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

Penrose Strapping 1
The other project was trying to not use any sort of 3D software at all, but just
use very simple, image-based software. In addition it did not use any sort of
drawing, I used text to generate a pattern in Illustrator which I arranged to
produce a section for a repeat for a ceiling rose. From a greyscale image, which
in quite well known and easy to use software, a low relief form can be created
and then CNC mill the reliefs to produce new designs. This is something that is
used very widely in all sorts of industries but wasn’t known by this plaster
company. Again, I wasn’t inventing anything I was just applying existing
methods to a new area. That is the final result shown alongside a traditional
ceiling rose produced by Hayles & Howe. It was trying to get them to think that
using Photoshop and Illustrator isn’t so difficult and you can see some sort of
‘in’ to producing 3D form through this sort of system. rather than thinking “I’ve
got to go off and learn 3D Studio, or other 3D modelling software.”
In another project, I used a different form of digital output as well as not using
any three-dimensional modelling software. I used Illustrator to produce another
modular pattern which allows people to create a sort of low relief drawn line
wandering around a room. It’s like having a cornice going off one wall and
coming down another, going round a sofa, along the floor and back round the
ceiling. It allows you to draw in a 3D space using very simple units. The units
were made up of laser cut in layers. So everything was 2D. The cut elements
where reconstructed by hand into a relief which could then be cast to produce
units which could then be configured in an infinite variety of patterns.
The other project was the ‘Morse’ project which again there is some of it
showing in the show. It was a quite light hearted thing really, about the nature
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