Jessica Timczyk – Looking Outwards 03

A project of the MIT Media Lab, MIT Glass Lab and Mediated Matter Group,  including researchers: John Klein, Michael Stern, Markus Kayser, Chikara Inamura, Giorgia Franchin, Shreya Dave, James Weaver, Peter Houk and Prof. Neri Oxman,  the G3DP project was created in 2014 to 3D print translucent glass into different shapes and sculptures. This project is excessively interesting because it takes an ancient art, like glass blowing, and translates it into modern technology. Many ancient arts like this have been kept to traditional methods of creation, so glass making and blowing’s introduction to 3D printing marks a milestone in the digital art world. Although the algorithm used to create these glass sculptures can only be inferred, it would make sense for an algorithm to be made to digitally construct the design and execution of each layer for each of the glass sculptures, before being sent to the 3D printer. While glass is usually seen in the form of vases, bowls, cups and etc, this project allows the creator to manifest their artistic style in the form and pattern in which the translucent glass sculptures are created, resulting in many varying and interesting shapes and forms.

 

The video above shows an in depth look into how the sculptures are printed and the algorithms behind them.