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Dream Lab 2026

Critical Making: Enchanted Things

Instructor: Dr. Emily Brooks

Introduction

“Enchanted things refers to hybrid physical-digital objects in the real world whose seemingly magical properties imbue them with the aura of enchantment.” – Kari Kraus

This hands-on course offers an introduction to critical making (thinking through prototyping) in digital humanities. The goal of this course is to gain practical takeaways that can be used in research and pedagogy. We will explore a variety of analog and digital technologies including but not limited to letterpress and bookmaking, 3D scanning and printing, vinyl and laser cutters, physical computing and paper circuits. At the end of the week, participants will use the technologies available to create enchanted things.

Highly Recommended

1. Laptop
2. USB adapter
3. Vector software (Adobe Illustrator) or Inkscape)

Suggested

1. Comfortable walking shoes
2. umbrella/raincoat
3. Any old t-shirts/fabric items you want to upcycle with screenprinting
4. GitHub account
5. CodePen account
6. Tinkercad account
7. Arduino IDE

Brainstorming

1. Small drawing/illustration to illuminate
2. Single word to letterpress print (wood type or metal type)
3. Simple design to create with vector for vinyl and/or screenprinting
4. Text to print for mini book
5. Link for NFC tag

Acknowledgements

Huge thanks to all of the wonderful people who helped make this Dream Lab course a success!

Lauren Alcindor, Erin Bailey, Taylor Caputo, Kadin Henningsen, Pamela Horn, Tex Kang, Christine Kemp, Kayleigh Ng, Jessica Peterson, Dot Porter, Kathryn Reuter, Whitney Trettien, and Stewart Varner

Tuesday

• 9am Check in & Coffee
(Van-Pelt Library 6th floor)
• 10am Welcome

• 10:45am – Morning Session: Introductions + Paper Circuits
(Van-Pelt Library 623)
• Noon – Break

• 1:30pm – Afternoon Session 1: Safety Session/Hand Draw with Taylor Caputo
(Tangen Hall)
• 3pm – Coffee Break

• 3:30pm-5pm – Afternoon Session 2: Laser-cutting Acrylic/ Chomp Saw with Taylor Caputo
(Tangen Hall)
• 5:00pm – Opening Event with Hannah Alpert-Abrams
(Van-Pelt Library 6th floor)
• 6:30-7:30pm – Reception

Introduction

Paper Circuits

Chibitronics Educators Guide

Laser-cutting and Prototyping

Engineering Studios @Venture Lab

Many thanks to Taylor Caputo for organizing and leading us through these amazing activities!

Wednesday

• 9am – Coffee

• 10am – Morning Session: Physical Computing
(Van-Pelt Library 623)
• Noon – Break

• 1:30pm – Afternoon Session 1: 3D scanning demo with Kathryn Reuter (Van-Pelt Library 623)
• 3pm – Coffee Break

• 3:30pm-5pm – Afternoon Session 2: 3D printing with Tex Kang (Education Commons)
• 5:15-7pm Ice Cream Social

Physical Computing

Arduino software download

Arduino for Beginners

Many thanks to DigiKey for these awesome beginner Arduino kits!

3D Scanning

3D Scanning Library Guide

Many thanks to Dot Porter for helping coordinate access to rare books and to Kathryn Reuter for 3D scanning!

3D Modeling and Printing & NFC

Tinkercad

3D printing at Education Commons

NFC Tools

Many thanks to Christine Kemp and Tex Kang at Education Commons for their tremendous help and 3D printing so many wonderful book keychains, and to Richard Green for his NFC Pokeball idea!

Thursday

• 9am Coffee

• 10am – Morning Session: Anaglyph Letterpress with Jessica Peterson (Fisher Fine Arts Library basement)
• Noon – Break

• 1:30pm – Afternoon Session 1: Vinyl Cutting (Fisher Fine Arts Library basement)
• 3pm Coffee Break

• 3:30pm-5pm – Afternoon Session 2: Screenprinting (Fisher Fine Arts Library basement)

Anaglyph Letterpress

Common Press Registration

Common Press Library Guide

Previous student example by Alexis N

Red-cyan glasses: Red goes over left eye, cyan goes over right eye

1. Lines that are drawn right on top of each other are seen on the picture plane.
2. Lines that shift the blue to the left are seen behind the picture plane.
3. Lines that shift blue to the right are seen in front of the picture plane.
4. The greater the shift, the farther from the picture plane the lines are perceived.
5. You never want to shift your lines farther apart than the distance between both eyes.
6. Shifts are always horizontal (side to side) and NEVER vertical (up and down).

Anaglyph Drawing Pad

https://tproffen.github.io/Anaglyphs/DrawingPad.html

Anaglyph Digital Drawing with https://sketchpad.app/en/

Many thanks to Jessica Peterson and Kadin Henningsen for all their help with this activity!

Vector Design

Free Downloads of either Inkscape or Affinity Designer (with Canva)

The Bezier Game A game to help you master the pen tool

Inkscape Trace Bitmap

Illustrator: Image Trace

Screenprinting

3 screen sizes: 5.75" x 9.75", 7.75" x 11.75", 9.75" x 13.75"

Vinyl size: 12" x 12"

How to Screenprint using vinyl

Screenprinting with Phantom Clear

Friday

• 9am – Coffee

• 10am – Morning Session (Van-Pelt Library 623)
• Noon – Break

• 1:30pm – Afternoon Session (Final Project)

• 3pm – Coffee Break

• 3:30pm – 5pm Show and Tell/Closing

Resources

Further Reading

Blog Posts

Anemoia, AI, and Skeuomorphism: The Material Turn in Digital Humanities by Ryan Cordell

What is #DHMakes? by Amanda Wyatt Visconti, Quinn Dombrowski, and Claudia Berger

Journal Article

Digital Creativity as Critical Material Thinking: The Disruptive Potential of Electronic Literature by Alex Saum-Pascual

Book Chapters

The Care of Enchanted Things by Kari Kraus

Journal Special Issues

Crafting Encounters with Humanities Data: A dh+lib Special Issue

Making Research Tactile: Critical Making and Data Physicalization in Digital Humanities: A dh+lib Special Issue

Enculturation: Issue 29: Critical Making and Executable Kits

Visible Language: Vol. 49 No. 3 (2015): critical making: DESIGN and the DIGITAL HUMANITIES

Edited Collections

Making Things and Drawing Boundaries: Experiments in the Digital Humanities

On Making in the Digital Humanities

Monographs

Critical Making in the Age of AI by Emily Johnson and Anastasia Salter

Conversations

Conversations in Critical Making by Garnet Hertz

Courses

Critical Making in Digital Humanities by Anastasia Salter