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Fibonnaci Cube Sculpture
This piece presents a novel take on the Fibonacci Sequence by adding a vertical component to the two-dimensional repeating square pattern. It was modeled in SOLIDWORKS and 3D printed using PLA plastic filament.
While I initially thought of increasing cube size based on the Sequence, I decided to use a uniform “cube” shape and allow their arrangement to describe the sequence. Each column of this piece represents a stack of small cubes. The shortest columns are arranged together in a 13×13 square array and are 2 “cubes” high. The next tallest columns are 3 high and are arranged in an 8×8 square, followed by 5×5, 3×3, 2×2 and two 1×1 square arrays of 5, 8, 13, 21, and 34 “cube” heights, respectively. The increasing heights follow the path of the golden spiral which is often depicted inside this square configuration. This allows the eye to follow the spiral with a novel y-component that causes the spiral to increase in height at the rate the golden ratio increases.
I envision this piece displayed at a large scale and mounted on a wall such that the tallest column reaches horizontally out at the viewer. I believe this approach would best convey the scaling of the golden ratio and fill the viewer with the same physical awe that the similarly minimalist pieces of Richard Serra do.
Unity Engine Gallery
This project was created in Unity as I was starting to learn the program as a way to display my artwork in a virtual environment. If experienced virtually, especially in VR, this becomes my own personal gallery with much greater freedom of expression. Notice the large model of my Fibonnaci Cube sculpture in the gallery space, as I would like it displayed in real life. this game map also features a city-scale version of the sculpture which fully envelops the player and gives a greater perspective to the golden ratio.
Narrative Virtual Reality Experience (2018)
First, I want to acknowledge that I believe that confederate statues and symbols should NOT be venerated in american society today. They cause many in my communities to feel unsafe, they perpetuate hate, and they serve only to celebrate a dark period of American history. I am in favor of giving these objects a place in museums, to serve only an educational purpose as we move towards a more equitable and tolerant society.
That said, this project aimed to expose the historical context behind the ever-mounting controversy surrounding confederate monuments. I joined with an interdisciplinary team of students comprising two computer scientists, a historian, a writer, and another designer. Together, we created a narrative VR experience featuring several rooms and virtually-reconstructed historical documents and objects.
My responsibilities in this project primarily included modeling and texturing assets for the game, as well as story-boarding and writing the narrative and gameplay elements. Ultimately, I modeled an entire Antebellum-style foyer, as well as some plaques, a statue base, and even a full-bodied statue.I wanted the game to center around the most controversial monument at the time (at least in North Carolina), Silent Sam on UNC Chapel Hill’s campus, so I researched ways to replicate real world elements and discovered photogrammetry.
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
Photogrammetry allows one to take many images from all angles of a three-dimensional object and then reconstruct a model of that object virtually and at perfect scale. This was crucial to implementing statues into our game, and it became my passion project for much of one semester. Ultimately, because I couldn’t access Silent Sam, I went to downtown raleigh and captured the now toppled Henry Lawson Wyatt statue to use as a stand-in for our game. I then used the program Blender to 3D sculpt and correct problematic areas.
SKETCHUP AND SOLIDWORKS
The layout of the foyer (see below images) was designed to give the player a 360° view of the statue. The view upon entering the room is imposing, but as the player ascends the staircase to rooms containing informational content, they gain a more powerful perspective above the monument, subconsciously giving them the ability to criticize it. Here are some examples of the game assets I created.
Artwork Gallery
Sample artwork from my portfolio:
