P5+experimental 3D printing

team: Tommaso Casucci, Michele Semeghini

This experimental series of tests is a step forward in a larger research project focused on the exploration of the possible interactions between digital computation and complex and self-organising physical processes.
The series is developed on the basis of a small block of code refined during the preparation of the workshop BioLogic: living structures and swarm bodies and aimed to facilitate direct interaction from Processing to FDM 3Dprinters through the generation of G-code instructions.
The produced objects try to combine the potential offered from generative strategies in the exploration of non-standard deposition processes and the capacity of plastic threads to self-organize in curly geometries once extruded from the 3D printer.
The first part of the work focused on the calibration and mapping of the different material behaviours achievable based on the variation of different extruding conditions. The parameters we found to affect the extruded material behaviour more significantly were:

. extrusion amount
. extrusion speed
. nozzle distance from the deposition plate
. material type
. nozzle size

Once a comprehensive catalogue of variations was completed, some of the observed behaviours were reproduced in a series of more complex formations where the values of one or more parameters were varied according to different design purposes to modulate structural, aesthetical or performative qualities in the final objects.
A short selection of 3D printed samples and screenshots from the Processing application is reported below:

Gallery of tests: