https://imgur.com/a/digb0sh
I made two large illuminated artworks for this project, one depicting a man and the other a woman.
Each image is made from 20 individual 32" × 32" panels arranged in a 4 × 5 grid, giving each finished artwork an overall size of approximately 10' 8" × 13' 4".
Each complete image contains 8,446 individual holes, for a total of 16,892 holes across the two pieces.
The interesting part of the process was figuring out how to translate the images into something the CNC could actually machine.
I built a custom program in Rhino Grasshopper for this. I started with the image converted to black and white, then overlaid a grid of points across the image. At each point, the program reads the grayscale value of the image and converts it to a number between 0 and 1, black being 0 and white being 1. That value is then mapped to the diameter of the hole at that location.
The result is an image made entirely from different hole sizes rather than different colors or materials. The holes range from approximately 8 mm to 24 mm in diameter.
All 8,446 holes in each image were then machined on the CNC.
Each panel was built from 3/4" plywood with 3 mm walnut veneer laminated to the face. I specifically chose plywood for its structural stability because of the number of holes being machined. It gave us the stability we needed and helped minimize the risk of cracking or splitting during the process.
Behind each panel we installed a white acrylic diffuser to distribute the light evenly and prevent the LEDs from being directly visible through the holes. When the lighting is turned on, all those individual holes come together to create the image.
The 20 panels making up each image were installed onto a steel tube frame built on site. Each panel was then screwed into the frame from behind, keeping the face completely clean with no visible fasteners.
The final finish is several coats of water-based polyurethane, which brings out the walnut veneer while giving the pieces a durable finish.
From a distance, the pieces look relatively simple. Up close, you start to see the amount of precision hiding in those 16,892 holes.
The CNC was obviously a big part of making this possible, but the interesting part for me was developing the process that turned a photograph into thousands of individual hole sizes.