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

production of form. To’s ‘Untitled’ has been 3D modelled, rapid prototyped and
manually slip cast. Garofalo and Manglano-Ovalle’s ‘Cloud Prototype No. 1’ has
been 3D scanned, CNC milled and manually cast and assembled. Unto This
Last’s ‘Wavy Chair’ has been 3D modelled, digitally sliced and CNC cut before
manual assembly. Lynn’s ‘Alessi Tea and Coffee Piazza’ was produced by
methods developed to manufacture components for stealth aircraft using of heat
and pressure. At each level the use of the computer is more critical at each stage
of the production of the final objects.
In the third column we see augmented objects such as rootoftwo’s ‘bab&l’ where
the application of computer-based technologies is in the creation of custom
speakers for a self-mixing sound installation. We see generative objects such as
Kolatan MacDonald’s ‘Housings’ that are selected from a ‘gene-pool’ of variables
and Jansen’s ‘Strandbeest’ where genetic algorithms are used to develop
creature-like structures capable of walking. Also we see autonomous objects
such as Maywa Denki’s ‘Sei-Gyo’ (Holy Fish) a fish-controlled vehicle that
moves in the same direction that its ‘driver’ swims and Rinaldo’s ‘Autotelematic
Spider Bots’ that interact with their audience, one another and their
environment. In these examples, computer-designed and fabricated
components work with other technologies to create systems. New properties
arise from these objects because of simple interactions or rules within these
systems.
Looking across the seventh level of ‘sophistication’ we see Laarman’s
‘Bonechaise’. This is a single object that was ‘grown’ and optimised by
computer-based design tools developed for use in the car industry. Lynn’s
‘Alessi Tea and Coffee Piazza’ is available as 50,000 unique, mass-produced sets
of objects by methods developed to manufacture military aircraft. Jansen’s
‘Strandbeest’ is made of a system of cheap plastic tubes and much trial and
error. Here we see that in this analytical framework a group of interrelated
elements comprising a unified whole (system) gains parity with a single object
(part) or a combination of parts (assembly) made with far more expensive and
‘sophisticated’ technologies.
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