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Design Science

Watch Molten Glass 3D-Printed From a Kiln at 1900 Degrees

In collaboration with the MIT Glass Lab, the Mediated Matter group at the MIT Media Lab has produced a way to 3D print glass, creating intricate patterns from molten glass inside a kiln-like printer and giving a completely modern twist to the 4,500 year-old material. The video produced to exhibit the ways in which the technology works displays the process without words, instead focusing on the mesmerizing way the hot glass stacks upon itself in the machine and ultimately cools into the final vase-like forms.

Glass 3D printing (or G3DP) is based on a dual-heated chamber concept, with the top chamber heating the glass and lower chamber slowly cooling it to prevent internal stresses. The top chamber operates at approximately 1900°F, and funnels the molten material through an alumina-zircon-silica nozzle into its programmable shapes.

The researchers explain the concept of the project as one that “synthesizes modern technologies, with age-old established glass tools and technologies producing novel glass structures with numerous potential applications.” One application of which is beautifully designed vessels created without human error, forms that are mathematically perfect in appearance and design.

Design Photography

The Inner Workings of Antique Calculators Dramatically Photographed by Kevin Twomey

While our modern day gadgets are certainly compact and slick, they’re also incredibly boring when compared to the intricate inner-workings of their predecessors. A small microchip now does the heavy lifting in modern day calculators. But take apart a 60-year old calculator and you’ll find hundreds of parts that include gears, axels, rods and levers all working together like a fine-oiled machine. Capturing these old gadgets is photographer Kevin Twomey, who “delights in raising the most mundane of objects to an iconic level.”

In his series simply titled “Calculators,” Twomey highlights the glory of antiquated technology by dramatically photographing the insides of old calculators. The project originally came about when Mark Glusker, a mechanical engineer and collector of old calculators, asked Twomey to photograph his collection. “The stripping of the external shell of the calculators was not the original concept for shooting these machines,” Twomey tells us, “but when Mark removed the covers to show the complex internal working of the calculators, I immediately knew that this was the heart of the project.”  The two are shopping around for a publisher, as well as an exhibition space. If you’re interested you should get in touch! (Via My Modern Met)

Art

New Technological Mandalas and Wrapped Books Made from Soldered Computer and Radio Components

Multimedia artist Leonard Ulian (previously here and here) has a number of new mandalas and wrapped books created using a variety of soldered radio and computer components. The mandala is traditionally known as a spiritual and ritual symbol in both Hinduism and Buddhism meant to represent the universe, but through his deep interest in how systems can be applied to the process of art making, Ulian has adopted mandala patterns to create symmetrical networks. The artist most recently had work on view at The Flat, and you can see much more on Ulian’s website and at Beers Contemporary. (via Beautiful Decay)

 

Design

The Cubli: A Gravity-Defying Cube that Can Jump, Balance, and Walk

Designed by a team at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, the Cubeli is a small cube capable of balancing, walking, and jumping on its own. The device contains a trio of reaction wheels that rotate extremely fast and can be controlled in speed and combination to create gravity-defying tricks shown here. The video above suggests potential uses such as planetary exploration or self-assembling robots (perhaps similar to MIT’s self-assembling M-Blocks), but I suggest we could use these for the purpose of being under my Christmas tree.

Art

Sacred Space: New Technological Mandalas by Leonardo Ulian

London-based artist Leonardo Ulian (previously) has completed a new body of work titled Sacred Space. Inspired by Hindu and Buddhist symbolism, Ulian continues his exploration of technology and spiritualism with these carefully sculpted mandalas created with soldered computer and radio components. Via Beers.Lambert:

Ulian’s reflexive use of the geometrical mandala can also be seen as a nod to his ‘past-life’ as an technican, but through his application, Ulian divorces the electronic components from their origins, giving new life to these (now defunct) technological bits, creating a new type of hybridization that is equal parts spiritualization and contemporary critique: “We live in a society that worships electronic technology,” he states “both for necessity but also because it makes us feel better, not unlike its own new form of fashionable spirituality.”

Of particular note in this solo show is an amazing little three-dimensial bonsai tree titled Centrica Bonsai. If you happen to be in London, Sacred Space opens tonight at Beers.Lambert Contemporary. All photos courtesy Oskar Proctor.

Music

Percussive Maintenance: A Supercut of People Banging on Broken Technology in Film and TV

Y’know that moment in every TV show and film ever made where the computer/jukebox/radio/appliance stops working and out of desperation the exasperated lead character gives it a good whack? Duncan Robson scoured decades of popular television shows and movies to find dozens of nearly identical moments and gathered them together in Percussive Maintenance. If you liked this also check out Gravity (the same idea but with people falling). (via Laughing Squid)