Projections on a Metal Sculpture Visualize Next-Level Geometry

Humans can only see in three dimensions, but that doesn’t stop artists from trying to visualize more. Unifield, a form experiment by artist Can Buyukberber, is a physical-digital hybrid, created from scratch using carpentry techniques, laser cutting, and projection mapping. The final work, a complex, undulating, black and white pattern, not only spans the physical and immaterial realms, but also forays into physically impossible, conceptual space.

We generally think of our world as having three physical dimensions: width, height, and depth. The fourth dimension is sort-of present in our world, known in physics as time or spacetime. Unless you’re a math whiz, conceptualizing any more dimensions is damn near impossible, but theoretically, any number of physical dimensions can be imagined for the purposes of geometry, or, like in Unifield, for art.

“The work intends to trigger a timeless perception by merging both archaic and futuristic components. By using computational design techniques with a digital fabrication method and projection mapping, Unifield uses the space where digital and physical overlaps as a portal to visualization possibilities of a higher dimensional object,” Buyukberber says.

Multidimensional worlds have been theorized by 20th century mathematicians like H.S.M. Coxeter, whose higher-dimensional geometry studies directly inspired Unifield. His work as a geometer influenced artists like MC Escher and Buckminster Fuller.

Watch Unifield below:

Unifield | Projection on Lasercut Form from Can Buyukberber on Vimeo.

Find out more about Can Buyukberber on his website.

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