Fluid Forms: Earth Bowl

The Language of Process Exhibition.

 

 

During my visit to this exhibition I found one particular piece interesting, that relates to the ‘data’ project. ‘Earthbowl' by Fluid Forms (2008), Fluid Forms are a company from Austria that allow their customers to design their own products. They do this through ‘Google-Maps’ and ‘NASA’ satellites which the customer uses to select an area of the world that is significant to them, these are then translated into customised deigns including; a fruit bowl, a wall hanging, a clock etc. The products are made from laminated walnut, maple plywood and various metals which, when cut using a CNC Router (a computer controlled shaping machine), are hand sanded, oiled and polished to finish the product professionally. The CNC Router technique builds layers of contour lines on the plywood which reflect the gradient of the earth. This makes the piece relevant to my own work as the spirals we created from the drawing week reminded me of contour lines. The colours within the wood where it has been cut is interesting, and I may use this for future reference. The piece links to my work through the use of collecting ‘data’ through the Earth, and how over period of time it alters. This also links to my project because I have concentrated so far on how natural objects change through time such as the age lines in a tree, and how each tree hold different data within the trunk – this inspired me to ask a variety of people to produce the spiral drawings (using the same rules), to see how they would differ in size and density.