Design of the Week: Forms in Nature

By on January 27th, 2014 in Design

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This week’s selection is Thyra Hilden and Pio Diaz’s Forms in Nature. This work uses a technique we’ve not seen previously: using a centrally illuminated 3D printed structure to cast shadows on the walls of a room. Don’t believe us? Just check out the image above. 
 
The artists say: 
 
Forms in Nature is a artwork with a light source surrounded by a dense and unruly tree and root system created in miniature sculpture. The forest is mirrored around it’s horizontal central axis and forms a circle 360 degrees around the light source and thereby leads one onto the notion of a real world versus an underworld.
 
We like this item because it is more than just a 3D printed object. The light brings it to life and literally envelopes an entire room. 
  
Technically, the sculpture is incredibly complex, as seen in this close-up image. We’re wondering whether the designers simulated the light projections during 3D modeling, or if the shadows occurred organically.  
 
We can imagine this approach as a new standard 3D printed method: light sculptures. It’s easily possible to create software that would show what kind of shadows would appear for a given 3D shape. It may also be possible to draw the shadows and have software reverse-engineer the required 3D model. 
 
While that software may not yet be available, Hilden and Diaz plan to develop a series of light sculptures using this technique. 
 

By Kerry Stevenson

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has written over 8,000 stories on 3D printing at Fabbaloo since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!

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