The project is complete! I've spend the last weeks of the semester documenting my work, and creating a video to explain the concept motivating my design. Below is my script for the video voice over, along with more imagery of my final design. Enjoy!
Nature is a generative design algorithm
Every organism constantly iterates upon itself
Striving simultaneously to grow outward,
And reduce itself down to its bare essentials
Being only exactly what it needs to be to survive.
To capture sunlight
To conserve water
To adapt to any environment
As a result,
Organic form is intensely driven by purpose and necessity.
Form and function merge effortlessly
Creating art without the need for an artist
A simple set of rules
Gives rise to unfathomable complexity.
I look to this process as inspiration for my own designs
Not one form in particular,
But the interplay of goals and constraints
That allows an optimal design to emerge.
I simulated this interaction digitally,
With as simple of an environment as possible.
A closed curve continuously attempts to
maximize its length, While minimizing it’s overall footprint
Like a coral growing in the ocean.
The form grows differently every time the program is run
Developing a new solution to the problem
This digital representation can be easily fabricated as a physical object
using a 3d printer.
Because the design is created from a smoothly expanding loop
it can be printed as a single layer spiraling upwards
making for very fast and efficient printing for a relatively large print.
The end result is a unique light fixture
that diffuses light through its organic folds and features.
I wanted to create something
that looks as if it was grown, rather than built;
as if it was alive at some point,
every facet of its form shaped not by design decisions
but instead by forces of nature.
It looks grown because it was grown, not in the water, but in a computer.
When you look at this light, it invites you to ask,
Is nature an engineer, or an artist?
Or just a beautiful dissipation of entropy,
That we are lucky enough to be a part of.
This project was incredible to work on, and I learned a lot in the field of generative design. Thanks for taking a look!