kevin l. hau [r&d]

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R&D

Mason Gross, School of The Arts, Rutgers University 2014

This book was written by Dungorthb, and de-signed by Kevin L. Hau. The type face used for this book is Baufra by Mariya V. Pigoulevskaya. Special thanks to Austin Lee and Goreth for proof reading and contributing to the production of this book.

Photo Credits—

Gallery Aferro, 36Lisa Park, Euonia, 56Mindwave, www.neurosky.com, 56Sphero Image, www.yankodesign.com, 57

Pebble images from pebble, 58Google Glass images from google, 59http://www.catwig.com/google-glass-teardown/, 59

Research and Development

Research and Development Research and DevelopmentResearch and DevelopmentResearch and DevelopmentResearch and DevelopmentResearch and DevelopmentResearch and DevelopmentResearch and DevelopmentResearch and Development Research and Development

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R&D

“Nothing is impossible the word itself says I’m possible.”

- Audrey Hepburn

Kevin L. Hau • www.kevinleehau.comKevin L. Hau • www.kevinleehau.com

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I wasn’t always the best person in the world, in fact I am perhaps the biggest troll I know. I love it, I love being the distraction. I love being misunderstood for my actions. I al-ways say that people shouldn’t judge me for the things I say or do but judge me for what my intentions are and who I am.

I intend to define myself as a Graphic De-signer, but I can only define who or what I am in my own way. The role of a designer is to voice the intentions to the viewer. As a designer I love to be ambiguous; I love to be wrong. If I am never understood that is fine. However as a designer I can’t do that. I want for my design to be understood and appre-ciated as I understand and appreciate them.

The main thing that defines me today is my love for technology. Technology al-lows me to believe in the future. I be-lieve in a connected world, I believe in the cloud and I believe the lie within believe.

I don’t believe people have personal privacy, I believe that personal privacy is a lie. Con-sequently I love social media. I love how I can define myself easily based on my in-terest and what I post to the world. The World actually defines who I am through social networking and that is what I love. I no longer have a say in who or what I am, but no one really does to begin with.

For those same reasons I love h is life. Art is an interpretation, it is a voice and the pub-lic viewer creates what it is for themselves, regardless of what the actual intentions are. I believe everyone has their own reasons.

What are my reasons? My rea-sons evolve, as my work de-velops. I find great interest in researching technologies that are available and not available. I find technology to be an ex-tension of ourselves. Technolo-gy has the potential to create a prosperous life for everyone.

Was able to attend High school but was kicked out twice.

Attended a secondary school called Green Brook Academy.

Did not earn high school credits during freshman, sophomore and

junior year of high school.

Still graduated on time in from Hunterdon Central Regional High School in 2007.

Didn’t graduate middle school.Introduction

Kevin L. Hau • www.kevinleehau.com

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Never forget who you are, without a past you are no one. Everything I have done in my life has led me to where I am today and I can honestly say I lived without regrets. I dideverything I intended to do, for better or worse. I stayed true to myself to each bitter end and suffered each victory and consequence. I lived my life the way I wanted to live it and I lived it everyday to my own rules. I may be a troll but perhaps that can be a legitimate thing.

I didn’t do so well in school growing up, I actually did in-credibly bad. It all changed after high school and I really excelled in college. There were a lot of reasons for that but

the most important reason was because school is simply not for me. It is not for me at all and college was not school anymore. College had a lot more freedom, and I was able to make it work for me. I made it work and it was fun.

Not many people believed in me. Everyone is quick to judge and write people off. I hold a lot of resentment towards peo-ple and organizations but that only made me want to win more. I am going to win, that has been my goal all along.

Hunterdon Central (HCHS)didn’t believe in me but Green Brook Academy (GBA) really helped me graduate. It

was an amazing school expe-rience. The best parts about high school was that HCHS paid GBA $50,000 per year for me to attend. That was the cost of tuition per student that your district has to pay. I know this because I saw the records.

They didn’t even require me to pass the HESPAs: a necessary high school exam in order to graduate. I am glad I graduated high school and went to college.

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Valedictorian Speech:

Hello, my name is Kevin Hau

Before I start I want to thank everyone who has support-ed me throughout my GBA life. Without you I wouldn’t have made it. Over the years I met a lot of different peo-ple who came and left. Although I didn’t know them for very long, I will always remember them.

I have been here for the past 3 years. Some consider me as a veteran. I had seen many things and experience even more. With being a veteran I must bestow upon you the things I have learned while being here. I have learned that it doesn’t matter how old you are or where you are,

If you are alive you can change the life you have now. Everyone can change if they desire to. Everyone can achieve. Lives are never set in stone.

