4 Corners

I have been working on this 4-panel art piece for a while as an attempt to explore 3D with my own art projects. With the introduction a couple years ago of other wall-mounted sets, I found a good framework - literally - for my concept to be created in Lego form. The size is smaller than current sets, using only 4 of the 9 technic base pieces and measuring 10.7inches (27.2 cm) square.

Each panel or "corner" of the piece represents a unique pattern in 2D space. As you move around the piece, the curves, depths, and shadows reveal more interest. One pattern leads into the next, giving the piece a very dynamic feel. And of course, it is impossible not to want to touch the surfaces or follow the waves. Building this in Lego helped the effect more because the capped towers look too rough to be smooth but surprisingly do well at approximating the 3D surface.

To calculate those surfaces, I utilized a spreadsheet program with 3D graphing capabilities and resurrected surface functions from my old math notebooks. I needed to adjust different parameters of the curve functions to meet my needs (amplitudes, phase, shift). Hopefully that gives you some idea of how this came together and the art behind the art.

I found that a 15x15 grid size shown here is a good balance between surface appearance, overall size, and number of pieces = build time. I did explore other panel sizes but the piece count became unrealistic. As it stands, this piece contains 4,917 parts, mostly 1x1 round plates and tiles. With a simple map showing the heights for each location, it was easy and engaging to build.

Future improvements:

I think 1x1 round plates could be changed to 1x1 round bricks of various heights to reduce the piece count, if desired. Though I prefer my 4 corners, I can also see the set including other options using the same pieces: a spiral, torus (donut), pyramid, saddle, etc. If you don't like one combination, you can build another. And someone is bound to point out that other art pieces have more than 1 boring gray color. I'm sure Lego can spice it up with some white and beige...

 

I think this proposed set successfully adds elements of texture and shape to wall mounted art pieces, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts. I am hoping that other adult fans of Lego will appreciate this build and want to explore a new approach.

Thank you for your interest and all-important support. Please tell all your friends!

  Aaron

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Update 12/10/2021:

Some of the comments below have made reference to other patterns that could be made with these same pieces in the set.

I spent some time considering and have come up with a bunch of other possibilities using the same pieces. I added a glimpse of these in the last 2 pictures. The intention would be to supply enough pieces to pick any 4 of the patterns, or as you see one pattern repeated 4 times. This shows 36 more patterns. I'll try to think of more!

Thank you for your continued interest and support.

Aaron