Matt Donovan

Blocks, Curves & Patterns

November 1, 2014 – December 6, 2014

The Voxel Works are a playful ‘physical computing’ experiment that uses virtual rendering methods to build real-world physical objects out of Lego. Rather than using a computer program to design the work, the geometric patterns emerge from hands-on play with the physical constraints of the discreet three-dimensional brick units.

These works approach digital fabrication differently from other 3D printing methods, which typically use 2D layers of material to build 3D objects from the ground up. Instead, the Voxel Works are built up from multiple, overlapping angles, much like how a computer would render a compound curve or a sphere in a virtual world. This results in visual noise and unconventional patterns at odd angles that disrupt our expectations of the Lego material, which so many of us have used to build model houses or rocket ships in our childhood.

Inspired by the digital worlds we find inside computer games, the Voxel Works offer up a creative framework through which to physically experience a digital landscape.