The actions of me today effect the person that I will be-come tomorrow. These actions are my own choices that no one can decide for me. Each choice we make in life shows our own future. We control our future.

We make our own resolve and live to it by its fullest. No matter what it may be, good or bad we need to continue what we think is right. I am doing what I think is right.

Thank you and congratulations to class of 07 Green Brook Academy.

I graduated Green Brook Acad-emy in 2007, receiving my di-ploma from Hunterdon Central Regional High school. I gradu-ated GBA with honors and was Valedictorian. I was the only person in my graduating class to go to college and possibly one of the few GBA alumni to actually earn a college degree.

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Raritan Valley Community College

Kevin L. Hau • www.kevinleehau.comDungorthb • www.tumblr.com/dungorthb

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Artist Statement November 19, 2010I can’t define myself as an artist unless I can actually define myself as a person first. Behind every great work of art, we are still people in the end. If I could summarize what I do into one word it would almost definitely be defined as RIDIC. I never do things correct-ly; I do things for the best possible results. A lot of my work I do right now as an under-graduate isn’t cohesive as a body of work.

I am a student first and a graphic designer second. I have taken classes from almost ev-ery instructor available at Raritan Valley Com-munity College. I have learned so much from who they are as an artist and I have really grown from them. The artist inside myself will always want to learn; I don’t think any-one should ever stop learning as an artist.

I am a fine artist wanting to become a better graphic designer. I want to master everything I should learn in order to wreak havoc on my designs. My mission statement to myself is pure-ly to murder every project available to me. I refuse to conform to the norm, I am who I am and I will not be influenced by what is correct.

I will always do things my own way.


Eleven Foot Scissors

I did this project before I knew anything about design or art, before I was even fin-ished with my first year at art school. I did not know anything but after this semester I knew how to make things. I learned how to approach objects, artwork, ideas. I found breaking apart things in my head to be fasci-nating. How is this made? How does this work?

These scissors were made from pink foam, bought from home depot. I glued multiple boards together and created a solid stacked foam piece. This allowed me to carve and cut the foam into what I wanted. I was sculpt-ing this pink object into a pair of scissors.

I put a lot of time into this project, it really changed a lot of things for me. Something from this project inspired me for the future.

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Stackable Puzzle

3D Design, taught by Todd Lambrix, was an important start to how my design work started. This developed a lot of the pro-cess in which I would approach an idea.

Originally this project required us to use card-board. Why cardboard? It is flimsy and does not last very long. It is difficult to cut and looks awful. I threw that requirement away as soon as I heard it. By using this wood com-pound I had a solid sculpture. I was able to make clean cuts using a small power saw.

The idea of this project was to create stack-able puzzles. The pictures show one of many ways these puzzles could be put together. During critique one person suggested that she wanted to see more negative space in the center. I agreed with her and moved the puzzle pieces around to meet her needs. The dynamic nature of the puzzle pieces al-lowed for a multitude of possibilities in design.

Sculpture


Balloon Inflation

One of my first projects! 24 foot balloon in-flation. This was a collaborative group project with Steve Winchell and Thomas J. DiPalma.

We took the concept of how a beach ball is made in order to create each individual sphere. We had to calculate each pattern for each sphere using mathematics. It was an interesting process that required all of us to work together.

Our balloon was incredibly success-ful in size and inflation. It became real-ly large and fun to play with once we in-flated it with a reverse shop vacuum.

The balloon was made from clear plastic and duck tape, bought from home depot.There was a rubber band to tie the end of the inflation.

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Smooth-On Resin

During my undergradate study, I had the op-portunity to experiment a lot with Smooth-On Resin and the nature of the process. This was done during an independent study with Keary Rosen. I experimented with the idea of repe-tition and cast making. I wanted to learn the material and experience the difficulties of resin.


I have been writing my entire life, and I write just to write. This is my own world where I can do what ever, in whatever style or format. The writ-ing level fluctuates as I grow older but that doesn’t necessarily say it gets better or worse. My writ-ing evolves with me as I grow up. My entire life is written in my work. It shows where I am during that time in life and where my mind truly resides.

Over the years I have written well over a hun-dred passages about certain elements about my-self and the beliefs I have come to accept. I create new imagery based upon what I have already written. This imagery portrays my world as I see it, thus I call my work Khau World Imag-ination. It’s a collection of everything pertaining to me and myself. What I write, may or may not be apart of the imagery. The only truth the imagery holds are the key parts in what I write.

