Otis

Final Iteration

Front Left Right Rear Top

2.5″ x 2.5″ x 2.5″
Time: 4 Hours.
Weight: 61 Grams.

Unfortunately, the virtual model is only a small part of the project as a whole, and the rest will only be ready after the object has been printed (or misprinted). The model is made up of layers of unprintable overhangs, which when printed will make an entropic shape that I have very little control over.
I wanted to look at the spectrum between the entropic and the orderly, the natural and the machine-made, and the perfect vs. the imperfect. Because 3D printing is a medium with the intent of creating to exact specification, making something with
Because of the unknowns in this project, I was tempted to dedicate a considerable portion of my time on this project to test prints and slight modifications in order to get the exact “misprint” I wanted. It took a lot of willpower not to do this. If I were to test the object, I feel that it would invalidate the project as a whole, by putting my own intention into a piece of work that’s intent is to prove the beauty of the unpredictable and undesirable.
When designing the model, I wanted to create something that if printed with no “mistakes” would be a rigid and firmly organized shape, but with the flaws in its printing would show a transition from the orderly to the chaotic. The bottom layer has no overhangs, and apart from possible bowing in the connecting beams should retain this brutalist aesthetic. At the top, the layers of overhangs will create something that I would not have been able to create myself.
This project was heavily influenced by Michael France and Alan Henaut’s essay Art, Therefore Entropy, which puts forth the idea that good art is related to its complexity, something inherently attached to entropy. While it is my belief that there is a huge amount of great artwork that is minimalist and simple, what makes that art great is the potential for complexity that exists within it.

Otis

Week 8

 

What are the repercussions of society’s quest for the elimination of entropy? How do they extend to 3D printing?

The first image here is a picture of the Hubert H. Humphrey Building. Designed by Marcel Breuer, the brutalist aesthetic fits the description of an orderly entity with no room for entropy or any movement beyond that which is perfectly structured. Even though the architecture seems intent on rigidity, the concrete itself (which ties itself nicely into the themes of materiality in this class) has natural imperfections that can’t be removed. Following this are several more pictures tying together the enmeshment of chaos and organization. The picture of my roommate’s clothing piled on the floor in front of a dresser shows a failed attempt at organization. After that comes a picture of a utensil holder in the cabinet. While it is doing its purpose, there is no denying the grime seeping up from underneath.

My 3D printed object has a base loosely based off of the Hubert H. Humphrey Building. It’s blocky, stiff, and ultimately lacks in complexity. As the 3D printer moves up, a series of unprintable overhangs will prevent it from creating the blocky structure of the bottom sections, adding complexity and chaos to the print. Like the grime underneath the utensils, the upper sections of the print will be unpredictable, and whether or not it will be aesthetically pleasing or successful on any level is unknown.

Works Cited:

Matthew Bisanz, Hubert H. Humphrey Building. 2009. Wikimedia. November 17th, 2014.

Adrian Midgley, Fallen Tree Decaying. 2010. Flickr. November 16th, 2014.

Jackson Pollock, No. 5, 1948. Wikimedia. November 16th, 2014.

Where is the intersection between entropy and order, and how does this affect creativity?

In my last version of this project, I referenced the essay Art, Thefore Entropy by Michael France and Alan Hénaut. The essay’s thesis was that a degree of chaos is necessary for the birth of good art, and from that it can be extrapolated that as order increasingly becomes a goal for many people, the quality of art in the world will decrease (France and Hénaut, 1994).

This statement lies on the preconception that there is a reflection from the world to art. Almost everybody I have spoken to who has an interest in art would agree with this thought, but a more tangible source to promote this worldview is Amod Lele’s writing on Kitsch art. Kitsch art is artwork with little value other than that it looks nice. Everything from garden gnomes to landscape paintings in hotel rooms can fall under this category. This art is typically criticized by the art world, as it is usually scene as shallow. Lele asserts that this view of the kitsch as shallow is due to the artist picking and choosing what is inserted into the piece and leaving out anything that could be seen as unpleasant (Lele, 2013).

Interestingly, it is my observation that there has been a strong push to eradicate entropy from the world we live in. It should go without saying that this feat is hopeless, but nonetheless, the cultural desire to quantify and organize as much as possible is overwhelming. It is my belief that this, among other things, is responsible for the popularity of 3D printers. If I were to whittle a small turtle out of wood, even if I were the most accomplished whittler in the world, the turtle would be far from perfect. The shell would be asymmetrical, the size of the legs would be uneven, and the proportions would certainly be off, even if only by a miniscule amount. While 3D printers are unable to promise perfection (there are always some unwanted ridges), they offer an ordered shape, where every part of an object is doing exactly what was set forth by the mind, and in the same way as envisioned. For most practical uses of a 3D printer, this is necessary feature.

 

How has design changed to reflect this?

“Design” fits into the space between the art world and the “real” world, in an interesting way. More than any other form of art, we interact with graphic design, interface design, fashion design etc. As with everything, this is subject to trends, and the desire for order has made its mark on the design world as well. For the majority of the 19^th century, and even into the 21^st, the prevailing design aesthetic is modernism, one that is intent on the removal of the superfluous from the world, and leaving only that which is essential to functioning. Anna Tomes and Peter Armstrong write about these changes in design in their essay Dialects of Design.

