This is electromagnetic levitation at its finest

Oct 8, 2014 09:53 GMT  ·  By

Levitation is something that man has been dreaming about since the earliest days of history, but a goal we are still far from achieving. The most we've been able to do is build craft that can do the flying for us.

However, making other objects fly, or at least float, is something man has pretty much gotten the hang of by now. Intelligent application of aerodynamic forces is the most common method, but electromagnetic levitation hasn't been totally neglected.

In layman’s terms, the concept is explained something like this: you put a magnet on a surface and affix it in place, then you place a second magnet above it only with the same pole facing it.

The repelling force created by the proximity of the magnets causes the second one to hover in the air, provided it doesn't shoot off into the distance.

Electromagnetic levitation is a staple of magnetic bullet trains, which run along a single track without ever actually touching it.

Now, it has been used to ensure that the skull of the Celtic god Ankou floats above its pedestal all the time. Or at least the 3D printed replica of it.

The 3D printed Ankou skull

There's something to be said about a sculpture: you can get away with blocky surfaces just by calling it stylized art.

That seems to be the case with the Ankou skull created by Guillaume Kuntz and Arthur Clement from Parisian design company Ao Gitsune. The difference is that the “sculpture” wasn't so much sculpted as built from the ground up by a 3D printer.

Ankou is a god that perpetuated life cycles in Celtic mythology, so the skull might not be the best symbol for it, but the artists thought it would be a suitable symbol for trying to fit the concept in daily life as it is in the current era.

There was a lot of trial and error involved in finding the right balance for the skull, but they managed it in the end. Altogether, the 3D printed object weighs 0.9 grams / 0.03 ounces and is made of polyamide material from Sculpteo.

Versions of the Ankou

The artists have created skulls colored dark grey, blue, yellow, and white. It turns out that the polyamide material is pretty easy to polish. Unfortunately, the skulls seem to carry pretty hefty prices (€79 / $79), since they're incorporated into other products, like lamps.

The 3D printing technology used here is SLS, or selective laser sintering, which melts powder into solid form by means of a laser.

3D Printed Ankou skull (3 Images)

3D printed levitating skull of the celtic god Ankou, blue
3D printed levitating skull of the celtic god Ankou, yellow3D printed levitating skull of the celtic god Ankou lounging
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