Fungus Among Us-response to readings

Mycelium can time travel.

Mycelium existed at the beginning of time and even earlier as spores travel throughout the galactic expanses upon comets and stellar winds. The fungus sees into the future and sees its future environment and responds to its change for its own fuel in the ecosystem food chain. The fungus transcends time in both life and death and is non linear allowing it a successful and versatile evolutionary strategy.

Mycelium in all its forms lives in the physical and metaphysical world and transcends time by existing and growing non linearly. By changing paths from homo sapiens early on in its development, it choosing to go underground allowing itself to live within and outside the limited spectrum of light of that of humans.

Mycelium operates at a level of complexity that exceeds computational super computers. It is earths’ natural internet and relays enormous amount of data regarding the movements of all organisms through the landscape.

In the article ‘Unruly Edges; Mushrooms as Companion Species’, fungi have the ability to slow down time and take you back in time to discover and rediscover your past present and future.

“What better than to encounter the orange folds of chanterelles pushing through the dark wet or the warm muffins of king boletes popping up through crumbly earth.  The excitement of color, fragrance, and design —not to speak of pride to be the first to find them—well up.  But of these delights the best, I think, are two:  first, the undeserved bounty of the gift; and second, the offer of a place that will guide my future walks.”

As the article suggests, there is a remembrance of the past as it relates to the present and the familiarity of the place. Even as the environment changes there is a permanence of discovery that brings you back to this place.

In my opinion John Cages obsession with mushrooms translates into his study and composing of music to remove the surrounding noise and to hear the world with no distraction of time.

In the installation ‘Bodies of Change’ the Mycelium Shroud composed of mycelia fungi is stopping time by simultaneously replicating the process of growth decomposition and adding the nutrients and removing the toxins. Time is frozen in this perfect symbiotic dance between life and death.

This is only one aspect that I derived from the world of Mycelium, but I would like to further explore the metaphysical universe of fungi as it journeys through time.

CNC joint skill builder… no glue just slip lock and load

FirePlaceToolRack Joint System

FirePlace Tool Rack assembled
the cruciform of the base tree trunk

Cruciform Trunk Base
attached to Chinese Swastika Tree Branches clockwise
attached to Bolt Stems counter clockwise
This allows the cantilever load to be centered over the vertex of the cruciform trunk
1 1/4″ depth Branches/trunk Lap Slotted Joint

Midpoint to Midpoint + 1/4″ bit
Lap Slotted Joint
Detail
Detail
Trunk Slotted Lap Joint Detail
Branch Slotted Lap Joint detail
2 of the Branches could not fit into slots because of the geometry of adjacent Branches
Need to offset Branches, adjust the angle of slot so that they bypass each adjacent Branch
Sketch Detail

First CNC skill builder

Workshop CNC

Vectorworks Drawing

Intro to MasterCam

Rushali Introduced us to MasterCam

Opened DWG

opened my drawings and F9 to locate in upper right quadrant
clockwise arrow for outside cut.
arrow red not green- this is where I got concerned that polygon has problems as well as the extra line though circle drill hole
looked as axonometric drawing and still see some concern extra lines

Continued to to set up MasterCam

Inserted thumb drive into Techno CNC Interface

opened file
drawing wouldn’t load
inserted a drawing from Rushali to perform CNC operation
preview and set up to run
set up XYZ origin and ran program

This is all the documentation I have. I did not keep the test piece sample or documented the cutting.

Final Project-Fire Place Tool Rack / CNC Machine

Concept: A stylized tree like form/no glue / repetition of 2 forms only
The offset of the base cruciform shape and the brackets for the tool holder would create more stability
Concern for the connections to hold weight of tools. Displacement/Distribution

1/2 Scale Model

1/4″ foamcore model material. Produce a 1/2 scale model to explore design, proportions, and joints
Traced first cutout to duplicate
Center slot at mid point
mockup for slip joint
insert
Creating bracket branches. Same mockup operation as tree trunk base to duplicate 1 shape.
mockup of bracket branches on base trunk



