The charming, gently twisted form of a branch was 3D scanned and fused with a large volume of rubberwood that retains its natural bark inclusions. The position of each branch emerging from the volume was repeatedly examined in the digital model, constructing a form that appears as though the branches had existed there from the very beginning.
By translating a natural form into data and allowing it to re-emerge as material, the process gives rise to a product that exists somewhere between a tree stump, a piece of furniture, and an object—one that oscillates between function and form.
　
　
-Industrial Branch-
In the process of creating my original material, ForestBank, I have collected branches from various places. As a preparatory step before using them as material, there is a stage in which the branches are cut into small pieces. Over time, I have processed countless branches, and among them were some with unusual forms or distinctive textures that caught my attention. Those branches were not used as material for ForestBank; instead, I quietly and purposelessly collected them.
At first glance, they are nothing more than ordinary branches with no apparent value. Yet they were presences that held the potential to become fragments of ideas or triggers for creation—objects that carried, for me, a kind of value without reason. It is much like the feeling anyone experiences when picking up a favorite stone or shell by the sea or along a riverbank and bringing it home for no particular reason.
In this work, I began to consider whether these branches—left behind without purpose—could be given function and elevated into product design. Each branch is 3D scanned and converted into modeling data. With the cooperation of Karimoku Furniture, their forms are carved out of solid wood using CNC machining. In this process, a natural object is translated into data and then re-emerges as material. There is a continual movement back and forth between data and matter.