Combining 3D printing and mathematically generated patterns can create some amazing artworks. We've featured the intricate mobiles designed by Marco Mahler and Henry Segerman on the site before, so we grabbed them for a chat about their work...
How did you first get started in 3D printing? What's your background, design-wise?
Henry Segerman: I started doing 3D design in the virtual world Second Life, but switched to 3D printing for a few reasons: Downloading a complicated geometric object takes a long time at the moment, while there are no bandwidth problems with a real-life physical object. It's also more accessible in that there is no software to download, and people can see an object in stereo and touch it. My background is in mathematics research in 3-dimensional geometry and topology. There are lots of pictures and visual ideas involved, and I'm trying to get some of those ideas out of the abstract and into the physical where everybody else can appreciate them as well.
Marco Mahler: I was well aware of 3D printing prior to meeting Henry but I haven't done anything with it yet. When we started talking about designing 3D printed mobiles and I started to catch up on the possibilities there are with 3D printing nowadays, I quickly realized this was something I had to get started on right away. I used to program 3-dimensional animations in Pascal, and wrote algorithmic stock trading strategies and custom indicators for financial charts for a while, so creating 3D models of mobiles and constructing them with scripts wasn't a huge stretch for me.
How did the collaboration between the two of you come about?
HS: I asked a question on Twitter about a motor for powering a kinetic sculpture in an art gallery setting (since completed), and Marco and I got talking about motors, and then 3D printing and mobiles.
MM: The two of us meeting seemed like one of those strangely perfect coincidences. Henry is one of the very few 3D printing artists who have made 3d printed kinetic sculptures so far. And from my end, how many people who make mobiles also know something about writing scripts?
What software do you use? What do you like about it?
HS: I mostly use Rhino and it's Python scripting interface. Rhino has a very "ruler and compass" constructive geometry feel to it, which works well from a mathematical perspective.
MM: Same, Rhino and Python. I find it very user friendly while offering a wide range of options. The python scripting language is quite easy to adapt to if you have prior programming experience, and it's a lot of fun to play around with.
Why did 3D printing appeal to you, over other forms of design and making? Are there things you can achieve with 3D printing that you couldn't do otherwise?
MM: 3D printing allows for mobile designs that would be difficult or even impossible to make by hand. Balance points can be precisely calculated. The thickness of the parts can be very slightly increased or decreased from one part to another. Complex designs with many parts that would take a long time to make by hand can be constructed much more efficiently through scripts. Depending on the designs, it can be more cost effective too than making mobiles by hand, in some cases by a lot.
HS: 3D printing is better for me than other ways of physically fabricating an object because of the degree of freedom it allows, and in that I can design entirely on computer. Most of my designs have a mathematical precision, and with so few sources of (human) error along the production process, I can get a result that lives up to the perfection of the mathematical ideal. It also allows for very complicated internal structures, that would be impossible to achieve
with other manufacturing techniques.
Do you have any favorite designers? What's the coolest thing you've seen someone make using 3D printing?
HS: Bathsheba Grossman, Oskar van Deventer, and Nervous System would be three of my favorite designers working in 3D printing. If I had to choose a favorite for the coolest thing it might be Theo Jansen's Strandbeests.
MM: I'm not sure, I'm still finding my way into the world of 3D printing and the people involved in it.
What developments in 3D printing would you like to see over the next few years? Are there limitations you've encountered that you'd like to see overcome?
MM: Being able to make thinner designs without running into breaking or bending issues would be great.
HS: Cheaper, higher resolution, better color. Printing in multiple materials will also be very interesting.
Do you see 3D printing becoming a mainstream technology in the near future?
HS: I think it's already becoming somewhat mainstream in industry. For use by the general public, it's still a difficult area to get into because the software isn't that easy to use. Perhaps things will get better with new, more intuitive user interface technologies (Oculus Rift, Leap Motion, etc.).
MM: I honestly don't know if that will happen in the near future. There's so much hype right now, mostly online. It's hard to tell. Speaking from my own experience, I don't know of a single friend or family member who has 3D printed something so far. And since we've released this collection of mobiles, I keep being surprised by how many people seem confused about what these 3D printed mobiles are. But all that could change quickly.