By Shelby Gill / Photos by Shelby Gill and Edmund Harriss
Just as painters wield brushes and paint, Vincent Edwards, director of technology for the School of Art, and Edmund Harriss, assistant professor of art and mathematics, asked students to view technology as another palette.
Rather than solve a problem, students in Technology Craft were encouraged to ask machines, “What questions can you answer?” or “What ideas can you play with?”
Harriss describes this approach as curiosity-driven manufacturing — something not often seen in a “world of productivity.”
The goal of the hands-on course was twofold: learn about the history and theoretical framework of technology and craft while also nurturing students’ curiosity using technology in making (or failing at) something new.
The course primarily focused on 3D printing, laser cutting and computer numerical control, or CNC, a code-based manufacturing method. Read below as three students detail their creative process.
Daniella Fernanda
honors criminology, psychology and sociology
As a triple major in criminology, psychology and sociology, it’s rare that Daniella Fernandez has room in her schedule to take electives.
“Because I’m a first-generation student, I have this inclination to do the most and really make myself and my family proud,” she shared, and she knows how to stay busy.
Fernandez works as a research assistant in a lab on campus, serves on the executive board for the Honors College Student Ambassadors, founded the Central American Student Alliance, researches the effects of CBD on alcohol use and shame, and she is applying to clinical psychology programs across the country. Packed schedule or not, she knew she wanted to take an art class her senior year.
“I wanted to try something different and do something out of the realm of what I usually study,” she noted.
In high school, Fernandez took a ceramics class that helped her explore her interests outside traditional academia. When she heard the Honors College was offering Technology Craft, a course that combined art and technology, she broke from her core coursework to try her hand at creating something new.
“I would not have taken this course if I hadn’t first tried ceramics in high school,” she said. “Essentially, I had the same experience at two different points in my life. I tried something new, and it happened to be interesting and fun. These experiences open doors for new passions. They help me explore myself.”
Similar to her first ceramics class, there was a learning curve, but this time it was compounded with technical application.
“It was hard,” she laughed. “A lot of the other students had backgrounds in computer science and engineering. I had to learn ten [new skills] to catch up, but I was proud of what I was able to accomplish.”
As an avid coffee drinker — preferably a mocha with oat milk — Fernandez focused her time on creating coffee mugs using a clay 3D printer. She used the same base for each mug and experimented with woven textures.
“It may not look physically impressive,” she laughed. “But the work that went behind it is much more impressive.”
Daniella Fernandez used clay 3D printing in the course to design a custom coffee mug for her morning brew.
Emily Kloostra
honors architecture
Emily Kloostra, an honors architecture major, enrolled in Technology Craft to explore how physical objects can be brought into digital spaces — a topic she’s investigating in her honors thesis. For her research, she is creating ceramic bowls on a potter’s wheel and experimenting with printing clay on top of them.
“It’s a smaller-scale investigation that could be applied to building technology,” she said. “We’re already seeing firms 3D-print concrete houses, and those structures will always need to adapt to the real world and existing environments.”
The honors course allowed Kloostra to experiment with various materials and gain a deeper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the machines. She created a wooden bowl by turning it on the lathe and using CNC to cut patterns into the bottom. Each iteration helped her better understand clay by comparing alternative materials.
“It was easier because wood doesn’t behave like clay; it doesn’t shrink in the same way, and it’s a subtractive form of fabrication, whereas clay is additive,” she explained.
She applied the design principles she learned in the course to her interior architecture studio project by creating a light fixture with a wooden base and a 3D-printed diffuser.
“It was interesting to see how we all approached the problems,” Kloostra said. “In architecture, we wanted to jump in and start making physical objects, while computer science students spent a lot of time in the digital space creating complex geometries. In the end, we were all focused on iteration. Even if we failed, we learned something.”
Emily Kloostra explored lighting design, clay 3D printing and CNC fabrication.
Alfredo Perez Ramirez
mechanical engineering
Technology Craft taught Alfredo Perez Ramirez, a mechanical engineering major, to embrace the full creative process — even when it meant sitting with discomfort.“This class helped me see something through to the very end,” Ramirez said. “In the past, I’d explore a bunch of different options and stop as soon as I got frustrated.”
His engineering background made the programming component intuitive, but his real challenge was focusing on a single machine and surrendering to the iterative process. Ultimately, he decided to model a ribcage using the clay 3D printer.
“I remember watching how the clay extruded and immediately thinking it looked like a ribcage,” he said. “I spent the entire project perfecting that ribcage.”
Philosophically, the course taught Ramirez to reflect on how he applies iteration in everyday life.
“Edmund was my voice of reason,” he said, crediting Harriss for encouraging him to “stick with it” when the process felt overwhelming, while Edwards helped him troubleshoot the most vexing problems.
Most importantly, Ramirez finished — and he was proud of what he walked away with.
“Unlike other classes, this course was entirely up to you and how much effort you put into the creative process,” he said. “You could see that across the table [at the exhibition] — the textures and shapes showed the iterative process happening, and I got to a place where I really liked what I made.”
Alfredo Perez Ramirez focused on perfecting a ribcage model using clay 3D printing.