My undergraduate studies diverged into the two disparate fields of computer science and theater. Graphic design found its way in indirectly, initially serving as a tool to combine ideas from computation and performance to create new forms.
While taking a course in digital fabrication, I began investigating the ways in which digital tools could amount to physical, tangible structures. The two projects collected here respectively utilize laser cutting and parametric modeling to subvert conventional forms and build new ones, while also borrowing ideas from my other studies.
Inspired by sound design, I created a sculpture that evokes sinusoidal forms. By laser cutting plywood with patterns of holes (known as kerf cutting), the wood became much more flexible and even malleable. Individual modules retained their shape through tension and glue lamination, then stacked together to create larger forms. In this project, I aimed to materialize the abstract notion of sound into a physical object that alludes to aspects of sound design—the tension in the strings, the curvature of the modules, and the sinusoidal shapes of the laser cuts.
Working in a digital environment this time, I used parametric modeling to create structures through variable parameters and swappable inputs. I designed in the applications Rhinoceros and Grasshopper a program that takes an image input (pictured below: a dog with a watermelon hat) to generate a tent-like model. The resulting model generates poles, a blanketing surface, and light sources for the purposes of creating digital renders.