This week’s selection is the startling Sculpture of Time by Japanese artist Akinori Goto.
Sculpture of Time is a fascinating set of 3D printed sculptures that explore the notion of time and motion.
What at first appears to be a jumbly mess of structure comes alive when illuminated by precisely focused light beams. Essentially, a slice of the 3D printed structure is highlighted, and visually this illuminated portion appears to be a dancer.
But then it gets more interesting. If the sculpture is rotated, so that the illumination passes through the structure, the dancing figure comes alive and appears to move.
That’s not all. If several points in the structure are simultaneously illuminated, then you view several dancing figures. And they all move in a coordinated manner if the structure is rotated.
This is possible due to the ingenious design of the 3D structure, where the points effectively trace the movement of the figures in time. From a physics point of view, this is effectively capturing the fourth dimension within a three dimensional structure. Brilliant!
Ars Electronica explains:
These works realize time, something that cannot be seen, by connecting two-dimensional movement to the third dimension through 3D printing. At first glance, it may look like just a cluster of white mesh, but the time that has been cut out can be reproduced by projecting light through the slits. By visualizing and actualizing time, not only do these works illustrate its relationship with movement, they also attempt to discover the beauty, characteristics and background connections of time born by going beyond dimensions.
It’s these types of 3D prints that attract me: while they are merely solid objects, they are so much more. Design conquers all.
Via Ars Electronica
