

3D Printed Artistic Representation of Noah's Ark - jschwartz11
http://www.3ders.org//articles/20141229-taiwan-artist-reimagines-noah-ark-as-a-distorted-8-meter-shipwreck-3d-printed-pieces.html

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dragontamer
I was expecting less "art discussion" and more technical discussion.

Fortunately, the details occur later in the article, but there's a lot of "art
talk" at the beginning of the article.

They used 3D Max for software, and simply cut the Ark into regular cubes,
which were then glued together. Personally speaking, I'd be more interested if
they had a more complicated technical methodology.

If they simulated assembly modules, or had a more intricate assembly system
(Joints are... surprisingly complicated and intricate), I'd have found the
article interesting. Otherwise, this was a very brute-force methodology to
build a massive art piece.

For example, imagine if the Ark were built out of a metal skeleton simply
welded together. The Skeleton could have been scanned in with a 3d scanner,
and then a custom model built around the support.

The model could have then been a hollow-shell, simulated with FEA for
structural integrity and then designed to be press-fit together (without
glue).

Such a methodology could have been accomplished without using literally tons
of plastic that this guy has done.

The way the article goes, it sounds like the frame was designed after-the-
fact. Which is kinda surprising that they made this work at all without
collapsing in on itself.

~~~
schiffern
Your dismissal of the "art talk" is surprising, given that the message is
highly pertinent to the techno-expansionist worldview that seems popular among
HNers:

> _While mankind turned to crudely built vessels in Biblical times, modern man
> would undoubtedly turn to modern machinery if faced with a similar
> catastrophe, which has been reflected in the project 's cruise ship-like
> appearance. '[We are] about to enter the era of Mechanocene [the mechanized
> era], where machinery automation will be applied to production lines and
> where human beings are being replaced with machinery.' But will that be
> enough? If a modern day Ark would sink, what would happen?_

> _Those are exactly the type of thoughts that Peng seeks to provoke with his
> project. 'This work is a metaphor to expose the collision between Mother
> Nature and the accelerated development of an industrialized civilization. If
> Noah's Ark, a symbol of mankind salvation, becomes just as a shipwreck,
> human and nonhuman were placed in an equal position. The human subject is
> losing his predominance as the supreme center of the world.' That is exactly
> why this cruise ship has been twisted and distorted; it is essentially
> transformed into a beached whale as well._

