CNCtech

from: The LA Times

Jason Pilarski, a professor of industrial and environmental design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and his colleagues Patrick Dachtler, Steven Joyner and Clancy Pearson gained acclaim at the international Milan furniture fair last April by exhibiting an intricate, computer-carved bed made from the countertop material Corian. "CNC technology is really prevalent in manufacturing, but not in furniture design," Pilarski says. "People have learned how to make a buck, but they haven't learned the aesthetics of the technology and what the machines can do."

pressure treated lumber, abs, corian, cast silver, painted steel

Joyner learned firsthand when he converted a loft on the floor above MachineHistories' industrial shop. Using computer programs, he created a living space with a built-in DJ console and a clothing closet concealed behind a wall-sized door used as a screen for a projection TV. The apartment is also filled with experiments and prototypes, including a long, undulating dining table made from laminated sheet rock.

Downstairs in the laboratory, the designers of MachineHistories are shaggy-haired mad scientists, all in their 30s, speaking jargon and using computers to create 3-D collages that superimpose imagery such as flying birds with pixel patterns. On a recent afternoon, the team used a CNC router to gouge one design into Corian, then heated the slabs and bent them around a pipe to create lighting pendants that glowed like an alabaster relief.
computer controlled pneumatic system, motion sensors, memory foam, plywood

The group also has produced elaborately carved mirrors that took two days to design on the computer and an hour for the CNC machine to cut out.

"It would take a year to do that kind of work by hand," Pearson says, "and you could never get such clean lines and crisp edges."

PERFECTION is not MachineHistories' most important product. Oftentimes, the designers will throw a tweak into a CNC program just to see what the machine will do.

"When people talk about crafts, they talk about being able to sense the hand of the artist who makes things," Pilarski says. "This allows them to see the hand of the machine."