kathryn mcelroy

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When Dragons Roamed the Earth

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Building a chicken coop in my backyard!

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Air. Heat. Vibration. Electromagnetic waves. What else can you do with a hair dryer besides create a hairdo? Learn more and start your own #hackahairdryer project. 

[kathrynmcelroy]

That’s my project on the bottom! Hack a hair dryer and combat unconscious bias.

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Photos and videos with the hashtag ‘100daysofkemcelroy’ on Instagram

Follow along for the final 25 days of my 100 day project!

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“As we understand ourselves better, we can make our technology work better for us.” 

Brad Becker Chief Design Officer IBM Watson

No. 12 of 30  | View the poster

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"What the Future of Robots Reveals About the Human Condition"

Robots, [Diane] Ackerman argues, can also help us make sense of the world now that our own sensemaking capacity is being drowned out by an information ecosystem of exponentially swelling amounts of data. She recounts that in 1972, when she was making her writing debut with a suite of poems for the planets, Carl Sagan, who was on her doctoral committee at Cornell, gave her access to NASA photographs and reports. It was possible then, Ackerman argues, “for an amateur to learn everything humans knew about the planets.” This is no longer the case — “the Alps of raw data would take more than one lifetime to summit, passing countless PhD dissertations at campsites along the trail.” So there is incredible allure in the notion of intelligent robots that can help us trek across those Alps and make new discoveries.

How extraordinary that we’ve created peripheral brains to discover the truths about nature that we seek. We’re teaching them how to work together calmly as a society, share data at lightning speed, and cooperate so much better than we do, rubbing brains together in the invisible drawing room we sometimes call the “cloud.” Undaunted, despite our physical and mental limitations, we design robots to continue the quest we began long ago: making sense of nature. Some call it Science, but it’s so much larger than one discipline, method, or perspective.

From Brain Picking's post here.

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#Sketchnotes from #cmatx this morning. @Brikslovesyou speaking about color. #creativemornings

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I previously posted about my #SuperCorgis series of drawings here, and now you can buy all of my original drawings as stickers on my Etsy shop! I have two full teams of superhero corgis:

Team A: Batcorg Flashgi Corgi Lantern Aquacorg Wonder Corgi Super Corgi Cyborgi Martian Corgihunter Team B: Hulkgi Captain Corgi Ironcorg Corgerine Black Widogi Spidercorg Nightcorg Thorgi

The stickers are printed on vinyl, which makes them waterproof and super durable. They can go on your notebooks, laptops, and even your car! You can purchase the stickers in three different sizes:

– small (1.5" by 1.25") in sets of 8 or 16

– medium (2" by 1.7") in sets of 8 or 16

– large (3" by 2.5") as individual superheroes (your choice!)

Share the corgi love and your love of superheroes too!

[kathrynmcelroy]

My sketch notes from this morning's talk by David Kelley. It was the largest Creative Morning yet with over 600 people attending at the New School's Tishman Auditorium. David talked about his history in engineering and industrial design, his work at IDEO, and his new book Creative Confidence in addition to taking audience questions. 

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A clear vision and an unwillingness to give up.

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Spent the morning with the Central Park Sketching and Art Meetup Group at Madison Square Park. We did three rounds of sketching around the park, and shared our drawings after each round. I loved the variety of media: pencil, ink, watercolor, and charcoal. Everyone was very nice and supportive of the varying levels of experience.

I drew the water tower sculptures, Shake Shack, and one of the other artists drawing in the dog park.

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Check out my ongoing series of Super Corgis on Instagram! www.Instagram.com/kemcelroy or #Supercorgis

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10 Rules for Students and Teachers (and Life) by John Cage and Sister Corita Kent

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Love number seven!

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I've been published! Today I finally saw the article I wrote for Make Magazine in print. #vscocam

