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SOPHIE ARANGO NEBEKER

Works    Exhibitions    Process    About    

Casting bronze using lost-wax technique 

Where did this start, when does it end?
2018

College of Creative Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Wax sculptures Rigging sculpture for casting, includes vents and pour spout Investing the wax pieces in plaster/silica mix which gets fired in a kiln, where the wax is incinerated. Lighting the furnace to melt the bronze Pouring molten bronze into plaster mold. After cooling, the mold is broken to free the sculpture The pieces are cut from the rig and the surface treated with dremels and buffers.
    In 2017, the Thomas fire burnt 280,000+ acres around Santa Barbara county. Winter rainfall compacted with freshly burnt land caused large mudslides in river areas, or riparian zones. The fire burned vegetation, which normally move water from soil to atmosphere in a process called evapotranspiration. This, plus lack of root structure to stabilize soi,l led to land slides which damaged property and reshaped the riparian ecology. 
   In the summer of 2018, I assisted Kate Culhane in her PhD field work under Dr. Hillary Young, investigating the effects of the fire and subsequent mudslides on insect diet in river areas. We categorized the characteristics of the stream morphology and hydrology. As well as the presence and quantity of invertebrate species, algae, diatoms and more.
    During our time in the mountains, I was inspired by the awesome force of fire and earth to sculpt a landscape. Learning to cast bronze with Barry Dwyane Hollis, I connect the process of using extreme heat to rehsaping something unmovable like metal to the power of natural disasters. Another feat of nature is its resilliance to disturbace, and its prevailing drive to live. This process of growth is reflecting in the dynamic three figures. 





Using photogrammetry to create 3D models

Macro Micro
2019-2020
Santa Barbara Natural History Museum and University of California Santa Barbara

Pick specimen Photograph using Iphone Take photos from every angle Input images into software Meshroom to create 3D render 3D render projected onto a curved surface From inside model, viewed in UCSB's Allosphere http://www.allosphere.ucsb.edu/ On the printer bed This print is about 1/5 the size of the original coral skeleton 3D print with water soluble support structures

    This work explores the multi-scale morphology of reef-building corals. Coral skeletons were analyzed with aesthetic intention in attempt to transform the data into tangible emotional objects. While working at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum under Dr. Daniel Geiger, I used camera lenses and a Scanning Electron Microscope to investigate the tiny world of a polyp- the individual animal which, with millions of other polyps, builds a reef.
    To represent coral morphology at a larger scale, I use a 3D modeling method called photogrammetry. For each model, many photographs are taken from all angles and processed by a program, Meshroom, to render a 3D model. I manipulate and 3D print the models, as well as printing the images taking with the SEM, though facilities in the Art Department at UCSB.
    In ongoing work in the Allosphere with Dennis Adderton and Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin in the Media Arts and Technology department at UCSB, I am able to experience the coral models in Augmented Reality. This new mode of experience enables viewers to ‘fly’ inside and around coral that once was a critical habitat-forming organism for a vibrant marine ecosystem.