Tropic of Cancer is title of my BFA exhibition in the University of Iowa. In this show, I displayed several projects I've made in my undergraduate program in 3D Design, and Sculpture.
I learn the micro structure from natural sciences. From all the chemical structures I know, I choose acetylcholine, a chemical implicated in learning and memory. Not only with a relatively simple function, it also shows my ambition of never stop learning.
The furniture is made of maple, birch, and oak ply wood, and furnished by using a wood stain in this series. Because I don’t want to use other hardware to assemble my furniture, I used a couple of wood joints including dovetail, and mortise and tenon which are easily assembled or disassembled. So I think it necessary to make them capable to be packed flat as well. This set of furniture is made by using CNC technique.
There are three models in the series, germination, blossom, and prosperity. The different modes are designed to fit various weights of fruits.
They are made of 16-gauge metal and cut by CNC plasma. After bending the metal, I powder coated them, in order to reach food-safe level.
It is composed by a bearing ring inside the middle block and hand-crafted with ten joins in calculative angles. The zigzag middle beam and square frame constitute into a dynamic system in three dimensional space. I think the highlight of this piece is how I use these two angular shapes to build a sphere orbit with torque from a DC motor. With a DC motor controlled by Arduino Pro Mini, this sculpture is capable of running diverse programs.