As part of a complex exchange of specimens, equipment and expertise, the Bureau recently acquired a new display case from the Moore Laboratory of Zoology. The case, which once housed ornithological specimens, will now house notable selections from the Bureau’s esteemed collection of small detritus.
Benn Colker tasked the team with an overarching project based both on study and transformation. Each drawer will present an exhibit with a unique approach. For the objects displayed in each drawer, the Bureau’s different departments will be extracting and documenting intrinsic and essential characteristics, then re-interpreting this documentation to generate new objects.
The work below showcases initial studies from the Department of Matter and the Department of Form.
CYANOTYPE HEIGHTFEILD
Eva Aivars, from the Department of Form, began by documenting how an object’s shape obstructs the projection of sunlight. This was achieved by using a cyanotype (fig 2). The test object (fig 1) was placed on a cloth coated with a solution of iron salts and exposed to UV light. Areas where the object touched the cloth remained white, while surrounding areas turned blue, in correlation to the object’s proximity to the surface. In this way, Eva documented both the object’s contours and it’s location in space.
To transform this documentation, Eva extruded the cyanotype in virtual space using a heightfield and then 3D printed the result (fig 3). The gradient of values seen in the cyanotype still correlates to distance from the base surface, however in the new object, whites become the highest points and deep blues become the lowest.
UNROLLED OBJECTS
Serefina Taneli, from the Department of Matter, felt it was critical to document the intricate flow of an object’s material character through an uninterrupted, unrolled image. To achieve this, Serefina rolled the test object (fig 4) across a moving scanner (fig 5). To transform this analysis into a new object, Serefina re-rolled the image back into a continuous loop (fig 6)
Unsurprisingly, Jackson Witcombe, from the Department of Form, felt the ideal document must exclude material character and focus solely on the continuous unrolling of an object’s geometry. Jackson rolled the test object (fig 7) across a prepared clay surface, then cast the positive in plaster (fig 8). In a rare example of agreeing departments, Jackson used the same strategy as Serefina to create a new object, taking an imprint from the plaster positive then re-rolling it back into a continuous loop (fig 9).
