Re(Calibrator) Phase9 Part2

After having a session on cold glass  shaping, I went to London Glass Blowing Workshop/Gallery of Peter Layton. http://www.londonglassblowing.co.uk/
There, I had a productive discussion with the glass artists about my project and the techniques that could have been  applied to produce the desired shapes. They kindly  suggested for me to stay in the workshop and find out  how the process flows.

London Glass Blowing workshop/gallery

London Glass Blowing gallery pieces

The glass blowing technique is very traditional and it has not changed much since it has been first discovered in about 50 BC. It has been since then a common practice to use long metal sticks to manipulate the heated glass.

Hot glass dipped in a glass frit

A certain amount of glass is applied on  the end of the metal stick, afterwards, gradually, more  glass powder, broken glass and other variety of matter is added, depending on the desired outcome.

Initial forming of the hot glass

Further shaping with tools

The hot glass is then  shaped and manipulated, by constantly  adding  heat, blowing and forming, while rotating non-stop to avoid the deformation of the piece due to gravity. The water is used throughout for lubrication and cooling.

Heating the glass in the furnace

Once the shape is achieved, a small foot is added, to  put the piece in the kiln, this is removed later on. The heated piece is then put in a kiln for a certain period, depending on the size.This method is called annealing. In the kiln, the object is cooled gradually and this is done to prevent the glass from cracking. When the glass is heated, much stress and  tension is beeing built into  it,  and if it is cooled too quickly,  then the  piece might  break or even  explode.  The heated glass is of course bright red/orange colour and the true colors maybe observed only after it has cooled down.

Glass annealing

After reflecting upon this process, I think  there is a great potential to explore this technique, however I will hesitate for one reason- its very unpredictable nature and its consequent outcome is always an approximation. What interests me more, is the body movement and the gestures while making the glass.

This stimulated to have a look at an existing research in the field of capturing the gestures or human movement and software link.
Of course the graphic tablet which I used to produce the geometry in Z-Brush is an example of this, where the movement of ones hand is registered and further enhanced by the output software.

Touch sensitive graphic tablet

There is a 3 dimensional equivalent of the graphic tablet, it is called interactive Haptic device with 3D virtual brushes/tools. This tool is suppose to recreate the unique touch and feel of the creative process of sculpting, carving, painting etc.

3D modelling with Haptic brush

In essence, the Haptic system was designed to eliminate the need of fabricating a prototype model, it is used with holographic screen (ideally) where the artist can not only see, but also touch the object with the set of tools. It is similar to remote surgery techniques, the same sensation of having something sold in front to work with. When used with a certain material, the stock of the material creates a natural resistance as one would expect from a real material, meaning you can not just push your brush inside it as if it was a hollow weightless mass. This is of course the case with any other 3D modelling software; the virtual 3D objects are weightless and do not show resistance when penetrated with the mouse. Thus with Haptic brush, one can feel as a real artist working with a real material. Even thought this sounds really fascinating, I found the technique to be in its rudimentary stage as I decided to carve my geometry with the use of this system. I got really tired after half an hour, because the clay material I have chosen, behaves as something really sold and it takes a lot of strength to carve into it. My hand simply got tired after trying to push and cut through the material and I did not dare trying something even harder like wood or metal. 
Next I came across Tavs Jorgensen, a Danish born artist and a visiting lecturer at RCA,who is doing an interesting research related to gesture and glass making. Jorgensen came up  with a data glove " the movement data recorded by the data-glove is not used for special effects but imported into a CAD program where it forms the basis for 'solid' shapes that can be realized by a computer controlled milling machine." http://www.autonomatic.org.uk/team/tj/conducting-form.html#/

Data Glove by T. Jorgensen

However, this is not the first concept of the data glove, the idea has been around for few decades, under the names wired glove, power glove, etc.

