Athena Kafantaris is a Burlington-based artist, performer and puppeteer currently working on massive, performer-operated dolls and puppets. She uses primarily recycled materials, including found and personal objects, to build creatures and environments. At her core, she is a collage artist and has great interest in integrating mediums like installation, sculpture, video and performance. Themes explored in her work are loss, the family structure, communication and metamorphosis. Watch her documentary style interview…

What you sought to accomplish during your time of residency? 

I chose to focus on four areas of development for my ongoing puppet 
project. My goals were to develop a rotating collar assembly for 
performance, experiment with extending puppet limbs, develop costume 
pieces that integrate various textures and to develop portable power and 
lighting systems for performance pieces. I developed a new puppet with 
onboard lighting and power, made various costume pieces, developed a first 
draft of the USB fan collar design, and experimented with a new 
articulated puppet hand design. I also started using a projector to play 
with the concept of projection as costume, an area I have been interested 
in exploring for a while.

How you accomplished it?/An overview of what you learned.

I was able to advance all these goals, primarily using the laser cutter, 
3D printer and the electronics area. In addition, I took the machine shop 
and CNC classes to develop a better understanding of machining. I learned 
new software, including Blender, Inkscape, Illustrator and Fritzing, and 
these helped me greatly to understand modeling and layout as they relate 
to axis-based devices. I also spent a lot of time working on prototyping, 
especially for the more complicated goals like extending limbs and the 
rotating collar.


How did the generator community participate in your experience?

I got so many wonderful and challenging ideas from Generator members and 
used several concepts pitched at the members meeting where I initially 
presented. Devin had suggested playing with lighting acrylic and I heavily 
experimented with this concept. Robin suggested casting with silicone, 
which I have not tried yet, but am in the process of exploring. Pete 
encouraged me to explore inflatable parts for costume and puppets and I'm 
excited to do more research on using that concept. Max was incredibly 
helpful with all of my goals, taking the time to carefully consider my 
designs and suggest materials and techniques to achieve better results. I 
couldn't have asked for a better teacher! Lastly, the biggest resource 
from the community was Leif Hunneman, who encouraged me to apply for the 
residency, taught me to solder, design printed circuit boards and finalize 
a solution for power and lighting in my puppets. At every turn, members 
offered to help and support my project any way they could. People were so 
open to sharing their own process and to working out possible solutions. 
I'm so grateful that I had access to such generous minds.

Tina Escaja joins us from the University of Vermont Department of Romance Languages and Linguistics where she is a Professor of Spanish with special expertise in digital media and poetry. During her two month residency at Generator, Tina used 3D design tools, the laser cutter and 3D printer and other resources while tapping member hands and minds to produce poetry robots, autonomous performance entities with a penchant for prose.

As maker-in-residence at Generator my goal was to create robopoems, that is, poetry-inflected/engraved robots that would move and interact with humans and with each other. Generator provided me with the space, connections and resources to accomplish this ambitious goal. I chose insect-like designs found in online open-sources to emphasize anxiety and removal from humans while underlining the already problematic relation between humans and technology. In fact, the original poem is expressed from the robot’s point of view and refers to existential issues, questioning binary definitions such as creature/creator, etc.

My original poem, written in bilingual format (original Spanish with English translation by Kristin Dykstra) is composed of seven distinctive parts. I decided to divide the seven parts of the poem among five quadrupeds of similar size but belonging to three different models, to create a diversity of movements and poetic expression. I engraved the body parts with the lines of the poem and cut them primarily by using the laser-printer, my main tool at Generator. I decided to use plywood instead of my original idea of 3D printing, mainly to emphasize the aforementioned questioning of assumptions in the relation of humans with technology by using an organic material rather than plastic or metal. The laser was also an easier tool with which to tackle the project.

I learned a lot about every single step of the process, starting with Adobe Illustrator (to create the wording to be engraved on the robot-parts); the laser printer! (my constant tool, which took me a long, long time to understand and use properly); assembling of robots (some of them extremely complex and puzzle-like); electronics (arduino, codes, sensors,…); etc. My vocabulary and learning skills improved exponentially during my residency with all these servos, restaring, vectoring, source coding, etc. … A whole new poetic dimension for sure.

The whole Generator community was very supportive. Some members were particularly helpful and patient with me and my constant requests, such as Pete Talbot, who helped me a lot with Adobe Illustrator and with the use of the laser printer, always with a broad smile and a thoughtful, understanding spirit. Other members I have to credit for their support are Alex Costantino, Matt Hogan, Jacob Rothenbeck, Eric Cooper, Heather Hayes and many others who allowed me to keep progressing with my project. I also relied on friends and helpers outside Generator, particularly for electronics (Wesley Alan Wright) and for building one of the robots (Didier Delmas).

In summary, Generator allowed me to bring to life my vision of robot-poems or “Robopoem@s” (“robopoemas” in Spanish), a vision otherwise unattainable in the form that I intended. Simply being in the physical space of Generator was, by itself, a wonderful experience and routine, as an opportunity to engage on regular basis with a visionary group of creators.  Certainly a privilege, and I am very grateful for the chance to spend two months as maker-in-residence at Generator.

-Tina Escaja

 

Courtney Reckord (Mar/Apr) is a middle school art teacher with deep interests in technology integration. Courney was interested in finding new ways to apply topographical mapping to casting processes through 3D printing to be used in her jewelry designs. With a proof of concept now in hand, she is pushing this new approach to jewelry design into space (celestial topographies that is!).

I reached out to Generator for the equipment to create 3d printed items, but more importantly the dedicated time in order to focus on my project. I spent a lot of time during my residency learning how to use Rhino, a 3 D modeling program, and then printing and revising my prototypes.I learned that I can teach myself a lot! I also was a little nervous going into the residency and doing a presentation for the members, but I realized that everyone was nothing but supportive and helpful. One specific challenge I faced during my residency was that learning how to do 3d modeling was very difficult, and since I was modeling using real data that was very complex, it was not something I could just look up the answer to. The problem solving was very intense, and there were many times when I was about to give up. However, if I made a slight bit of progress, I could continue. It is helpful having the Generator community there to support you through crucial moments.