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!

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