By changing the angle of the slot in the bracket branch the branches become more animated even though they are all identical.
The offset of each bracket branch slot need to be towards outside of base trunk. This allows each bracket branch to be clear of adjacent branch bracket.
Finish the model and add tree twigs for tool hangers

VectorWorks CAD

Full Scale Prototype

MasterCam

Cutting on Cam

Fireplace Tool Rack

OtherMill – Piece within a Piece – Inlay

This exercise is to take two pieces of plexiglass, one clear and one opaque and cut to create a tight inlay

An earlier sketch on Adobe Illustrator
VectorWorks Sketch
Cutout for outside material
Cutout for inside material
Overlay of both outside plexiglass and inlay plexiglass. The two do not align, but not a concern because these are 2 different operations on 2 diferent materials.
Bantam open and USB connected to OtherMill
Clear plexiglass Mounted
Cutting clear plexiglass for inlay
Mount on OtherMill outside opaque frame for inlay
Cutting outer frame for inlay. Twice time to complete with shallow cuts on each pass?
Final inlay

Try the handheld Router

Original sketch for radial arm coordinates

router art

Draw a sketch and set the radius parameters of the arm pins

The Tools

The Board

The Idea

The Art

Tools used and plywood scrap to router

Setting the 3 radial pin points. 2″x2″ 4″x4″ 6″x6″

First radial router cut at 2″x2″ pin and first hole in template

2nd radial router cut 6″x6″ pin and 6th hole in template

continue to adjust the pin point and radial arch for router cut

add depth of router cut along radial path of router cut

Immigrants and Multicultural Society-AP Social Studies

Immigrants and Multicultural Society 

AP Social Studies

‘How do you identify as an immigrant and what does it mean to live in a multicultural society’

I am a first-generation Canadian citizen of immigrant parents but never really thought of or identified myself that way. My mother emigrated from Poland at a young age with her eight brothers and sisters and landed in Toronto Canada. Bringing as much of her cultural heritage with her as she could, including a sliver menorah, one of a few artifact that they took with them, and eventually raising a family there. I grew up in a culturally diverse downtown Toronto up until half way through the middle of middle school when we then moved to a less diverse north Toronto suburb where I lived till moving out around eighteen.

In my early thirties I emigrated to New York with my wife and one child, a little less cultural heritage than my mother but included the menorah that my mother gave me. Three of my four children are first generation United states citizens. I still don’t identify myself as coming from an immigrant family nor that I am an immigrant from another country, but I do identify with my heritage.

In this course over the next six weeks we will think, discuss and write about immigrants in a multicultural society. Break down the discussions into five topics and define, develop and  present each week.

Week 1 Immigrants and Multiculturalism

What is Multiculturalism? Let talk about it and define it, how do you experience it

Week 2 Community

A community is more than just a group of people living in a particular area

What does community mean to you? A group of people, family, friends, Neighbors.             They are there when we need love support encouragement

Work independently Readings/references

Week 3 Cultural History

Cultural history records and interprets past events. What does it mean to you and                 what is important to bring with you and keep or disregard.

Choose a partner Readings/references

Week 4 Cultural Heritage

The use of artifact and rituals from the past to maintain a connection to the                         present. Do you think it is important to have physical connections to the past?

Two partners group with another two partners Readings/references

Week 5 Cultural Diversity

Cultural diversity is the cultural diversity and cultural differences that exist in the world.

In a multicultural society where does the line lie between diversity and monoculture.

The group of four form with another group of four Readings/references

Week 6 Multicultural Society

When people of different cultures come together to celebrate and share their cultural differences. What do you think of equal respect and the continuity of cultural diversity.

This society will present in front of the rest of the class Readings/references

What have we learned about diversity and how do we get along. Can we work in harmony and discuss our differences and work on common interests? How much of our culture do we bring to a multicultural society.

How Do I Teach Myself

Teaching My Younger Self                              February 1st ,2018

Design a curriculum for your young self, High School sophomore.

