Pulse: glow flowing with hand gestures

Wuxi, China

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Pulse: glow flowing with hand gestures

Wuxi, China

Firm

CONWAY Automation

Type

Cultural › Pavilion

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2022

SIZE

0 sqft - 1000 sqft

BUDGET

$10K - 50K

“Wave your hand to awaken pulse in blue veins”. The magic moment of the tree-like installation ‘Pulse’ is reminiscent of the ritual around the tree of souls in Cameron’s Avatar. The collective behavior of the ‘tree’ results from the agent-based communication between the individual branches. Gesture sensors connected with the Arduino boards capture participants’ hand movements. Each branch becomes an independent agent reacting with the pulse beneath the translucent skin. Then the branches influence each other, which leads to unpredictable live loops.

The entire structure was 3D-printed from thermoplastic pellets of recycled PETG. Thus, the structure could be disassembled in the future and then made into pellets again. Such a construction method proposes sustainable life cycles instead of producing any waste. The geometry is designed for structural stability and is made sparse enough for visitors to go through. The installation is made of Y-shaped components. Every component was 3D printed with pellet extruder mounted on robot arm. The printing toolpath is optimized in terms of speed, nozzle orientation, and varying thickness during the non-planar printing process.

Digital fabrication workshop by Southeast University & ETH Zurich
tutors: HUA Hao, Benjamin Dillenburger, LI Li, Ioanna Mitropoulou
video: https://youtu.be/9QAADwJrwzU