Bone furniture by Joris Laarman

About the project:

Ever since industrialization took over mainstream design we have wanted to make objects inspired by nature: from art nouveau and jugendstil to streamline and the organic design of the sixties. But our digital age makes it possible to not just use nature as a stylistic reference, but to actually use the underlaying principles to generate shapes like an evolutionary process…

Trees have the ability to add material where strength it is needed, and bones have the ability to take away material where it is not needed. With this knowledge the International Development Centre Adam Opel GmbH, a part of General Motors Engineering Europe created a dynamic digital tool to copy these ways of constructing used for optimizing car parts. In a way it quite precisely copies the way evolution constructs. We didn’t use it to create the next worlds most perfect chair, but as a high tech sculpting tool to create elegant shapes with a sort of legitimacy. After a first try-out and calculation of a paper Bone Chair, the aluminium Bonechair was the first made in a series of 7. The process can be applied to any scale until architectural sizes in any material strength. The Bone furniture project started in 2004 with a the research of Claus Mattheck and Lothar Hartzheim, published on Dutch science site Noorderlicht.

Infinite Knots by Patrick Gunderson

About the project:

Data are taken from two images. One is a color map, the other is a bump map of sorts. The color map only controls the colors of the stroke. while the bump map controls the width of the stroke, within pre-set limits.

The motion is primarily controlled via epicyclic motion, inspired by early attempts by astronomers to make celestial motion make sense in a terre-centric model of the universe. Given enough epicycles and non-rhythic periods, the motion can become quite chaotic and appear to be wholly random.

Selected work by Andy Gilmore.

About his work:

A master of color and geometric composition, Andy Gilmore’s work is often characterized as kaleidoscopic and hypnotic, though it could just as well be described as visually acoustic, his often complex arrangements referencing the scales and melodies in music.

When Daniel Brown wanted to name his generative flower series, he chose On Growth and Form for good reason:

‘On Growth and Form’ is titled in homage to the book of the same name written by D’arcy Thompson in 1917. In it the scientist (the first bio-mathematician) uses mathematics and 3D modeling to investigate the theory of evolution and the relationships between different species.

“The harmony of the world is made manifest in Form and Number and the heart and soul and all the poetry of Natural Philosophy are embodied in the concept of mathematical beauty. ” -Sir D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, from On Growth and Form.

Included above are images from a three-story high installation at the Victoria & Albert Museum that generated flowers out of pieces from their collection and a floral generator for MagneticNorth to create unique rewards for users.