Pop-Up Feature: Rapunzel

Rapunzel, a pop-up by Morgan Green and Andrew Bearnot produces volumes of unique but mundane material—each printed segment different from the last. While a human hair grows smoothly from a follicle, these digital hairs register line-by-line, branded into thermal paper. Our algorithm produces images that are infinitely novel, but as hairs on a body, they appear the same in essence. Unfurling along a sensitive tape, they nevertheless seem to record something. Like a lock from a lover, this segment is yours to take home. You might revel in its particular kinks, its imperfections, perhaps the pierce of light entering its bend.

After observing hair under a microscope, we coded an abstraction that references hair’s subtle reach. Our program’s parameters produce boundless hairlike images. Matter, rather than mathematics, dictates that each has an end point. The system that designs these drawings uses Pierre Bézier’s formulas, layered with functions for tapering and shading. Bézier curves are ubiquitous in design and particularly typography. Our shaded curves too suggest calligraphic scribbles — clipped somewhere in the middle: segmented thoughts.

Rapunzel will be on view @ Currents 826 Gallery during the run of Altered Light on view until May 23rd