Since April we’ve learned quite a bit about what makes an ideal scan and have spread that knowledge to our resident camera wizard, Bob Nardi, who I teamed up with for this project. We already had scans of the Lost Pleiad and the Double Pegasus, so we added them into the mix as the Queen and Knight, respectively. We also found the best candidates for the remaining pieces:

• Pawn (Egypt): Lion-Headed Gaming Piece
• Rook (New York): Rook [from a Wedgewood chess set]
• Bishop (Japan) : Emma – o, King and Judge of Hell
• King (Egypt): Senwosret III

We worked with our conservation staff to get access to the pieces which weren’t on view, including the roughly 3,000+ year-old Egyptian gaming piece Bob and I were a little nervous around. Using the same software combination of 123D Catch and Meshmixer, the scanned models were then generated and cleaned up and made watertight for printing.

Having the 3D models ready to print, I worked on resizing them as chess pieces, making sample prints with some unsightly lime-green PLA we had laying around. Chess pieces have been remixed a lot over it’s history, varying from the small magnetic sets you would find in travel stores to the more elaborate Frank Gehry set. By and large there’s no universal standard for the size and proportions, but the US Chess Federation has some guidelines on the proportions relative to the board which were [partially] adopted in the final design of the set.

In the past, we’ve only printed pieces on a one-by-one basis. Since there’s 16 individual pieces to a chess set, that method quickly became impractical. Using the software for our Cube printer, we were able to add multiple models onto the platform and have the software automatically space them out. Marveling at the efficiency of this plan I made a test run and walked into the room our 3D printer resides in only to find that I made glitch art.

The aforementioned room is generally great due to it being more or less soundproofed from the rest of the office, but due to other equipment which share the space, it’s kept at a crisp 60F degrees. Since there’s not much movement happening in the room’s air that doesn’t tend to affect the prints, but it does seem to make the glue used to stick the prints to the platform and the plastic web between the pieces when they’re being printed stiffen faster, so some individual pieces would be just attached enough to each other to cause them to be yanked off the platform mid-print and eventually turn into Katamari Damashi.

I managed to work around the temperature issue by turning on the raft option in the Cube Software settings. A raft in this case is a grid which is printed on the platform before the models are printed on top of it.

A raft keeps smaller pieces from detaching from the platform since it expands it’s connection to the platform beyond its otherwise tiny base size. The grid needs to be manually cut off around the edges after the print is complete, but that’s usually a quick process akin to peeling or shucking a really plasticy fruit or veggie.

After peeling it makes for a nice set ready to be shipped a whole three floors down! Sadly, I won’t be on this side of the Atlantic on Saturday due to other fun stuff, but if you want to see 3D printed chess in action, stop by and have fun in my place!

Just like our previous scans, we’re releasing the latest models under a Creative Commons license which you can download and print on your own 3D printer.

Download all models used in our chess collection (CC-BY-3.0) on Thingiverse

Saul Bolton in front of the Brooklyn Museum. Photo: Ruby Washington/The New York Times

We believe that the new Saul at the Brooklyn Museum will become an exciting destination for dining, and a thrilling opportunity for us to affiliate with an iconic Brooklyn institution with a mission so aligned to our own–together we will champion both Brooklyn artists and the vibrant Brooklyn food community. The new restaurant, a partnership among the Brooklyn Museum, Chef Saul Bolton, and Restaurant Associates, will provide seated lunch and dinner service in the newly renovated restaurant space on the first floor adjacent to the Café, which will continue its informal self-service, both now enhanced by the new outdoor Terrace. Access will be available through the front of Museum (come by subway!) and through the South Entrance (come by car!).

As with the acclaimed menu on Smith Street, Saul will utilize seasonal and artisanal ingredients to create his signature à la carte and chef’s tasting menus, which will now be expanded from only dinner also to include lunch and brunch. Come fall, the restaurant will open for lunch and dinner on Wednesdays through Sundays and for brunch on the weekends.

Our community is like none other, and we hope you will enjoy this amazing new addition. Please join us in welcoming Chef Saul and Lisa Bolton, and their exceptional staff to the Brooklyn Museum. We’ll keep you posted over the next few months on our exciting progress towards the opening in the fall!

This Thursday, May 9, we are partnering with The Go Game to offer a mobile scavenger hunt for singles. All you have to bring is your sense of adventure (and ideally a mobile device, you need one per team); we’ll take care of the rest. We’ll divide you into teams based on your dating preference, and you get to roam the museum completing missions, meeting new people, and perhaps enjoying a cocktail afterwards. Even if you don’t find “the one,” it will be hard not to have fun playing this game. There are several types of missions, including trivia, location-based puzzles, team photo ops, interacting with planted actors, and more.

I hope you’ll stick around after the game to share you thoughts because Elisabeth, Shelley, and I want to pick your brains. Was the scavenger hunt fun? Would you like more of them, perhaps with different topics or themes? Was it a good way to meet new people? Would you like to see more events like this? More singles events in general? The Go Game is kind enough to work with us for this experimental version, and if you like it, we might partner with them to do more scavenger hunts. So gather your single friends and flap your little wings over to the Museum Thursday at 7!

Join us every third Thursday of the month for drawing in the Museum’s galleries. Each workshop is led by a skilled teaching artist and focuses on a different object from the Museum’s collection, combining conversation with drawing to inspire engagement with art in new ways.

I spent a recent Saturday at an inter-disciplinary conference on drawing. I began the day thinking (as an artist) that I knew what “drawing” meant, and left both more confused and more excited than I had expected. One presenter was a plastic surgeon who thought about what he does with his scalpel as a sort of drawing. He collaborates with a fine artist who follows his hand movements and translates them into marks on paper which become beautiful in a way that only great abstract mark-making is. Another artist made a robot that can draw faces. I’m serious; the robot draws. The drawings are quite good, in fact, leaving out just enough information to convey the hand-drawn (or in this case robot hand-drawn) nature of the work. During the conference a textile artist was knitting responses to research papers about drawing, while a room full of teachers, academics, and artists discussed lines, gestures, marks and media.

I attended this event because we are starting a new evening program at the Museum based around drawing as an artistic and social experience. We’re trying to bring drawing into many different museum experiences in order to explain or record your thoughts and as a way to work though them. We know that drawing helps you see an object differently, but it can help you think differently as well.

Unfortunately, as adults we can sometimes forget to draw. Even for those of us who stick with drawing can forget the joy of it as we spend night after night in our studios, by ourselves. So one night a month we’re hoping to fill one of the Museum’s galleries with people drawing. There will be an instructor who will run though techniques and provide information about artworks, but there will also be you, hopefully lots of you, or people like you, or people unlike you, but people who are all willing to give this experience of looking, talking and drawing a shot. It’s this interaction, this feeling that drawing should be something fun, that will make this program great.

So come join us. And draw something.

Janet Stone's yoga class at YogaTree, San Francisco. Photo courtesy of Yogawomantv.com.

Like so many New Yorkers, the thought that I don’t have to get on the subway and go somewhere to find happiness or enlightenment is a radical idea. I know I’m not the only one who has taken away something from stretching my body and sitting quietly for a few moments. Yoga has provided a wide variety of insights to a diverse audience in urban cities and around the world. Historically, and one of the most interesting facts, is that yoga originated as a mostly male practice. It’s evolved in western culture as a very empowering practice for women (in addition to men). The film, Yogawoman highlights this story.

Africa Yoga Project, Kenyan school children practicing yoga in the fields of Nairobi. Photo courtesy of Yogawomantv.com.

Through inspiring personal stories from practitioners and teachers around the work from New York to Kenya, Yogawoman traces the impact of yoga as a source of inspiration and power it has had for us busy women.

Join us tonight for this very special advanced screening. Purchase tickets to reserve your spot in the Auditorium. Doors will open at 6:30pm this evening for the 7pm show.

Abu Jandal. As seen in The Oath. Credit: Khalid Al Mahdi

He’s also an engaging and intriguing character with a magnetic personality.  Dare I use the oxymoron charismatic extremist? Regardless, the film is a powerful document to the trails of the Middle East, the justice system, and the personal relationships affected by those complex networks. Tension comes not only from the timely subject matter but by the candid approach and ethnographic insights explored. Recent events make it particularly fitting to see right now.

How does one meet (let alone film) the former bin Laden body guard?

I was fortunate enough to have a phone conversation with editor and co-producer Jonathan Oppenheim. He gave some back-story and will be on hand for a Q&A after the screening to share more:

Abu Jandal. As seen in The Oath. Credit: Khalid Al Mahdi

Oppenheim explained that the film originally focused on the families of Guantanamo bay prisoners who were waiting for their loved ones to be released. Abu Jandal was the brother-in-law of one such prisoner named Salim Hamdan. Another layer to the story is that Salim Hamdan is the plaintiff in the 2006 US Supreme Court Case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, also the first person to stand trial for war crimes at Guantánamo. A lawyer working on the case put Director Laura Poitras and Abu Jandal in touch. From the get-go Oppenheim stated Jandal was very forthcoming which is extremely surprising given his unique position. The footage was too important to ignore.

In an earlier interview, Director Laura Poitras stated, “Themes of betrayal, guilt, loyalty, family and absence are not typically things that come to mind when we imagine a film about Al Qaeda and Guantánamo. Despite the dangers of telling this story, it compelled me.”

Perhaps it will for you too. Purchase tickets. The screening will take place on Thursday, June 23rd @ 7. Editor and co-producer, Jonathan Oppenheim will be on hand for a Q&A after the film. You won’t want to miss it.

The Oath is a co-production of Praxis Films and the Independent television Service (ITVS) in association with American Documentary | POV.

