Round Trip

Sending matter through the machine and back

The thesis

A piece of matter takes a round trip through digital process:

  • captured — digitized off the physical world
  • transformed — computed, or driven by a program
  • returned — to physical form, or physical effect

Three pillars, one idea.

The three pillars

  1. Digitizing physical media — scanning, photogrammetry, projection
  2. Programming — creative coding, then interactive systems
  3. Physical computing — sensors, actuators, fabrication

Each brief asks you to combine, not choose one.

Neither a lecture course, nor a bootcamp for either half. A studio, run for both.

Who this course assumes you are

Depth in either:

  • physical or studio-art practice, or
  • programming

Not both. Whichever half you don’t have yet, the semester cross-trains it.

Studio pairs

Today you’re paired: one art-strength student, one code-strength student.

  • each of you mentors the other’s weaker half
  • the pairing lasts the semester
  • Studio Brief 1 (week 4) is the first place it shows up in what you submit

Today, after this

  • meet your pair
  • get the toolchain running
  • first look at the digitizing station — scanning and photogrammetry, from next week

Digitizing flat artwork: lighting and framing

Lay the piece flat and light it evenly — one strong light source bakes a shadow into the scan that was never part of the artwork.

Frame it square to the capture device, flatbed bed or a copy stand with the camera aimed straight down, so you’re not correcting for perspective afterwards.

Digitizing flat artwork: resolution and crop

Capture at a resolution that still holds up if the piece is reproduced larger than the original.

Crop to the artwork’s edge and correct any colour cast before calling the digitizing step done.

Scanning a 3D object: coverage

Set the object on a turntable, or walk around it with a camera, so every side gets covered. A gap in coverage becomes a hole in the model, not something fixed later.

Two ways to capture the geometry

Structured-light scanning projects a striped pattern onto the object and reads how the pattern bends across its surface. Photogrammetry skips the projector entirely — an overlapping set of ordinary photos lets software reconstruct the geometry from the parallax between them.

Scanning a 3D object: capture and check

Move a consistent, small amount between captures — a big gap between angles is what most often produces a hole in the model. Then check the reconstructed model for holes or noise before moving on: rescanning a bad angle now is faster than patching a mesh later.

Construction methods: slotting

A tab on one piece, a slightly narrower slit on another. It’s rigid, demountable, and needs no adhesive.

Construction methods: tabs and flaps

Fold flaps out from a piece and tape them to the inside of the adjoining face. It’s faster to build than slotting, and permanent once taped.

Construction methods: scoring for curves

Score along the corrugation’s grain, not across it, and cardboard bends cleanly instead of creasing. This week’s tutorial time uses all three methods — slotting, tabs and flaps, and scoring — on your own scrap object.

What this can build toward: a fully hand-painted game

Every asset drawn by hand rather than photographed or scanned — the “captured” step of the round trip can be digital pigment from the start, if that’s the pillar you’re strong in.

What this can build toward: projecting onto a scan

The object you scan today could end up exactly like this in week 2 — computed imagery mapped onto its own irregular geometry rather than a flat screen.