CCM Cuts a Digital Fabrication for DesCours

The DesCours festival of contemporary architecture and art uses cutting edge media and interactive presentations to entice culturally adventurous art lovers into new visual experiences. The 2009 DesCours, presented by the New Orleans chapter of the American Institute of Architects, is the third annual week-long event. Twenty-six architects and teams of artists have set up 11 sites in the French Quarter and Central Business District.

The installations are in typically unseen, underutilized, and even abandoned buildings, giving the viewer additional sensory opportunities to appreciate the art in normally unavailable architectural gems. These hidden areas become a natural “art gallery” to display art and media to showcase works from nationally known artists. This week-long celebration of architecture and art is completely free to the art patrons willing to seek out the installations.

Twenty-six architects and artist teams prepared 11 sites in the French Quarter and Central Business District

Central City Millworks often collaborates with artists and architectural students to reach their design goals with the help of our CNC router. A CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) Router is similar to a printer…but it routes instead of printes. The CNC sends a computer file to a router that uses sheets of plywood just as a printer would use paper. The plywood is hand-loaded on a 5’x 12’ table with a powerful vacuum to hold it down.

The computer controlled router can move in 3 axes to cut out any shape to close tolerances. Many architects and artists design with the CNC in mind because they know the easy with which it can turn complex concepts into reality. CCM had previously worked with Tulane Architecture Professor Marcella Del Signore to cut digital fabrications for art installations so when NanKo Studio of Los Angeles asked her to recommend a local mill shop to cut their 2009 DesCours fabrication, she recommended Central City Millworks. Following her recommendation, Nanko Studio emailed an autocad file to Rob Thornton, one of CCM’s CAD experts, who then converted it into art. The attached photo shows the progress of the project.