BYOAD: Tactile Interpretation Exhibit: Overview

BYOAD: Tactile Interpretation Exhibit: Weekly Updates

Professional Advice

Chris M. with the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum gave me some great fabrication advice for getting started with this project. He recommended that I look into Aspire and VCarve for CNC routing as these are the programs used within his shop. Chris also recommended two materials that I should consider for this project:

• Medium-density fiberboard (MDF)
  • MDF is an option for when the piece needs to exist in humid climates as it is porous and will allow air to flow, if one removes 1/16th'' off the back of the board. By removing the back (top side to be cut with CN), this allows for the MDF to be used within the vacuum form as the air will no be blocked and will allow for the details to be formed in the plastic sheet.
• Masonite Hardboard (high-density fiberboard)
  • Masonite is inexpensive, tough, holds up and is easy to work with. One can cut multiple shapes and easily glue those together.
  • If masonite is not an option, Chris recommended using a dense cardboard.
  • For this project, Chris recommended using 1/18th" masonite.

Starting with the 2.5D Tactile Graphic of Charles Willson Peale's Portrait of George Washington which is part of Macculloch Hall Historical Museum's collect.

Chris recommended looking to have the entire face depicted in the graphic. By having markers (eyes, mouth, nose), the BLV reader can better make out the other parts of the face. Specifically, we are aim to have the jowls of GW stand out in this graphic. Without the markers, that feature will have no points of reference.

The first step will be turning the 2D portrait into topographical layers (organic shapes). I aim to start with paper then move to a laser cut cardboard version for testing this week.

ITP References for CNC and Digital Fabrication:

CAD for Virtual and Reality

ITP Fabrication

Step 1: Turn Color Image into Black and White Image using Photoshop

I tested out a few filters in order to get the various levels within the portrait.

1. New Adjustment Layer: Black and White

   

2. New Adjustment Layer: Threshold

   

3. 3D Bump Map

   

   https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/064a8d08-26f9-44be-9bac-edfef27176cf/Screen_Recording_2021-04-05_at_11.37.21_AM.mp4

   I wasn't sure how to use this even though it shows exactly what I am looking for.

4. Image Adjustment: Polsterize

   Using the following video, I explored posterize to find the best option.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_vZ-TAAg3c

   I also found the following resources. Unfortunately, I do not have student access to Rhino through NYU so this option will not work at this time.

   Creating Topographical Maps From Images in Rhino

   

   

   Results of Filter ⇒ Stylize ⇒ Find Edges

   

   

   https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/a244f055-c953-4a8a-baf2-48a9990c0398/Screen_Recording_2021-04-05_at_12.09.51_PM.mp4

   

   

   After all that testing, I think I am going to test out the following:

   

5. Move Polsterized Image into Illustrator

   1. Image Trace

   

   

   After expanding the object and ungrouping the path, I had a lot of individual lines associated with this image. Too many to spend grouping to create the necessary lines for the amount of time available.