Sculpture 2 Process: Philomel
SCULPTURE 2: PHILOMEL¶
My second sculpture is Philomel which is inspired by the rhythms of bird migration.
Here is my initial inspiration moodboard for the sculpture and a little video I took on a walk where the birds had the exact energy I want to create with my sculpture.
I started drawing out my ideas for the form the sculpture will take. I think the form depends a lot on the mechanism I create but I know I want to have multiple wings that are suspended in such a way that the individual birds are abstracted and appear to merge when they move like in a flock.
For the mechanism I was looking into open source projects and tutorials on building a motor powered ornithopter with articulated wings.
These were the sources that inspired me and that had the motion closest to how I was visualising it in my head.
Again I started by drawing out the mechanism to think through a first prototype based on what I had seen in the videos.
I had seen Michelle Vossen's documentation for her Machine Design week during Fabacademy and I thought she took a nice approach to working out the dimensions of the ornithopter pieces by laser cutting pieces of wood with lots of holes in so that you can try out different combinations of lengths.
I quickly got to work making a file based on rough estimates and laser cutting the pieces from 6mm ply.
Next, for my gears I generated some basic gears using STL gears.com. I again estimated what I might need ensuring that the diameter of the gear was wide to maximise my movement.
In Rhino I added various holes from which I could connect my wings so that I could try different distances from the Bore.
I also made some spacers of different sizes so I could test these as well.
Here is the stl file for my gear:
The assembly process was very quick and dirty and I realised when I got home that the holes I had cut for my gears were misaligned so it was very tricky to actually make the gears turn. This is something I am going to have to fix in prototype 2.0.
Overall I am really happy with the way the ornithopter moves and the shape it makes with the wings. However, it is still a very unreliable and faulty mechanism. The bolts and nuts I used for hinges constantly came loose disabling the movement and my gears were very misaligned. With this prototype it was difficult to get the two wings moving at the same time and I had to constantly adjust things so it would keep working.
Going into prototype 2 I will:
- Using mini bearings instead of screws at linkage points and on gear bore.
- Working out precisely the distance between the gears.
- Using book screws, push rivets or locking nuts to keep any screws in place.
- Intergrating a stepper motor.
- Upgrading material and shape of parts.