2021: A Steam Odyssey

SCI-Arc Gallery, Los Angeles, US (2021)

2021: A Steam Odyssey is an exhibition developed by Soomeen Hahm Design and Studio Igor Pantic, displayed at SCI-Arc Gallery during the summer of 2021. The exhibition is conceptualized around the notion that making in Mixed Reality (MR) reinvigorates traditional craftsmanship by augmenting hand and material skills with the precision and formal possibilities of digital modeling - occupying the territory between purely automated, exclusively robotically-driven fabrication and highly crafted processes requiring human labour.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a structure built out of steam-bent hardwood using primitive hand tools augmented with the precision of intelligent holographic guides. It explores alternative strategies for the fabrication of digitally designed architectural structures, utilizing cutting-edge head-mounted devices (HMDs) to holographically assist workers in the manufacturing and assembly of highly varied components using traditional craft techniques. The exhibition piece itself, which is a full scale section of a larger inhabitable space, represents a next step in the evolution of our ongoing research into complex timber structures, built with the assistance of Augmented Reality. It builds on the methodology developed for the 2019 Tallinn Biennale Steampunk Pavilion (designed by Soomeen Hahm, Igor Pantic, Gwyllim Jahn & Cameron Newnham), further expanding it in the realm of fully functional space. 

The exhibition experience was complemented with a Mixed Reality app for tablet and smartphone, which visualizes the installation building process in MR and  provides additional information about the exhibition and the piece itself.

Project by: Igor Pantic and Soomeen Hahm Design Ltd

Design Team: Igor Pantic, Soomeen Hahm, Hanjun Kim

AR Construction Team: DaeWoong Kim, Shun Sasaki

AR App Design: MoFei Li

Video Edit: Yiguan Liu

Fabrication Contributors: Lou Xiao, Minxuo Qi, Ji Qi, Shelley Luo, Jiin Jeong, Kevin Foley, Ilaria Lu, Alexandeos Lewis, Jonah Klinghoffer, Burak Celik, SangHyun Suh, Eva Besmerti, Carlo Stuken

Engineering Consultants: Format Engineering (UK)

Photography: Joshua White, Soomeen Hahm