This project has started from a search for a 3d-objects optimal packing algorithm over a surface, but evolved in something rather different. I love the work by Richard Long, from which this project takes its cue. The way he fills lonely landscapes with arcaic stones patterns and its eroic artistic practice, in his monumental vision, is in strong contrast with this computational approach that – ironically – allows virtual stones creation and sorting in a non phisical, mental way, a ‘lazy’ version, so to speak. The virtual stones created from several fractal subdivision strategies, find their proper position within the circle, with a trial and error hierarchical algorithm. A mix of attractors and scalar fields (some with Perlin noise) drives the density and size of the stones. The code is a C++ console application that outputs a OBJ 3d file.

Later, 3dmodels were produced from the original meshes. The conversion was rather difficult, the initial models weren’t created with 3dprinting in mind. The handling of millions of triangles and the check for errors required a complex process. Each model is 25cm x 25cm wide and was printed in polyamide.

Designer Giuseppe Randazzo lives and works in Torino, Italy.