I incorporated Typography into the imagery be-cause the writing is important to me. It is abso-lutely not the imagery that is important at all, what I have drawn merely reflects the world as I want the viewers to see it. I leave many clues pointing in different directions in my drawings so that the viewers can better un-derstand me and my life. Not everything will make sense; a lot of the hints are not intended for public view. I mainly write for myself, very rarely will I write about others or for others.

My work as I do now as an undergraduate is a stepping stone for what I want to do in the fu-ture. I have always wanted to publish my writings, and I have recently done so through the web. Everything I have learned from when I started college till now is collected in order to bring life to my dream. From Web Design, to basic color theory I utilize the most important val-ues of what I learned in order to do my work.

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Kevin L. Hau • www.kevinleehau.comKevin L. Hau • www.kevinleehau.com

Color Theory InstallationYou can’t have high contrasting colors in de-sign. It clashes and vibrates and irritates view-ers. You can’t do a lot of things. You can’t, you can’t! And you shouldn’t. What I love doing the most in every class is paying attention to what everyone says I can’t do, then try to make it work. You can’t use a yellow background with red! You can’t use white type on a black back-ground! You can’t, you can’t! I can! And I will.

The idea of this project was to show how I felt during university life. The setting of this installation is a computer lab where col-lege students do their daily grind. We sit at these computers for hours on end, contrib-uting to the zombie numbness of the ev-ery day ritual. Most classes, we sit in lecture and listen to a professor. Our screens are all alike and we are taught all the same. Ev-eryone is “learning”. Everyone is “tuned in”.

Maybe I just want to break all the rules. Per-haps I love to antagonize people. What made this project amazingly special was actually installing it. I slowly had to “remove” people from the lab. I possibly could have told them all to leave, but who am I to ask that of peo-ple? I am nobody. Instead I posted signs on each PC, simply stating that this particular PC is broken and to please use another one. And slowly each PC had this sign. Some people however weren’t so gullible and knew that the PC was not broken. I was able to get the head chair of the department to remove them for me. Their angry faces as they were forced to leave added to my own self win.

By now, you are probably irritated by the background. I can’t apologize for something that is intended! Pikachus, Lots of Pikachus.!

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Infect, Affect, Effect

Game time. This was a group exhibition for portfolio class during my last years at Rari-tan Valley Community College. Work included were posters, post cards and my first website.

So this is our senior year and for most peo-ple at Raritan Valley Community College this would be their last show. This is when we should take everything we learned and make things happened. I wish some peo-ple took this more seriously than they did, it would have made my life so much easier.

Our class had a high amount of students in it, more so than any other portfolio class, it was insanely hard to manage everyone and get things done. Luckily I had help from people. Andres Duran was the head chair of the exhibition.

Angela Miskis did the book. Brent Phil-hower helped a lot with getting the post card printed. He kept in contact with our printer and picked up the printed cards.

Brent Philhower, Andres Duran, Amraj Lalli, Tyler Moore, Michael Montesano and myself helped install the show. We painted the mini gallery and hung up everyones art work. Without the help of this crew this show wouldn’t have happened.In the end the show was a great success and I couldn’t have been happier with it.

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Thesis BeginningDecember 4, 2011

Sometimes I wonder if I was born at the right time. Every-thing I do or want or expect exists. I love how everything is so intuitive. When ever I see something and say to myself, wow this would be so much better if it could work like this. it does! That blows my mind. I feel so limitless, everything is at my disposal like this entire exis-tence and life is actually my own creation. Perhaps subconscious-ly I am creating my own exis-tence. But even with everything and the world in my grasp I can’t help but to wonder if I can only come up with ideas that already exist, how can I survive in an ever changing modern world; where innovation replac-es the old on a weekly basis.

Critical ThinkingNovember 27, 2010

November 27, 2010

Artists are critical thinkers taught to think past ego and look directly at the whole spectrum. Throughout their creative fine art lives, artists are taught to criticize their work and others. By thinking critically and inventing new ideas for each project, undergraduates are better prepared for the art world. They will flourish within this world, constantly being skeptical of what is new or what is considered good. Critiques look past the exterior and honestly break down every quality; good and bad. Why is any piece of work considered good? Peo-ple need to think beyond of what they instantly interpret. “Whether I’m painting or not, I have this overweening interest in humanity. Even if I’m not working, I’m still analyzing people.”

- Joseph Beuys Artist may seem harsh even condescending but it is not the artists intention to insult you, they merely intend to analyze you. They break down the world, their vision of it and how to portray their image to the rest of the world. Nothing stops an artist from breaking down everything around them, including the people they interact with. Possibly there should be a separation of realities for the sake of the world. Being a part of the art world is not like the rest of the world. People are closed minded, short sighted and judgmental; everyone is. Artists become attuned to be-ing existential. They become accustomed into thinking they are always right; because they are. People are only prov-en wrong when given evidence of such. Be suspicious, be skeptical, think critically and question everything. If they are wrong, tell them they are wrong but always tell them why. “Don’t judge people on the things they say or do. Judge them on who they are and what their intentions are.”

