'Nano' artist creates images of nude model that easily fit in the eye of a needle
comments
An artist created a series of sculptures that were so small they could be stood on the head of an ant, balanced on a human hair or placed in the eye of a needle.
Jonty Hurwitz made the extraordinary figures, called nano sculptures, using groundbreaking 3D printing technology. The largest of his series of seven sculptures was about the width of a strand of human hair - the smallest is less than half that width.
After 10 months of designing, sculpting and rendering, he was finally able to see his figures using an incredibly powerful microscope that is used to examine cancer cells. But after just a few fleeting moments, his creations were destroyed - smudged by a colleague's finger.
Scroll down for video
Groundbreaking: The nano sculptures, created using 3D printing technology, were so small that they could be placed in the eye of a needle
Muse: The human figures were made using data taken from hundreds of photos taken of a woman who posed in a number of positions
Dwarfed: This digital image reveals the scale of one of the seven pieces, inspired by a neoclassical sculpture, compared to the head of an ant
Mr Hurwitz was inspired by 18th century sculpture 'Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss' by Antonia Canova, which shows the winged figure of the god Eros - Cupid in Latin - holding a girl, Psyche, in a tender embrace.
The 10-month project started with taking scans of his muse as she stood naked in different poses that recalled Canova's neoclassical sculpture. He shares his journey to creating 'the smallest creation of the human form' on his website.
She was positioned in the centre of roughly 250 cameras that had been assembled in a dome - ready to take simultaneous images of her body from every angle.
A high-powered computer programme was used to take all of the data that was captured on camera and reassemble it into images - into something that Mr Hurwitz calls 'digital clay'.
The sculptures were printed — with advice from the Weizmann Institute of technology, using a complex 3D printing technique, with another technique used to achieve the fine detail work.
Tender: The figures were based on Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss, an 18th century sculpture by Antonia Canova that features the god Eros
Minuscule: The entwined figures, seen on the head of an ant, could only be seen using a microscope that is used to study cancer cells
Intricate: Hurwitz could not see the sculptures when they arrived - placed on a mirror in a jewellery box packed in layers of bubble wrap
All seven of them were so small that when they arrived - on a tiny piece of mirror, in a jewellery box, wrapped in layers of boxes and bubble wrap - he couldn't see anything. Eventually saw what looked like seven minuscule dust particles that were caught in the light.
After a hunt to find a microscope that was strong enough to pick up the detail of the figures - only one used to study cancer cells was strong enough - and 45 minutes searching the mirror, Mr Hurwitz was finally able to see his sculptures.
He said: 'everything just stops and everyone goes silent, and we stare at this, this feat of humanity, for minutes.'
But when his colleague tried to move the mirror to see his creations from a different angle, they were crushed - and the nano sculptures were lost forever.
Elegant: This piece, called trust, was made using 'digital clay' that was assembled from information contained in hundreds of photographs
Mythical: From this angle of Cupid and Psyche The First Kiss the god's wings can be seen in white and the figures' legs are stretched out
Fleeting: The sculptures, which took 10 months to create, were destroyed when Hurwitz's colleague accidentally crushed them with his finger
Put the internet to work for you.
0 comments:
Post a Comment