LookingOutwards-03 – Page 4 – [OLD FALL 2018] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

Christine Chen-LookingOutwards-03

Above is Iris Van Herpen’s piece Decrypt Kymono, which is part of her Data Dust series, created in 2018
Source: https://futur404.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/iris-van-herpen-ss18-futur404-decrypt-kimono-gown.jpg

Iris Van Herpen is famous designer for 3D fashion. One of my favorite pieces from her is the Decrypt Kymonoshown above. Herpen utilized an inverted parametrically-drawn pattern as the algorithm to generate the design for the dress. The pattern of the dress was created with microscopic pieces that is foamed-lifted, laser-cut, and then heated-bonded onto the half-transparent, lightweight silk. The end result of the design is a stunning delicate piece that flows and synthesizes along with the body’s movement, reflecting the aesthetic beauty of the human body form. Herpen manifested her organic style of artistic sensibilities in the piece through personifying the aspects of nature with the piece’s movements and patterns, which are all designed through careful calculations and considerations.

What I admire most about Herpen is how she can create such natural, organic patterns with such an artificial method. Her designs represent the fusion of the artificial and natural. One quote from her that left a deep impression on me is “Don’t forget how engineered nature is, itself. I think we as humans don’t even come close to the intelligence within nature.” It is interesting how a lot of times people tend to think that the artificial world is complex and that nature represents simplicity. However, if we think about it, it is really the opposite. The nature world is so complex and uncontrollable that we humans have long sought to discover ways to manage parts and bits of it, only to realize that nature is still far more powerful than us.

Sharon Yang Looking Outwards – 03

The project ‘Cloud Village’ has been developed by Philip F. Yuan and his team with digital fabrication technology. It is an outdoor pavilion was put together with a purpose to develop the rural areas in China without harming the nature and the people there. I admire not only the high elaborateness of the building but also the fact that it is made of recycled plastic material. As it is a severe environmental crisis in China especially in the countryside, it offers a highly sustainable solution to the issues in the Chinese rural areas.

In order for the pavilion to best suit its purpose of providing a public resting space for the residents in rural regions as well as obtaining a creative and an aesthetic presence, the form and the structure has been optimized by a use of topological optimization algorithm. Such a technological innovation allows for an architecturally innovative approach such as having a waved geometry as the roof. In the process of digital fabrication, the geometry of the pavilion is pixelated into various components to use a crystalized printing tool-path for each of them. The project therefore demonstrates the ideal incorporation of the computational generation to the design as well as the fabrication of art.

Catherine Coyle – Looking Outwards 03

The project I found inspiration in this week was from the generative design studio ‘Nervous System.’ Specifically, I was interested in their Floraform project. I found this studio from the linked reading, and I find it very interesting.

An example of one of these ‘Floraform’ designs

This project was started in 2014. Essentially, the studio took inspiration from the natural growth and development of blooming flowers in nature. This ‘digital garden’ can even be 3D printed and worn as accessories. According to their website, Floraform is a garden where ‘instead of growing plants, we’re cultivating algorithms.’

A lot of research into how plants divide and grow naturally must’ve gone into making this project come to life in such a natural way. I think it is exciting because the idea of simulating cell growth and development in a 3D plane could lead to some very interesting science and procedurally developed ‘organisms.’ On top of that, it all just looks very cool!

Feel free to read more about the project on the studio’s website here.

Lingfan Jiang- Looking Outwards 03

The project that I am interested in is called the Silk Pavilion, done by the Mediated Matter group at MIT in 2013. The project mainly focused on the relationship between digital and biological fabrication in design. With silkworms’ spinning experiments, researchers are able to emulate silkworms’ behavior and digitalize it in computational tools.

It is fascinating to see how we could combine nature with technology, and how we could always learn from nature. Manmade objects would always have limitations to them, and we always make things based on things we know and understand. Although technology has developed so rapidly in the recent hundred years, nature, on the other hand, has much more profound knowledge than at any time in human history.

Justin Yook- Looking Outwards 03

The project “Decorative Elements” by user mrule on Thingiverse is a 3D printed structure that functions as a lamp that diffuses light in the room. The inspiration for this design came from a “back-lit space organism” according to the description. In addition, it seems that the geometry was made in OpenSCAD, a software for creating solid 3D models that can be printed.

I found this project interesting because it showed me how versatile and powerful computational fabrication can be; it allows one to extend their creativity, and express it in a tangible form. For example, when I usually think of lamps, my mind imagines the common lamp shade, but mrule’s creation pushes the limits of that idea to construct a shade out of smaller hexagonal ones. I also think it is nice that creators can share and download the CAD designs.

Decorative Elements: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6281

Kyle Leve – Looking Outwards- 03

“Robot, Doing Nothing” visual

A project that I came across that I find interesting is “Robot, Doing Nothing” by Emmanuel Gollob and Johannes Braumann. What I found intriguing about this project is that it was conducted all in the time in which Gollob and Braumann were doing nothing. I feel that this demonstrates that even when someone is doing nothing, their brain is still active and formulating new ideas and projects to work on. Nevertheless, looking at the project itself fascinated me. There was nothing particularly complicated or complex about what is going on, however I found myself being relaxed my what I was watching. The slow rotations of the machine as well as the different colored strings made what I was watching very soothing. I could see this technology being used in the future in calm settings in which someone goes to relax. I can see many therapeutic applications with this machinery that can be used to reduce anxiety and stress.

Link: https://vimeo.com/233122890

Looking Outwards 3 Arden Wolf

Michael Schmidt’s and Francis Bitoni’s 3D printed gown was a project that excited me the most. What interests me about the piece is that they were inspired by organic forms but used algorithms. The artists explored the intersection between “ephemeral notions of beauty and strict mathematics”. The artists focused on the golden ratio theorem that was developed in the 13th century by the mathematician Fibonacci.They made the dress especially for Dita Von Teese and had to use algorithms to create a structure that was wearable for her bod and fluid. To create the flowing form of the dress, the artists assembled from 17 pieces, dyed black and covered with over 13,00 Swarovski crystals.

Sophie Chen – Looking Outwards – 03

Rottlace – series of masks designed for Icelandic singer Björk.

Rottlace is a series of masks that explored themes of self-healing and expressing the face without a skin. Images of the singer wearing the mask immediately caught my attention, in both its unconventional material/form and how the mask fits the singer’s face seamlessly. Rottlace is composed of rigid materials and elastic structures – the softer materials are flexible and designed to accommodate facial movement. The computational framework of this mask is based on Björk’s facial scan and informed by the human musculoskeletal system that controls the human voice. These highly complex structures are 3D printed with multiple materials that range from stiff to flexible and opaque to transparent, incorporating tunable physical properties that also allow movement. Although I couldn’t find a video of the mask being worn, I think the design of this mask successfully manifested the creator’s intentions as it almost eerily reflects the flexible and complex nature of the human body and is very compelling to look at.

singer Björk performing wearing one of the masks

link: https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/rottlace/overview/

Julie Choi – Looking Outwards – 03

These are some samples that the MIT media lab produces using their voxel-based 3D printing.

The MIT media lab consist of many research assistants who are both engineers and artists. They recently released a new project that produces data into a physical form through a voxel-based multi-material 3D printing. This project was very interesting because it converts data sets to process the information through a modernized 3D printer that allows the user to produce the intricate details of the art. Most 3D printing analysis the basic form and physicality of an object so that people can take a step forward to analyze the shape and size, but this voxel printing produces elaborated forms with different texts and materials of choice and alleviates altering data that possibly might lead to data loss.

Although this form does not have any function from their physical existence, it manifests the sharp details that the artist puts in the artwork. In the photo above, you can see how the voxel-based 3D printer prints the exact form of the blood vessels within the brain structure with specific gradient shades. From evaluating the visual features that would be produced from the data to converting these materials to a readable format for the printer, artists use this type of 3D printing that brings the artwork that is usually visualized in screen to a physical form that gives life to the final form of their aesthetic sensibilities.

This project is an advancement in their 3D printing technology. Thus, each of their works doesn’t have a specific title. Also, as read from the article, this project was initiated and completed in a group of MIT media lab workers.

Eunice Choe – Looking Outwards-03

The dome in the process of being built. The structure was printed in 13.5 hours.

The DCP uses robotic arms to build the structure.

The Hemi-ellipsoidal Dome (2016/ongoing) is a 3D printed structure that was fabricated using the Digital Construction Platform by Mediated Matter. I admire this architectural structure because it shows that 3D printed technology can be used for large-scale structures as well as small scale structures. I admire Mediated Matter’s ability to solve problems while stretching the bounds of an existing technology. For instance, this structure was created using a Print-in-Place construction technique which prints molds of structures and has the potential to use materials, time, and money more efficiently. Regarding the algorithms used to build the structure, the dome uses the Print-in-Place technique and the Digital Construction Platform, which is a technology that utilizes robotic arms to construct the building. This technology has developed over time to be more sensitive to real time feedback and the mobility of the arms. The designers’ artistic sensibilities are evident in the dome, as seen through their inspiration from the geometry and form of a hemi-ellipsoid. Other structures built from this technology can show glimpses of creative architectural freedom because it can rapidly create non-traditional structures like the dome, which was printed in 13.5 hours.