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Artist StatementApril 26, 2012

What does it matter really? I expect so much from everything. Sometimes it is hard to make sense of anything. I find my-self lost within my own tunnel vision and maybe that is where everything is.

Inspiration doesn’t just happen it is acquired though my work of what I know and learn. This continuing evolution in myself is the main focus in anything I do as an artist. The world moves on, but sometimes I prefer to just stay behind. I want to be 5 years old forever. This is the idea of how I want to approach life and art.

Everything collides and joins and comes to-gether. It forms an idea, organic or spiritual. The on-going feeling of curiosity and obses-sion drives my passion to never resist pursu-ing new ideas regardless of how bad or how difficult they may be. I want to try everything and anything and see where it takes me.

The work can speak to me and show me where to proceed; it unfolds everything I am as I work and lets me inside my own mind.

I can continue without stop; this relentless grind drives me to just do what I need to do. My passion can bring me to the end of the world in total destruction or spiraling euphoria.

Certain things may not make sense, and they probably won’t ever make sense. However they make sense to me. I be-lieve in it; I have the vision and I can see it and no one can take that away from me.

There is definitely a right and a wrong and as graphic designer; we always aim for perfec-tion. I want perfection. I want to feel that when I meet my deadlines: what I show to world has met the expectations of what I wanted from it. I believe in my imperfections because they are beautiful in their own way. I can always change it, but the characteristics of the work as it evolves shapes what it is and has its own identity.

I have never been influenced by what is correct; I have always and will always continue to do things in my own way, regardless of the consequences.


Gallery Aferro InternshipSeptember 2011 to June 2012

Gallery Aferro is a nonprofit 501 (c) 3 organiza-tion located at 73 Market St. Newark NJ 07102. I was a Social Media Intern from Sept 2011 to June 2012. I have done many things during my internship with them such as photogra-phy, video editing, post cards, and a publication.

Aferro offered me invaluable experience during my internship with them. I learned from the people I was working with and the many peo-ple I met throughout my work there. I came into this internship with basic knowledge of video editing and adobe software. I left with full confidence that I gained a better mastery to everything I thought I had already mas-tered. It showed me that there is still so much I need to learn and can continue to learn.

I can’t say I did all the work by myself. I had amaz-ing coworkers who were there to help me. Dan-ny DeLiberato was another Social Media Intern who showed me a lot about video equipment.

He had great knowledge of video editing and film-ography that I highly enjoyed learning from. With-out his work my early video days would not have gone as well as they did. We made a great team.

Gallery Aferro has events throughout fall and spring. Our first event show cased a live per-formance piece by Irvin Morazan. Danny had an amazing idea of streaming the video live. It was a huge success! Irvin’s girlfriend was not able to make the show in Newark, and as the sto-ry goes, Irvin’s girlfriend pulled over at a gas station and watched the live stream through her cellphone online. We live in a digital age!

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Publication 19. Through You Into ActionDecember 2011 - March 2012

Luciana Cardona is possibly the most responsible worker I have ever met. She was the Curato-rial Intern, her job was to make sure every-thing ran smoothly and to gather information for the gallery. She would keep things moving! I had to do a publication for Gallery Aferro and without Luciana helping me keep in contact with 38 different artist it probably would not have gotten done. That is a fact. Thank you Luciana!

Through You Into Action is Aferro’s 19th pub-lication. It is a catalogue of 38 different artist. These selected artist were apart of Gallery Afer-ro’s studio residency within the last 5 years. Gal-lery Aferro is well known for having a large amount of studio space. 600-900 square feet of studio space for artists to do their work!Taking on this project was a huge undertak-

ing, I have only unofficially made books for class prior to this. I never dealt with print-ers or phone calls or actual people before. This was my first internship! I loved how Aferro believed in me, they told me to get things done and I did. I got things done.

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As a designer I started to explore a lot more and developed my work though my life and experiences. My curiosity fueled my desire for life and my life in return reflected heav-ily into my work. There was a lot of doubt going through Mason Gross. Everything changed, the game was completely different.

I started to get heavily interested in social media, I became Mr. Social Media. I believe in the cloud and I believe in mass media for each individual. If you Google my name, Kevin L. Hau, you will find me. That took a long effort to establish but in the end it was what I wanted. I wanted to be found easi-ly, I wanted to be a part of the internet. “If you don’t have a Facebook, you don’t exist”.


