The gallery below shows all of the images taken during my experience at UT Bridgemakers for Explore UT in 2020.
UT Bridgemakers was a joint college of fine arts and natural sciences maker collaboration for ExploreUT in 2020. Unfortunately, the event got cancelled due to covid.
This was my first time engaging with the broader maker community outside of UTeach Maker. I decided to get involved because it would be a completely new experience for me, and I would get to learn some new skills. We had assigned times for when we would meet up as a group and work on our projects together. There were several projects including a Hungry Hungry Hippos game, an interactive Operation Bevo game, a skee ball game, and a DNA puppet show. The team that I was working with took on the DNA puppet show and the skee ball machine. We would then check-in every 45 minutes to an hour based on our progress. Both of these projects were completely made out of cardboard, and this was my first time getting my hands dirty with cardboard crafts. We sorted out our to-do list into "to-do's, doin', and donzo" to help us organize all of the little things that we had to complete for our major projects. This helped us keep track of our progress, and by the time Explore UT almost rolled around, we had been done with most of the projects. However, the event got cancelled, so we really didn't get to put on a show like we had hoped.
For the skee ball machine, I worked with Garrett and Marcus to make an outline for the ramp. Then, we both built the frame, and after we made it sturdy, we put the ramp on the frame. At the same time, we were also working on the ball catching mechanism to retrieve the ball. That was also entirely made out of cardboard and cardboard-like materials. Once all of the parts were completely crafted, we had put the parts together to form the entire skee ball machine. Marcus also helped decorate the skee ball machine with virus and bacteria shaped models.
For the DNA puppet show, I worked with Garrett and Cassie to create the DNA puppets and the mini stage. Garrett and I mainly worked on making the mini stage for the puppets. We first made the stage with some cardboard cutting techniques to fasten multiple pieces of cardboard together. I worked with Cassie on the DNA puppets. She primarily sewed together to make the felt pieces, and I helped her assemble the mouth piece and the hair onto the puppets. We decided to make the puppets into a girl group called the DNA Divas.
I really enjoyed working with the other makers in the UT making community. Working with the fine arts makers really gave me a new perspective on making and the creative process. I found their help to be very beneficial to us as they also helped us with our storytelling skills and how to engage an audience.
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