Programs – ARC Design Hub

October 2, 2018February 6, 2019

READY! SET! DANCE!

During the Spring, The Hip Hop Competition lasted roughly 2 hours. This Event was put together in the ARC Gymnasium. This was the first Hip Hop competition ever held.

Hoping for more events like this in the future.

Enthusiastic Dancers are eager to put their skills to the test. The organizations that were behind this event are: U.N.I.T.E, L.E.T.C (Low End Theory Collaboration), J.B.C Joint Budget Committee and Kaeb.

All funding this event.

UNITE is the community diversity center for American River College, and the Joint Budget Committee and Kaeb funded the competition.

Joshua Bonzo’s idea was set forth the production of this project. Another contributor of this project was Moses Rodriguez. Bonzo has been break dancing since the age of seven or eight.

This competition had a guest star Ken Smith, who lead everyone through each move. Smith was interviewed for more information regarding the culture of Hip Hop. It was originated in New York, and Smith was among its cultural colors from its first developments. He currently teaches intermediate Hip Hop at UCLA lecture and lab Arts and Cultures Department despite braving through several physical injuries to his hip, knees, ankles, and fingers.

Some modern Hip Hop moves are: turfing and crumping. Ken Smith describes Hip Hop as a culture, not just a dance style. He associates the culture of Hip Hop with graffiti, break dancing, DJ-ing, and rapping. Smith strongly emphasizes how the elements of Hip Hop are based on style and not technique. He danced in street competitions and freestyle competitions after it bloomed in California.

They want to bring hip hop culture into the American River College campus, along with break dancing!!

September 12, 2018September 12, 2018

Beautiful U.N.I.T.E. Masterpiece!

A beautiful masterpiece!

Allen Peterson and U.N.I.T.E. was involve with a certain project. In this particular project, He used the plasma cutter to cut out aluminum shapes to create a unique design made by the Landscape Architecture Class. The Aluminum shapes is a “mock up” of a plan that the Landscape Architecture Class constructed for a future project.

The little metal sculpture will someday be built like posts or fenced around a building. The square bottom part will acted as a fence and the top parts with magnificent design, like birds and trees. It will act to give it a unique design to help make the area it was located in very attractive!

This beautiful piece was created approx. 3 hours in only one day!

Design Hub’s participation to this project supports the architecture students creativity. The Architecture class needed a miniature variant of the final project to be able to test out the original idea. In a way, They can predict upcoming obstacles or arrangements that may arise in the future.

From a photograph, Allen was able to set it up on a plasma cutter.

Future developments from this project is a metal trophy of a break-dancer for the winner of the Break Dancer Competition for U.N.I.T.E.

Further development from American River College tree logo on April 24 that Allen made.

This project has traveled to a few locations-

Design Hub to the welding location , then back to Design Hub and then off to be displayed at the Architecture Class.

March 2, 2018September 11, 2018

Exploring Language Through Technology and Art at the Design Hub

American River College’s Spanish 361 class, led by Professor Currea, is about learning and applying the student’s knowledge of Spanish through conversation. Rather than just studying and learning phrases, Professor Currea challenges her students to learn a new skill all while speaking Spanish. The class attended the Kaneko art gallery- American River College’s art gallery on campus that houses all of our student artwork. They observed and conversed in Spanish about their thoughts and impressions of the artist’s work. Afterwards, each student was asked to choose a word that best described what they felt or took away from the experience. This past week, the new skill that the class was taught in Spanish was how to prepare their chosen Spanish word from the art experience for laser etching. The students were each asked to pick a word that represented all of the emotions, experiences, and thoughts about the artist’s work, and how that could be generated and laser etched by the Design Hub. This project then given back to the artist, bringing the experience full circle as the students show their appreciation through their application of the Spanish language.

On Thursday, February 22nd, the class was brought into the Design Hub, where Sean gave a tour of where lab and a demonstration of how the 3D printer works so the students could see all that the Design Hub has to offer.

During this visit, we had the opportunity to conduct some quick interviews with some of these students.

Peter Brixie, Spanish 361 student at ARC

One of them was Peter Brixie, their word: Hermosa. Peter has greatly enjoyed Professor Correia’s class. The most helpful part about having to constantly converse with others in Spanish is that it helps make speaking in Spanish second nature. For Peter, thinking about the translation between English and Spanish all in his head was the most challenging task for him. Having the class focus more on conversing has been greatly beneficial and fun for Peter learning Spanish. His word that he chose to add to the word cloud was “hermosa”, meaning “beautiful”.

Another student, Theresa Pavale had the word “la vida”. Theresa told us she is studying to be a nurse practitioner in the trauma center, and was really impressed when Randy showed how the Design Hub is able to 3D print bones and anatomical models for her department. She was also impressed by the amount of resources that the Design Hub would be able to provide students like her with. The word that she chose was “la vida”, meaning “life”. She was very taken with the painting titled, “Water of Life” and the meaning of the painting: that if there is life, there will be water and how you cannot have one without the other.

It was great to hear from these students and to get the opportunity to introduce them to our Design Hub community. As well as hearing how they applied the Spanish language to art, it serves as an example that being able to use different ways to communicate about things can be a force to broaden our understanding and perspective on the world.

We appreciate Professor Currea and the wonderful Spanish 361 class for visiting, and allowing us to share our beloved corner of campus.

February 28, 2018September 11, 2018

Seeing Through the Eyes of the Blind

Here at Arc we are doing the impossible: Seeing through the eyes of the blind. There are some amazing opportunities that are opening up to students with disabilities here on campus!

Meet Robin, a very special student here at ARC. She is one of the first students on campus to be a part of a very new technology that was introduced this semester: smart glasses for the blind. At first, it may sound like an oxymoron. But these glasses are a tool that will revolutionize campus accessibility for those who are visually impaired.

We met in the cafeteria Starbucks to sit down and chat about how the technology and the program worked, and how it helps her in so many different ways. “What time is it? Oh my gosh! I actually got here on time!!” Robin says as she takes the seat next to me. She continues to tell me that these glasses have made getting places so much smoother. Then, to answer the first question we all want answers to, Robin dives right in to how these glasses work, and what exactly they do.

Smart Glasses. Photo by intern Bailey Wineland

They are called “smart glasses”. Basically, they are a set of glasses that have a camera attached. This camera links up to a device called my-fi, and is also linked to an app on a smartphone. This is where things get interesting: This setup was created by a company called Aira, which has a team of agents who are readily available to assist anyone who presses their my-fi device. “They are seeing what you’re seeing when the glasses are on, and the device is connected. You call them, and they can see what’s around you. You can hold something up to the glasses and they can read that back to you. It’s really a neat device.”

Robin wears this device to all of her classes. She says it definitely makes things easier, going from point A to point B. “I haven’t had any mobility training prior to attending ARC. And now, I’m more interested in getting places when I am talking to these agents. They help me navigate and then I can remember routes on campus that I can eventually take on my own.”

Navigation isn’t the only thing that Aira can assist with, either. These agents can also help with reading things like menus at restaurants, road signs, and even things in class like white boards and rubrics. “The other day I had an Aira agent read me the directions on a pack of fish filets. I got to hear the nutrition facts and the serving size.”

Closing out our interview with Robin, we talked about how important it is to have services like this available to students who are visually impaired. These glasses can help students navigate campus safely and with confidence. We are beginning to see some positive ripple effects from the Design Hub. This is only one of the many projects being spearheaded by the Hub, and we couldn’t be more grateful to be able to help and represent the students of ARC!