Okay, so this is it... The design that I have been pouring all of my creative juices into for the past six months: The Spirograph Master, and it's finally finished.
It may not be much in the way of looks - but hey, I'm a concept person - though this model depicts what my life sized interactive piece of spirograph machine would look like.
In real application the spirograph would be hip height and over ten metres in length and completely made out of glass. The idea is that people walk on the glass rim and drag the Egyptian handles around the gear path, thus drawing in the sand a spirograph pattern that is visible and erasable, ready to try again.
(If you don't know what a spirograph is, it's that mathematical shape on the right -> )
The tough part was finding a way to get the spirograph off of the ground and up into the air, whilst still being able to draw a feasible pattern. Which is why I eventually decided I had to sandwich my spirograph between two layers that would keep the rotor from falling through to the floor.
Using the 3D Printer (I feel like a pro at using it now) I designed three different 3D renderings of Hieroglyphs to relate to my Egyptian influence, these act as the handles and 'pencils' that draw the pattern into the sand. I also resonated with my Egyptian historical link through the hieroglyph engravings in the surface of the spirograph stator, as well as in the use of sand as a drawing material.
I really love this model, and on a larger scale I could only imagine the interactive fun that can be experienced through creating a spirograph. Though my favourite element has to be that once you've finished, you can sweep the sand over and start again; endless opportunity for creativity.
