In this recitation, we made our own kinetic sculptures using digital fabrication methods such as laser cutting. I worked alone, so only one set of designs made up my sculpture. To start, we used cuttle to model our designs for cutting. I started by designing a base plate for my sculpture following the recitation instructions. Once I had the base plate completed, I began designing my design using the star shape. I took the star shape and modified it with a rotational mirror. This made multiple copies of my original shape, and then I made them overlap to make an attractive design. Afterward, I added a stroke to make the overlapping lines thicker.
After designing my designs, I went to the fabrication lab to cut them out. When I was there, it was a reasonably straightforward process. I uploaded my designs to the computer connected to the laser-cutting machine and chose the material I wanted to use. Then in the settings, select the material and start printing.
I thought the laser cutting was incredibly fascinating! It’s so accurate and makes such straight lines. Watching the machine blew my mind and was encapsulated by its movements.
After cutting out my designs, I took them and put them together. I put the base plate on the bottom and connected a servo motor to my acrylic design so the motor would spin it. I then connected it to Arduino and ran the sweep code In Arduino’s “example” library. Overall, I had a lot of fun during this recitation. Having the freedom to design anything I wanted for my sculpture and then laser-cutting was quite enjoyable.
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