Let’s talk about Social Media. What do you think about when you hear Social Media? What I think of Social Media might be completely different than what you think it is. I view Social Media to be more than just web profiles. The basics are that people take pictures, post statuses, and read what others are doing. Everyone is able to update the world about what ever they come across. I see the use of social media in all forms. It can be used for so much more than what people give credit to. People are able to generate information to thou-sands of people at an alarming rate. Social Media allows for people to connect faster and easier than any point in history.

From an artists standpoint. You can have the greatest work, the best resources and still be completely unknown. We live in a So-cial Media World! Everyone should be connected in the world. You need to have an online presence. What I mean is, when you Google search your name; are you able to find yourself? Try it! Then try searching my name, Kevin L. Hau. You can see that my picture and many of the social media sites I am apart of display my online presence. You might be scared of allowing yourself to be known to the world but this is a different age now, and you as a designer are an artist for the public. Get out there, be known, be seen and allow your life to be heard.

Since the birth of the internet, our world has seen extraordi-nary developments. Supply and demand. There is a huge sur-plus of demand now for products. Products that we probably wouldn’t even know about without the internet. How can you want or need something when you don’t know it exists? The are amazing products in THE WORLD. That may also be one of Americas greatest downfalls. What does America produce that we all really need? Are we all importing all of our goods?

We have all heard at one point in our lives about the following subjects; Modernism, The industrial Revolution and Futurism. They can all relate together with the idea of continuing for-ward and embracing the advances of their time. Social Move-ments marked significant changes in the world. Social Media has changed the world and continues to change the world everyday.Regular Media can hide the truth, they control what they want the people to see and hear. They can be controlled. Social Media is powered by the people for the people.

The Importance of Social MediaDecember 2, 2012

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It gives the power to everyone to contribute to the world of information and allows for that information to be seen by the rest of the world. You can see and hear news faster than the news company can deliver. There is no censorship, or truths to be hidden. The truth is out there if you seek for it.

If we ever lost our connection to the rest of the world, how far backwards would we be heading from now? I am a huge fan of todays standard in logistics. I love being able to need some-thing and have it delivered to me in a reasonable amount of time. Depending on actual time, I might need something over night and that is possible because of logistics. This wouldn’t be possible without a way to connect to the world at a fast rate.

We live in a digital age. This is fairly new to the world. New generations are different, as they grow up in this digital world. They behave differently than the rest of the world has behaved before them. And change is a scary thing for any generation. What is happening now is just the transi-tion of society with new resources. People are experimenting, finding things and exploiting them. It’s a brand new world.

Social Media gives me hope for the new world. Free Speech without the fear of having to be anonymous. Free factual information not censored or delayed. It changes things for everyone. Not just mainstream media networks but for all everything like file-sharing, data-networking, open-source.

There are networks like Drop Box, Base Camp where people can gather “together” and share information and ideas and work on projects without the need to be sitting next to one another. This is the standard that people have grown accus-tomed to. Everyone has a cellphone, everyone is connected one way or another. And some choose not to be connected.

Stay connected, move forward. Social Media will continue to grow everyday.

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Kevin L. Hau • www.kevinleehau.comKevin L. Hau • www.instagram.com/kevinleehau

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2014 Thesis Statement

Design to me is almost alien in nature. Good design is imagined to be intuitive, to always exist but never intrusive. Good de-sign is thought to be about perfection but not all things are perfect; And I am inter-ested in finding perfection in imperfections.

They say we should stick to what we know and while I greatly hold true to that the majority of the time, I have also walked through design-land-mines that often blow up in my face. But I don’t regret my choices. Everything about my design leads up to an endgame. It is exciting to explore different ideas and see what I can ac-complish regardless of its success. People are too hung up on failure. I believe that it is okay to fail and it won’t be the end of the world.

They call me a socialist because I am Mr. So-cial Media. Although It is impossible to always keep up-to-date with the latest social app, The idea of a constant need to express yourself in different forms at all times is amazing. We live in a digital age where we consume too much. We consume knowledge always wanting to know more, especially if the more doesn’t exist.

As a person I am a consumer. When I see something that interests me I need to have it. I recognize quality and value the material. I am the driving force in the economy. As a design-er I am a researcher. Geeking out on the latest tech. Redditing all the ins and outs of the possi-bilities of tomorrows technology. I believe that all design has already been imagined and we have been in a place of recyclment. I believe that if anyone can create an idea that is gen-uinely new, you would make a lot of money.