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Learning How to Write

Last semester for thesis, I was asked to write every day, working towards the final thesis book. I didn't set up an accountability buddy, so I wrote every once in a while. At the end of the semester, it took me two full weeks of writing and editing to put my book together, and it was exhausting. This semester, our teacher is more specific and asks us to write 500 words per day, in addition to a formal writing assignment every week. I knew it would be difficult to accomplish this without a plan, so after a week of following my writing routine, I want to share it here and then give updates as I continue to write during this semester.  One of the first steps to creating my plan was listening to Sean Wes' podcast about writing. He lays out a lot of great reasons for writing; it helps you remember, it helps you capture ideas, it helps you to be more articulate, and it helps you to see how far you've come. He talks about his personal writing plan which is Early Wake, Daily Write. I've modeled my plan off of this idea, but my "early" is not quite as early as his 5am wake up.  The Plan I start my day with the Sleep Cycle alarm app. It wakes you up during your lightest sleep by tracking your movements in bed. Sean suggested a similar app, and it has really helped me with waking up early, one of the hardest parts of this plan. I started waking up at 8am this first week, and I plan to work backwards until I'm awake at 7am.  I make my breakfast and coffee and set up in my office area, which is a desk in my studio apartment’s entry way. The desktop is clear of everything except my breakfast and my iPad. I use Evernote as my writing program because it works best for writing on an iPad. It also syncs across all my other devices, so I can access my writing and to do lists from my iPhone and desktop computer at school. I start a new note every morning, and I leave the title blank until I've finished writing.  Sometimes I have something specific I'm writing about, like the audience for my thesis. Other times I just allow myself to write stream of conscious to pull out ideas and to develop blog posts. The most important lesson I've learned is don’t try to edit yourself as you write; just write, then edit later. It's easier to edit something once you've written it, and this makes it easier to begin writing. I write for 40-60 minutes usually, and end up with anywhere from 500-1000 words. I notice that as I follow my plan, I'm writing more words in the same amount of time each day. I try not to check my email or social media until after I've reached my writing goal for the morning. It's the reward for completing my goal, and that way I'm not drained from seeing all the emails I need to answer. I've also been reading quite a bit about productivity and many articles state that your most important work should be done first before your limited cognitive energy is drained from information overload. As I continue to implement my writing plan, I'll post more updates in my blog and share any other tips and tricks I discover along the way.

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Chameleon Bag Tutorial in Make Magazine

The tutorial I wrote for the Chameleon Bag is published in this month's Make Magazine, volume 37. The Chameleon Bag is an interactive messenger bag that reacts to RFID-tagged objects with full-color LED animations on its front flap. Now you can make your own bag by following the instructions in the tutorial here.

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2013 Year in Review

This year had been full of learning, making, culture, and work. It’s flown by, and I wanted to share a few of the accomplishments that I’m proud of from this crazy year in New York.

I started the second semester of grad school in January after a whirlwind first semester. I developed a better school-life balance and regularly had dinners with Dan, a huge improvement. I discovered my love for designing smart objects, and my project, with Rae Milne, from that class won an honorable in Interaction Design from the Core77 Design Awards. My Chameleon Bag from first semester won runner-up in the DIY category in the same awards. I finished out the semester with a group project for the Wanted Design event during Design Week that was mentioned in the New York Times. That project took a lot of work and coordination, and it was very rewarding to see how successful it was. 

Dan and I explored New York during May and June, and I used this time to practice and improve my photography. I got to meet my new niece for the first time and fell in love with her cute, chubby cheeks. I also taught myself to bake sourdough bread from my own starter, and it was some of the best bread I’ve ever made! We spent July in Michigan, and I kayaked for the first time in years. 

Back to New York in August, I spent the month working at Etsy’s headquarters in Brooklyn documenting their company culture through photography. I cherish the time I had there and met so many wonderful people. I also got to flex my photography skills with my new camera body, a Canon 5D Miii. 

In September I started my third semester, and final year, of grad school. I began my thesis, and even though I’ve felt lost and confused many times during the semester, my topic has remained unchanged and still holds my interest, not an easy feat. I showed projects at Maker Faire, and had one featured in a preview article in Timeout New York magazine and online. In October I made my favorite Halloween costume ever, a full Tardis outfit, utilizing my electronics skills to make a light-up fascinator. All my classmates dressed up for our class on Halloween; our first Halloween together because Sandy took away the holiday last year. 

I finished up the year seeing a variety of plays and musicals with beloved actors: Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, and Betrayal with Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz. I also finished the semester strong with some of the best presentations I’ve given, with much preparation and practice. In addition to school work, I completed a freelance writing piece for Make Magazine, which I’ll post more about when it’s published next month. 

Overall, in 2013 I grew majorly in many areas: photography, time management, leadership, and baking. I’m really excited to see what’s in store for 2014, especially because of the goals I’ve set for myself and the big move coming in July. We’re not sure where we’re going yet, depends on the jobs available, but there will be more adventures and changes after graduation. For now, I’m thankful for all the opportunities I’ve had from this time in New York City.