L’Artisan Electronique is an installation created by design studio Unfold. It consists of a virtual pottery wheel that gives visitors a chance to ‘turn’ their own forms. At regular intervals, a selection of these designs is printed in clay and exhibited in the space.
The design of the interface looks very smooth and intuitive, with visitors given immediate visual feedback from the rear projection screen. The pottery metaphor is well done, and capped off with the physical form being outputted in clay – no easy feat I imagine. I am curious about a few things. Firstly, how does it feel to be waving your hands in mid-air? Is there anything lost in not having the sensation of touch when sculpting? Secondly, how do they determine if the form created is self-supporting? i.e. it doesn’t just fold over into a pile of blubber.
