How do the tools we use affect our choices as designers and artists? Rather than just design with a CNC device in mind, what does it mean to design your own CNC device . . . .your own robot? Where does the line between hand craft and machine craft get drawn? How do we escape the limits imposed by commercially available software and fabrication methods? How can tooling be an avenue to design? These are some of the questions we contemplated as we designed, manufactured, and tested the Insta-llator 1 over the course of eight months.
The technological backbone of our Feathered Edge installation commissioned by curators Brooke Hodge and Alma Ruiz at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the installation was one in a series of MOCA installations addressing the convergence of digital technology and craft. The Instal_lator enabled us to automate the production of the installation while making it more intricate in form and color than would have been possible using human hands as the primary mode of production. The machine eliminated the mind boggling process of cutting by hand 3604 individual lengths of string, no two alike, that formed the spatial matrix of catenaries of Feathered Edge, while allowing us to precisely airbrush each string in discreet locations based on data input from a computer. The airbrush processes yield unique three dimensional “prints” of objects within the array strings. The results of this proprietary process were suggestive of holographic images floating in space. We designed, manufactured, and tested this digitally programmable machine over the course of eight months.
As a software and hardware system, the Instal_lator effortlessly performs and seamlessly unifies four distinct operations into one continuous sequence of procedures that would be extremely time consuming and tedious for a human to accomplish: measuring, marking, coloring and cutting to length thousands of individual pieces of string. To achieve this, it has six computer controlled mechanisms: a stepper motor that propels and measures the string, a marking pen driven by a solenoid, four airbrushes driven by individual solenoids, and a pair of scissors driven by a numerically controlled linear actuator.
The Insta-llator 1 greatly expands the potential of our projects that use cordage materials. We will continue to explore this potential in an ongoing series of projects loosely entitled “Suspensions”.
Principals in Charge: Gaston Nogues , Benjamin Ball
Project Team: Andrew Lyon, Nicole Kell, Eddy Sykes, Norma Silva, Jonathan Kitchens
Custom Software and Electronics Development: Pylon Technical
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