I’m very excited to have the TreeShell chosen by the MoMA Design Store jury to be part of their Destination series. This year the series is focused on New York City artists and designers.

To assemble the product collection, the MoMA Design Store held its first Open Call allowing New York City designers to submit their work. More than 1,000 entries were received and reviewed by a design jury to culminate in a curated collection with the work of 75 designers.

The Destination: NYC product collection is available in MoMA Design Stores in New York City (11 West 53 Street, 44 West 53 Street, 81 Spring Street) and Tokyo and online at MoMAstore.org.

Destination: Design began in 2005 with the following regions explored: Finland, Denmark, Buenos Aires, Berlin, Japan, Seoul, Brazil, Portugal, Istanbul, Mexico and now New York (in that order). Destination: Design reflects MoMA’s mission-related commitment to educate the public about innovative items of design, and also fosters other important goals. Products sourced often help local artisans by celebrating traditional craftsmanship and interpreting this work in interesting, new presentations. Sustainability in materials and production techniques are important factors for consideration of all items included in Destination projects.

The idea for TreeShell started when I was living in the woods of the Upper Adirondacks as part of the TreeHouse residency. While listening to the wind in the trees and the birds and rain, I thought of how people often bring back photographs as memories of a place, but rarely sounds. What if there was a way to relive that experience once I was back in the city? Children often listen to seashells and imagine the sound of the ocean. I decided to make a piece of a tree play back the sounds of the forest.

I started with a birch tree, cut a disc that could be comfortably held in the hand, and hollowed out the inside to hide some electronics in. My first prototype used a commercial MP3 player chip and a tiny mechanical pin switch that depressed when the object was set on a surface. When the switch was released, the sound player turned on. This worked but had a few disadvantages. The first was the sound started over every time it was picked up. I thought it was important to have a sense of a narrative that resumed wherever you left it, kind of like picking up a book again. Even though the sound is quite ambient, you quickly recognize the same passage, and it would be a special and rare feature to continue hours or even days later. The second disadvantage was the delay until starting was quite long, unless it was kept in pause mode, but this burned the battery too quickly. I started working on designing my own circuit.

To machine the inside of each piece I first used two large forstner bits, the larger one cut a small lip that the inset disc could sit on. I wanted a visible inset so that the underside would suggest an old telephone receiver and subtly suggest a speaker or sound. I didn’t want anything else visible to give away what was inside. Ideally it would be discovered intuitively. The only concession to this was cutting a tiny hole for a USB port so the battery could be recharged using the same cables many people use for cellphones. No power adaptor is necessary, just any USB port, even an iPhone charger. I decided against any status or charging LEDs for the same reasons.

The second and third versions got progressively smaller; I wanted children to be able to easily hold the object in one hand. As the tolerances got tighter, I started using a CNC mill to cut out the interiors and USB port. The port in particular was very difficult since it was very small but needed to be deep enough to pass through the wall thickness, which in some cases was 3/4″. I ended up using a combination of lasering and a dremel jig to get the precision I needed.

The image on the top was adapted from a 19th century engraving in the famous Gray’s Anatomy. I considered stamping it but then progressed to a computer-controlled laser etching process. If the settings are exactly right, the laser burns the image in, producing a lovely natural sepia tone without losing detail. I liked updating this antique illustration with modern techniques, although it required many hours of digital retouching and testing with various powers and speeds of the laser.

The final circuit went through 14 modifications before it performed how I wanted it. I had to make some compromises on response time to get the battery to last long enough that recharging was rarely required. I also tweaked the volume carefully so that it was loud enough to hear but quiet enough that it required being held close to the ear, which had a privacy and intimacy I liked.

The assembled pieces were finished with a natural shellac made from beetle shells and denatured alcohol. The ratio was important, too dark and the image contrast was reduced and the piece was too shiny, too little and it wasn’t protected from dirt and other wear. Most other commercial finishes were not matte enough, or darkened the wood too much.

The small discs that cover the electronics were made from the same tree segment as each piece. A long cylinder was turned down on a lathe to within 0.01″ tolerance and then sliced into 1/8″ segments using a parting tool. The discs had to be thick enough to resist breakage but thin enough to allow sound to pass through without requiring perforation. It turned out the resonance of the hollow interior provided natural amplification so a very low power circuit could be used.

For the packaging I went through many different materials and shapes. I ended up using a simple recycled cardboard box that was heavy enough to be shipped on its own. The box folds together from a flat sheet using no adhesive or tape. The image and text on the box was screenprinted by hand and came out quite well. The packing fill is also made from recycled material. Although it cost more to hand-make all the boxes, I thought some people would choose to keep them and it was worth being nice enough to not be immediately thrown out like most boxes.

In the end I was proud to use local materials and production for every step of the project. The trees come from the border of New York and Pennsylvania. The machining was done in Brookyln and Long Island City. The laser was done in downtown Manhattan and Long Island City. The circuit design was done in upstate New York. The packaging was done in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The final assembly was done in the Brooklyn Navy Yard at my studio.

This was my first attempt at transforming an art object into a mass manufactured design piece. Although it looks simple, it took well over a year to design and produce. Many thanks to the MoMA Design Store jury for choosing TreeShell as one of the representatives of innovative design in New York.

