glue to the underside of the margin flaps, and pressing it firmly into the angle between the two sheets you are joining. You can see why these supports were made small - there is not a lot of space between ribs in places.

Digital Techniques

In some cases, a digital approach to designing your Giant Thing might be preferred - if you wanted to hack an existing form, for example (such as making human sized Lego figures, or re-imagine some real world building with fantastical elements). This approach requires a good grasp of 2D and 3D design software, access to technologies that can use these inputs, and a lot of time. If this is something you want to explore, as a way to increase your skills, then expect to need even more time.

As with all things digital, there are many ways to achieve the same end, each with their positive and negative aspects.

Design Software

There are lots of competing software packages for both 2D and 3D design, and while some are commercial (and can be very expensive) there is usually a free, open-source software option (FOSS) available. More importantly, some are better suited to producing technical working drawings than others - graphic design software like Adobe Illustrator is optimised to produce assets for graphic display (on screen or in print), and while it may be possible to produce files in a format that can be used to produce physical objects, they may emphasise appearance over accuracy. Similarly, 3D design using Blender can produce detailed models, but techniques that result in very complex meshes with high polygon counts might not be suitable for manufacturing other than by 3D printing at small scale.

In most cases, you will be using a combination of different packages, and moving between 2D and 3D environments to generate useful patterns for your Giant Thing.

2D Design

Adobe Illustrator is costly for intermittent use, but can produce the svg files needed to make templates and drawings. It also has useful tools for transforming simple artwork into editable, digital forms by tracing (but this can involve lots of time refining the input).

Corel Draw is a CAD focussed 2D design software, and has many more tools that make drawing accurate and scaled designs easier. Like all commercial software, it tends to rely on closed file formats (that might not be accessible by other software packages), but there are still ways to produce svg or dxf files as needed.

Inkscape is a powerful FOSS 2D design package which will do almost all you require. It does seem to have some instability with maintaining accurate dimensions, and this needs to be monitored. This is the software of choice for an impoverished hobbyist.

Image Manipulation Software

Photoshop, GIMP and Paint are all geared to produce digital images (jpeg and png formats), and will not provide the sort of files you will need to make something (other than a picture).

3D design

Tinkercad is free, but limited. A good place to start getting used to working in a 3D environment, but hard to produce detailed models without lots of work. The interface also makes accuracy difficult to maintain, and even the geometric primitives used are not ideal for fabrication - circles may not be circles! On the other hand, access to the enormous free database of existing models is a benefit.

Fusion 360 like Solidworks are industrial grade 3D modelling programs , with a strong bias towards engineering products. Hobbyists can get a free temporary license, but the learning curve is very steep. Modelling using the sculpture tools tends to produce complex meshes, which might be a problem for manufacturing technologies.

Blender is a FOSS 3D modelling package which allows for fine editing of a mesh, and outputs files in a variety of useful formats. This is the one I use for complex meshes.

Meshmixer is free for download from Autodesk, but is no longer being upgraded or supported (since most of its functionality has been incorporated into Fusion 360). This has some tools for manipulating a mesh, but does not allow editing of individual vertices (as the points in 3D space are called).

Going from 3D to 2D and back again

Unless you have a 3D printer that is as big as a house (and which is tooled for paper pulp) a 3D mesh will not be useful for manufacturing your Giant Thing. Luckily, there are ways to derive 2D templates and guides from the 3D model, using slicing software developed for 3D printing. If your Giant Thing is some elaboration of a box (such as a house, for example), then you might be able to make 2D files from each aspect, and join these together to make the object. Once you have curves involved, then slicing is your only recourse.

Here is a work flow that has been successful for us:

Begin with a 3D model

You can create something from scratch (using Fusion 360, or Blender, for example), saved in a transferrable format (such as obj or stl), or begin with something available without copyright. Thingiverse has many models (mainly created in Tinkercad, with the caveats mentioned above), and there are many other websites offering models for free, or at low cost. Museums have also begun 3D scanning items from various collections, and archaeological or biological specimens are becoming available (the Smithsonian posts their s at https://3d.si.edu/ , for example).