The essay details many of the goals of modernist design, including how it was originally a reaction against machines. The reasoning for this was that machines were required for the mass production of intricately decorated objects, and up to a point, this was untrue for modernism. It wasn’t long before this changed, and the use of machines was imbued in modernity (Tomes & Armstrong, 2010).

How does nature influence modern design? How is modern design a reaction against it?

In nature, it is impossible to find the straight lines and right angles so popular in modern design, so in a way, modernism seems like the ultimate rejection of the aesthetics of nature. On closer inspection, this falls away, as we see the influence that patterns in nature have had on modern design. An example of this is the Fibonacci sequence, which provides a ratio for aesthetically pleasing design to follow.

Modern design has used the Fibonacci sequence as a staple since its inception, and because of this, I plan to incorporate it into my object. Even though the sequence itself is very ordered, as the object moves upward, the sequence will disintegrate. This movement is intended to be symbolic of the inevitable movement the world takes towards entropy despite our urge to stop it.

 

How will my project reflect these concepts?

The key concepts that I am working with are those of entropy vs. order and machine built rigidity vs. natural imperfections. My project should work to show this through the use of vertical movement from bottom to top articulating what in my opinion is an inevitable return to the latter of both these dichotomies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

• France, Michael , and Alan Hénaut. “Art, Thefore Entropy.” Leonardo 27.3 (1994): 219-221. Print.
• Lele, Amod. “Kitsch.” Love of All Wisdom. 8 Dec. 2013. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.
• Tomes, Anne, and Peter Armstrong. “Dialectics of Design: How Ideas of ‘good Design’ Change.” Prometheus 28.1 (2010): 29-39. Print.
• “The Golden Proportion, Beauty, and Dental Aesthetics.” The Golden Proportion, Beauty, and Dental Aesthetics. Web. 4 Nov. 2014. <http://www.goldenmeangauge.co.uk/fibonacci.htm>.

 

Blue Rabbit Assignment – 1^st Iteration

Otis Lambert

 

In a world where entropy is increasingly fought against with the goal of its removal; how does that affect creation and the creative process?

 

In the essay Michel Mendès France and Alain Hénaut wrote for MIT Press, titled Art, Therefore Entropy, they put forth the theory that entropy and complexity are crucial to art. They begin with a basic definition of entropy, defining it as something similar to complexity. An example they give of entropy heavy work is Jackson Pollock, who’s famous splatter paintings contain massive amounts of information due to the way that paint falls on the campus in a seemingly random fashion. To dissect and order the information on the canvas would be next to impossible. There is no denying that this work is at least somewhat removed from the world of skill-based fine art; and, while to say that his paintings are lacking in concepts would be untrue, there is no denying that their primary draw is not the conceptual aspects. This all points to the power of entropy with regards art and its appreciation (obviously, this carries out to the world as a whole as well).

Interestingly, it is my observation that there has been a strong push to eradicate entropy from the world we live in. It should go without saying that this feat is hopeless, but nonetheless, the move to quantify and organize all aspects of life is reaching to unseen heights.

It is my belief that this, among other things, is responsible for the popularity of 3D printers. If I were to whittle a small turtle out of wood, even if I were the most accomplished whittler in the world, the turtle would be far from perfect. The shell would be asymmetrical, the size of the legs would be uneven, and the proportions would certainly be off, even if only by a miniscule amount. While 3D printers are unable to promise perfection (there are always some unwanted ridges), they offer an ordered shape, where every part of an object is doing exactly what was set forth by the mind, and in the same way as envisioned. Obviously for many things, this is a tremendous accomplishment. For most practical uses of a 3D printer, this is necessary feature.

 

For the physical manifestation of my project, I plan to show a move from the orderly to the entropic through a series of increasingly decaying layers. As Gertrude Stein observed, there are no right angles found in nature, so the base layer of my project will rely heavily on those. As the structure moves upward, the supports for these squares will be unable to do what they should, and the “intended” right angles will be forced to subside, making the upper sections of the structure into a much more natural form.

 

To the left is an image of the Pirelli Tire building, designed by Marcel Breuer, an architect and designer who has been called a “master of modernism.” His works were large while beautiful, many of the shapes were unnatural. Fittingly (considering his title), the majority of his designs put the emphasis on function over form. While this philosophy has aided in the creation of many great buildings and more, it is exactly what I hope to move away from in my Blue Rabbit Project.

To the right is a photograph of a decayed, and since petrified piece of wood. The lines are soft and smooth, and influential to what I have envisioned as the appearance of the upper portion of my object. This natural level of entropy is symbolic of the creative process of nature, something to which human beings are intrinsically attached.

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography:

• France, Michael , and Alan Hénaut. “Art, Thefore Entropy.” Leonardo 27.3 (1994): 219-221. Print.
• Ramalingam, Ben. “Benoit Mandelbrot – A True Philosopher Prophet.” Aid on the Edge of Chaos. N.p., 19 Oct. 2010. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. <http://aidontheedge.info/2010/10/19/benoit-mandelbrot-a-true-philosopher-prophet/>.
• Ramalingam, Ben. “Benoit Mandelbrot – A True Philosopher Prophet.” Aid on the Edge of Chaos. N.p., 19 Oct. 2010. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. <http://aidontheedge.info/2010/10/19/benoit-mandelbrot-a-true-philosopher-prophet/>.