We live in a Jetsons world. I choose to be-lieve in the future. I trust that technology will always have the potential to better life. Re-search has been the driving force in my de-sign philosophy. I am fascinated by the fact that we have available resources at any giv-en time. I envision a world where people are not bound to linear ideas. I think if we can share ideas, they will in fact become some-thing greater than we had ever intended. In-formation can be limitless when shared. An open market supports the future and sup-ports future advancements in daily life. Cre-ation is a shared experience. A collaborative group of people can help change the future.

I want to experience the world and every-thing it has to offer. I want to share with the world endless possibilities. I live for those all nighters when everything clicks, mu-sic makes sense, and inspiration finds me. I will always appreciate amazing designs and want to acknowledge their existence.

There is always work to be done, and nev-er enough time to do it. When I have an idea I go for it. I don’t have the luxury to second guess myself, I need to attack it with full force. I exist in the in between of visu-al arts and design. What ever that means. I like working with my hands. When ideas ar-en’t available, I start back at the basics; cutting, pasting, crafting. I always question what I am bringing to the table, if it has any value or brings enough thought. I like to imagine differ-ent possibilities, design is an experiment. I have always done things that were true to me.

I will always try to keep my work genuine and honest. And in the end, I am still defining my-self as graphic designer. That is the fun of it.

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Arduino Robot, Ameliea

Meet Ameliea, my first live Robot. She is pro-gramed to continuously move forward and before she hits a wall she will stop, look in both directions and go towards the better path.

Ameliea is created using a Arduino process-ing board. This board is like a mini comput-er that you can program to do many differ-ent functions. People have been using these type of processing boards for robotics and multimedia art work. There are lot of uses for an Arduino. You have to code the Ar-duino, and it easily connects to a computer. Arduino is completely open source. You can find a lot of code people have been using al-ready or generate your own code to meet the needs of what you want to accomplish.

When I first made Ameliea she was running smoothly until her servo blew up. I crossed switched one of the battery wires and it caused the servo to overheat. Luckily my local ra-dio shack had extra servos! Another problem I faced with Ameliea was that I wasn’t sure about her battery life, I didn’t want to switch out bat-teries on the go so I decided it was best to install a back up set of batteries on the chassis.

Over all I really enjoyed my time with Ardu-ino, Ameliea is now boxed away and maybe someday her brothers and sisters will be better than she is now. This is just the beginning of my robotics era, I just experimented with the tech-nology. What I would do differently is proba-bly purchase better parts, and create my own code. We will see where this goes in the future.

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I JUST WANT TO BE A MAJESTIC UNICORN.

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Failed It.

My first semester of thesis didn’t go as well as I would have hoped. I struggled with the idea that I am graduating and what to do afterwards. I chose to design around nail products because I was leaning towards taking over my families nail salon after graduation.

A lot of things we discussed during thesis lead to the under-standing that I wasn’t developing any graphic design during thesis. Most of my work that semester was fine arts and not working towards my objectives for thesis. This was not okay.

After this semester ended, my friends and I knew that I needed to move on and forget about nails in general. The spring semester lead to something similar with the ideas of technology. All my ideas were too applied and no one cares about Google Glass. I still do not know what to do.


Final Version, 18 x 24 inches

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Chlorophyll Prints

This was a revisited experience that I learned while at Raritan Valley Community College. When I first learned this alternative photo process, by Josh Azzarella, I wasn’t as suc-cessful in making clear prints and preserv-ing the leaves. This project allowed me to experiment with different leaves and learn more how to handle leaves as a material.

The process was invented by a Vietnamese per-son named Binh Dahn. He explains it the best.

“One summer, I was motivated to experiment with photosynthesis and its pigments after watching the lawn change color due to a wa-ter hose that was placed on it. Soon after that observation, I was making chlorophyll prints. Photosynthesis takes place in plants as carbon dioxide, water, and light energy is converted to sugars and oxygen. Photosynthesis is the main route by which free energy in the environ-ment is made available to the living world. In my work, photosynthesis is used to record im-ages onto leaves. The leaves are then cast in resin, like biological samples for scientific stud-ies. The images were made into negatives. Then exposed onto living leaves, by placing the nega-tives onto the leaf, and placing that into a con-tact printing frame. The image formation was all due to chlorophyll, light, carbon dioxide, and water: the life source of plants and, consequent-ly the Earth. This process deals with the idea of elemental transmigration: the decomposition and composition of matter into other forms.”

I changed a few things around when I did my own prints. Instead of using a negative I used a positive image on transparency paper. I first applied these transparencies on small leaves but upon critique we felt that the message wasn’t working. Also upon suggestion I should try finding larger leaves.