We made this shark in Fusion 360:

Import your model into Slicer for Fusion 360

This very useful software gives options for slicing to make larger models, and gives you control over the number and direction of slices. Other slicing software (for 3D printing) may allow you to export slices as svg files, but you will get far too many of them, and they may not be well ordered. In the Construction Technique panel, choose the option for interlocked slices, and you get this:

Export your slices in a 2D format

When you select the 'Get Plans' button, you can download the slices in a pdf format (other formats are available, but pdf's are the most widely useful). You may need to adjust the size of your material (in the 'Manufacturing Settings' drop down tab) for slices that are too big. Alternatively, scale your model to fit the page, and then scale it back up again before using. The plans look like this:

Import the pdf into a 2D design program

We used Inkscape, and the file opens like this:

Note that there are no registration marks on this design - something vital for you to add before manufacturing.

Registration marks are inserted by the slicing software, but only if you choose 'Stacked Slices'. Unfortunately, this method gives far too many slices for a truly large build (the resulting model will be solid, and made of many layers), and you will have to decide which you want to use. On the other hand, if you do this, the plans pdf you download will have registration marks corresponding to the placement of dowels. You can see them here:

Conclusion

As you can see, there is no simple and easy way to do this - getting a clean, registered set of 2D files for use with a CNC or plotting machine will always involve moving between several software packages, and a bit of editing of the resulting 2D files. All of which takes time.

This is a very brief walk-through, and there are lots of details you might need to now. Luckily, Youtube has countless 'how to' videos of varying quality that will explaining the methodologies for each of these software packages. And there are always the manuals, only a Google away.

Huge Signs

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 11 May 2021 12:23:12 +0000

Huge Signs

Developed by the Applied Creativity Team Version 0.1

Project Overview

Delivered April through November 2021

30 sessions delivered as a part of the Hack the Evening and Open Lab programs

Lead by Simon McKellar (or the Fabrication Lab Coordinator)

100 hours of program development and delivery

Summary

Three-session-workshop to conceptualise, design and fabricate large form (2000mm+ x 3000mm+) cardboard and foam light-up billboard style signage for installation across State Library as a part of the Grumpus program.

Each sign works with off the shelf materials that can be purchased from Bunnings or similar. This is one of the design constraints on the process to ensure it can be readily replicated by other spaces.

Cost of a single sign (excluding staff time) is $500.

Ten signs will be created and installed as a part of the Grumpus.

Some of the designs will be in Indigenous language

Each sign will be installed with a QR code that will provide access to a micro-website about the installation and any audio about the program. These will be developed as a part of the workshop and uploaded before the works final installation.

Total investment in the project is $5000 in materials.

Projected program attendance – 300 community

Projected attendance – don't know how we count eyes on work outside of the exhibition space.

Skills Introduced

CNC Machining
Graphic design
Font design
Fusion 360
Web design

Software

Fusion 360
Django Python Web Framework (?)

Project Outcomes

Before constructing any signs, preliminary work was conducted to trial and refine techniques. Details can be found on this page:

Huge Signs - Construction Techniques

With these technologies developed to a point that success was probable, signmaking commenced. Each sign will be different, and hopefully successive iterations will produce new insights and further innovations. The builds are detailed sequentially in the pages below:

Huge Sign 1 - Welcome to the Wonder

Tech Specs for the fabrication of Grumpus giant sculptures

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 11 Sep 2021 12:27:33 +0000

Tech Specs for the fabrication of Grumpus giant sculptures

max dimensions assembled

max dimensions of unassembled modules

- for getting it out of the Fab Lab (for anything built down there) - width is 1570mm x height 1915mm

max dimensions of unassembled modules

for getting into SLQ Gallery (for anything built in the Fab Lab or off site)

Flying elements Reqs

max mass

minimum reqs for flying (safety chains, anchors internal structures like the way we needed to build up the moon last time)

minimum access reqs

(disabled access, Social distancing, min height for adult access [eg the ant cave last time we made sure entrance was big enough for adults to go in and get children out when it was time to go home or to break up fights ])

min cleaning requirement

( establish a covid hygiene standard we are going to work towards) eg Hi touch areas wiped or swapped out every hour.

