Twenty Something Sullivan
"Louis H. Sullivan is often celebrated as a father of modern architecture. But if given the choice, it’s not what he would have wanted to be remembered for.
His advocacy was for directing the human powers of thought, reason and creativity towards bringing buildings and their component parts to vital life. As in nature, all parts would relate to the whole. And each would reflect the interpretive powers of the individual, including emotion-stirring beauty uniquely of the work of the individual creator.
By this process, a vital, perpetual modern architecture would be a natural result – not a hollow artificial goal.
Often forgotten are Louis H. Sullivan’s earliest works where these powers are most visually evident. His earliest buildings created while he was in his twenties push upwards from the ground and blossom against the sky. The ornamental details pulse with living organic energy juxtaposed with the modular geometry that is the essence of architecture.
Most of the buildings Sullivan created while in this twenties are lost, but many salvaged pieces of the ornamentation survive. Things that are alive need three dimensions to thrive."
- Tim Samuelson, Chicago, 2016
Twenty Something Sullivan is a collaboration with City of Chicago Cultural Historian Tim Samuelson and features nine 3D scans of hitherto lost Louis H. Sullivan architectural ornament produced early in his career - hence the title of the book. It is a circular book - which is a little unusual - but necessary in order to show off the scans in high relief as Sullivan intended them to be seen. Each page is connected to two 3d printed print in place bearings that rotate around a central spine. The bearings are printed in woodfill to emphasize the intersection between the old + the new.
Twenty Something Sullivan is a collaboration with City of Chicago Cultural Historian Tim Samuelson and features nine 3D scans of hitherto lost Louis H. Sullivan architectural ornament produced early in his career - hence the title of the book. It is a circular book - which is a little unusual - but necessary in order to show off the scans in high relief as Sullivan intended them to be seen. Each page is connected to two 3d printed print in place bearings that rotate around a central spine. The bearings are printed in "woodfill" to emphasize the intersection between the old + the new.
Twenty Something Sullivan is a collaboration with City of Chicago Cultural Historian Tim Samuelson and features nine 3D scans of hitherto lost Louis H. Sullivan architectural ornament produced early in his career - hence the title of the book. It is a circular book - which is a little unusual - but necessary in order to show off the scans in high relief as Sullivan intended them to be seen. Each page is connected to two 3d printed print in place bearings that rotate around a central spine. The bearings are printed in woodfill to emphasize the intersection between the old + the new.
Twenty Something Sullivan is a collaboration with City of Chicago Cultural Historian Tim Samuelson and features nine 3D scans of hitherto lost Louis H. Sullivan architectural ornament produced early in his career - hence the title of the book. It is a circular book - which is a little unusual - but necessary in order to show off the scans in high relief as Sullivan intended them to be seen. Each page is connected to two 3d printed print in place bearings that rotate around a central spine. The bearings are printed in woodfill to emphasize the intersection between the old + the new.
Twenty Something Sullivan is posted online - and into the public domain. Additionally all of the original scans are also linked from the Thingiverse page. TSS has both text and Braille captions and the text page features a short 200 word essay by Tim Samuelson about the significnce of these early works by Louis H. Sullivan. This text along with links to Thingiverse, links to Youtube videos and images of the book are all available on our website
http://twentysomethingsullivan.com
Twenty Something Sullivan is a collaboration with City of Chicago Cultural Historian Tim Samuelson and features nine 3D scans of hitherto lost Louis H. Sullivan architectural ornament produced early in his career - hence the title of the book. It is a circular book - which is a little unusual - but necessary in order to show off the scans in high relief as Sullivan intended them to be seen. Each page is connected to two 3d printed print in place bearings that rotate around a central spine. The bearings are printed in woodfill to emphasize the intersection between the old + the new.
Press
Boing Boing, http://boingboing.net/2015/11/01/9beautiful-freeopen-3d-print.html, 2016.
3Ders.org, http://www.3ders.org//articles/20151102-louis-sullivans-early-work-3d-printed-book.html, 2016.
Exhibited
Makerfaire Tokyo, Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan, 2016.
Rapid 2016 Orlando, FL, 2016
Made for You: New Directions in Contemporary Design, Dorsky Museum of Art, city, state, date.
Transmissions Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mount Vernon, IL, 2016
Medium Cool, Prairie Productions, Chicago, IL, 2016.
Editions / Artists’ Book Fair (E/AB Fair), New York, NY, 2016.
Collections
Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection, School of the Artb Institute of Chicago
Special Collections, Harold Washington Library, Chicago Public Library, Chicago, IL