The only issues I found with finding larger leaves was finding one large enough during winter. I de-cided to take a chance on frozen banana leaves and surprisingly it worked amazingly. I figured that since banana leaves are native to Vietnam, Dahn must have experimented on these leaves as well.

Also instead of using resin to fix my leaves I used a acidic free glue and water combination to mount and fix the leaf. This was done after days of apply-ing the leaf between paper to absorb the water.


Research and Development [R&D]

During 2013-2014 I have been collecting vari-ous technologies such as Google Glass, Nexus 5, Pebble Smart Watch, Sphero Robotic Ball, NeuroSky Brain Wave, Ouya Gaming System, and Leap Motion Device. I started collecting these technologies because of my interest in their capabilities. Most of these devices are fairly new and open for development, I hope to explore into these as much as possible. Each device has their own separate use, but work off similar platforms like Android. I have been a long time iOS user but recently switched over to Android to explore the other platform.

Research and Development has been a re-cent driving philosophy in my design work because it captures my deep love for tech-nology. I feel that I have a fair understanding for technology and using my passion, I am going to explore indepth these devices and possibly newer devices as I go along. I want to maintain as much of an unbiased opin-ion as possible while looking at technology with extreme curiosity and critical thought. I want to understand why something exists, and what it gives to people. There’re going to be a lot of questions but not many answers.

I want to learn how to develop for iOS and Android but maybe I will explore the designs and functions in how applications apply to de-vices. I am interested in UI design and from there I want to explore the weaknesses of my collected devices, and possibly create a new UI concept when necessary. How that will work, will develop as I continue to explore technol-ogies. Not only do I want to keep up-to-date with hardware, I will be exploring their soft-ware as well. They come hand in hand when publicly released. A great device can only be as good as the software that supports it.

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I am a Google Glass Explorer. I signed up for Google’s program to test out Google Glass before actual release. This prototype is the second generation of where they first started upon release in the program. I knew when going through this testing stage that I would raise a lot of questions from strangers. I am completely fine with that, it comes with Re-search and Development. Everyday I have people asking me “Oh Wow, that is Google Glass! How do you like it?”. I don’t have to an-swer anyone, but I enjoy telling people about this future device and what I use it for. I like that I am able to test out this device and al-low for people to ask me questions. Every-day is journey and I share it with the world.

Technology isn’t flawless. Yet. There will be a time when machines become something per-fect, actual perfection living in an imperfect world. Perhaps not in our life time but I believe that synthetic life can be a possibility. That leap in technology can change so much, and it can hap-pen at anytime. There are companies exploring a lot of amazing things, like Honda’s Asimo robot. Honda has been exploring robotics for the

past few years and has released amaz-ing results. There are flying cars being de-veloped, The Jetsons world is coming. Back in 2007 Apple released the iPod touch [iOS 1.1] and that was a huge game changer that lead to the iPhone, and iPad. It was a seri-ous leap in technology from those before it.

I remember growing up with a number of dif-ferent devices and each iteration of the same device can evolve greatly. There were so many flaws with earlier tech, software being one of the biggest issues. I have had serious trouble when certain programs would down right not work or crash. Thankfully in todays age that has changed with online support, and software updates. Interestingly we have entered a stage in public technology where the consumer is starting to find unnecessary upgrades. We actually don’t need anything, technology can simply make our lives easier. Right? I need my techno gadgets at all times, I feel that without them I am incomplete. I don’t mind being con-nected to the grid and big brother watching over me at all times. I need to be connected.


Thesis Project

Over this past year of undegraduate study at Mason Gross, I started to research technologies available. When I say available I mean technologies that people can develop for, because the com-pany released their APIs/SDKs or source code.

I started looking into things I love like kick-starter companies like Ouya and Pebble. I also love robotics like Arduino which led me to Orbit’s Sphero, a robotic ball controlled by your cellular phone. I also started look-ing into Leap Motion, possibly one of the best availble motion sensors for the public.

Through all this research I also researched a few things Google is doing, of course lead-ing me into purchasing Google Glass. As a side note, I strongly believe that Google will be doing amazing things in the next com-ing decade. It is going to be an interest-ing time for this company and the world.

The images to the right is Lisa Park perform-ing an experiment she calls Euonia. Park is using a EEG reader or Electroencephalogra-phy. This reader reads the users brain waves measuring the electronic impulses through the scalp. In this performance, Park is in a medita-tive state, trying to achieve perfect harmony with herself. However when her brainwaves are detected they will transmit audio through speakers underneath water bowls. These wa-ter bowls then react to the sound waves creating a visualization of Park’s brain waves.

