Tangible Animation - Designing Organic Performance with Multi-Material 3D/4D Printing

<p>Movement transforms a physical object from static to alive. Multi-material 3D printing has the potential to create complex organic effects, given its ability to blend rigid and flexible materials. Add in the fourth dimension of time and the designer’s role extends beyond the design of the object itself and into the choreography of its movement. Despite the presence of this technology over the last decade, there is a lack of research that explores the aesthetics and application of organic movement. Current designs that are dynamic tend to focus on a single motion or lack a supporting context. Meanwhile, there is a desire for authentic, immersive experiences in museums, theme parks and films. In response, this research aims to showcase the potential for multi-material 3D/4D printing to design the organic performance of objects for the exhibition and film industry. In this thesis, a thematic analysis defines the qualities of organic movement as having a curved shape, variable speed and multimodal composition. Research through Design with a Criteria-Based approach is then used to guide an iterative design process, seeking to translate these qualities into moving objects. The outcome of this research is a series of futuristic aquatic plants, 3D printed with pneumatic chambers and filmed within the context of a narrative. Effective organic behaviour is designed through the digital control of form and materiality, combined with natural physical interactions involving the environment, humans and other 3D prints. The interplay between these two disparate worlds builds on the concept of computer-generated objects (CGO). The design output demonstrates the value of CGO in creating compelling visuals on-screen and sensory interactive encounters in real life. The work highlights the importance of movement and tangibility in bringing objects to life in the same world as the audience. The research also contributes to advancing the practice of physical prop design through the development of 4D printing techniques. It elicits discussion around how multi-material 3D/4D printing aligns with the future of creating immersive experiences for the exhibition and film industry.</p>

Tangible Animation - Designing Organic Performance with Multi-Material 3D/4D Printing

<p>Movement transforms a physical object from static to alive. Multi-material 3D printing has the potential to create complex organic effects, given its ability to blend rigid and flexible materials. Add in the fourth dimension of time and the designer’s role extends beyond the design of the object itself and into the choreography of its movement. Despite the presence of this technology over the last decade, there is a lack of research that explores the aesthetics and application of organic movement. Current designs that are dynamic tend to focus on a single motion or lack a supporting context. Meanwhile, there is a desire for authentic, immersive experiences in museums, theme parks and films. In response, this research aims to showcase the potential for multi-material 3D/4D printing to design the organic performance of objects for the exhibition and film industry. In this thesis, a thematic analysis defines the qualities of organic movement as having a curved shape, variable speed and multimodal composition. Research through Design with a Criteria-Based approach is then used to guide an iterative design process, seeking to translate these qualities into moving objects. The outcome of this research is a series of futuristic aquatic plants, 3D printed with pneumatic chambers and filmed within the context of a narrative. Effective organic behaviour is designed through the digital control of form and materiality, combined with natural physical interactions involving the environment, humans and other 3D prints. The interplay between these two disparate worlds builds on the concept of computer-generated objects (CGO). The design output demonstrates the value of CGO in creating compelling visuals on-screen and sensory interactive encounters in real life. The work highlights the importance of movement and tangibility in bringing objects to life in the same world as the audience. The research also contributes to advancing the practice of physical prop design through the development of 4D printing techniques. It elicits discussion around how multi-material 3D/4D printing aligns with the future of creating immersive experiences for the exhibition and film industry.</p>

Interpreting old texts with new tools: Digital multimodal composition for a high school reading assignment

Purpose Research on nonschool settings suggests young people benefit from digital multimodal composition. Less is known about how digital composing can support students as they interpret required literary class texts. To understand the potential benefits and challenges of digitally composing for literary analysis, design interviews with two high school students were conducted to examine their processes as they designed digital multimodal compositions to interpret Anglo-Saxon poems. Grounded in the social semiotic theory of multimodality, this study aims to examine how students engaged in literary analysis and interpretive digital composition within secondary ELA. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative classroom data were collected through digital means over a six-week period: a whole-class student survey, focal student semistructured design interviews, emails, field notes, analytic memos and student-created digital artifacts. Findings Students’ print-based literary engagements and digital multimodal composition processes were mutually shaped. Additionally, digital multimodal composition offered entry points into challenging print-based literary texts, resulting in understandings enacted across multiple forms of mediation. Research limitations/implications The study focused on one cycle of multimodal composition. Additional studies of students’ digital multimodal composition processes in ELA classrooms over time could be beneficial to the field. Practical implications The study identifies an approach to digital multimodal composition that may help teachers address and integrate core disciplinary objectives. Originality/value This study contributes to scholarship concerned with how “new” technologies and “old” literacies co-exist in contexts requiring students to engage in expanded communication modes alongside specific academic literacies.

“Wearing Only Our Skin”: the multimodal literacies classroom as a living arrangement

Purpose Literacy research exploring multimodal composition and justice-oriented children’s literature each have rich landscapes and histories. This paper aims to add to both of these bodies of scholarship through the emerging assemblage of Studio F, a fifth-grade classroom. The authors share poststructural analytic encounters with attention to the unexpected multimodal relationships and the justice-oriented talk and texts that emerged, as well as the classroom conditions that produce them. Design/methodology/approach The authors think with assemblage theory to examine the newness that emerged as one small group of students wrestled with the emerging instances of racism present in Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles. Findings Together, the living arrangement of bodies, materials and discourses created openings for students’ explorations of race and racism. Originality/value This paper offers teachers and researchers space to rethink what is possible in the literacy classroom when the authors re-envision classrooms as vibrant assemblages, support emergent multimodal composing processes and follow students’ critical encounters toward justice-oriented literacies.

“I Drew Myself Right There”: third grade girls restorying for visual justice

Purpose This paper aims to present three girls’ visual annotations and digital responses that restory a scene in the picturebook I’m New Here. The authors focus on how children use multimodal tools to reflect their critical knowledge of the world by illuminating how this group of girls responded to and incorporated broader social issues. Design/methodology/approach This study takes place in a third-grade classroom. Using qualitative methods that build on critical multimodal literacy, the authors documented and analyzed children’s visual and digital interpretations. Data were generated from classroom sessions that incorporated interactive readalouds, as well as students’ annotated visual images, sketches, video and digital responses. The collaborative analytic process involved multiple passes to interpret visual, textual and multimodal elements. Findings The analyses revealed how Aliyah, Tiana and Carissa used multimodal tools to engage in the process of restorying. Through their multimodal composition, they designed images that illuminated their solidarity with the young female character wearing the hijab; their desire to disrupt xenophobic bullying; and their hope for a respectful and inclusive climate in their own classroom. Originality/value In this paper, the authors examine how three girls in a third-grade classroom restory using critical multimodal literacy methods. These girls’ multimodal responses reflected how they disrupted dominant storylines of exclusionary practices. Their authentic acts of visual advocacy give us hope for the future.

Collaborative Multimodal Writing via Google Docs: Perceptions of French FL Learners

In spite of the growing integration of computer-mediated collaborative writing and multimodal composition in second language (L2) classrooms, research on collaborative multimodal writing, as an innovative writing pedagogy, is still underway and largely underrepresented particularly in non-English learning contexts. To bridge this research gap, the author of this study implemented a multimodal writing task in which seven French FL learners jointly created digital postcards describing their vacation activities in groups of two or three over the period of eight weeks. The study sought to explore learners’ perceptions of the benefits and challenges of this type of pedagogy and the factors mediating their writing processes. The analyses of a post-task questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews, triangulated with the finished products, indicated that overall, collaborative multimodal writing was a motivating learning experience. Several themes emerged regarding the perceived benefits (i.e., improvement in their writing skills, genre awareness and semiotic awareness, mutual learning through peer assessment and easy synchronous writing and revising via Google Docs), as well as challenges (i.e., tensions between partners largely due to frustrations over unequal participation, lack of control over the joint text and technical glitches). This paper provides significant implications for collaborative multimodal writing research and pedagogy.

Easter eggs and semiotic cues: embedded meaning as early adolescents engage in programming-as-writing

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which early adolescent programmers embed meaning in their digital media created within an online programming community called Scratch. Design/methodology/approach The author completed an 18-month descriptive case study with 5 early adolescent participants. The research design included a multimodal analytic analysis of participant artifacts and inductive analysis of semi-structured interviews and transcription frames. Findings Participants embedded meaning to achieve four primary purposes, namely, to guide visitors through exhibits, to story, to engage in conversation and to game. To achieve each goal, the participants embedded unique semantic cues within specific Scratch structures. Research limitations/implications Questions for how researchers in literacy and learning can further explore meaning-making within programming-as-writing are suggested. Practical implications Connections to the supportive structures within Scratch are discussed in the context of programming-as-writing. Considerations regarding the use of Scratch to promote programming-as-writing are provided for educators. Originality/value The findings in this study provide an introductory step toward an enhanced understanding of the ways in which youth embed meaning into digital media as they engage in programming-as-writing. Although coding has been researched within the context of computer science, the use of coding in multimodal composition should be explored as it relates to literacy practices.

Cabinet of Curiosities, a Dwelling Place

This Instagram “Weekly Writing” assignment is a social-media-based, low-stakes, and longitudinal approach to teaching and experimenting with multimodal composition. Students create an account for the purposes of the class and follow each other. They post three times per week, sometimes freely and sometimes in response to a prompt or challenge. Together, we use the platform and its rich multimodal resources to consider how in-the-moment multimodal composing can spur invention, place the writer in the perpetual position of noticing, and create an archive of experience that holistically communicates beyond the author’s original intention. This article discusses the pedagogical rationale for this approach, along with the issues to consider before adopting and adapting this practice.