Le Palais Impérial de Compiègne is gigantic and rather austere on the outside, but magnificent and ornate on the inside. It was built in 1374 and redesigned in 1807 by Napoleon. It has over 1,400 rooms.

The installation was built for the Salle des Gardes, with a sound component in the stairway leading from the front entrance up to the room.

We used a massive projector mounted on the ceiling and a haze machine to give the light a three dimensional quality. The image appears to be a slowly morphing geometric pyramid that cycles through shapes, rays, and two colors – white and then gold. The coding was all done in Processing and then exported to 1080p DVD.

More images and making-of to come!

Beautiful stop-motion film of explosions, water falling, and boards collapsing. Reminds me of Roman Signer. The explosion video is the strongest I think.

From Sophie:

“There, After began as a series of concentrated discussions and research sessions with particle physicist Elisabetta Pallante and organic chemist Ryan Cheichi. The starting point for this work was ‘Lines of Belonging’. What is it that keeps us, and our physical world together? How do we understand these connections, scientifically, personally?

From the fundamental forces that act on the physical world, to the strength of bonds between human beings, it is these invisible forces or bonds that hold us – as people, as families, as atoms and molecules – together, that this work seeks to explore. To understand and expose the strength of these bonds, There, After shows them in their absence: The breaking of a bond and the moments that follow.”

www.sophieclements.com/there-after-13/

This is a part of a series of works created by Chung-Kun Wang called “Kong. Qi.” Each explores alternate ways of experiencing the sensation of sound apart from hearing through the ears. The melody is an overly trite choice but the speed and organic quality of the mechanized breath is compelling. Another piece called “Bubble Box” (2011) also twists the playful noises we discover from accidents of sound.

wang.iolab.tw

Andy Ellison of Boston University Medical School scans food and vegetables inside a Philips 3 Tesla MRI – lots more images on his blog insideinsides.blogspot.com. Check out the interactive 3D versions too, e.g. a red bell pepper.

“Rain Room is a hundred square metre field of falling water through which it is possible to walk, trusting that a path can be navigated, without being drenched in the process. As you progress through The Curve, the sound of water and a suggestion of moisture fill the air, before you are confronted by this carefully choreographed downpour that responds to your movements and presence.”

I’d love to see this in person. It’s not clear from the documentation how big of a diameter the dry area is. Or how responsive the nozzles are. For example, can you lunge forward and get your hands wet? Do you feel a spray on you even when standing still? How much danger of getting wet do you feel?

random-international.com/work/rainroom/

I was just featured on a new website called photo-op.it, they have started a feature called Past Present Future where they ask artists about what they’re working on now, what inspires them from the past, and what they are interested in for the future. The website was founded by Jamie Lund, and the Past Present Future series is curated by Molly Surno, creator of Cinema 16.

You can read the feature here: pastpresentfuture.photo-op.it/tagged/eric-forman

16 quadrotors with pan/tilt mirrors reflecting spotlights synchronized by mocap tracking.

Technical details: www.creativeapplications.net/events/quadrotors-at-the-saatchi-saatchi-new-directors-showcase-2012-by-mlf-details/

Images of the project: www.ericforman.com/projects/anthony-mccall-solid-light/

Circle Wave Mathematics:

A circle wave is a wave that has been wrapped, end-to-end, into a circle. Circle waves can rotate around the center of the circle, and their amplitude can oscillate. Different circle waves can also be combined to form new circle waves.

Circle-wave equations

Cx(θ, t) := (R + ω(θ, t)) · cos(θ)
Cy(θ, t) := (R + ω(θ, t)) · sin(θ)

Wave function

ω(θ, t) := A · sin(F · θ + S · t + Φ) · cos(f · t + φ)

Variables

θ = radial angle to a point on the circle wave; 0 ≤ θ < ∞
t = time; 0 ≤ t < ∞

Parameters

R = distance from circle center to middle of wave; 0 ≤ R < ∞
A = amplitude of circle wave; 0 < A < ∞
F = number of wavelengths per circumference; F = 1, 2, 3, . . .
S = speed of rotation of circle wave; 0 ≤ S < ∞
f = frequency of circle wave oscillation; 0 ≤ f < ∞
Φ = phase of circle wave rotation; 0 ≤ Φ < 2π
φ = phase of circle wave oscillation; 0 ≤ φ < 2π

Combining circle waves

By adding or multiplying two or more wave functions we can produce new circle waves. Let ω1, ω2 be a pair of wave functions, each defined in terms of its own parameters:
ω1(θ,t) := A1 · sin(F1 · θ + S1 · t + Φ1) · cos(f1 · t + φ1)
ω2(θ,t) := A2 · sin(F2 · θ + S2 · t + Φ2) · cos(f2 · t + φ2)

Define the wave function sum of ω1 plus ω2 as
ω1+2(θ, t) := ω1(θ, t) + ω2(θ, t)

and the wave function product of ω1 times ω2 as
ω1∗2(θ, t) := ω1(θ, t) · ω2(θ, t)

Processing interface screenshot [Interface GUI adapted from Andreas Schlegel's ControlP5.]: