Flex-it: Exploring emotional expression and experiences through elasticity in digital manufacturing

Abstract

This research investigates the potential of structural flexibility as a functional and affective design element, and its potential applications. Our research bridges the areas of jewellery design, emotion design and structural development in the Additive Manufacture (AM) of metals. The paper begins with a theoretical review of the nature of flexible structures and of current deformable Additive Manufacturing (AM) geometries and their applications. This has been complemented through a series of practical experiments exploring the creation of emotional expression through AM flexible geometries.

Both existing examples and the outcomes of the experiments are evaluated against the framework of emotional expression developed by Niedderer with regard to the emotional responses they elicit. The outcome and contribution of the research will be a better understanding of the structural geometries and potential uses of flexibility in AM as well as of its expressive potential.