Fabrication Considerations

Max Double Corro and single corro Cardboard sheet dimensions (as supplied)
Max CNC bed dimensions
Approx CAM layout time for detailed sheet sized job (image of example)
Approx Drag knife,Cut time for detailed sheet sized job @ XXXX/min Feed rate (image of example)
Approx crease tool Cut time for detailed sheet sized job @ XXXX/min Feed rate (image of example)
Approx Osci Knife Cut time for detailed sheet sized job @ XXXX/min Feed rate (image of example)
Approx Compressor v 16mm plywood Cut time for detailed sheet sized job @ XXXX/min Feed rate (image of example)

Spirits of the Grand Rumpus Wild

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 13:39:21 +0000

Spirits of the Grand Rumpus Wild

The Spirits of the Grumpus are the light shades created by community and school/Uni groups as part of the fabricated items to be displayed in the SLQ Gallery and around SLQ spaces.

There are 2 types of Spirits;

Shape designs, original Spirits
Shadow spirits, small square shades with hand drawn images on the inside.

Sessions Plans

Spirits workshops are being run with community and as part of the school/uni programs.

Find the session plans here;

Session Plans

Prototyping - Rozina Suliman 2021

Taking inspiration from Peter Musk and Billie Ruben's experiments, Rozina has expanded the skeletal rolled paper construction method for straight shapes and introduced a corrugated cardboard rib construction method to achieve spherical shapes. These methods are an adaptation of cane lantern construction at festivals and are yet to be tested in an indoor setting with atmospheric light.

The method document has been updated. Note, not all methods have been tested equally and some require more input and refining. The methods document can be found here: spirit_of_rumpus_wild_new_210805.docx

Previous lighting and lamp stand information remains as outlined below:

A new design file for the fitting attaching the lampshades to the cardboard tubes is here: lamp_holder_cardboard_tube_15.zip

The lighting platform will be fully addressable and can be interactive through technology already developed in the past by Byron Crowe, long time volunteer with the Applied Creativity team. The entire installation will be powered by rechargeable batteries and clear prototype schematics and processes will be published in May 2021 for replication in other spaces. The installation is scalable from 10 - 1000 objects at a $2-4 cost per item (plus base installation cost).

Prototyping - Peter Musk 2020

This is the first of the installations that will grow over the coming year; small paper based sculptures inspired by stories and items drawn from The Well. The workshop is designed to take two hours, require little-to-no technology to deliver and be transmissible to any interested parties. Dr. Peter Musk and Billie Ruben are working on the workshop at the moment, trials are underway and we're hoping to have it ready to deliver by mid-March.

The installations work will be light based; a field of floating, glowing sculptures in the gallery space. The lighting platform will be fully addressable and can be interactive through technology already developed in the past by Byron Crowe, long time volunteer with the Applied Creativity team. The entire installation will be powered by rechargeable batteries and clear prototype schematics and processes will be published in May 2021 for replication in other spaces. The installation is scalable from 10 - 1000 objects at a $2-4 cost per item (plus base installation cost).

A prototype of this work will be installed in the Fabrication Lab in March 2021 for review and comment.

Participating groups will be supplied with lampstands, globes to fit, Kraftboard washers to attach to the lampstand, and these instructions: making_lampshades_from_cardboard_and_paper.zip

A new design file for the fitting attaching the lampshades to the cardboard tubes is here: lamp_holder_cardboard_tube_15.zip

This section focuses on introducing movements as an approach for the lampshade design workshop. The purpose of this is to help the participant elevate their ideas even further and think of the workshop more than just design and fabricate static objects. This section will be update regularly as the project progress. Movements for Lampshade Designs

The Great & Grand Rumpus Workshops

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 16:20:29 +0000

The Great & Grand Rumpus Workshops

The Well Making Workshops

Large Sculptures

Spirits of the Grumpus

Book Binding

Creative Briefs

Creative Brief - Community design, prototype and fabrication sprint- Saturday Open Lab Crew

Writing a Creative Brief for Community design, prototype and fabrication processes

Designing & Fabricating large cardboard structures

Giant Cardboard Structures

Pre-made Square Section Beams -Fast, Efficient, Versatile

Tech Specs for fabrication Giant Sculptures

Workshop Reports

Consent Forms

Please make sure to get participants to complete a SLQ Consent Form so we can capture photos and video at the very beginning of the workshop series. Forms can be downloaded HERE

Writing a Creative Brief for Community design, prototype and fabrication processes

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 29 Aug 2021 10:00:27 +0000

Writing a Creative Brief for Community design, prototype and fabrication processes

Keen to get your feedback. As per usual just add your comments as a wrap with your initials or a nickname - Mick

“the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” is a quote incorrectly attributed to a range or regularly quoted dead white guys (Einstein, Franklin, Twain) and 'insanity' is pseudo-psych term that people like to use anymore. Huffpost say the first time this was actually found in print was in a 1981 Narcotics Anonymous publication, but this adage does point to the generally accepted truth that following the same path is *usually* going to take you to the same destination.

