Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Wednesday Wonder: 'Silk Pavilion'

Today's wonder is Silk Pavilion, a fascinating project of MIT Media Lab. The project involves distilling algorithms from silkworm behavior for the purpose of creating silk objects by design.

The project is within Media Lab's Mediated Matter Group under the direction of Neri Oxman. The group's focus is to develop and apply "novel processes that enable and support the design of physical matter, and its adaptability to environmental conditions in the creation of form. [The group's] research integrates computational form-finding strategies with biologically inspired fabrication."

According to the project site, Silk Pavilion "explores the relationship between digital and biological fabrication on product and architectural scales. The primary structure was created of 26 polygonal panels made of silk threads laid down by a CNC (Computer-Numerically Controlled) machine." Read more of the project description, which explains the application of the algorithms and the use of 6,500 silkworms to facilitate the project; still images are provided.



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