Data Glove by VPL Research

Above is the data glove by VPL Research designed in 1970s, which conveys the fingers position to the computer via its magnetically coupled 3D tracker mounted on it. (page 303, Mazes for the Mind : Computers and the unexpected ). This concept has taken a very curious turn in the hands of the performing artist Stelarc, who declared that "technology has greatly expanded our senses and made our natural abilities obsolete" (http://www.nextnature.net/2012/03/is-the-human-body-redundant/) 

Stelarc Third Hand

In this image, Stelarc is using an artificial hand attached to his body that is activated by EMG muscle signals. He uses equipment designed for medical purposes, to monitor his physiological factors like brain activity, blood pressure etc, to create a visual performance using gesture and internal control. (http://stelarc.org/?catID=20265)

Drawing with a robotic hand

The hand is quite sophisticated with its pinch release , 270 wrist rotation and a tactile feedback system that creates a sense of touch. It is designed to add to the man's capabilities.

This thinking can enhance our capabilities in everyday tasks if applied skilfully and in good time. Can a third hand be used to support the labour-intensive process of glass blowing? or even touching the hot glass? 

Re(Calibrator) Phase9

In pursue of the right glass technique for the execution of the final design, I paid a visit to various cold glass workshops.

Cold glass workshop

The common cold glass technique is  fairly straight forward; the 3D shape is formed by  layering  flat glass sheets.

Glass sculture by Peter Newsome 

This method is like the manual equivalent of Rapid Prototyping, only instead of powder, the pre-cut glass pieces are placed and glued to form the 3D object. In fact, the material layering technique is quite often employed by architects and planners in their scale models.

London Residential Density model by R. Burdett (LSE)

Each layer  is designed and developed individually. First a decision is made about the thickness of the  glass, since this inevitably  creates  steps,  then each layer is cut, sanded and cleaned with solvent. Afterwards the pieces are glued together with UV glue, sometimes a heat gun is used to get rid of air bubbles. This method  provides a great ability to control the process,which is something that  is perhaps less possible with hot glass. However this technique  is immensely time consuming  and if I decide to go with the cold forming technique, then would look into potentially digitalizing some of  the manual part of the process.
Meanwhile, here  are the basics of this method.

The common way of cutting glass is with  the use of  a glass cutter; the area is lubricated with oils before the cut, to protect  the blade.

"cutting the glass" with a knife

Even though the process is called glass cutting, we dont actually cut the  glass, but scratch and brake it.  (page33, The Glass Artist's Studio Handbook, Cecilia Cohen, 2011).
An automatic glass saws are  also available, there is a constant water lubrication going on with  this cutting process,to protect  the glass from overheating and breaking.

The automatic glass cutter

The water lubrication process applies to a big bench saw too,  when sanding the corners of the piece.

Glass polishing

In glass grinders and drills, normally the heads are made of diamond.

The diamond heads

After these workshops, I was tempted to simulate the cold glass making process for the geometry I am intending to fabricate and to see what it will look like if I was to go with this method.
For this purposes, I First dissected a portion of the geometry and separated it from the rest. 

Selecting a piece of geometry

Afterwards I measured and spaced the sheets of glass that I will be needing for the cutting.

The glass layers created in 3Ds Max

 Then I cut into each layer of glass, assuming that I will be doing the same with the real glass and then reassembled them together.

Layers of glass with different shapes

The results are looking like these.

The projected view of the layered glass object

This is of course not the real representation of the sculpture generated with cold technique, as here I could not achieve the "stepped" effect, but this gives a hint on what this may look like.

Different colour glass with various opacities

Since the geometry that I am trying to achieve is very flowing and organic, this technique seems to contradict to the fluidity of the shape, with its orthodox linearity. I feel that the cold glass layering method, although relatively easy to achieve, perhaps is not right for this particular shape. There are other disadvantages too ; its does not allow for an interior space as the glass is filled through the whole volume of the shape, thus making it extremely heavy and "inhabitable". There is of course a great potential in this technique, but I believe this needs to be combined with another method to achieve more complete and richer structure.

