This past week in Art Therapy, my partners and I have been working on putting together our first sound prototype of our project.  We started the first class off with scaling and cutting out 19 individual panels out of cardboard and placing them evenly on dowel rods to make the heart for our prototype. We then made the framework for our prototype and tested it to see how it would work.  Once we had completed this aspect of our project, we began by making the framework for our actual final project by making a wood framed box out of 1x8 plywood.  We then began planning out the pictures we would be putting on each individual panel for our final project. We decided to do three methods on the pictures in order to give the whole art structure variety. The three types are: etch, cutting out, and photograph. 12 photos, 13 cut out, and 13 etched.   So next week we plan to begin making the different types of pictures and building the final project.

Coach Aaron suggested we work on the geometry of the structure along with actual size as to how our project will scale out. Along with this, he  also suggested that we prioritize the order in which we do things for our projects, instead of working first on the mechanism he said we need to focus on immediately deciding which pictures we will be using as our personal paradises. Another recommendation was that we start by making a first model out of cardboard and make a small scale of the panel and put it on an axis to see how it will spin. Changes that we are going to make is to make the whole scale of the project smaller and a better geometric shape that will most likely be a heart. Another thing we will work on immediately after finish finding the images is figure out how to make our mechanism and get it to flow correctly.  Lastly, I believe that  is a crucial to methodise our timeline in order to make it so that  we finish our project on time.

This past class, my partner and I worked to make the first initial prototype for our project.  We started by re-designing our box on box designer and resizing the notches so they would fit together better.  After we had finished this design, we transferred it over to rhino and notched a central hole on opposite ends of the box so that we could put a dowel through the box and portray the spinning mechanism of the box.  Once we had finished the design of the panel, we sent it to the laser cutter and cut out the box.  Next class we plan to finish cutting out the rest of the boxes and make our first prototype of out project.

Today in Nuvu, my partners and I began but cutting out the remaining boxes we had not cut out from the previous class on the laser cutter and began to work on putting our prototype together.  We hot glued all of the boxes together and began to put them in place on their dowells and put nuts in as spacers for the boxes.  Once we had finished assembling this aspect of our project, we realized that our project needed to be tweaked in its overall design to make it as effective as possible.  Before we had 12 panels  formed into the shape of a heart that had two different pictures, one on each side.  Now we have decided that it will be more meaningful and more detailed for the patients if we have it so that there multiple pictures on each panel and all the panels come together to form a heart.  However most would not see the heart at first so it would cause the majority of patients to look at the project from a second glance and really feel in touch with our project and its fields of depth.  Next week we plan to build the framework for the outside of the project and fully assemble our first prototype.

This past week in nuvu, my partners and I have  began to make the etches for our project along with building the framework for our final project.  We have picked out all of our images and started to print out and put them together with the panels to form the paradise heart.  A few areas of our project we need to work on and fix are our drawing designs for some of our panels along with our etches.  Next week we plan to finish all of the panels and assemble the final model of our project.

Our studio is art therapy,  what we are doing is creating projects to help benefit the patients and family's at the Watson clinic in Lakeland. So Our personal project is we are creating a project we named your spin on it.   In turn we are creating a project to give the patients something to think about other than death or the situation they are faced with. Especially with cancer they feel that they control nothing in life. However with our project, not only can they feel like they can control something by being able to turn the panels and interact with it but it gives them a memory or something positive to look at.  Through all the bad they can still be in a better place by just a glance.  We had many hurdles in attempting to reach the final project that we have produced today.  We changed from our initial project of making a vr like machine that could change into several still life images that are images of paradise.   To a project that would enable patients to interact with the project and bring easy and quick memories with paradise like images.  If we had better materials we would be able to make the project so it interacts with all the 5 senses and is more comforting to all different ty[es of patients at a variety of ages.  However, this project will serve as a great source of positive thoughts and encouragement for the patients and family members of patients at the Wattson clinic.  This will help to positively impact the lives of many patients for as long as it remains at the clinic.