We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer river about their original and creative pendant design work. river is an award-winning fashion designer, that makes our world a better place with their original pendant works.
river ("River") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work SpaceTime Coordinates pendant. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
River : This design project helps us relate to the solar system itself and find our place in the universe. We might all just be space dust in the big picture, but this project gives us a chance to grasp our own individual humanity and ephemeral time on earth. We all are part of the universe, so let's make it count!
River : I wanted everyone to be able to discover the solar system on the personal human scale, using a birthdate, historical or individual achievement, by creating a memento that can be used as a necklace, bracelet or keychain.
River : I will soon launch a Kickstarter campaign and will start selling on my site after that.
River : I've always loved anything space related, there is a zen quality I find in contemplating pictures of the universe, it helps me relax when I'm anxious, helps me put things in perspective as well.
River : Yes, The Present by Scott Thrift was a major inspiration to this design. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scottthrift/the-present
River : Anyone who is interested by space, astronomy or science in general. Adults and kids.
River : The chain goes though the center hole which is the representation of the Sun. One face displays the orbital paths from the commonly used north pole point of view, the other face only shows the celestial objects (Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) from the south pole view.
River : After extensive research of the subject of time and space, I came up with this name which is really is the definition of a peculiar point in time and space. So, it was just fitting.
River : 3D printing service, Rhino3D, Illustrator and Javascript.
River : The personalisation of each design, using a particular date.
River : I collaborated with the great developer Martin Vézina who created the script using the data from NASA to generate an Illustrator file. He created an amazing interactive Solar System. https://open.nasa.gov/data-stories/solar-system-simulator/
River : Well, this design would have been absolutely impossible without technology! From the work of NASA, to the work of individuals scientists and developers who worked on calculating the exact velocity of each planet and their orbits, and the 3D printing of course!
River : This design is based of the data coming from NASA, in order to get the most accurate planets positions and up to date data.
River : To be able to fit every orbits and planets within such a small size (25 mm). I would have loved to go even smaller, but with the current 3D printing technology, this is not quite possible yet.
River : This 3D printed schematised design of the solar system use data from NASA's JPL. The four dimensions (x, y, z, t) are used to represent a particular location in time and space. x, y, z are set to the heliocentric north pole view used the most commonly in Astronomy. The orbital paths are engraved and their sizes as well as the distances between them are schematised in order to make all the orbits and objects visibles at this scale.
