THE NATIONAL PROJECT FINAL WEEK: BIOLUMINESCENT CAVE MAKING

MONDAY 6TH JANUARY

We have a week left before our deadline and still theres much to do. Most important of all is making the glowworm cave, since that is the climax of the experience that we want to wonder Jason with in virtual and physical form. With more than half of my group sick or unavailable, I've come into uni almost every day from close to finish to complete the model and other parts of the project (i.e the presentation) along with Alex who's focusing on Twin motion. At practically every stage something put me to the test - it went wrong, malfunctioned or interfered - in which I had to constantly come up with fast solutions.

Sculpted the cave on Nomad over the break.

I designed the model cave from scratch and I wanted it to glow somehow. Figuring that out was hard - I considered purchasing fiberoptic strands which would have been very effective but expensive. Glow in the dark paint? Nah it wont show well during the presentation.

I settled with the idea of an LED compartment, where the light peaks through tiny holes in the lid structure, which recreates the gloworm effect.

Imported into Bambu Lab.

Printed the first side piece (2 hours).

The other side piece (2 1/2 hours)

To scale. 1/100

Alex has worked so hard and long on Twin motion. So I wanted to help her out a bit and figured out how to recreate the glowworms by adding spherical objects and editing their material properties. But positioning hundreds of spheres would have taken way too long to finish so we decided to leave it.

FRIDAY 10TH

Today is the final day we can come into class before the deadline, so arrived at 8 o-clock sharp to get the rest of the cave printed as I multitask, so that by Monday it is painted and done. I soon realised I really messed up, thinking it would take less than 12 hours when it's actually 14 in total to print both pieces! longer than the whole school day. So in 2-3 I messed around, researched, sent dozens of emails to myself, running back and forth to the computer room 50 times, trying to reduce the printing without wasting any more of the valuable time I have left.

I feel like in those crazy few hours, I gained a year's worth of Bambu knowladge with the amount of pressure I was under, and it payed off.

7 hours is very bad.

Many learning curves. One thing I forgot to mention in this video is the Auto-Orient tool which automatically calculates the most effective position to print in; I accidentally found this out on my last print. Making areas thinner in Nomad helped a lot as well, it only needs to be as thick as necessary. Had I known about any off these functions I would have saved hours of time printing the other pieces.

The top piece was so satisfying to print.

THE FINAL PIECE. FINISHED AT 7:54pm.

SATURDAY 11TH

Screwed in mini hinges using tweezers and a lighter ( because I had no screwdriver or a working drill). Hinges help keep everything in place.

I had to soften and reduce parts of the print with a lighter because it would not completely fit. Of course wear a mask.

TESTING

SATURDAY 11TH

The following morning in my garden, I spray painted the print in grey and blotched it with black and brown paint using tissues. All my cans broke during this process hence why I resorted to blotching on spray paint.

But that inspired me to paint further details with acrylic paint, using the blotching method, which is highly effective. With the right amount you can create a nice gradient; here I made colours of jade/crystals, moss, shadow and highlights of blue to mimic where glowing light shines, to add more dimension when the LEDs turn on.

Why not also paint a a bunch of dots using non-toxic glowing paint. This way it glows beautifully even without electricity.

Glowing constillation in the shadow of my mum's cupboard.

Install USB connected LED strip.

It's Done,

The fact that it' s 3D printed with an installed light source provides Therme insight as to how to actually build it. When thinking about it architecturally, people can already 3D print houses and large structures, like caves, sustainably https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2022/09/living-3d-printed-walls/

Instead of unethically using real bioluminescent creatures or harmful materials, you can harness a small amount of light, both natural or electric, using a smart complex 3D printed structure consisting of a tunnel system of - holes - layers - filters - and non toxic glowing paint - similar to my little model. This saves a lot of electricity and resources which is good for everyone and the planet.

I'd like to think Therme will create our Biome with a balance of artificiality, naturally derived/sustainable elements and intelligent design. Horticulturalists working with Bio Engineers working with Architects working with Zoologists, Technologists, Psychologists, Artists. Using this kind of Hybrid method where diverse practices collaborate can be the key to the future and Therme most definitely has what it takes to do it.

I believe that so much resources and money is wasted on careless design; like the typical 20-1000 lights fitted into a ceiling, or metals/plastics /wood in areas where it's unnecessary. There are always better ways to build!

SUNDAY 12TH

HOW I'VE MANAGED TOWARDS THE DEADLINE

I spent hours until 2 am refining the presentation to make it presentable for tomorrow. Things like adding and subtracting slides and media, fixing text, videos, making it coherent.

Time management list. Tasks I did in a day.

Project Management