Neri Oxman / MATERIALECOLOGY

Raycounting, 2008

Nylon SLS Rapid Manufacturing
55 x 32 x 35 cm
Scale reproduction of work originally produced for the exhibition Design and the Elastic Mind (2008), The Museum of Modern Art

Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary

Raycouning is a method for originating form by registering the intensity and orientation of light rays. 3-D surfaces of double curvature are the result of assigning light parameters to flat planes. The algorithm calculates the intensity, position and direction of one or multiple light sources placed in a given environment and assigns local curvature values to each point in space corresponding to the reference plane and the light dimension. The models explore the relation between geometry and light performance from a computational-geometry perspective. Light performance analysis tools are reconstructed programmatically to allow for morphological synthesis based on intensity, frequency and polarization of light parameters as defined by the user. The project is inspired by one of the first rapid prototyping technologies from the 1860's known as photo sculpting. The method was developed with the aim of regenerating accurate 3-D replicas of a given object by projecting multiple prints of different angles and carving them relative to the reference artifact. Photo sculpting employs 2-D projections to regenerate 3-D objects; Raycounting employs 2-D planes as they are informed by light to generate form.

Neri Oxman / MATERIALECOLOGY , *1976 Israel