Collection Pyramid, 2001. Installed in the 5th Floor Elevator Lobby

Take the elevator to the fifth floor and when the doors open, you’ll find yourself in a small exhibition entitled Black Lincoln for Dooky Chase. There, you can contribute all of your unwanted pennies to Collection Pyramid, (2011), a sculpture in the making by Clean Penny Service (CPS), a performance duo formed in 2009 by artists Mike Smith and Lizzie Wright. Once the transparent pyramid is filled, it will be sealed, and the piece will be complete.

And take a look at those pennies in your pocket. Have any of them lost their shine?

CPS will be performing at Target First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum on July 2 from 6 to 8 p.m. The duo’s mission is to clean a dirty penny (I’m sure they’d be willing to do more than one) for each passerby, using “natural” methods whenever possible, free of charge. Stop by with your penny at the South Entrance!

Come get your penny cleaned by Clean Penny Service at Target First Saturday on July 2, 2011.

Kings of Pastry screening as part of our POV film series this Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 7 p.m.

Such is the experience watching Kings of Pastry. As part of our collaboration with the award winning documentary series, POV, the film will screen May 26 at 7pm in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium.

“Meilleur Ouvrier de France” (Best Craftsman in France)

The film documents the quest for the distinguished “Meilleur Ouvrier de France” (Best Craftsman in France). The contenders throw caution to the wind when it comes to the amount of butter, sugar, flour, and chocolate involved. What we see is a fascinating portrayal of the human spirit, of chef’s doing what they do best and doing it for the sake of it.

And as always it’s important to ask why. Why this film and why at the Brooklyn Museum? In answer, firstly let me say that to be in Brooklyn is in many ways to be a foodie. There are countless award winning bakeries and cafes within a ten, five, two mile radius or maybe even a block away from where you read this. There are Brooklyn specific food blogs, countless culinary classes, tastings to attend, as well as succulent restaurants other cities probably wish they had.

Jacques Torres ("Mr. Chocolate") will host a Q&A with us following the screening. Torres is not only in Brooklyn, he is the youngest person to ever win this prestigious “Meilleur Ouvrier de France” (Best Craftsman in France).

Also exciting, the famous chocolatier Jacques Torres (“Mr. Chocolate”) is in Brooklyn and will be at the screening for a Q&A after the film along with local film legends DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

Kings of Pastry documents the very similar path of a culinary artist. It compels us to watch, cheer for our favorites, lick our lips, and point fingers at the judges. Get your tickets. It’s all worth it for (like in any good competition) the process is just as important as the final product.

The partnership started as all partnerships do, with an idea and a goal. With the change in museum hours, now open until 10pm, the thought of a film series sparked. A list of potentials ran through my head including: local filmmakers, local films, Brooklyn films, museum films, films about our thriving Brooklyn cultural, films with appropriate subject matter that could play in compliments to our permanent exhibitions and rotating special exhibitions, films by certain distributors, and films you can’t see anywhere else on a big screen. Having evening hours planted a seed. I sent a few emails and wound up connecting with the community engagement folks at POV. After one hour-long meeting, it seemed my jumbled list of potential ideas was taking shape into something more concrete and fluid. I was in Coney Island and I had found the perfect hot dog.

Why POV? The cinema term for “point of view” POV is televisions longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. Their community engagement efforts aim to build new audiences, broaden public debate, and bring important social, political, and economic issues to light (a familiar mission statement). Plus, they reach a large audience and their films have won every major film and broadcasting award (including Emmy’s and Academy Awards just to start).

Q&A that followed the screening of Off and Running. Photo by Lavonda Manning.

In January and February we showed POV films Good Fortune and Off and Running respectively. Filmmakers (all local Brooklyn) were on hand for Q&A after each screening. We were pleased with the films and how they relate to the museum, the turn out, audience discussions, and continued excitement for more films from the audience evaluations passed out at the end of each screening.

Olga smoking in her kitchen in Moscow — from the documentary film My Perestroika by Robin Hessman. Courtesy of Red Square Productions.

The series will continue on May 5^th with My Perestroika, a story of five Moscow schoolmates living in post-Soviet Russia. They share personal stories of their Soviet childhoods, the huge changes of Perestroika (Restructuring), and let us see the true nature of contemporary Russian life.  Screening at the museum around Victory Day of May 9^th, (when Russia celebrates the victory over Nazi Germany) and recent, radical government change (think current events), not to mention the large Russian Community living in Brooklyn, and a local filmmaker to boot, the film is timely and appropriate.

Young Soviet Pioneers on Red Square during a May Day demonstration, Moscow, 1977 — from the documentary film My Perestroika by Robin Hessman. Courtesy of Red Square Productions.

We are delighted to have director Robin Hessman on hand for a Q&A after the film. The Meyersons, one of the families in the film, are making the trip from Russian to be here for the screening. If that still doesn’t spark your interest, Perestroika’s recent sold out shows at IFC and this New York Times article and review might.

We encourage you to purchase tickets in advance. We’ve been to Coney Island and found the perfect hot dog so look for more POV films at the Brooklyn Museum Thursdays @ 7.