Sullivan Book Prototype #1

thingiverse

This project is still evolving, and I'm not entirely certain that sharing these files will be super helpful to anyone beyond showcasing my progress in action. Nevertheless, in the spirit of transparency, I've decided to share them here. As an artist-in-residence at Maker Media Labs in San Francisco, I'm currently working on a 3D printing architectural reference book about Louis H. Sullivan's early ornamentation. To create this book, I'm collaborating with City of Chicago Cultural Historian Tim Samuelson, who has kindly allowed me to scan his collection of early Sullivan ornaments from his archives. The resulting 3D printed book will be circular in design, approximately 10 pages long, featuring about 9 high-resolution scans accompanied by text and Braille notations. My goal is to produce a book that can print on standard desktop machines with a build envelope of 220 x 150 x 140mm, but one sample STL suggests the page size may need to be adjusted to 220 x 220mm square. To address this challenge, I'm considering printing each page in two halves, though I'm not convinced this is the best approach. Later today, I plan to test this method and see how it works out. In the meantime, you can view a video showcasing my prototype's current state of development here: https://youtu.be/jVr_5pxDBrc. My next steps involve designing a mechanical system for rotating the pages via a crank mechanism, refining the scan quality, optimizing page layout, converting text into Braille, printing everything, and thoroughly testing it all.