I spend a lot of time at QUELAB trying to make art and causing more trouble:
The AI version of Adric,
our leader and president of Quelab,
during the "Fireless Fourth" of July celebration
** QULEL **
The New Mexico Steam Locomotive train occasionally steams behind Quelab, as it is parked nearby the hackerspace for restoration:
They film a lot of movies and TV shows in New Mexico. When I was in El Paso this year, I saw the episode of "The Cleaning Lady" which was filmed in front of Quelab last year:
MAKING STUFF
My goal is to make something from my drawings with every machine at Quelab. My art owes a lot more to this hackerspace than I realized:
CNC
Adam CNCed my figure drawing into acrylic:
Adam also carved my low relief sculptural figure with the CNC into hard wood. This was the same relief image that Dennis Liberty made from my drawing, and that we cast in concrete in 2011:
Aaron used the plasma cutter to cut out one of my vector drawings from metal:
3D PRINTS
Tim used the resin printer to print the 3D file I generated with AI in CSM, ultimately based on one of my figure drawings:
Later Adam 3D printed the same AI generated figure on the Bambu 3D printer at his house, 7.5 inches high:
In 2022 I had distorted a sculpture -- Unique Forms of Continuity in Space -- by one of my favorite artists, Umberto Boccioni, with AI using Midjourney.
This year I converted that 2D distortion into 3D using the Point-E demo (a text/image to 3D program). Naturally we had to consummate the whole process by 3D printing the result:
Tim also 3D printed the 3D version of the origami jaguar that I had generated in 2022 -- and had converted to a 3D file in the Point-E demo:
On August 3rd I got access to CSM -- a 2D to 3D program -- and again Tim printed the 3D object generated from AI, based on one of my drawings:
PRINTMAKING
I used the laser cutter to engrave several 6x6 inch linoleum squares, to make 8x8 prints for the BUCKET EXHIBITIONS project:
After seeing Eunice Barajas using this unusual press in Mexico, Adric brought a similar Sizzix die cutting and embossing press into Quelab, and it worked wonderfully for relief printing linocuts. So we then bought the bigger version that would accept 8x8 inch paper -- the Sizzix Big Shot Plus:
I also had bought a portable laser cutter -- the Laserpecker 2 -- and packed it into a nice carrying case with a new battery. I wanted to laser engrave and print on location, though this laser cutter lacks the power to engrave quickly (however after several passes it will engrave into linoleum):
The portable laser cutting kit
fits nicely in a hard carrying case
However the small laser cutter does cut EVA foam quickly, and I can ink up and print the cut foam as if it were a linocut:
Adam printed with a woodblock that he had carved on the CNC:
Adric gave me some Stamping Foam (also available on Amazon) to print with. It picked up all the detail from the laser engraved AI linocuts, and made nice prints without a press. This is probably a good approach for making fake tattoos with a non-toxic ink stamp:
Mitch used the jigsaw to cut a stack of linoleum squares in the shape of the Rio Grande. The idea was to pass them to artists in both El Paso and Ciudad Juarez to make collaboration prints across the border:
Quelab had a big night at the National Nuclear Science and History Museum in Albuquerque, where we got to show prints on the back of Mitch's coffee bicycle cart during the "Discovery After Dark" event on April 21, 2023 :
Mitch bicycled into the National Nuclear Science and History Museum with a bit of swagger in his peddling:
Robert and I made some sticker sheets which I had printed in El Paso at Proper Printshop:
Robert and I also made a sheet of heat transfer images, which the 111 T-Shirt Lab had printed for us by Supacolor:
We also used a hand held heat iron, for waxing snowboards, to successfully transfer the images to my t-shirt:
Ray, Adam and Robert refurbished a couple of old ink jet printers to use at Quelab:
Adam printed some sticker for me with the refurbished printers, of the AI origami animals that I generated in 2022:
Adam and Allie printed some of the AI images I generated in Midjourney, and we framed them with Walmart 8x8 frames and hung them in Quelab:
Later Adric "enhanced" one of the AI prints with AR (Augmented Reality) by programming an NFC card with this AI tapir, and placing it behind one of the prints. So if you hoover your phone over the lower right hand corner of the print, pretty closely, the WebAR tapir will materialize in your physical space:
Somebody saw the AI prints at Quelab and wanted to buy them, around December 20th. I just gave them to him, pleased that somebody responded to our AI Artwork. I still want to have a Fake Exhibition of Fake AI Artwork somehow.
AI SUPER COMPUTER
Grant lent Quelab his supercomputer on August 2nd, with the stipulation that we have to do something cool with it in the next three months. I could log in remotely, as Adam set me up with AnyDesk, and generate AI images and videos from the coffee houses, using Grant's supercomputer at Quelab. It was good while it lasted (Grant took it home in December):
Adam installed Automatic 1111--Stable Diffusion, and I could then generate AI images, and AI videos (with the Deforum option):
Later I generated a longer Deforum AI video, based on both my drawings and those of Egon Schiele, amongst other inputs:
HOLOGRAMS
Adric ordered a Looking Glass Portrait hologram display for me in 2022, and has been coaching me on how to make holograms at Quelab.
There is a program online that converts videos into holograms -- Looking Gloves - Video to Hologram. I converted a video I made with Deforum --Deforum_clothed_drawings.mp4 (6.23 MB) -- into a "quilt" which can be viewed on the Looking Glass Portrait hologram display, changing images when viewed from different angles:
- Adric already ordered the smaller next version of the portable Looking Glass hologram display
- We are thinking about making some true holograms using the CNC machine, like in this YouTube: Handmade holograms are really weird
- Hologram software: Holocraft
OTHER AWESOME PROJECTS
at QUELAB
Dan is heading up a team to make an airplane at Quelab, one which they can actually fly in:
The Quelab Air Force
Tetris is sewing interesting furry suits:
DRAWBACKS
I broke the laser cutter on June 23, 2023. Fortunately they fixed it soon afterwards:
On December 6, 2023 we had another flood at Quelab when a sprinkler head broke. However this flood caused less damage than the first flood on October 30, 2021. Surprisingly this flood did not slow anybody down, and production was as swift as usual in December:
The whole year has been very productive; Quelab rebounded well after three years of Covid lockdown.
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