Forrest McCluer
In 2001 I began an art project with the goal of creating sculptures
from all of the parts from 30 discarded personal computers. Among
other things, these sculptures were intended to draw attention to the
environmental impact of discarded electronic equipment.
The early sculptures in the 30 Computers project were based on
polyhedrons, Bones (a dodecahedron made from computer frames), Skin
(an icosahedron made from the computer covers) and Digital Womb
(cubiakis icosahedron made from computer shipping boxes). While
developing ideas of what to do with the remaining computer parts I
began to research other biological entities such as nerves and cells.
But when I turned to viruses I was stunned and amazed to see that many
were icosahedral. This startling discovery led me into the world of
virology. Inspired by these fascinating organisms and their geometric
shapes, I was able to find a sculptural home for many of the remaining
parts in the Computer Virus Sculpture series.
This sculpture is a model of a HIV-1 viron which has the shape of
a buckminsterfullerene cone, a stretched out truncated
icosahedron. The HIV-1 virons are not identical but all have the
common characteristic of having 12 pentagon faces, 7 at one end
and 5 at another. This specific fullerene cone is taken directly
from the research results of Ganser, et al (1999); it has 1,572
protein molecules, three at each vertex or point. Geometrically,
the bonds between points are interpreted as edges of polygons: 252
are hexagons and 12 are pentagons.
The hexagons in this sculpture are stainless steel tiles and the
pentagons are formed from wood, the substrate is plaster, MDF and
steel. This is my first effort at a fullerene cone, the next one
will be covered with circuit boards.
www.30computers.com\fullerene_cone.htm
Barbie K. Ganser, Su Li, V Y. Klishko, J T. Finch, W I. Sundquist,
”Assembly and Analysis of Conical Models for the HIV-1 Core,”
Science, Vol. 1, No. 5398, 80-83, (1999).
During the late 1950’s as virologist’s research into the structure
of viruses began to take direction, they were influenced by
Buckminster Fuller and sculptor Kenneth Snelson. Drawing on these
insights two scientists developed the idea that virus shells were
structured like geodesic domes. Triangulating a dome into 20 is
the best way of producing a shell of equivalently bonded identical
structures and it is the minimum free energy structure.
In the 1990s the HIV-1 virus was described as having an
icosahedral envelope that was covered with 72 nodules on its
surface.
This sculpture is a representation of the HIV viral envelope. The
materials used are circuit boards taken from discarded PC power
supplies. The 72 nodules that cover the surface are the toroidal
inductors found in PC power supplies. Since I only had 30
computers to work with, I obtained the remaining 42 toroidals from
an electronics recycling company.
http://www.30computers.com/CV_Power_Supply.htm