Material Experience Design | Yasuaki Kakehi Laboratory, The University of Tokyo

Yasuaki Kakehi Laboratory

microcosm


Large Scale Shape-Changing Polyhedral Structures with Extendable Modules


Shohei Takei and Yasuaki Kakehi

This is an installation composed of two polyhedral structures which transform their physical positions, scales and shapes. Their geometrical configurations continuously change by reacting to each other and the Environment. This piece is a new embodiment of our research vision, “MorPhys” [1], which realizes a morphing physical environment. We have developed the polyhedral structures’ modules consisting of nodes and connectors. Each node is linked to the connectors made of thin cylindrical rods. The connectors can be flattened and stored in the compact housing on the nodes by rewinding. Thus the structure reconfigures itself by dynamically changing the length of its connectors.
microcosm is a system in which polyhedral structures act physically. It implicates a new form of interaction between the physical and digital world.

Exhibitions:
Shohei Takei and Yasuaki Kakehi: “microcosm,” Artist Lab Yasuaki Kakehi, Radical Atoms, Ars Electronica Festival 2016, (2016.9)

Special Thanks: Hiroki Kaji (Device Programming)

Reference:
[1] Shohei Takei, Makoto Iida, Takeshi Naemura: KineReels: extension actuators for dynamic 3D shape. SIGGRAPH Posters 2011: 84