The Fabratory was invited to participate in this year's Maker Faire by our friends at the Big Picture Company. Held in Detroit, Michigan, the faire proved to be a great place where creative minds could work together and make an idea come to life. At the faire we met fellow thinkers and makers and saw incredibly strange and unique inventions from people all around the country, including a machinist who fabricated his own 3d "cupcake" printers, a farmer who built a combined lumber mill/laser cutter/shop bot/3d printer (that was portable!), and a community group that made multiple seated bikes for more than one person enjoy. What really interested us about all of the different inventions was the mix of things both useful and totally useless. The faire proved to be a place for these off-beat people to explore their ideas with style, such as a guy who converted a Volvo into a robotic choir using animatronic fish, crabs, lobsters, and sharks, or a team that built a life-size mouse trap game, or even a metal singing skeleton.  These inventions have no place in a household, but the fact that the ideas are so different and the makers thought outside the box is what makes these things even more special.

The Fabratory wasn't in Detroit to just enjoy this gathering of inventors. We were also lucky enough to participate in an education symposium put on by the Big Picture Company. People from around the world came to think about a high school for people who learn with their hands and discuss what a school of makers would look like. We showed the group our own personal projects that we are working on in the Fabratory and spoke to them about how we learn using the tools in a Fab Lab. We were really excited to be able to help them out. Take a look at some of the photos that we took both at the Maker Faire and at the symposium.

-Brian Melo

This week in Kennedy Plaza, the public got a glimpse of the talent here at the AS220 Youth Studio! We set up a station selling screen printed tees, laser cut wooden postcards, etched tumblers, pins, jewelry and more - all designed and crafted by our youth.

Come check out our booth next month!

Yesterday we went on a field trip with the performance crew to our local radio station 95.5 WBRU. It was a good experince, we learned some interesting things about how you can start producing your music on the air. We also learned some interesting facts about how WBRU got started and where. At WBRU we meet a lot of nice people, they were so friendly to us and we got free Brisk Ice Tea which was delicous and we got some free cd's. We also saw a lot of different rooms where they record the local news, music etc. Another cool thing that we saw in the studio was how many different artists came and signed their wall.

AS220 supports the YOUTH! Zukrewe, the youth studio performance group, represented at the 11th annual 3rd eye open hip hop festival in New Bedford. The festival's rich hip hop culture involved such things as dunking contests, graffiti art, break dancing battles, and much more. The 45 minute drive to Buttonwood Park was worth the wait for Zukrewe. Our street band's Dynamic 7 brought the HYPE with their unique and beat busting remakes of songs such as Nuh Linga, Calabria, and Danny Song. The weather was nice but some of the emcees could have been nicer. I left feeling as if some emcees didn't put their all into their performances. But when 3rd Eye's group took the stage the mood was put back on, with their mission reflected in their youth's live performers. Followed by Providence's own, Travis, from Who Dem. The main acts were all female MCs and they stood up for the year of the woman!! Everyone appeared very passionate and enthusiastic, which gave the audience watching them a cheerful vibe.

The breakers were one of the highlights of my 3rd Eye experience. Can you say SKILLS?! Basketball is also a major element of the 3rd Eye Open. Many teams come from all over New England to participate, so competition is steep! The talent was amazing, the players all seemed like they had something to prove, and they all went hard. Overall it was a really nice experience and I can't wait to go back next year.

-Angella Daluz

The last few classes for Intro to 3D have been great!

We are working on making a city, where each block is modeled in 3D by a student. Then we collectively combine the blocks to feature in a game. Later we'll take what we made to experiment with Augmented Reality.

To draw inspiration, we have been touring downtown Providence to collect photographs of interesting historical architecture and saving them for reference.

Check out the progress that we've made!

This past monday, the Fabratory welcomed guest speaker Tiffany Jon. A recent RISD grad ('09) from the Industrial Design department, she is currently a designer for Apple in Cupertino, CA.

