I was recently discussing with a group about the transition from drawing to sculpture, and the possibility of losing the energy that exists in the drawing when the final product is made. We referenced the drawings of Claes Oldenburg, and how his sculptures, as powerful as they are, may not be as personal as the drawings they developed from. I think our imaginations allow us to construct images that lay outside the bounds of reality, and drawings give us an outlet to share these ideas in a way that sculpture cannot. Unfortunately, sculptures must exist, and therefore they are bound to the physical properties of their materials, and of nature.
The lighter side to this debate may be using technology to have our cake and eat it too. This interactive computer system developed by this Swedish company lets users draw objects in the air, in three dimensions, and see what they've drawn on the screen. The company will then prototype the drawing out of actual plastic. Not sure I'd want to sit on that chair though...
This is amazing!! I had no idea they had developed things like this. One thing I was curious about though, can these people actually see what they're drawing like we did? Or is that all just computer generated?
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've seen, the user is looking at a monitor in front of them and can see what we are seeing. In other words, the rendering of the forms is all in real time, and not processed later.
ReplyDeleteA shame the technology to render it holographically in real time in front of the user is not available yet, as with doing 3D modeling, seeing it on a screen, if only from one angle, limits the amount of information you are receiving from the render itself and it can easily end up in odd shapes due to perspective problems.
ReplyDeleteHowever, all that is left to do now is to implement all the tools you could find in photoshop into this and buy a personal 3D printer (runs a little under $20,000). I'm sure with enough practice a steady hand and enough monitors the perspective issue can be worked out... in the mean time though, traditional sculpture or 3D modeling seems more efficient.
-Scott Xie