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Neri Oxman / MATERIALECOLOGY
Raycounting, 2008

Photo: Michael Strasser

Neri Oxman / MATERIALECOLOGY

Collection

Nylon SLS Rapid Manufacturing
55 x 32 x 35 cm

Raycounting is a method for originating form by registering the intensity and orientation of light rays. 3-D surfaces of double curvature are the result of assigning light parameters to flat planes. The algorithm calculates the intensity, position and direction of one or multiple light sources placed in a given environment and assigns local curvature values to each point in space corresponding to the reference plane and the light dimension. The models explore the relation between geometry and light performance from a computational-geometry perspective. Light performance analysis tools are reconstructed programmatically to allow for morphological synthesis based on intensity, frequency and polarization of light parameters as defined by the user. The project is inspired by one of the first rapid prototyping technologies from the 1860's known as photo sculpting. The method was developed with the aim of regenerating accurate 3-D replicas of a given object by projecting multiple prints of different angles and carving them relative to the reference artifact. Photo sculpting employs 2-D projections to regenerate 3-D objects; Raycounting employs 2-D planes as they are informed by light to generate form.

*1976 in Haifa, Israel | Living and working in Cambridge, USA

Artist's website

http://neri.media.mit.edu/

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