PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Andrew John Wit + Doug Bucci
PROJECT STATUS: Complete
EXHIBITIONS: Design Philadelphia 2023, Tyler School of Art + Architecture 2024
DESCRIPTION: Periscope is a collaborative installation showcasing interdisciplinary research conducted within the Tyler School of Art and Architecture. It explores materiality, color, craft, and environmental framing, bridging the digital and analog realms in architecture, industrial design, and jewelry design. The installation aims to create an immersive environment that engages inhabitants through views, movement, and scale.
The aluminum periscopes, each digitally designed and prepared for fabrication using automated laser cutting, bending, and deburring, are a key feature. After the automated manufacturing process, the five unique aluminum elements of each periscope are hand-riveted into two large sections for subsequent painting and polishing. A vibrant color palette is chosen to visualize three-dimensional motion, creating the illusion of periscopes tumbling through space. These colors also provide users with ten distinct viewing experiences as they peer through each periscope at the surrounding landscape.
Post-painting, the two large elements are riveted together, connected to mounting hardware, and strategically positioned in space using off-the-shelf lighting booms. This arrangement ensures that each element offers users a unique experience as they traverse the installation.
Final Conceptual Design
Process: Form finding
Process: Spatial Rolling
Process: Spatial Rolling
Process: Conceptual Hanging System
Robotic Fabrication Drawings
Robotic Fabrication Drawings
Robotic Fabrication Drawings
Module Assembly + Paint
Module Assembly + Paint
Periscope @ The Cherry Street Pier
Periscope @ The Tyler School of Art + Architecture