Arachne (Autoportrait / Self Portrait)

Arachne (Autoportrait / Self Portrait)

Armor / Corset

By Neri Oxman
2012, 3D Print
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

Arachné is the mortal weaver who was transformed into a spider by Athena. In refusing to acknowledge that her knowledge came, in part at least, from Athena, she offended the goddess and was challenged by her to a contest between the two weavers. According to Ovid, the goddess was so envious of the magnificent tapestry and the mortal weaver's success, that she turned Arachne into a spider. Able to produce up to eight different silks during their lifetime, each spinneret gland within the spider abdomen produces a thread for a special purpose: sticky silk is produced for trapping prey and fine silk for enshrouding it. It is common for spiders to eat their own web daily to recoup some of the energy used in spinning by way of recycling the silk proteins. In more ways than one, spider spinnerets are the antecedents of multi-material printers. Arachne the imaginary being is modeled after the spider web to provide for a flexible armor. The form of the web, its density and thickness, are informed by the anatomical location of the rib cage: in areas where the corset covers the ribs, the web is filled with stiff cells for shielding bony tissue; in areas where the corset covers the inter-costal muscles, the web is filled with softer, more flexible cells, providing for muscular flexibility to enhance and augment movement within the chest wall. Combined, soft and flexible materials are distributed following continuous web morphology to accommodate for multiple functions such as protection, enhanced movement, flexibility and comfort.

Production: Stratasys
3D printed with Stratasys multi-material 3D printing technology
In collaboration with Prof. W. Craig Carter (MIT) 
Photos: Yoram Reshef

About the Collection

Imaginary Beings: Mythologies of the Not Yet

Design and Mythology are both media for storytelling that represent general cultural truths and their human meaning. Like design, mythology is a universal language by which to decode human culture; and as in design, myths often employ the augmentation of human power in expressing the super-natural. Indeed, throughout the history of design, humans have attempted the unattainable. From Da Vinci's human-powered aircraft as inspired by the wings of Icarus, to inventions of material self-repair and regeneration dating back to the myth of the Promethean liver, design has consistently dealt with amplifying human powers or compensating for human limitations. It is not surprising then, that mythological 'beings' are often portrayed as personifications of natural forces. Indeed, the myths that tell of these earlier gods fulfilled the role of explaining the existence of nature. The collection includes 18 prototypes for the human body inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings. An encyclopedia of fantastic zoology, the book contains descriptions of 120 mythical beasts from folklore and literature. Situated within and against the forces of nature, Borges' bestiary provides the site for coupling the 'cultural' with the 'natural' in design, by designing a collection of nature-inspired human augmentations. Imaginary Beings : Mythologies of the Not Yet postulates that futuristic design afforded by technological advancements, is rooted in fantasy and in myth: from the Golem of Prague to robotic exoskeletons, from Daphne's wings to flying machines, from Talos' armor to protective skins; mythemes - the design kernel of the myth as defined by Claude Levi-Strauss - provide us with eternal archetypes of the super-natural and its material expressions. Each 'being' in this series encapsulates the amplification and personalization of a particular human function such as the ability to fly, or the secret of becoming invisible. What was once considered magic captured by myth, becomes actuality as design and its material technologies offer more than meets the skin: spider suits, wing contraptions, and ultra-light helmets; these are all what one may consider mythologies of the "Not Yet". In projecting the future, this work makes use of new and innovative material technologies enhancing both the physical and environmental properties of these wearable myths and habitable contraptions. A library of algorithms inspired by form found in nature informs the design and fabrication process. Novel multi-material 3-D printing technologies along with new design features such as bitmap printing and property textures have been developed to support material performance and expression. Revealing nature's design language, this collection of objects represents a library of design principles inspired by nature suggesting that the ancient myth and its futuristic counterpart unite where design fabrication recapitulates fantasy.

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