Digital Manufacturing Meets Art to Create ‘Strange’ Connections on San Francisco’s Open Streets
Proto Labs’ Cool Idea! Award helps create injection-molded lenses to encourage human interaction
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Art installation Strange Lenses seeks to build connections between strangers through unique interaction. (Photo:
Strange
Lenses artist
Godshaw’s lenses — produced with injection-molded optical liquid silicone rubber (LSR) — have been digitally designed and manufactured to create geometric distortions. The exhibit encourages visitors to create connections with strangers by interacting in a unique and engaging way.
“Strangers open up — they become completely disarmed and start acting as friends,” said Godshaw. “Seeing people in this way — in a socially interactive art installation — can create an impact on the way you see and interact with your community.”
Godshaw’s work was chosen as an “incubation project” for the Market
Street Prototyping Festival after early success in a three-day
installation last year, meaning it’ll be installed for up to two years
in the heart of the retail district in
“Some initial prototype lenses I had produced elsewhere took more than
25 hours just to polish and sand,” he said. “I had tried 3D printing
some lenses with other manufacturers, but the optical quality just
wasn’t there. When I met
Plus, the funding from
“Designing something to be on the street for two years is a very different challenge than designing something to be up for a few days,” said Godshaw. “Optical LSR is robust and durable. You can’t scratch it, crack it or melt it, so it’s perfect for my installation and for the millions of people who will interact with it over the next two years.”
“The Cool Idea! Award exists to enable promising ideas to come to life,
and fittingly, this project will bring people together from all walks of
life,” said
Follow Strange
Lenses online, or on
About the Proto Labs Cool Idea! Award
Offered by
About
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161018006152/en/
Source:
Proto Labs
Sarah Ekenberg, 763-479-7560
Public
Relations Manager
sarah.ekenberg@protolabs.com
or
Media
Contact
PadillaCRT for Proto Labs
Tim Nelson, 612-455-1789
tim.nelson@padillacrt.com