I would like to first state that I think that the basic premise that I can teach my younger self is flawed. Is not part of who I am, formed by how I was taught and therefore bias me in setting out a curriculum for myself?  Do I want to change or influence who I have become? Is my intention to correct what I don’t like or how I learn and would have liked to do it differently, a do-over?  I see myself as a ‘Jack of all Trades, Master of None’ and believe this was molded by my education and who I am and what I took away from it. Am I formed or informed by my younger self.

At the time I was a sophomore (Junior high school in Canada) it was the next wave of experiment schooling. I was taught in both a traditional classroom education with desks set in rows, teachers at the front of the room, textbooks, memory work, black boards as well as a more open experimental environment that broke those rules. My chemistry teacher taught in the traditional classroom with school supplied text books, memorizing and frequent testing. He was good at teaching that way and I got a solid foundation. I had a social studies teacher that intentionally worked outside of the traditional classroom and taught in a way that was very exciting and stimulating and made connections between learning and the real world. I also had a physics teacher that straddled both the traditional classroom and experimental learning by combining a solid foundation and making connections with the real world. He taught both inside and outside the classroom, taught in an interdisciplinary way and helped me learn by connecting the text book to the cause and effect of the environment around me.

Setting out a curriculum for my younger self, structure is very important and to have a foundation, clear perameters, discipline and direction. At the same time and equally important is a curriculum that gives freedom to explore and the environment to teach it in. As a sophomore, as mentioned in class, this is the time of transition from a child to an adult. This is a no man’s land between having the fundamentals of an education and the freedom to interpret it. There is a phrase that is something like, ‘You can’t abstract the flower until you can copy the flower then you can paint the real flower’. I think that you can’t really explore without having the tools to guide you.

Setting out a good curriculum for myself would combine the solid foundation of a traditional education with the experimentation and exploration of a freer environment. I don’t think these are mutually exclusive but count on a teacher to be a disciplined and creative thinker. There needs to be a flexibility in the curriculum to adapt to the needs of the student.

How Do I Learn

Teaching as Art                                                     01/24/2018

How do I learn?

Learning is hard! Teaching is Harder!

‘Jack of all trades, master of none’     ‘I Know a little about a lot, not a lot about a little.’

I am task oriented and learn by defining the criteria and constraints, gather information and set the parameters. I have learned that by having more limitations I have more freedom to be creative and learn.  I would like to believe that I am thoroughly mathematical and scientific about learning, but in reality, at one point I just jump in and try to figure it out intuitively. I am good at listening, though I also like to talk and express my point of view. I want to interpret and broaden the material that is being taught, thinking out of the box and not taking things at face value. But other times I take things at face value and not define or question them, just learn from them.

I use visual cues to help me learn and strengthen my learning experiences that in turn add and reinforce what I am learning. I like to make personal connections and historical references and tie that back to my experiences and how it effects my day to day life. I look at learning as a practical experience, of trial and error and reflect on it and then intellectualize it. How do I tie my shoe, can I tie my shoe, why do I tie my shoe, does it matter if I tie my shoe…the art of tying my shoe. Learning is not an exact science but more amorphous. There is not a one to one relationship from what I am taught to what I learn. When I learn something well and it sticks I can teach it.

I don’t like learning out of my comfort zone but will take to the challenge and try and figure it out. Usually once I start on a task is not an easy learning curve, but I find that I learn and grow, slowly and don’t realize what I’ve learned until I am further along and can apply what I’ve learned to something else which adds to my experience.

The environment that I learn in is very important. What I am learning and where effects my ability to learn. Learning in nature is the most fulfilling and satisfying and there I use all my senses. I find that what I learn has a more direct connection between me and my surroundings. What I learn in nature is direct and simple in its cause and effect and the more effort I put in the more nature gives back and teaches. Learning how to build a fire in the woods, for instance, takes time and patience and if I do it wrong it won’t work and I am cold and hungry. There is also the poetic beauty in the imagination of the flames of the fire that congers up stimulate thoughts.

Lastly, there is wisdom, which is the accumulation of learning as it applies to experience which these days seems to be a little under rated.