sphere illusion line drawings by joseph choma

‘boundaries’ by joseph choma all images courtesy the artist

design topology lab, an organization developed by american computation-based researcher joseph choma and dedicated to the ontology of space defined by mathematics, has created the thickened drawing project ‘boundaries’. the installation seeks to explore the notion of computationally generated three dimensional drawings and the dissolution of boundaries in this traditional method of artistic creation. the installation challenges the experience of both drawing and experiencing a drawing.

the drawing was developed through a thickening trigonometric transformation. as the geometry of the drawing is negotiated by this recurrent computation, the sphere thickens, resulting in multiple compounding layers and a sphere which no longer has one boundary, but many.

‘drawing thickness’ is a large-scale digitized sketch measuring 26′ x 13′ and comprised of 450 tiles. the sphere-like illusion is created by the fact that the tiles span both vertical and horizontal space. the lined rectangular components define a cubic ‘volume’ which creases at the center or radius of the round. as the viewer studies the piece, a three dimensional illusion emerges as the observer’s tricked eyes suggest that there is a tangible orb in the space rather than the thickened, 2-dimensional line drawing.

‘the drawing itself is computationally generated using a thickening trigonometric transformation.‘ -joseph choma

conceptual digital renderings of the drawing thickened lines