When beginning this project, I decided I wanted to make a piece that was an “old school tool, with a new era take”. After much research, I settled on constructing an Astrolabe.
An astrolabe, in essence, is an ancient astronomical computer used for solving problems relating to time and celestial bodies. The first Astrolabes were made before 400 AD, becoming popular among Islamic scholars by 800 AD, it eventually made its way into European hands by the 12th Century.
To pay homage to this long past, I wanted to maintain a nostalgic feel by having the entire exterior of the Astrolabe have a flush wooden feel. I then inlaid the acrylic and laser cut the azimuth and altitude lines to give an effect that would not have been able to have been replicated at the dawn of Astrolabes. I attempted to image trace and manipulate a previous astrolabe design, however this turned out to be far more difficult than I anticipated so instead we hand drew all of the design in illustrator. This gave us a great appreciation for early Astrolabe creators who would have needed to precisely mill and manufacture these devices by hand with absolute precision.
Without the aid of laser cutters and design software it must have been quiet challenging to accomplish this, especially when using brass which was the primary material these early devices were made from.
Process Images
