Every year students of Pratt Institute’s Graduate Architecture & Urban Design program realized an art installation that explores digital fabrication methods as while showcasing the previous year’s student work. The opening of the exhibition coincides with ‘In Process’, the annual publication of student work. This year, GAUD students, led by Michael Szivos and Ryan Whitby–both of new york city’s SOFTlab– grouped the visual work of the previous year in a large hanging installation.
The collection of work takes the form of a field of hanging panels that have been precisely rotated to form a spatial catalog of the work. The panels are rotated in a way to both visually reveal and obscure slices of the work as visitors move around the floating volume forming a three dimensional lenticular effect.
The rotation of each panel is held in place through a CNC cut disk, two strings, and a weight that keeps the panel aligned. The overall form of the piece is vaulted creating cavities for visitors to explore the work as well as view the models below. By faulting the volume it not only references the gravity driven nature of the piece but also allows visitors to be immersed in the paneled volume without disturbing them.
The hanging installation was made of over 800 panels. These were each custom laser cut, assembled, and clad with custom cut images. All of the various details used to create the large volume were made out of flat parts which were laser cut or produced on a CNC mill. These parts were all generated from an overall computer model of the installation.
all images © ALAN TANSEY