Week 12: Joint Development

This week we made some changes to the shape of the joint as well as the concavity of the bone where the joint would be connected at.

As you can tell we made the shape of the joint rounder and the area where the joint will be connected to the bone was also made rounder to fit the joint. This design allowed the joint and bones to rotate to its maximum without wasting space, which was one of the problems from the previous design (the previous design was angular).

The opening of where the joint sticks out from the bone is also made rounded so as to fit the circular shape of the bone.

Top view (Wireframe):

 

Top View (Ghosted):

Perspective View 1 (Ghosted):

Perspective View 2 (Ghosted):

Week 11/12 Development: The Improved Spine

Hello.

After discussions with Fabrizio and Ker Siang we decided to create a joint that fits the form of the bones and at the same time act as a pivot to rotate each bone. We realised that with a fixed position and shape of the spine it will be a problem if the sculpture were to move places, and with some degree of flexibility the sculpture will be able to adapt to its environment when it is placed in a new venue.

With that, the new sculpture is able to rotate up to 15 degrees and if every bone is rotated, it will form a C-shape.

We decided not to do a full circle (30 degrees) because it will compromise the size of each bone and the size of the bones will have to increase. This is not what we want because each and every size of the bone has been already calculated and it is the maximum size that it can go for a bench that people will be comfortable with sitting on.

After designing the joints and how they fit into the bones, we decided to test print one pair of bones to see if the joints fit.

Test 1

Although the joints work perfectly, we realised that the bones touch each other when they are both rotated to the same side. The part of the joint that is connected to the bone can also be seen through the side.


We then decided to elongate the joint so that the bones will not touch each other when they are rotated to the same side and also hopefully this will hide the part of the joint that is connected to the bone.

Test 2

However we felt that we might have lengthened the joint too much as now the spacing between each bone is a bit too far and it still did not solve the problem of the joint being hidden as circled (in purple) on the image above.

We might reduce the length of the joint a little so that the change is not as drastic but just enough for the bones to not touch each other when tilted to the same side.


We also did some renderings of our improved form just to see how the sculpture will look like with people interacting with it.

This is how it looks like when they form a rounded shape:


Week 8: Part 3

After the feedback, we decided not to elevate the sculpture/seating as it is not feasible. Also, after getting comments on how the previous sculpture looked more rigid and that each module looked exactly the same, we tried to make each seat more organic and they were specifically made individually. Hence, every seat is of different sizes and form.


We also tried to include joints to connect the individual modules together but we did not want the joints to disrupt the space between each module so we decided to do a small joint that connects the bottom part together.


We also experimented on the thickness of the edges. The edges should not be too rounded and too sharp so we chose to do the 15mm fillet.


To get a better picture of how it will look like in real space, there were suggestions to try rendering our sculpture in an environment. Here are just 3 locations that we tried with the material that we think would fit the best (cement).

Week 8: Spine Form Progress

Previously there were suggestions to elevate our form and simplify it so this week we decided to do a mock up and try to elevate it using Plasticine and a metal wire (which did not look like it was elevated). In the end we decided to use Rhino and cad out the form, and tried to render it with a material that we thought was fitting to our form.

We wanted it to seem full and solid like the bones in the spine so we chose carbon dioxide absorbing cement. This gives the sculpture weight and it feels ironic that it can be elevated as well.

Week 6: Form Development

Continuing from week 5, we decided to focus on the nature of the connectivity of the spine (bones rely on each other to connect and how when they connect, certain parts overlap each other) and this week we focused on churning out ideas for our form.

We looked back at the sketches we did in week 2 and we realised that we really liked the concept of a continuous bench so we decided to merge this concept with the connectivity of the spine.

After much brainstorming we decided to try out sketching for benches and seats and these are just some ideas that we have come up with.


The first drawing shows the nature of the connection of the spine. The seats are connected together while at the same time overlapping each other. It is also flexible in the sense that it can be connected at the top of the seat and also at the sides.

The second drawing shows a similar concept. However, the seats are connected through a section in the middle which runs through all the seats.

The third and fourth drawings are a little different, although they still contain the same concept of the connection of the spine.

In the third drawing, the two seats and the rod are all acting as joints. They rely on each other and have to be connected together before they can be sat on. Parts of the seats also overlap each other while they are joined to retain the concept that we want to convey.

The last drawing shows a similar concept to the previous drawing except that the rod is missing. The seats rely only on each other and they act as joints. When they are connected, some parts overlap each other as well to give each other balance so that the user can sit comfortably.


Through these ideas the main point that we would like to convey is the appreciation for the way the bones of the spine join together: relying on each other to connect and the fascinating feature of how when the bones connect they overlap each other as well.

Week 5: Form exploration

The concept that we have chosen to do is the connectivity of the spine. We were intrigued by the way the bones are connected together therefore we would like to focus on this aspect.

The bones are ‘stacked’ together through the spinal cord and connected by the facet joints. This makes an area of the bones overlap each other and we thought that this would be a good characteristic to include it into our final sculpture.

However, this week, we wanted to brainstorm for more ideas of the form (before we settle on the overall form) of the spine so we did a bit of form exploration. We tried different forms to expand our limitations because we do not want to be conformed to the exact form of the spine.