Amazing Dynamic Sculptures – InFORM by the Tangible Media Group, MIT

Dynamic sculptures are works of art which mix beauty with physical motion so that the end result is visually stunning. What makes these works special is that the creator needs to have a deep knowledge and skill of multiple disciplines eg.painting and physics, sculpture and electronics. Obviously there are not many such people but the few who exist have astonished the world with the beauty and complexity of their creations.

InFORM by the Tangible Media Group, MIT

InFORM is a computer model which renders 3d content in the physical real world, in such a way that physical objects can be manipulated. This is very different from 3d holographs which render 3d images but which are just virtual images. At its heart is a custom made table platform which is linked to a Kinect device. The top of the table consists of blocks with each block represent a pixel. What it does is that it lets us see an object through the computer and the object could be at a distance or at a remote location. Then we can use the InFORM model to physically touch and control the object. The best way to understand it is to see how it looks:

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This is not only a work of dynamic art but it allows interactivity and has several useful applications. For someone seeing this, it is amazing to watch 900 blocks move like a fluid animal to form hands and arms or other objects and move a physical object lying on the blocks. The blocks are controlled by the table mechanism, which controls how high each pixel is above the surface and by controlling the height of each block a 3d rendition of an object is formed.

 

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