Re(Calibrator) Phase8

Recently, Rapid Prototyping (RP, also referred as 3D printing) is becoming a more accessible technique for quick fabrication of a computer generated part or assembly. I decided to try it with the geometry that I have been developing, which would give me a tangible representation of the new structure.

The mesh view of the improved geometry

In order to go ahead with the Rapid Prototyping, the entire geometry of what I have designed so far needed redesigning. I had to make sure that none of the components is thinner than 0.1mm; otherwise those elements would have collapsed during the "printing" process.

The latest geometry in glass

The RP process, is also known as the layered manufacturing, since this is exactly how the solid object is "printed" with the help of layering. The RP chamber uses a particle dust; a thin layer of that powder is spread on top of the printing surface and an inkjet printer then deposits tiny amounts of the binder solution (this is controlled by the software). This solution binds the dust particles only in the places where it is needed, thus creating a 3D object.

RP of the improved geometry (painted in sliver)

It is true however, that the RP fabrications are generally test products, as the RP materials usually do not have enough strength or durability. In very few cases only, the RP models are the end products.

RP of the initial geometry (left in its original off white material)

Having said that, there is an emerging trend towards RP in different materials, such as the experiment conducted by the team of engineers and artists at University of Washington.

Powdered glass RP by University of Washington

At the Solheim Rapid Manufacturing Laboratory of Washington University, this team has developed a technique, which they call Vitraglyphic process, which allows them to print tiny particles of glass powder. http://www.physorg.com/news173022660.html  The team came up with a new approach for both the dust and the binder. At this stage, the end product does not look much like glass, however it held together and fused when heated in a kiln. Needless to say that the Washington technique is just one of the explorations of the massive potential of RP fabrication, however at the moment it remains a very expensive and a limited method. 

The desired glass structure to be achieved

The glass structure that I am pursuing, would retains its translucent, reflective and refractive qualities, and I am hoping to achieve this combining the 3D modelling, RP and craftsmanship.

Re(Calibrator) Phase7

Digital software gives an immense freedom of exploration and generation of complex forms, that was previously unavailable. It also gives an opportunity to imitate real materials such as wood, gold etc as well as create new and imaginary digital materials with exaggerated luminosity, translucency etc. My recent experiments with Z Brush have been around the digital materials.

The digital human skin

In these examples, I was contemplating on the use of an unlikely building material like the human skin.

The digital "ear" terrain

The digital skin structure

I have also tried something of the world of graphic novels; the skin of the famous Dr. Manhattan character from 1980s "Watchman". He was a physicist who was accidentally disintegrated in an Intrinsic Field Subtractor and was transformed into a blue-skinned omnipotent being, consisting of only atoms and pure conciousness.

Dr. Manhattan surface

In the early stages while generating the first variations of the main geometry, I have been thinking about the glass, its qualities and its potential for detail. The fluidity of glass and its response to light is profoundly fascinating.

The digital glass

It is curious that the only glass, that is formed naturally , is a result of a high-temperature incidents such as volcano eruption or lighting striking, that causes the rock to melt.

Volcanic glass

Apart from its magnificent qualities, there is another reason why glass fascinates me so greatly; the glass making technique is very ancient, thousands of years old, and yet, there has been little change in the basics of hot glass techniques in particular. The glass artists are exceptional craftsmen, with a through understanding of physical and chemical characters of glass and very few gain a good control over the formation of hot glass and glass blowing in particular. I do want to experiment with potential relationship of digital fabrication and traditional glass making.
In architecture, glass is commonly used in uniformed and utilitarian ways and careful consideration is given to its thermodynamic and transparent qualities.
Glass artist Dale Chihuly is one of the most well known innovative glass makers, who create very intricate and extremely complex geometrical clusters of blown glass in massive scales. (http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/behind-the-scenes-chihuly-chandelier/?utm_source=V%26A-website&utm_medium=redirect&utm_content=int-chihuly-desktop-wallpaper&utm_campaign=ugc-rev-nov11)

D. Chihuly at V&A

Evan Douglis architectural studio is one of the contemporaries who are interested in the synthesis of ornamental forms and emerging fabrication techniques. In their Brooklyn emporium Choice in Dumbo, the architect created a new modular ceiling from a series of sixteen primary building components that were computer-designed and3-D printed.