Tiffany showed us samples from her portfolio, focusing on projects related to the work we've been doing this summer. She spoke about her experiences, learning the design process and real world applications for design beyond school.

Tiffany's presentation helped to give perspective on the projects we've been busy with and showed us the opportunities that are available using the valuable skills we've been developing here!

We've heard the age-old adage, "a picture is worth a thousand words." This week in the lab, we're exploring possibilities of conveying meaning with design!

Now in our fourth week of the summer work program, the Fabratory is creating an informative word wall - a visual dictionary of design terms to help us with our own design practice and to equip us for conversation and critique.

AS220 has recently received a one-thousand condom donation from Planned Parenthood. The task was pretty simple. I Google searched for condoms for the parenting class at the studio. I typed 'condom donations' in and the first link that appeared was the 'Condom Hut', but they wanted us to pay for the condoms. Then I clicked on the second link which was 'Planned Parenthood' and I wrote down the number to call, I told them who I was and what we needed the donation for and we ended up getting the donation- but I wasn't expecting one-thousand! I felt a real sense of accomplishment obtaining condoms for the studio in order to advertise safe sex for teens. The "PROPER ATTIRE" design helps ensure that now you can feel completely comfortable buying condoms and carrying them with you. It also helps to kind of bring out the humor of using a condom and makes people feel more comfortable and use them all the time.

-Maurice Harrison

This week has been productive and exciting for the young people working as part of the Visuals team! On Monday we had the first Product Design class and began brainstorming ideas for t-shirts and posters that are going to be sold at Foo Fest as well as the Monthly Market Bazaar at Kennedy Plaza.

Alex, Sam, Manny and Solomon also learned how to build their own canvas stretchers and stretched their own canvases that are 4'x4' large! Before painting, the Visuals team talked about how to convey emotion or mood through composition, color, and tone. They then projected images and drawings onto their canvases that you can check out below!

Check out the finished product after the jump!!!

Providence Public Library first introduced the glass negatives to AS220 during the wintertime and we were highly interested, so a project was created. The Library wanted AS220 to document and photograph the negatives so a team of photographers was gathered. Krystal, Scott, Alario, myself and a few others decided to meet every Thursday to document these wonderful negatives from the early 1800's.

First we cataloged each negative at the library, giving them their own numbers and codes. We cleaned the negatives with a "make up" brush because it's much softer and we didn't want to damage the negatives. Then we photographed the negatives on a light table with a digital camera and put them in an archival envelop for protection. After every session at the library, we went back to As220 so myself and others could digitally process the negatives that we shot, turning them from a negative into a positive.

The collection had photos from across Rhode Island of wealthy people, landscapes, houses, portraits and farms. Hundreds of negatives were cataloged and photographed. It took about four months to get through all of them. Eventually, they will all be used on a website which will be used to promote the project.

By Anthony Villavicencio

More photographs after the jump ! ! !

Our summer work program is now in full swing. Check out what the media and technology team has been up to!

Today we had some demos on Gimp and experimented with different tools to manipulate photographs and images. We're going to put what we learned into use by designing our own logos and business cards.

Starting this week we'll be playing basketball every Wednesday at the Classical High School court. We'll be leaving from the studio at 5:30pm and walking over to Classical with Ben and Sean. We'll play ball from 6 to 8pm. So bring your A game (or your B game) and have some fun!!!

Erin and Randolph, parent educators from John Hope Settlement House, will be running a parenting class right here at the studio. It will be pretty relaxed (no lectures) and a comfortable space to talk about the challenges of having a child. You'll learn more about the local resources available to you, cover the basics of child development, and talk about how to manage relationships, especially if you're still living at home with parents yourself. There will be healthy snacks provided, so come one and all! If you would like to sign up or know someone that would be interested, please email anne@as220.org for further info!

July 12th through August 30th
Mondays- 5pm to 7pm

We're gearing up for our summer programming here at the studio and there is a lot going down. The open house will be the chance for people to sign up for summer classes, which will run from July 5th to August 27th. We'll also be having orientation for new members. DJ Therion will be on hand to provide the soundtrack for the afternoon and of course, as always, there will be free food!

