According to Brent's blog, "This prototype of the core stands about one meter tall. The final version of the core will stand over two meters tall and is one of three subunits that preform calculations, logic operations, and store/load values."

For the past six months, I’ve watched and admired Brent Thorne’s whimsical laser-cut creations. I’ve seen him create complex zoetropes and elaborate gear systems, but his latest creation is amazing. Brent is building a fractal computer out of wooden laser-cut parts.

Brent’s creation will eventually be able to continually draw fractals. He estimates a build time of about 160 hours. You can read more about this and see videos on his blog.

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Control Your Computer While Playing In The Mud

By Suzie Wong | April 8th, 2012 | Discuss

The MudTub is an experimental organic interface by Tom Gerhardt that allows people to control a computer while playing in the mud. Gerhardt says, “By sloshing, squishing, pulling, punching, etc, in a tub of mud (yes, wet dirt), users control games, simulators, and expressive tools. Born out of a motivation to close the gap between our bodies and the digital world, the Mud Tub frees the traditional computer interaction model of its rigidity, allowing humans to use their highly developed sense of touch and gesture in a more natural way.”

The Mud Tub occupies a space similar to other experimental human-computer interfaces, like, multi-touch surfaces, body controllers, augmented reality systems, etc, which push the boundaries of codified interaction models, and drive the development of innovative software applications.

Tom Gerhardt explains further: “With my most current work, the Mud Tub, I am particularly excited to see the impact mud has on an user’s attitude toward interacting with computers; they instantly seem to “feel at home,” as if they had found something missing. This spark I see in people is what keeps my research into organic interfaces moving forward; next, I plan to expand upon the case study applications, initially developed for the Mud Tub, by forming collaborations with artists and designers who can provide rich content for the Mud Tub via it’s API built on top of the open source platform Processing. The future is exciting.”

Tom Gerhardt is an internationally recognized artist and designer who works across a broad range of disciplines, for example the Frameographer; and is one-half of Studio Neat. As a hardware and software developer at Potion, Tom helped create interactive installations for some of the Nation’s most prestigious museums and retail spaces. As an artist, Tom’s work seeks to reconcile modern man’s dual citizenship in the physical and digital worlds. ❚

 

All you need is a couple of lights a 3d printer and a lot of smarts and you get the ability to create super cool transmorphing shadow posters. Seen at #Ponoko

Type Tuesday.
How lettering is made for public display: hand-routing

Published on Tuesday, 20 December, 2011 | 2:00 pm

Andrew Haslam looks at the production of display lettering, and, in this instalment, hand-routing a lightbox for Specsavers by Active Signs. Some signs are best routed by  hand, in which case a skilled operator guides the bit around the letter outlines. The routed letters can be surface-mounted as a sheet or built into a three-dimensional form that stands proud of a wall or the floor, and can be internally illuminated. This hot-moulded sign for a high-street retailer uses Perspex letters fitted into an acrylic box with internal illumination.

1. Acrylic has a relatively low melting point and, like many other plastics, becomes pliable when heated. Here a large moulding press sits alongside the oven.

2. Two MDF forms – one ‘male’ and one ‘female’ – are fitted to the press, which can apply a pneumatic pressure of several tonnes to mould the heated sheet into shape.

3. The moulded acrylic sheet.

4. Once the moulded sheet has been trimmed with a band saw, the lettering can be machine-routed from the reverse. The cut does not pass completely through the sheet, leaving the precision work to the hand-cutter.

5. Detail of the letters on the reverse of the sign awaiting hand cutting.

6. The moulded sign with all the routed letters removed.

7. The Perspex letters used for the lightbox must fit the letter-shapes routed in the acrylic sign. This is achieved by cutting a second set of guide letters on the hand-router. These are then glued to a sheet of acrylic to make a guide for hand routing.

8. The letter inserts for the sign are cut on the hand-router. The operator moves the yellow acrylic sheet along the router’s cutting edge, which is controlled by a pin that follows the edge of the blue guide letter below.

9. The operator checks the fit of the letters. In  this instance, yellow letters are being applied to a different sign.

10. The letters are fitted into the form, and glued from the back with an ethylene-based resin that seeps down between the two plastic surfaces, creating a watertight chemical weld.

11. The letters sit flush with the surface.

Type Tuesday is our weekly column on typography and type design, featuring a mixture of brand new articles and material from the extensive Eye archive. For more Type Tuesday articles, click here.

Physical Display by Andrew Haslam was originally published in Eye 67, Spring 2008.

Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It’s available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions, back issues and single copies of the latest issue. The latest issue is Eye 81, a type special.