Making a plan is something humans only really do when we want to affect change or need to solve a problem… otherwise we just do things the same way we've always done them. Its just easier (less effort) that way.

But as problem solvers, making a plan is something we (humans) often do unconsciously or sometime don't think about. ( its actually an amazing cognitive trick using imaginations that we do but that few other living things do. Its one of the evolutionary traits that made our species successful and allowed us to dominate our eccosytems - but thats a topic for another day)

The first part of making a plan is having a sense of what we want to achieve and then working out how we want to achieve it. But if its something we want get help with, its pretty important that we communicate around these two things. After all if don't talk about it with the help, the help will just do it the way we've always done it.

And thats basically what a brief is for.

Why a Creative Brief?

A good creative or design brief will quickly and clearly communicate some key benefits, the intended direction of a creative project and the novel approach we want to take.

It also give us a framework to check our progress against as we go… so we know if we are on track (or not) and what parts of the process are most important- especially when we are making decisions change our plan to adapt to new information.

Stakeholders also use a brief to negotiate whether or not, (or how much) they want to actually commit to a project (this is an important factor when considering who the audience of your brief is and will be an import factor for ours). An outside consulting firm will accept or reject /win or loose a contract based on how a brief (whether the brief is written/presented by client or the consulting party)is written. In the case of this GRUMPUS project, there's two main groups committing a stake:

the library who is commissioning the project and
the community participants, tertiary and secondary we want to work with.

The library wants to be satisfied with its investment of resources and ensure the project has a positive impact on its reputation as a significant cultural institution. And the participants want to be satisfied with their investment of time, effort, enthusiasm and ideas.

So the brief will give both the Library and participants some clear ideas of what to expect.

Whats different between this brief and others you might find?

A sector that you see using Creative briefs all the time is the marketing, advertising and commercial creative industries. You can find heaps of Graphic & Web Design briefs, branding briefs, even video production briefs online. Another area where briefs are used regularly is in industrial or product design sector. A commonality with all these, is the commercial objective (people have invested in developing tools like these template. Its worth investing in because it benefits their bottom line). By and large, the central goal of all these types of activities is creating tools or messages that will help promote a business, brand or get people to part with their cash in return for an actual product or service.

The objectives and measures of most these briefs focus on things like brand exposure and closing sales. You tend to see goals for a brief like:

increase web traffic and increasing customer engagement,
brand development, enhancing competitive advantages or differentiation.
simplifying, enhancing customer experience.
increasing sales- providing potential customer with a call to action

And just because you can squish the square peg of the grumpus project's objectives into these round holes of a commercially focused template (brand awareness of the library and selling the idea of participating in life-long learning or something like that), it doesn't mean we should be doing the mental gymnastics of making our project fit these templates. Why not explore how we can adapt a template that meets our needs. So lets discuss what we need

The way most people the approach the process is conducting an old school swat analysis. This allows the planners to look at all the things that are likely go right or wrong and plan to optimise the outcomes of your project.

Creative Brief Headings for discussion

chime in with comments if you have them (drop you initials in in so we know who's sayin what)

Overview

usually a theres some sort of background info or the business has made some sort of observation that they want to act on. This is where you detail this information and tell us what you want to do. speak generally about your approach and why this is important.

You could also include the scope of the project in here or give it its own heading (a good thing to do if you think there's a chance of scope creep….um yes always with a community project)

Scope

Whats in scope and especially whats out of scope. Be specific, especially with the Out of scope if you know there are going to be. thing people will want to drag into the project that you are not have time or are resourced to do or don't have permission to.

