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Prototyping Roots Manuva

Here’s an intriguing use of prototyping and laser scanning technology. Those UK Hip Hop afficionados out there will no doubt have got hold of Roots Manuva’s Slime and Reason late last year - I know I did. When I looked at the cover, I wondered how that freaky image has been made and the liner notes give it away with extra images from a white light laser scanner running across the Artist formerly known as Rodney Smith’s face and a small note thanking Metropolitan Works for its help on its creation.

Designed by graphic design duo Oscar & Ewan, the cover features a head and shoulders image showing the top of his head missing and the contents filled with green slime - as you can see. Apparently Roots came into Metro Work’s facility, had his head scanned and the scan was printed using Z-Corp’s Spectrum Z510 to create a master that was cast by a sculptor to create a ceramic vessel filled with slime.

Source: Develop 3D

New Service: Solido

Another interesting 3D print service based in Rome Ital is called SOLIDO. While they deliver only to Europe, they do indicate they have competitive pricing and offer a full range of services, including Rapid Prototyping, Testing (Functional and Ergonomic), 3D Modeling, 83 micron 3D prints, mechanical analyses, postproduction and more.

The build chamber size (200 x 250 x 200 mm) suggests they might be using a ZCorp 310 or 450 3D printer. In any case, you’ll need to send them your .STL to get an estimate or a print.

Source: Fabbalo

3D Printer Fontys Enineering Eindhoven Operationeel

Donderdag 22 januari vond de feestelijke ingebruikname plaats van de eerste 3D printer bij Fontys Engineering Eindhoven. De printer is geheel door Fontys betaald. Het gaat om een FDM 400 mc printer van Stratasys.

Momenteel loopt vanuit Fontys een RAAK traject over Rapid Manufacturing. Daarbij zijn betrokken 5 MKB bedrijven, TNO Industrie en Fontys Engineering. De subsidie bij dit project wordt alleen gebruikt voor het opdoen, verbeteren en uitwisselen van kennis binnen de Hogeschool, TNO en de deelnemende bedrijven.

Studio Ludens: 3D Voice Experiment

Studio Ludens is experimenting with a 3D shape generator that responds to voice. Here is a quick and dirty test. We are using vvvv to prototype this.

It looks like a Christmas Tree, but perhaps that has to do with the time of the year and the kind of sound, I think. So the next experience is to find out how to whisper or shout a beautifull figure. Or how to print poetry, a song or personal emotions. Technically speaking this is the first step in voice-controlled design.

Source: Studio Ludens Blog

Frozen: Sound as Space

Dankzij digitalisering zijn beeld en geluid met elkaar verbonden op een manier die voorheen ondenkbaar was. Frozen presenteert audiokunst, prints en sculpturen als zelfstandige, maar onderling verbonden kunstwerken.

Frozen is gerealiseerd in samenwerking met de Noorse kunstenaar en curator Marius Watz, die is gespecialiseerd in het gebruik van generatieve systemen voor creatieve uitingen als print, animatie en sculptuur. Naast een bijdrage van Watz zijn er audiosculpturen te zien van Andreas Nicolas Fischer (DE) & Benjamin Maus (DE), Leander Herzog (CH) en Daniel Widrig & Shajay Booshan (UK). De audiosculptuur van Marius Watz is gebaseerd op Oslo Rain Manifesto van muzikant Alexander Rishaug. De andere sculpturen zijn gebaseerd op Reflection van Freiband, een project van de Nederlandse muzikant Frans de Waard. De geprinte stills zijn van Marius Watz en Leander Herzog. 

Frozen werd eerder gepresenteerd tijdens het 5 Days Off Festival 2008 in Amsterdam. Frozen is nu weer te zien van 17 november tot 10 december in de Concrete Image aan de Store Spuistraat 250 in Amsterdam.

• Concrete
• 5Daysoff
• Generator.x
• Pictures Flickr

          

(Marius Watz: Sound memory (Oslo Rain Manifesto). Rapid prototyping object based on FFT data from the song Oslo Rain Manifesto by Alexander Rishaug - Image by Marius Watz.)

Bron: TAG

Rapid Manufacturing & Mass Customization

Op 18 november 2008 vindt in de Orangerie in ’s-Hertogenbosch het evenement Rapid Manufacturing & Mass Customization plaats. Het Mikrocentrum heeft de goeroe van de Rapid Technologies, Terry Wohlers, bereid gevonden als spreker aan het symposium bij te dragen. Een andere spreker, met evenveel aanzien op het vlak van Mass Customization, is de Duitse professor Frank Piller. Verder zullen ook andere sprekers, uit het binnen- en buitenland op deze onderwerpen ingaan. De voertaal is Engels.

Bron: Microcentrum

Royal College of Art: Ontwerp het onmogelijke

Studenten van het Royal College of Art in Londen kregen de gelegenheid om hun ideeën met 3D printing om te zetten naar daadwerkelijke objecten. De opzet van het project: creëer geen prototypes maar objecten die je op geen enkele andere manier kunt maken.

De resultaten varieerden van een prachtige afbreekkalender, een werkend pistool tot en met een 3D-spelletje. Je laat een kogel in de mond van een speelgoedfiguurtje glijden en probeert deze via tunneltjes weer uit het oog te laten rollen.

Bron: Bright

University Huddersfield: Project Automake

The term generative system applies to any system in which a few basic rules are repeatedly employed to produce varied, unpredictable and often complex results, with varying degrees of autonomy from the user of the system. Generative systems have been used in many fields in an attempt to model and understand existing natural phenomenon or as a tool to help find solutions to complex problems.

Automake sits within the broad context of the growing interest in the use of generative design processes in theoretical and practice-based research in art, design and architecture. This involves exploring the potential for mathematical algorithms to provide computer generated inputs for the creation of artworks, three-dimensional forms or architectural propositions.

Automake is about combining generative systems with craft knowledge and digital production technologies to create a new way of designing and making objects that blurs the boundaries between maker and consumer, craft and industrial production.

Automake was developed as a research project that aimed to investigate the potentials of using generative systems to digitally design unique one-off works and produce them using a range of rapid prototyping/manufacturing technologies and CNC equipment.

Through this project the University of Huddersfield has been investigating the use of such processes for over five years, focusing on their application within industrial design. 

(Diagram: Automake’s product creation process in relation to traditional craft and industrial processes.)

Fabjectory: Turns the Virtual Real

Think of it as art imitating virtual life, more or less. For 100 to 200 US Dollars a piece, a startup called Fabjectory will turn your Second Life avatar into a plastic statuette. People are passionate about Second Life, says Mike Buckbee, who came up with the gambit last year. And they love the idea of bringing a piece of it into their real lives.

Buckbee meets clients online at a capture space he has built in Second Life, the phenomenally popular online fantasy world. He uses an open-source extractor to download their animated avatars, and an artist re-creates textures, colors, and details lost in the transition from two dimensions to three. A rapid-prototyping machine builds the 5 to 7 inch models at the rate of an inch an hour by laying down layers of colored glue and plaster. 

Source: Fastcompagny