Project 1 Week 4

 

Final Project Brief

 Phase One: Initial Concept

    This project began centered around the idea of creating a process-based work. When thinking about the fabrication process of laser cutting, I'm reminded of a heavily industrialized process; kind of a "cold" medium. There is what feels like a large separation between a laser cut item versus an item that is hand carved or cut. Having these associations, I wanted to choose a material that represented the opposite and create a final piece of work that highlighted that juxtaposition. 

    I decided to go in the direction of "chaos vs control" and highlight a chaotic, man-made effect next to a very controlled machine-made effect. I sourced a collection of 6 decorative plates because they represented a domestic, feminine material. Two of the plates I would shatter, and then I would reglue them together, trace the shatter lines and import those into Rhino, and laser cut the same lines onto two of the new plates. I would display all six plates together in a decorative way, such as they would be hanging in a house.  

    I was intending for the end result to be a comparison between the chaos of the shattered plates and the control of the laser cutter. On the chaos plates, there would be tiny pieces missing and the lines wouldn't perfectly line up. On the control plates, the lines would be perfectly matched however charred from the laser cutter. I thought this would be a good representation of human vs machine.   

Phase Two: Tests and Revision

    Upon beginning initial tests, it soon became clear that our laser cutter didn't have the capabilities to cut completely through ceramic. Therefore, I revised the concept so that instead of a cut, it would simply engrave the lines onto the plate, like a shadow of the cut. 

    I created a digital file demonstrating the appearance of the plates and created cut files for the laser cutter. I also bought a new set of plates, having too small of a workspace on the original set.  

 

    On the first day of testing the laser cutter, it was established that due to the curved edges of the plates the laser cutter would not be able to engrave the shatter lines up to the edges of the plate. More tests were completed which resulted in an engraving area half the surface area of the original plate.  

Phase Three: Revised Final Concept

Once the plates were engraved, I was left with very small representations of the shatter lines. The resulting plates look as though they have been marked with hieroglyphics or other ancient symbols of some kind, which is an effect that I quite like, when considering the modern technology that actually made the etchings. 

This project ultimately ended up showcasing more of a machine's limitations in copying man-made chaos, which for an end result was a surprisingly powerful one.