Goals and objectives

under this heading you want to be clear and get specific what you goals and objects are ( how you are going to measure success). Here you can be crystal clear about what you priorities are ( as this is the section you can revisit this anytime you need to make a difficult decision.)

Tasks, Deliverables or output

this allows you to be specific about

what tasks (or chunks of work ) need to be completed
what is the products that will come out the end of these processes
maybe when you expect these to be delivered
and what kind of specifcations, format and quality you expect these outputs to be delivered at.

detail the assumptions of what will be delivered

Current activities

(digital marketing, programming) this is a heading lots of consulting firms ask the clients to give an overview of what assets and activities the client is already using to achieve its goals in the area. It allows the people doing the work to understand what type of existing things can be leveraged or how the new initiative should link in with. For our purposes this section should provide information about SLQ's usual program exhibitions in the Gallery and the programs. it might refer to previous community engagement projects we've done at the edge in the past.

Key features

(What are we going to do thats new? ) this is usually an overview of what sets the deliverables apart from the current activities, or sets it apart from other products available. I think this will be a useful heading to explain the specific way we want to work with community and have the work driven by community ideas and how the process (cause it is a process driven project) will be different to other types of offerings you would see in the SLQ gallery and other cultural institutions.

Key messaging, tone and or attitude

Usually this a key message embeded or consumer aspiration that marketers, branders or creatives in the commercial creative industry. want associated with their product. In this context its what messages or sense do we want people involved in the development of this community project or attending the exhibition.

Target audience

usually this is pretty straight forward -its usually “who are we making these the above key messages for? but this turns into a meta mess pretty quick. Is the audience the people who'll come along to the exhibition? or is it. the people who'll get involved in the community process to create the exhibition? The answer is…yes! both. But this creative brief is being drafted to inform this community of makers and the art work they make… so lets take this into account when we write this thing.

Competitors

What we do is pretty unique, there are very few place our customers can go to have the experiences we are offering. So its not competitors that we need to overcome. Its mainly

a lack of awareness
a lack of motivation (procrastination, apathy, value proposition, perceived cost) or
the administrative friction ( “its too hard to book-in, find information on your website, checkin when i arrive.”) involved in participating.

So in this case lets call this section Barriers to Engagement

Client-side project management

This one sometimes called contacts and usually explains who'll be the contact people who'll manage the day-to-day aspects for the project on the clients side. Who'll do things like make final decisions. Its about the outlining mechanics of the contract for the creatives who'll be delivering the outcomes of the project and being clear who'll manage the relationship from the client side.

In our case the client is the state library (a government owned institution) so we could rename this one and use it to explain some of the practical impacts of State Library commissioning this work, things that participants should be aware of.

things to mention here are

Fabrication Lab Safety System,
Patron responsible conduct
how the library will reserve the right to decide what are appropriate community standards for a SLQ community led exhibition.
the implications for individuals contributing ip to a community project and or the the SLQwiki
how we'd like to make decisions and
how we want the crews to communicate with us and each other

although these last 2 could probably have their own sections

Project timeline

General expectations about how the project will progress thru time and an overview of tasks and milestones

Project budget

This usually how much a client expects to spend on the project, but in this case, expectations of who will provide resources

Examples of Creative Briefs and brief writing toolkits

https://flyingarts.org.au/wp-content/uploads/TEQ-RAP-COMMISSIONING-BRIEF.pdf

https://www.dpc.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/96421/Project-Seed-Funding-Developing-Artists-Brief.pdf

https://essexcdp.com/commission-brief-dunton-hills/

https://www.canadabay.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/Concord%20Community%20Garden%20Brief%20-%20PUBLIC%20ART.pdf

https://creative.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/57065/Community_Partnerships_Workguide_lores_2014edit.pdf

Creative Brief - Community design, prototype and fabrication sprint- Saturday Open Lab Crew

Keen to get your feedback. As per usual just add your comments as a wrap with your initials. Mick

The Saturday Arvo Crew is just one group of people that will be participating in a discrete component of the wider 2021 GRUMPUS Project.

So what is the Grumpus project?.. And how does our little piece of it fit in?

The following brief gives an overview of the wider GRUMPUS project, its goals and objectives. It also details the specific goals and objectives, tasks and milestones of this specific crew.

→ Read more...