John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

Figure 45: This simple schema shows increasing ‘complexity’ along the x-axis and
increasing ‘sophistication’ on the y-axis
To try to clarify how this operates it is useful to look at some examples (Figure
45). This simple schema shows increasing ‘complexity’ along the x-axis and
increasing ‘sophistication’ on the y-axis. So moving from left to right we have
transitions from single, static objects to conjunctions of objects to networks of
objects that are activated by increasing amounts of embedded technology.
Likewise moving from the bottom of the table to the top of the table we see
transitions from objects produced by the basic capabilities of computer-based
design and fabrication tools to more experimental applications beyond the
conventional use of these technologies.
Perhaps the most apparent example to highlight from this arbitrary selected
grouping is the ‘evolution’ that can be interpreted between Keith Brown’s ‘Geo
04’, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle & Douglas Garofalo’s ‘Cloud Prototype No. 1’ and
Kolatan MacDonald’s ‘Housings’. These three objects are all formally similar
blobs. Brown’s ‘Geo 04’ is a sculpture created by manually manipulating torus
knots (doughnuts) in the 3D modelling application 3ds Max® and building the
result on a laminated object manufacturing (LOM) machine. Garofalo and
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