objectspaces[s] + [ _
Size:
24 in x 36 in
300 dpi
Design:
2016
Program:
Undefined
Building off our prior collaboration on the Super//Architects thesis call, “objectspace[s] +”, Bryan Cantley, Owen Duross, Devin Gharakanian (co-founder of Super//Architects), & Martin Summers continued the work into the next phase of an ongoing project. The desire was to transform the cross-country collaborative drawing process into a call and response between 3D printed models, their virtual representation through renderings, and their translation through drawing as a conflation of 2d to 3d space. Both spaces are dishonest in that neither completely tell the full story, and require that observers engage the whole presentation to form their own narrative. This research was already being tested in architecture studios led by Martin Summers at the University of Kentucky College of Design, School of Architecture, where themes related to patterns as camouflage and glitch were projected back onto the digital models as a means to challenge formal legibility and singular solutions. This process began to emerge as a new research agenda under the umbrella title, “Patterns of Obfuscation.” Thompson Burry was a critical part of the Point of Departure project with Owen Duross, and was critical to the evolution of these ideas in the studio context – he naturally joined the continuation of the project through the summer and extended this research into this project. The research in Kentucky was combined with Bryan Cantley’s work in Southern California where he transforms the disciplinary conventions of notations through the products of architectural process (drawings and models) where the notations are not about how one would construct the architectural object, but how the notations challenge the translation of its “reality.” In addition to the melding of these agendas and team-members, we were fortunate to add Megan Maupin to our team through Devin Gharakanian’s forming a stronger relationship between Super//Architects and Formlabs, an emerging, high-resolution 3D printing company. Megan was working as an intern at Formlabs at the time, just prior to heading to MIT for her graduate education. With her addition to the team, we were able to work directly with her and Formlabs latest printer and materials to develop a workflow, test the tolerance of the tools, and to test print versions before the final
versions were printed. Through this process we discovered that the liquid resin required in the Formlabs 2, meant that we must consider drainage as part of the geometry and orientation in the printer, and after a series of failed attempts, redesigned several of the project fragments to accommodate the printers limitations while maximizing the resolution possible with their technology.
While the project started as a pure research enterprise and an opportunity to continue to build on our collaboration, we were invited midway into the process to participate in a group show at Jai & Jai Los Angeles titled, “RESOLUTION: The Digital Print.” The show arrived at the perfect time and with a perfect theme, where the artifact of the print as a reproduction was in question. What is authentic, what is the value of a digital work of art that can be reproduced, how do you ascribe value in this context or authenticate its uniqueness. We extended the notion of digital print to include 3D printing as an extension of the canvas and used the gallery space and walls as sites of notation. The process crossed between people, software platforms, and contexts, where the drawing presented a deep space that expanded into the gallery and made the site of its presentation into an extension of the space of the drawing. The show ran from July 9th through July 30, 2016 with a panel discussion on July 10th. The drawing was signed by the collaborators in pencil, next to the digital names imbedded in the images script (left edge of the drawing), leaving an impermanent mark of authenticity. What was more exciting is that the space of the gallery became the only truly authentic moment, where drawing, models, and markings on the gallery walls formed the complete but temporary work.
Images:
+SUM: (Behind the Scenes)
Exhibition: