ESCAPE HASH – 3D Printed Sculpture – Tactile Touchable Art

click on images to enlarge

3d printed interconnected blocks
Material: PLA
Dimensions:
Hash Sign 16″h x 17.25″w x 4″d
Base 2.5″h x 13.25w” x 8″d

W/O Limits Exhibition
Beginning the assembly.
The final step of the assembly.
screenshot in blender
Blocks printed in Ultimaker 2+ 3d printers
The excess material on the blocks is support material which was removed. In 3d printing, parts that overhang need this temporary support material. 

My 3d printed tactile artwork ESCAPE HASH is being shown at W/O Limits: Art, Chronic Illness, & Disability at the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve https://www.artistsarchives.org/event/w-o-limits/
I’m glad to contribute a touchable artwork for the exhibition, as it is one of many other accessibility and adaptive measures to be most inclusive of the disabled art viewing public.

I would approach the design, with an architectural/engineering methodology. The 3d printed sculpture is made from 74 individually printed interconnected blocks. The blocks are modular, designed to fit together in multiple ways. With a master block that all the blocks are derived from, its shape is a rhombohedron. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhombohedron

Strategies I employed to make it accessible to the visually impaired are 3 things; contrast, pattern and relief to make it tactile to the touch. The blocks alternate between hash symbols in negative relief and positive relief form. Primary colors and black and white provide bold contrast between the parts, making them more visible. The deep cuts into each block project shadows making it both tactile and with a sharply delineated pattern also making it more visible.

The blocks were printed at Think[box] at Case Western Reserve University. Each block took 11 hours to print at high resolution. Director of Prototyping, Ainsley Buckner ran 6 printers simultaneously for over two weeks. Thank you Ainsley!

Hidden between where the blocks connect to each other is a wooden dowel that fit into holes in the blocks. They are alignment pins, assuring that the blocks fit precisely together and align properly. To adhere them, I used 3m VHB Tape, a super strong, super thin double sided tape.

# Work In progress – 3d printed sculpture Visualization in Blender

Click on images to enlarge.
Scroll down to read narrative below.

I’m honored to be one of several artists to be in the upcoming show in December “W/O Limits: Art, Chronic Illness, & Disability” exhibition curated by Megan Alves and Mindy Tousley of the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve. The Artists Archives has been awarded a grant from the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities where the organization will be able to incorporate strategies to increase accessibility with among others the use of braille and a 3d printed tactile sculpture for the visually impaired.

Megan asked if I would be interested in doing the 3d printed sculpture and I accepted, excited with the anticipation of revisiting shifting into 3 dimensions and also working again with Think[Box] at Case Western Reserve University. I had worked with Think[box] in 2015 where I printed 2 sculptures I call MODEL CITIZENS.

For the W/O LIMITS exhibition, In progress is a 3d Hash symbol with elements that make it accessible to the visually impaired. A modular system of 80 individually printed blocks (each block 2″ high) connected together and alternating between hash symbols in negative relief and positive relief form a bold singular Hash symbol. Primary colors and black and white provide bold contrast between the parts, making them more visible. The deep cuts into each block project shadows making it both tactile and with a sharply delineated pattern also making it more visible.

As an art object unto itself, the hash symbol with its use in hash-tagging represents our modern times, good and bad; where data is turned into meta-data; where information is categorized and made searchable; where so many find their voices amongst the billions of souls vying to be seen and heard to share joys, beauty, injustices, sadness…and so much more, elevating our humanity. But other voices use it to tear down our humanity and the beauty of our multicultural world. With this sculpture, however, I choose to express it as a symbol of empowerment.

FRONT VIEW
TOP VIEW

In Print – ARTIST USES THINK[BOX] TO SHIFT INTO NEW DIMENSION – Case Western Reserve University School of Engineering 2014-2015 Annual Report

The School of Engineering at Case Western Reserve University produces a beautiful annual report each year about the schools achievements, research, engineering and other advances the school has made in it’s past year and also has features about selected projects from the school. I’m pleased that my project “Model Citizens” was featured in the article “Artist Uses Thinkbox to Shift Into New Dimension” by Jacqueline Fitch.

Andrew Reach article in Case Western Reserve University Annual Report

read article below
Case Western Reserve University School of Engineering Annual Report "Artist Uses ThinkBox To Shift Into New Dimension

 

UH-Humphrey_02_x

MC-05_initial-sketches
Concept Sketches

 

screenshot-1
Screenshot of Autodesk Inventor 3D Solid Modeling Software

ModelCitizen_TypeA1-view3
3D rendering of virtual model

ModelCitizen_TypeA1-view2
3D rendering of virtual model

ModelCitizen_TypeC2-view1
3D rendering of virtual model

ModelCitizen_TypeC2-view2
3D rendering of virtual model

LaserCutPlate_AdvancedInnovativeManufacturing
CAD File for Stainless Steel Laser Cut Plate

 

fortus-at-cwru
3d Printers at Thinkbox

 

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Shopbot CNC Router at Thinkbox cutting maple parts

 

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Model Citizens being assembled

3D – Printing Sculptures Produced Through Grant from the Ohio Arts Council at Case Western Reserve University Think[box]

Thanks to the Ohio Arts Council & Thinkbox Inovation Center at Case Western Reserve University for their support in making possible my mixed media sculptures “Model Citizens”. The Ohio Arts Council provided funding through a grant and Thinkbox provided their facilities, equipment and support to help make them a reality.

OAC_thinkbox_logo

The following is an excerpt from article “Second Life” by Josh Usmani in Cleveland Scene Magazine, December 31, 2014, about exhibition “Bits In Pieces” at Maria Neil Art Project in the Waterloo Arts District in Cleveland:

Bits in Pieces includes Reach’s latest large-scale, geometric digital prints, smaller “whimsies” (as Reach refers to them) and new 3-D printed mixed media sculptures, called Model Citizens. “I wanted to explore ways of making sculpture digitally,” says Reach. “I’ve been enjoying the process of working with 3D printing. I’m mixing other digital fabrication technology into them; parts in wood are cut on a CNC Router that is basically a cutting robot, and the stainless steel base has its pattern laser cut on a laser cutter, another cutting robot.

“In my quest to embrace technology to have a voice, I am just beginning to embark to explore this technology in my art,” he continues. “As an architect, three-dimensional form is always in the background. Making sculptures would be too physically demanding. But when I first learned of 3-D printing it occurred to me that here was a medium that I could produce sculpture without the physicality involved, thus giving me a new avenue of creative expression.”

 

Seven-ModelCitizens
artwork “Seven Model Citizens” (digital print on canvas) was inspiration for 3D Model Citizens

UH-Humphrey_14_x

UH-Humphrey_01_x

 

UH-Humphrey_02_x
On display at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center

MC-05_initial-sketches
Concept Sketches

 

screenshot-1
Screenshot of Autodesk Inventor 3D Solid Modeling Software

ModelCitizen_TypeA1-view3
3D rendering of virtual model

ModelCitizen_TypeA1-view2
3D rendering of virtual model

ModelCitizen_TypeC2-view1
3D rendering of virtual model

ModelCitizen_TypeC2-view2
3D rendering of virtual model

LaserCutPlate_AdvancedInnovativeManufacturing
CAD File for Stainless Steel Laser Cut Plate

fortus-at-cwru
3d Printers at Thinkbox

shopbot_01_x
Shopbot CNC Router at Thinkbox cutting maple parts

ModelCitizens_thinkboxproject1_02_x
Model Citizens being assembled