| Funny thing about that best laid plans expression. Norah and I were waiting to use the laser cutter when its motherboard burnt out while the team before us was working. |
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| It might be said that we were derailed. |
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| Our presentation was in two days. Five minutes into a mild panic, we decided to cut our design by hand. Sometimes experience is a harsh teacher. Other times working in a manner that you did not first envision can be a process of discovery. That’s what happened for us. |
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| Had we used the laser cut to create our parts, the challenge would have then been to accurately solvent bond the model’s edges, creating as nearly perfect a machine-made object as we could imagine. A streamlined object of perfect symmetrical beauty reflecting a self-referential existence. Removing the mark of the hand became the assumed goal in reproducing a signature work of art. |
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| Why do we so want to be machines, to re-imagine our creative efforts to be without flaws, defect, or other marks of nature and process? I understand Minimalism, the machine-aesthetic, etc. it isn’t that I do not like the “look;” it is that I find it lacking. I found myself wondering when we might we move past our collective nineteenth century romance with conformity and return to an aesthetic which is less about sterile symmetry and more about the world in which we live. |
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| We cut our cardboard, assembled our model with niobium wire, bits of drinking straws, glass and silver beads, magnets, and a judicious use of white tape. Instead of the joints being sealed, they were open; hinting at the possible life of the object as a light fixture. |
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| Because of its imperfections and what we learned in the process, we found that we liked this finished work very much. |
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