SOFT CORE
2015 MITLed by Terry Knight, MIT 4.225
“Computation and Design in Light and Motion” was an intensive fabrication and programming class that focused on iterative making and material transformations. This lamp went through many iterations of form and material and the end result was a hybridization of digital and analog fabrication methods. Of interest to me as a designer was the relationship between highly precise digital modeling / 3D printing and the potentials for mistranslation and error inherent to casting and other analog techniques. Additionally, this hybridized process allowed me to render familiar materials, such as wax, in new and unexpected ways.
Rather than accepting the 3D print as the finished project, I took it as the first step and used it to create a silicone mold, and finally a wax casting. The hyper-precision of 3D printing and the mercurial properties of wax create a formal and performative tension between the digital soft and the material soft.
