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Sculptures Use Inkjets and 3-D Printers to Track Plant Growth

by Matthew Zuras on February 10, 2010 at 04:02 PM

Designer David Bowen has created some amazing mechanical sculptures that react to the growth of plants. Using hydroponically grown greenery as its input, the Growth Rendering Device scans the plant's shape ever 24 hours and then prints a rasterized inkjet rendering of the growth. The device then unfurls four inches of paper to make room for the next day's drawing. As an autonomous art experiment, the Growth Rendering Device, according to Bowen, "is allowed to run indefinitely and the final outcome is not predetermined."

Another of Bowen's fascinating devices is the Growth Modeling Device, which operates on the same basic premise as its predecessor. In place of the plant, though, the designer chose an onion. Each day, the onion is scanned and then duplicated with a fuse deposition modeler, similar to a 3-D printer. Check out videos of both the Rendering and Modeling devices on Bowen's site.

We simply love generative art, especially when it involves robots. Bowen's work reminds us of Roxy Paine's bizarre SCUMAK abstract sculpture maker, although it's obviously very different in its output. Forget human sculptors; let's have robots make all of our art. Really! They're pretty good at it. [From: Designboom]

Tags: 3d printer, 3dPrinter, art, david bowen, DavidBowen, design, plants, robots, top

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