During my sophomore year of college, I took my first design class where I was introduced to Adobe Illustrator. Having just learned the software, I was captivated by the precision it offered, reminiscent of my hours spent creating sacred geometry by hand with a protractor and ruler as a kid. Illustrator seemed like the ultimate tool to elevate this work, but I was quickly proven wrong when I was introduced to the campus Fabrication Lab. This experience transformed how I approached my art, and it led to me securing a job in this space.
Infinity Box
Once I understood how to fully operate the laser engraver on my own I began leveling up my work to more complicated 3d Objects. The above images were my first try at making an infinity mirror.
Chrysanthescope
4D Kaleidoscope
Now after looking into what these things are, there's only one company that's really doing it well, and that's Novoscope. So I looked at a ton of inspiration pictures, and started the one month long process of trial and error.
The biggest thing I learned throughout this process was that I needed to stop trying to reinvent the wheel, an ideology I still carry with me to this day. I started to reach out to companies doing these kaleidoscopes.
I finally got in contact with someone who gave me a starting point of what materials to use, and little things he learned along the way that saved me hours. But he didn't reveal how to do it, just what I needed. Below are images of the next attempt I tried.
In Process images of my first attempts of making a Chrysanthescope.
As proud I am for coming this far, Its wasn't what I considered a final version, but since this project was 2 weeks overdue... this was all I had time for, for now.
This Lab gave me space and time to explore new mediums and try out all of my crazy ideas. All of my "experiments" funneled into the medium I decided to use for my BFA capstone project. Check that project out here.
