Thursday, July 27, 2006

Atelier Silex and beyond



Its been almost 2 weeks since I completed my residency at the Atelier Silex. I spent four weeks creating 6 sculptures, with the intention of digitizing this work.

Through multiple layers of contacts, I was able to spend a few hours in the FormLab and the University of Montreal. However, at this time I am still searching for a means to this end. My intention is to digitize this work, and create stereolithographs that can be then utilized as molds for sculptural embellishment for architectural use. Here are two views of the same work.

The 3D digitizing studio at the Concordia University (Hexagram C) uses equipment that cannot have any metal in the original object. My work has a metal armature. I would need to make a polymer mould to facilitate any digitizing of this work. Every step taken away from the original will compromise the final outcome of the work.

This work has other challenges, which I intentionally created after previously digitizing work at Cyberware. Voids are not read by digitizing software that I have used. A trial run at the FormLab indicated that the voids or holes in the work would need to be covered by paper to be read, and the file later edited to recreate the voids. Also, a limit of 12 inches for any digitized object to be sent to a stereolithograph machine would mean most of theses pieces, which are just a little over that dimension, would be scanned in separate entities and each stereolithograph would later have to be reconnected into the work as a whole.