Category : ART
By Jon McTaggart（Israel）
Artifacts is a project that explores ideas of craft and raw materials within the context of digital manufacturing. Inspiration came from the ancient kill of clay working.
A YASKAWA MH250 industrial robot has been used as a new kind of 3D printer that allows the binding of any kind of sand into a 3d object. The industrial robot has been used to spray a food-safe resin underneath the surface of the sand, allowing for different types of sand to be binded almost instantly – allowing for very fast 3d printing without the need of supports and allowing the creation of large objects from sand.
The sand that was used in this project all comes from a radium of about 1 km from the workshop where the objects were created, bringing back an idea of local materials in craft work.
The physical forms of the vessels are all based on an ancient clay working technique called ‘coiling’, a process which allows the creation of a vessel made with a single path – similar to the way the robot follows a continues path.
By using a robot and a food-safe resin any sand can become a workable raw material, allowing for the instant creation of a composite, only based on the location of the printing process.
The starting point was to create custom software that will allow the creation of coiled 3d forms and then their transformation to 'robot code'. The next stage was the creation of a resin spraying nozzle and connecting it to a robotic arm. The last was the experimentation with different kinds of sand and their binding into final forms.
Artifacts from Jon McTaggart on Vimeo.
Quake Hsu
Quake Hsu
As our technology advances, the old techniques will often be seen as outdated and forgotten. ‘Artifacts’ shows how a modern technology can bring back the beautiful traditions once abandoned. The spirit of makers is far more than just manipulating digital tools. As ‘Artifacts’ simultaneously demonstrate the old and the new; the legacy and the invention; the craft and the machine; the past necessity and the contemporary art, it beautifully represents the complexity of makership.