Moon Jelly glass chandeliers by E. Douglis 

Suspended from the construction are 45 hand-blown glass chandeliers – named Moon Jelly, the bubble-shaped pieces are like “fireflies that float underneath the night sky, ”according to Douglis – and add the final baroque flourish to this otherwise minimalist interior.    http://www.core.form-ula.com/2010/05/27/evan-douglis-moon-jelly/

These inspiring examples show that there is a much more versatile and imaginative way of creating space with glass and the key may lie within the use of the emerging technologies such as the 3D CNC and 3D printing techniques.

Re(Calibrator) Phase6 part2

In search for a different analogue technique, I paid a visit to a contemporary jewellery design studio, to test wax working methods on a small scale sculpting. The wax modeller Sarkis showed me how to carve and shape a piece of wax into delicate components.

Carving wax, tools and techniques

Sculpting small components out of wax

This was very much the opposite world to architecture, where everything is on such a micro scale and where the 1 millimetre really does make a difference. Z-Brush workflow has many similarities with this process as they both do not use an internal armature for structural consistency, as we had in case of the clay. However with wax modelling the heat can be a big factor when it comes to altering the geometry, attaching or detaching certain compounds to the main block. In this sense, the Z-Brush geometry appears to be very abstract, very far from the real world conditions of heath, electromagnetism and other forces.

Re(Calibrator) Phase6

Z-Brush, as I have mentioned before, is a digital sculpting software and as such, I speculated that it should bare some similarities with the analogue sculpting technique that has been around for so many decades. To find out, I decided to get some hands on experience with clay modelling and made some interesting observations.
1. Z-Brush by default works with an initial material called MatCap Red Wax, which was very similar looking to the actual clay, and it had the same tactile feel to it.

Conventional Earth Clay

Z-Brush default material similar to clay

2. When manipulated with move or scale tools, the ZBrush model behaves just like a real physical clay model, without changing its physical "weight/integrity" it stretches across the respective axis/force.

Manipulating the clay with hands and tools

Deforming the Z-Brush material with graphic tablet

3. There are certain sets of tools/brushes, to work both with clay and ZBrush models. There are numerous amounts of these tools and they all produce different effects. The differences are, while working with clay, you keep a close eye on your instruments, in case of the ZBrush, on the other hand, you do not actually see the brushes.

Carving tools of a clay artist

Z-Brush brush set

4. Any clay model needs an infrastructure, a sort of a skeleton that is the basis for the clay to put on later. ZBrush model however is supporting itself.

Clay model supported with a wireframe

Z-Brush model unaffected by gravity or any other force

Now, in order to create bigger sculptures, the structure of the clay model is filled in with lightweight material, such as paper, fabric etc so that the final model does not weight too much, since clay is a heavy material on its own.

Shaping the form with the chicken wire

This was a great exercise to compare the digital and analogue methods of sculpting. The latter is of course very physical and has a very immediate impact on a sculptor, as the millions of sensors located on human hands create a whole array of rich information about the form that immediately reaches the brain. There is also the temperature and smell factors of the real time hand sculpting that is absent in the digital world. It is also true that the digital sculpting program requires certain intelligence to be able to use the software in the first place, whereas anyone who is illiterate with technology and use of computers can create something out of clay. The digital sculpture never dries or cracks and it does not need to obey the gravitational low. However, I am more interested in the synthesis of these methods, and finding ways to fabricate a computational geometry that will involve an old school craft making.