Drzach + Suchy – “Time”, and an interesting Japanese furniture design.
Watch a video showing Time.
technique: shadow cloud produced via SLS 3d-print
size: 3 images, each 74 x 74 px, ball of diameter 36.7cm
“Time” is a 3-d printed orb that has a formless, unorganised geometric structure. From certain angles, the alignment of its skeletal shapes and voids causes it to cast a shadow that is a legible image. Here the shadow tells the time as a standard clock.
From other angles, the image changes to something else.
I am intrigued and amused by the procedure and choice of fabrication method in this piece. I think the use of 3-d fabrication here feels instinctive, natural, and neccesary: to make the sphere using analog methods, would just be a real pain. The motion of the sphere and the shadows coming into alignment and misalignment are a form of suspense and release that is very engaging. Having said that though, I find the reading of the clock, sundial, and giant orb as a little crude and really mars the elegance of the activation.
watch the “making-of” video, 0:40 for really finnicky 3-d printing post-processing procedures.
Another interesting thing that isn’t really 3-d printing or digital fabrication (but probably modelled in some sort of CAD software) is Yuya Ushida’s XXXX_Sofa. Its an expandable sofa/chair contraption hand assembled from chopsticks and metal rings. I like it because, going beyond the functional furniture design reading of it, it deals with issues of living (architectural) space, solidity, functions of the body, and interactions between bodies and materials/objects. I just thought this would be informative for friends interested in mechanical things to look at.
Dude, I have seen Ushida’s work and it is very beautiful. Note the great use of materials, especially the soft expandable chair from chopsticks and metal rings.