Conversation pieces

Büchler, Pavel (2002) Conversation pieces. UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This research explores the possibilities for the application of new industrial technologies, materials and processes, for the design and production of three dimensional sculptural objects. “Shoal” has been designed using CAD software with a view to making manifest forms that could not have been conceived or manufactured by other means. This sculpture was designed specifically to explore the extremities of the rapid prototype technique know as fused deposition modeling (FDM). In this case an FDM devise that uses ABS plastic and a soluble support material was used to output the sculptural form from the CAD environment. This technique facilitates the manufacture of objects that could not be made with traditional processes or designed using conventional mean. The relationship between the various elements in the composition is specific and results from the articulation and deformation of solid topologies in the cyber environment where they behave differently to actual materials in the “real world”. It would not be possible to conceive of, or build, this sculpture using traditional methods since it relies for its aesthetic qualities on the nature of the none-physical properties available in CAD. Transposed into an actual plastic form, the merger of elements within the composition produces an object that transcends that which could be achieved using conventional sculptural processes.