INDN 341: Strategies For Fabrication

 In the last blog post that I did, I spoke about making my fabrication system something that transferred something from 3D into 2D. I also decided I would also consider the reverse, as this has potential too. There's something really cool about manipulating the form of something real into something that isn't tangible in the same way. It's like a print! Boom!

The first idea that I came up with is quite a sculptural one, and requires a human input in a very subtle, careful way. The concept here is that there would be threads stretched between each other, guiding ink or watercolours diluted into water down a variety of threads. The way that I want to cause this idea to be perceived is a tiny result for a large amount of effort. Essentially the creation of the "artwork" below would actually be a really difficult pursuit. In a way, the device itself eats the artwork you want to create and absorbs it. But then again, the way I see it is that by attmepting to create an artwork below, you are actually making an artwork suspended above.

This next concept is a much more long-term sort of idea. Stalactites and Stalagmites take a long time to create, but I want to accelerate that process. Perhaps to use a water soluble plastic rather than limestone, as normal stalactites grow about a quarter inch each century. So yeah, a rather long time. Not a time frame I can exactly work with. It's a weird concept, something like that taking forever to build up layer by layer. It's nature's "long count" 3D printer!

This last idea is probably the most interesting and able to produce the most varied results, while still creating dual pieces of creativity. The concept of this one to the first idea are similar. This one uses a suspended piece of fabric to create an interesting form, but most importantly, to control the flow of the paint and the way that it splatters/flows onto the sheet of material below. By manipulating the fabric before you start the piece allows the user to then alter the way that the different colours might flow down the fabric. By waxing the fabric, I can ensure all the paint travels down and ends up on the paper below, but I could also leave it less waxed, allowing more of the paint to become trapped in the fabric. This could possibly also flow through the fabric onto the paper, making the shape more of a guiding force.