Artist Brendan Oliver’s ‘Sporting Forms’ Transform Sports Matches into 3D Printed Data Models. From 3DPrint.com:

…An English artist named Brendan Oliver has created what he calls Sporting Forms. What a Sporting Form is, is a collection of data and algorithms which take every movement on the field that players make during a particular World Cup game, and transforms them into a 3D model. The models are quite intricate, and are based on the players’ coordinates on the two dimensional playing field throughout a game.

The data collected really has several main purposes. One is that it can be animated via a video, to show the progress of a particular game. For instance, it uses positional data collected on players in real time. The data is used to create a ‘digital performance’ based on the interaction between players, and the outcome of each play. Using a special algorithm, points of excitement during a match are highlighted with larger spikes on the Z-axis of the graph. Generally the more excitement within a game, for instance the 7-0 victory of Germany over Brazil in the semifinal match, the more chaotic the 3D model will appear….

Additionally these models can then be 3D printed and saved as a way to remember a particular game. The real purpose of all this, however, is to create an art form, which is on display currently at the The Pride and the Passion: Contemporary Art, Football & The Derby County Collection exhibit in Derby England, at the QUAD Gallery.

Data represented via 3D printed models, is not something that’s new to the art field. In fact we have seen artists 3D print sound waves, as well as brain waves in the past. 3D printing has added an additional medium for artists to express themselves, as well as provide visual representation of data which one would likely never imagine would have beauty within….

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Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! We also offer the LulzBot TAZ – Open source 3D Printer and the Printrbot Simple Metal 3D Printer in our store. If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!