Storytelling With Robotics

  Project Statement: This sculpture was made to be a surrealist reimagining of an everyday object: in this case, a CD. I chose to work with a CD because I was drawn to its iridescence, and I felt like its circular donut shape would allow me to go down any number of paths with my reimagining. As I was brainstorming, I noticed that a number of my ideas were related to nature: a tree, a nautilus shell, and the idea I ultimately settled on: a Venus Fly Trap. The shape of the CD reminded me of forms found in nature, and the iridescence was reminiscent of sunlight bouncing off of leaves or water.  The first part of the sculpture I focused on was the CD holder that would position the CDs at an angle. I then worked on the spikes, and decided to lean into the danger and horror in the Venus Fly Trap by using needles. For the stem, the metal handle of a flyswatter worked well, and I liked that the metal was already a bit twisted. The whole time, I had been wondering what color to paint t...

This is an in-progress photo of attaching the needles to the CDs. I tried poking a hole in the CD to see if I could somehow attach that way, but it became clear that tape was my best bet. The needles were just too thin and it was difficult to bend them all uniformly. I then decided to paint the backs of the CDs silver. Being able to see the texture of the tape was a concern, but I don't think it's too noticeable in the final version. I also painted the 3D printed CD holder silver. Lastly, I worked on the stem of the plant, which I cut out of the fly swatter from the previous post. I bent the bottom into a square-ish base that I hoped would support the CDs. Then I tied the CD holder onto the base to see if the apparatus would stand. Once it was standing, I glued the CD holder and the stem together and left the glue to set.

Now that the main part of the leaves of the Venus Fly Trap is done, I need to decide what I want to use for the stem and the spikes of the leaves.  As of right now, I'm thinking of leaning into the metallic nature of the CDs and using needles for the spikes and the metal handle of a fly swatter as the stem.  I'll be interested to see whether this will still look like a plant. I may need to incorporate some green elements. I also need. to decide if I want to paint the yellow CD holder. I don't want it to distract at all from the rest of the piece, so I'll probably print it metallic, or black or white.  Another concern is how I'm going to attach the stem part to the CD holder. I may be able to flatten the top of the metal handle and use that surface area to attach the holder somehow. As for how to attach the needles to the CDs, assuming that idea works out, I may try putting holes in the CDs with a soldering iron and tying the needles with wire, or else gluing them so...

The first aspect of the project I focused on was the piece that would hold the CDs at an angle such that they would seem like the leaves of a Venus Fly Trap. I began by sketching out the piece and thinking about its dimensions.  Although I began working in inches because it's what I'm more familiar with, I quickly switched to millimeters at the suggestion of the instructors.  My goal was to print an initial test for the CD holder to see how big it would have to be (because it needs to be suspended in the air) and see how well the CDs would sit in the slot.  At first I designed the slot in the CD holder from above using the sketch tool. It's the same thickness all the way through.  But before printing, Abhishek suggested I model a version of the CD and use that to cut a hole in my holder. This way, the slot would better match the size of the CD, and the bottom of the slot would be rounded so the CD would sit in it without falling. I then sized the piece down as much a...

For Project 1, we have to take an everyday object and augment it with digital fabrication to make a surrealist piece. I was first interested in augmenting my Moka pot because of its evocative shape. It looked to me like a gaping maw or some kind of building with a giant opening.  The next object I considered using was a CD. I brainstormed about making it into a tree-like sculpture or a nautilus sea creature, where the CD was the middle of the spiral shell.   The idea I decided on was to use the CDs to make a version of a Venus fly trap. This concept appealed to me there is an inherent tension to the Venus fly trap - it implies some kind of movement, a trap springing closed. The idea of a carnivorous plant is already paradoxical and I feel like it would be easy to bend it into the surreal. You can see a sketch for that concept at the top of the image above.  I anticipate that the biggest challenges will be positioning the CDs so that they actually look like a Venus fly tra...