R&D 57

I became highly interested in remote controls, with Neurosky I could achieve that but with further research it was not what I wanted. The device itself is awesome and the technology will become stronger but I wasn’t completely into the idea with its current state just yet.

Instead I looked deeper into Leap Motion, the motion sensor that can read hand gestures. With this device people can potentially do Tony Stark movements like in the Iron Man movies. The coolest thing recently is that HP started incorporating this technology into their key-boards. This motion sensor is now easily avail-able to everyone and anyone can develop for it.

There was a lot of things I could do with this Leap Motion device such as control my com-puter functions or control things in general like a mouse would. I wanted to try some-thing a little different and thought about combining the device with Orbit’s Sphero. I found what Alchemycs, a programmer, did using node.js and tried going from there.

What they did with Node,.js was that they were able to control the Sphero with leap motion. Instead I got the help of my com-puter science friend, Jonathan Knehr. He was able to help me with coding for Sphe-ro and Leap Motion. The platform he decided to code on was Objective C since both de-vices had compatible SDKS in that platform.

With his help I am able to control Sphero through my PC using Leap Motion. Original-ly you would control Sphero with your cell phone but now I can simply do hand ges-tures to control this robotic ball. What does this lead to? It leads to the possibilities of controlling heavy machinery with our bod-ies or minds without the use of hands and fingers. It can help disabled people and peo-ple that can not operate heavy machinery. This can lead to work potential for anyone.


Pebble Smart Watch

Pebble introduced the world to smart watch-es in 2012. By 2013 Pebble started the market for smart watches leading to other compa-nies like Samsung to create similar devices. Pebble was developed by Eric Migicovsky who first brought the idea through Y Combinator’s business incubator program, From there Peb-ble entered the kickstarter program, receiving more than 10 million dollars for development. By mid 2013 the company started mass produc-tion for Pebble. Stores such as Best Buy were sold out of the watch within days of release.

Pebble is a incredible and convenient piece of technology because of the discrete nature of the device. Most people won’t look twice if you look at your wrist since watches aren’t a new thing to the world. Pebble is able to receive notifications from your cellular phone via blue-tooth. Pebble displays text messages, Facebook notifications, email and almost any other noti-fication your cellphone receives. It eliminates the needs for people to reach for their cell-phones. This is especially convenient during sit-uations where you can’t look at your cellphone.

This device is rechargeable and has a great battery life. I was incredibly surprised by the quality of this smart watch. I use it everyday and people notice how elegant the design is but don’t notice right away that it is a smart watch. During dinner or class I am able to read notifications without pulling out my cell-phone, allowing my life to be uninterrupted.

Pebble has always intended for the device to be opened for development. With the release of the smart watch the SDK was also released promoting developers to develop applica-tions for Pebble Smart Watch. Pebble is able to work off both ios and Android platform. The only issue I found with the device is that the screen fogs during temperature change.

R&D 59

Google Glass

Google Glass is a huge step towards the fu-ture of how people send and receive informa-tion. The device adds to the world of wearable technology and creates a stairway for aug-mented reality. Glass is able to display informa-tion directly in front of your eyes on top of what you already see. This new monitor acts like a 25 inch screen in front of your face. Glass is merely an extension of your cellphone, allowing for hands free control. The device is able to be controlled by voice or hand ges-tures without the need to use your cell phone.

Glass works off both ios and Android but cur-rently lacks a required application on ios. Glass-ware is an application only available to Android but ios users can still operate Glass without the application. The only issue is that Glass for ios won’t have all the features Android does. Some of the best features of Glass include, SMS tex-ting, voice calling, Google Hangouts and display GPS for turn by turn directions when walking. I wouldn’t recommend using Glass while driving because it requires a lot of focus in order to read the display. While walking this isn’t a huge issue as the display becomes apart of your reality.

The device itself is really fascinating at first but honestly Glass doesn’t do much. The battery life doesn’t promote long usage but works fine with sporadic use through-out the day. People can browse the web for an hour continuous use before dying. What I love most about Glass is the ability to take photographs at any given time with ease. As easy as blinking! Literally since the a Wink feature is built in allowing a simple wink to take a picture.

Overall the concept is much cooler than actual product. I don’t see much of a use for this de-vice because your smart watch can do a lot of Glass features without being overly obnoxious.

We want to emphasize who we are and want to express our lives with clashing colors and insane designs. Our motto is go pimp or go home and hon-estly we don’t ever go home.

Rock what is awesome regardless of how politically correct it is. If you like something, don’t be afraid to show it. Bring it to the world!

We live our lives the way we want it to be, all the haters can suck it.

kevin l. hau [r&d]

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