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Monday, February 29, 2016

Hey, I'm Heather

Okay, now for the intro.

Hey, I’m Heather Ross, and I’m the newest resident of the Fine Arts Reading Room. I’m starting off a little bit later than I should have due to an injury, but as it stands, I have 4 weeks left in my residency.
I’ll be setting up a website this week and linking it to this blog, throughout the residency I’ll be compiling a zine, and I also have an installation in the FARR which will change and grow every day I’m here.

About my project

I’m researching something really broad, I want to learn and talk about accessibility in artist and research spaces, and how technology has affected that. I’m focusing on marginalized* groups, and how they access information differently because of technological growth in all formats. I’m focusing on everything from 3D printing paintings for the blind, to how education is accessed, to how research is done by a person with a disability (hello, thats me, I am one of the people with a disability, I'll get into that another time), to people in wheelchairs who gather on second life just to fly. I will be documenting my findings in multiple different ways, whatever feels right, whatever way is relevant.

If you do get the chance to check out my installation in the FARR, you’ll notice it’s pink, girly, child-like. I myself work with electronics on a regular basis, and have felt like I’ve needed to hold back femininity in my work to be taken seriously. I’m over it. I also have felt influenced by the DIY nature of cyber/net art, and the idea that art can be not only playful, but personal. A computer can be an extension of self, in the same sense, I believe a work space can show personality and tell a story. In Jon Rafmans paintings “You Are Standing in an Open Field”, he shows a series of messy desks, just by looking at each one you can tell what type of person it belongs to. I love that. I love that no matter how sterile technology looks, there are millions of cases, covers, stickers, wallpapers, keyboards, customization tools. You give a person something, and they’ve gotta make it their own.

I hope you enjoy following my process

- Heather




*Marginalization is social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is used across disciplines including education, sociology, psychology, politics and economics.

3D Printed Paintings

Hey!

I’ve rewritten this intro blog post nearly 20 times, each time I give this long explanation of who I am and why that matters and blah blah blah but I will do that another time becaaaaaause,

I have a friend doing some seriously amazing stuff and I kind of get to be the first to talk about it.

About a year ago, my friend Nathan bought himself a 3d printer, and I was thrilled because at the time that was exactly what I needed. I had the file to print, I had the black glitter filament ready to go, I just needed to find someone to help me finish and so he and I started on our overnight journey to finishing the case for my midi controller, it took way too many tries, and it ended up a little iffy, but I love that midi controller like my kid, and I have him to thank for it.

Nathan Lefsrud been working with High School students in a fine arts class to 3D print classical paintings for the blind. Inspired by this article (http://www.iflscience.com/technology/3d-printing-brings-paintings-and-photography-blind-people), Nathan is working to integrate 3D printing into the high school art curriculum in Alberta. In this example, he used Blender to layer and texture the different components of Ludolf Backhuysen's "The Coming Squall." 









You can find more info about this project and more of Nathans work on his teaching blog, https://2teacher4u.wordpress.com/high-school-fa-3d-classic-paintings/ and on thingiverse http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1378056



- Heather