Andy Huntington/ Drew Allan: Cylinder (”Seahorses”, “Designed”, “Market”)

Cylinder by Andy Huntington and Drew Allan is an elegant series of data sculpture based on sound analysis. A mapping of the frequency and time domains produces cylindrical forms representing the spatial characteristics of the sound input. Physical versions of the digital 3D models are then 3D printed using stereolithography.

The idea of mapping sound to space is not unfamiliar. The Cylinder project shows similar strategies to those used in the exhibition Frozen, which showed sound represented as a continous space rather than as a one-dimensional signal. However, Cylinder is from 2003, predating Frozen and making it somewhat of an early example of the data sculpture genre.

There is a tangential similarity between Huntington’s pristine objects and Booshan & Widrig’s Binaural object. But in fact the spiky geometries of both works are a result of the numeric data underlying the form. Any data set will yield inherent patterns, and in the case of digital sound two “defaults” present themselves: The waveform (a 1D graph) and the spectral map found through FFT analysis, which represents a 2D map of spectral energies in the time domain. Any translation of these numeric representations into visual form must grapple with the fact that while they may be faithful representations of the data, they rarely give a good idea of how the sound is experienced by a human listener.

The Cylinder series show a range of different waveforms, some showing an apparent orderly structure with others suggesting a noisier sound input. Titles like “Seahorse”, “Design” and “Breath” imply the source sounds used to produce the forms. Their success as aesthetic objects derive from their complexity as well as from the clean quality given by the 3D printing process.

Tropism: Commonwealth vs. Joshua Davis

Currently on display at the Espeis gallery in Williamsburg, Tropism is a collaboration between New York product design studio Commonwealth and generative artist Joshua Davis. Inspired by the endless variations of form in the plant world, they have worked together to create a series of computer-designed vases imprinted with generative graphics.

For his images, Joshua Davis first created a library of elements by sampling shapes from an old book on floral mechanics. He then recombined these into complex organic compositions using a generative algorithm. A selection of the resulting images were either printed or output digitally as ceramic paint transfers, ready for application to the physical objects.

Influenced by the perforated ceramics of Edmond Lachenal, Commonwealth used Maya to produce a curved and perforated model using surface subdivision. A stereolithographic (SLA) 3D print of the model was then output to create a mould for casting. The finished vases were produced by Boehm Porcelain, with Davis’ images being applied to the the vases during the firing process.

Joshua Davis w/ Zoe Coombes & David Francisco Boira of Commonwealth / Prints

The final result is a series of one-off objects that are at once high-tech and organic. Their smooth curves and unconventional form signal their origin in digital processes, but the tactility of the porcelain counteracts any sense of sterile techno-fetishism. Davis’ organic forms creep and crawl over the surface of the vases, reenforcing the link to natural processes.

The vases are available in a limited run of 21, each featuring a unique motif by Joshua Davis. The large-scale prints on paper shown in the exhibition are also for sale. Contact Maxalot for information about available works.

The "Vs." series is curated by Max Akkerman and Lotje Sodderland of Barcelona gallery Maxalot. The series has so far featured Commonwealth collaborations with Kenzo Minami and Michael C. Place of Build. Upcoming is an exhibiton of Commonwealth vs. Matt Pyke of Universal Everything.

Relevant links

• Maxalot's page about Tropism
• Tropism Flickr set from Joshua Davis
• Tropism Flickr set from Commonwealth

Justin Marshall: Penrose Strapping 1 / Corby & Bailey: Cyclone.soc

A new exhibition in Lancaster, UK is highlighting creative uses of digital fabrication techniques. Perimeters, Boundaries and Borders features the work of artists, architects and designers using rapid-prototyping, generative design and other computational strategies for creating new types of objects. The exhibition is significant as practicioners working in this way tend to fall somewhere between art, design and research practices, and hence don’t always have a good venue for showing their projects.

Artist Justin Marshall has collaborated with a manufacturer of architectural ornamental plasterwork to produce a series called Coded Ornament. The series includes the installations Morse, with elements resembling dots and dashes, and Penrose Strapping 1, a plasterwork version of a classic tiling system. His use of decorative elements combined with digital pattern generation makes for beautiful, if unintentionally ironic, objects. More examples of his work combining traditional and digital practices can be seen on justinmarshall.co.uk.

The installation Cyclone.soc by Gavin Baily & Tom Corby presents the viewer with a new take on flamewar-ridden online discussion groups for politics and religion. By mapping texts taken from these forums onto the atmospheric topologies of extreme storms, the artists comment on the volatile nature of debate, while simultaneously highlighting the beautiful forms of cyclonic weather formations.

Lionel Theodore Dean (whose FutureFactories project was also featured in the Generator.x exhibition) is showing Holy Ghost, a baroquely ornamental chair design that is created by a generative model. Two “hard copies” of the chair have been produced for the exhibition using rapid prototyping.

Be sure to look at the exhibition web site for an overview of the other artists. Even better, see this excellent documentation on Flickr. Perimeters, Boundaries and Borders is a co-production between Fast-uk and Folly, for the f.city festival of digital culture in Lancaster. It runs until the end of this week.

Links:

• Exhibition documentation on Flickr (by John Marshall)
• More pictures on Flickr (by Michelle Kasprzak)
• designedobjects.blogspot.com, a blog by John Marshall of Fast-uk

Thanks to Michelle Kasprzak for the link.

Lionel Theodore Dean: FutureFactories

From FutureFeeder: Computer-controlled Rapid Prototyping is old news in the industrial design world, but recently designers have been realizing the full potential of the technology by using it in new ways.

The FutureFactories research project at the University of Huddersfield has designer Lionel Theodore Dean and colleagues using laser sintering techniques to create parametically designed objects that mutate within a set of constraints. Since the production technique always produces one-offs anyway, why not make every object unique?

The Autonomatic symposium at the University of Falmouth in January 2005 discussed the use of such techniques, as well as the implications of computer-controlled techniques on craft traditions like jewelry design. Is craft defined by the involvement of human hands in the production of a piece, or can it include computer-aided dynamic generative designs executed by machines? The papers from the symposium are available for reading in PDF format.

Other designers using Rapid Prototyping in new ways include materialize.MGX. One of their contributing designers, Batsheba Grossman, has long been producing sculptures based on mathematical formulae using the same techniques.