After the open house there is an open mic, the Rap Down starting at 6pm. There will be a contest for the best lyricist of the night with prizes up for grabs, including a mix of free studio time and music production with Plan B.

PLUS Norlan Olivo's first solo show opens up this week! Check it out in the youth gallery while you're upstairs for the open house.

The show covers the many mediums Norlan is readily able to work with, including photography, silk screening, sculpture, and fashion. There is work represented spanning from his very first roll of film all the way up to his most recently developed. Some of the photographs are from his trip to New York city, others are experimental.

"It represents a good part of the work I've done since I first got here back in September of 2009." He talks about how he was learned to sharpen his skills since his arrival, especially in terms of composition and printing technique. "Now I know exactly what I want from a photo and how to achieve it."

"I write everyday," Premier says, "when something comes to me, I just pull out my notebook and write it down. I usually try to tell a story with a mix of flow and content. What I bring to the table is unique."

Through a connection he made at an AS220 hip hop show, he landed an audition with Chaos Co., a local rap crew. He had to freestyle on the spot to showcase his skill, let them know he was committed, then his slot in the group was made official. He's been working with them now for almost a year.

Premier talks about how it was different to transition from working as a solo artist to moving into a group dynamic. "I'll be told songs need to be done by deadlines, the titles will already be set, and other verses already recorded and I have to fit into that. It has taught me to be prepared for anything. There have been times I had to record a song a day before a performance." And he's been ready.

Between his solo work, which he recorded at the Delgado Studio, and the songs he has with his group, Premier has somewhere in the range of 40 tracks recorded. And there are also plans in the works to tour New England this summer, leaving in June, so keep an eye out for upcoming shows!

Check out his track- Only want you.mp3

After a only a week or two of work, Norlan has come up with this awesome Giraffe. It's made of felt, packing peanuts, sand, and a wooden pole to support the neck. His inspiration was simple: "I like giraffes, and I figured, I didn't want to make a bag in sewing class, so I made this instead." He drew out the trace for the animal, then cut out the material along the trace. The front and backside are machine sewn together, except for a small opening used to fill giraffe with packing peanuts, and then the opening was sewn up by hand. Norlan is also wearing a rain poncho which he made out of some water-proof material he found laying around. Then, for the finishing touch, he etched "Hello World" into the neckline using the laser cutter at a sensitive setting. Ka-Blam!

Young people from the Providence Youth Arts Collaborative (AS220 Broad Street Studios, Community MusicWorks, the Carriage House, New Urban Arts, and Providence ¡CityArts! for Youth) have joined forces to organize the first-ever youth arts day on the theme of Roots & Rituals at AS220, generously sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts!

Join us for this FREE collaborative arts and media day where you can make cool stuff, learn about local youth arts organizations, and see expressive performances. Don't leave your personality at home, bring your SKILLZ, experience different art practices in workshops, or just hang out. There will be an open mic - show us what you got! Get ready for a day you won't soon forget! You will have an awesome time!

SATURDAY, MAY 22

DOORS 11:30 WORKSHOPS 12-2 PERFORMANCES 2-5

FREE FOOD!

Schedule:

12-1pm
Improv Workshop (sign-up)
Laser Cutter Workshop (drop-in)
Story Booth (drop-in)
Writing Workshop (sign-up)
Visuals Workshops (drop-in)

1-2pm
Dance Workshop (sign-up)
Laser Cutter Workshop (drop-in)
Story Booth (drop-in)
Movie in an Hour (sign-up)
Visuals Workshops (sign-up and drop in)

2-3pm
Youth Panel
Street Band
Free Food

3-4pm
Broad Street and Carriage House Dance Performances with CMW Rhythm Machine Video and Slideshow Screening (work from Broad Street, Carriage House, and CMW)

4-5pm
Roots & Rituals performances featuring CMW Fiddle Lab and Broad Street Studio Street Band finale
Plus ongoing youth gallery show and other surprises!

The recent excursion to MIT was one of the best field trips I've ever been on. Once the AS220 group entered the MIT buildings, it was a technological world where anything you could think of as reasonably possible to create could be done. We went into a lab where there was a massive machine which used only water to cut clean through 7 to 9 inches of steel. Then we saw robot cars being produced, high tech communication booths where business interactions could take place, a bass guitar powered using only a hand pump, and an electric fabric which lit up when touched. It was a good/well/great experience which taught me to appreciate all of the passion and work which goes into our technology these days.

Writing and Photography by Jeremiah Joseph

Manny Togbah, age 17, has been making art since he was very young. Most of his work has centered around religion or animals, topics which he explores through various mediums and methods. He usually likes to draw with pencil and has been learning how to paint as well. Most recently, he has started working with pastel after finding inspiration from some of the work on display in the AS220 gallery. These pieces here are the beginning of what Manny hopes will become a whole collection of oil pastel animal heads. He likes to work quickly, completing the eagle, lion and deer each in about an hour apiece. Manny makes most of his artwork at the studio, but will also bring work home, which allows him more time to concentrate and create as much as possible. This is his first year here at BSS and he has certainly hit the ground running and has no plans of slowing down. "I want to be a professional artist," he says. "I want to travel the world and share my art wherever I go."

As many may know, Broad Street Studio is now working on a new album which is set to drop this summer. Some might think that this is a little soon seeing that we just released the "Handle It or be Defeated" album. But the Delgado contains an abundant source of music that never stops coming in and is getting better and better with every session.

Another motivator for this new album is to make sure that BSS artists are continually motivated and challenged. If not, there's a risk that their art might remain on the same level, never reaching the heights of its true potential. So we keep it as fresh as possible to keep them interested.

One way of doing this is by bringing in guest artists. This past week, 3rd Eye's Youth program from New Bedford, MA, came to collaborate with our MC Writing Class. This class is run by Plan B, but today Anjel helped out with the big crowd of teens. They split into 2 groups and created 2 new tracks for the album. It was impressive how easily they collaborated with each other. Jerimiah B. produced both tracks. Over all, it went really well! Pretty soon we'll be taking a BSS contingent across state lines to finish up the recording, so stay tuned for the next sneak peek of the many good things to come!!

Hip Hop Dance kicked off the spring term with nothing but raw energy, sweat pants and wall shattering volume. With a consistent class size of 14 students, Hip Hop dance is rolling bigger, badder and stronger than ever. To jump off this term, the class selected the song "Hey Daddy" written and performed by one of ATL's finest- Usher, and the song stays bumping repeatedly up in the thrid floor dance studio of Perishable Theater.

The class began by breaking down into two groups. Lead by Josh Vega, the boys choreographed their own intro routine. People like Brian Mello, Randolph Placide and Andrew Clay helped Vega come up with some of these dope moves. On the other side of the floor, the girl's team, lead by Anjel and Amber, choreographed their own piece. Angela Daluz took what's hot and what's hotter into her own hands. As soon as the track came on, she began to bang out sassy but solid moves that would later leave the girls looking UFO fly.

Hip Hop dance has many more songs, moves and swagg coming down the pipes. Def don't want to give away all the goods in one entry so untill next time roger that and I'm out!!!!

Anjel

Gerry Figueroa says he finds inspiration in many things: hope, loss, life, his subconscious mind, religious themes, the way he thinks, women and past loves. Phew! That's a lot, but there is clearly is so much present in his paintings, most of which he gives away after completion, keeping only the truly personal ones for himself. "I have been doing this all of my life," he says.

Gerry says this painting here, 'Cranial Deflowering,' represents romantic themes and his illness. "It's something I've dealt with for past couple years as it progressed, changed, morphed and became more serious. The medication would dull my creativity." When asked how the romance manifests itself, he says it comes from within his illness, an actual love for it as a part of himself. "Ultimately, I hope to influence people and show them how I think, like how I think in my mind, straight to the canvas."