Author(s): Sara Codarin
2.5-Dimensional Robotic Biopolymer Design explores robotic fabrication at the intersection of digital design, automation, and craft. The study focuses on a series of robotically fabricated two-and-a-half-dimensional drawings using a plant-based biogel. This material allows manipulation within a space between two- and three-dimensional realms, diverging from traditional digital fabrication where inputs directly translate to physical outputs. Instead, this project engages in a process that requires adjustments and negotiation, redefining design-to-fabrication techniques with a 6-axis tabletop robot and an Arduino-enabled extruder. This method emphasizes adapt¬ability and innovation in realizing digital designs physically, considering material and technological constraints. The linework drawings are generated in three-dimen¬sional space based on parametric rules inspired by natural phenomena like particle fields, water flow patterns, and biomechanic tangencies. The designs, conceptualized through fundamental geometric elements, are implemented using biopolymers. Before the robot executes the design, the digital drawings are adjusted within a defined bounding box, trans¬forming precise digital designs into one-off biogel imprints. Dense areas converge into a unified visual mass, while sparse patterns maintain line integrity. Modifications to the robot’s tool-center point, at a tenth of a millimeter precision, yield visibly distinct outcomes. Procedural artists like Sol Lewitt, Vera Molnar, and Bridget Riley inform the critical and disciplined use of technology in this work. The outcomes document various attempts, itera¬tions, and circumstantial variables like material moisture, robot speed, and environmental conditions. The process reveals a tension between procedural aspects and their physical visualization, highlighting the inherent ambiguity and unpredictability in the final appearance, allowing for explo¬ration beyond predictable outcomes. Each drawing is the manifestation of non-repeatable phygital relationships that allow for diverging from the predictability of the outcomes and find space for debate.
Volume Editors
ISBN
978-1-944214-49-4