algorithmic drawing, computational sculpture, and generative fabrication

 

 

Exploring the creation of an artistic practice that combines computational art, material studies, digital fabrication, and even traditional printmaking concepts.

 

I realize what I've been practically exploring is the creation of an artistic practice that combines computational art, material studies, digital fabrication, and even traditional printmaking concepts by way of algorithmic drawing, computational sculpture, and generative fabrication; now I gotta support that statement with academic reading and research.

 

 

Genuinely not sure anymore which class this is for but I've been developing a transformative process of capturing the energy of a photograph - itself captured light - and transforming that through code I've written in processing to an .stl file that can be further modified in Rhino3d (fixing holes, etc) and 3d printed - the smaller ones take close to 3 hours, the larger ~7" prints closer to about 5-6 hours, about an hour per square inch depending on settings.
I'm still refining the process - capping resolution complexity at nozzle print size is one area of optimization I need to explore, as well as working out an optimal height map depending on lights - right now pure black is very useful for manually indicating 'do not print here', but that can leave holes in a print of variable lighting.

Lots of things to improve, but at some point I'd like to explore ways of automatic photo translation to multi-color filament prints - even if simplified. There's potential here of creating (even if multi-panel) abstract 3d printed paintings involving colored filament, treating the print bed as a canvas and the printer nozzle as a brush. 

And this ties back to exploring methods of using a 3d printer as a pen plotter, CNC as a pen plotter - what if adapting that manually to treating it as a literal (if pla-filament based) - pen?
Lots of things to explore here that I've been sort of exploring outside of the direct class bounds.

 

And this last one here is the North entrance from SAIT, that long hallway to 3L on the left and the library if you keep going to the end and turn left. So far clear simple compositions with strong perspective and releatively even lighting gradients work best for this process, although of course I'm still experimenting and optimizing here too.