UH Hilo master printmaker Jon Goebel puts finishing touches on massive 3D coral display
In a collaborative project that brings together the arts and marine science, printmaking master Prof. Jon Goebel nears completion of a massive 3D printing project that brings new insight to coral ecosystems.
Story and photos by Samantha Dane/UH Hilo Stories.
A printmaking studio run by University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo art professor Jon Goebel has been transformed by a long-term interdisciplinary project nearing completion.
The project, a massive 3D printed sculpture of Pocillopora meandrina coral — 800 times the size of the natural coral — is the result of several collaborations, starting from a class Goebel co-taught with coral expert John Burns, associate professor of marine science at UH Hilo.
The class brought together students from UH Mānoa’s Academy for Creative Media along with art, computer science, and marine science students from UH Hilo.
Goebel says the inspiration behind the project came during their collaborative class, while learning about Burns’s research on coral reefs here in Hawaiʻi.
“I learned a lot about coral ecology and what affects them,” says Goebel. “They’re like an underwater version of a rainforest. Just like a regular rainforest, they provide a habitat for a whole world of creatures.”
It was students that brought up the idea of 3D printing corals. “I had never done it, but I said well, let’s figure it out together,” Goebel says.
That led to this project, Goebel’s largest project to date. Keeping in mind the theme of environmentalism, the piece was printed entirely from a bioplastic derived from plant starches like corn.
Planning
Much of the time developing the project was devoted to a meticulous planning stage. Here, Goebel shows his printed instruction manuals detailing the coral cross sections for assembly:
Goebel started the project in 2019 and has been working on it off and on ever since, powering through broken printers, failed prints, and global pandemics. “You just got to get up and roll with it,” Goebel says.
The last time this project was covered by UH Hilo Stories, in 2020, Goebel was still going through the laborious process of figuring out the logistics of modeling and assembling the roughly 200 unique pieces that make up the coral.
- Learn more about that stage of the project: An artist and a scientist work together to create a larger-than-life 3D sculpture of coral reef (Dec. 3, 2020, UH Hilo Stories) and video below.
Assembly
Now, the main task is to assemble the entire coral sculpture for display. With the coral in its final stages, most of the remaining work is piecing together the printed pieces.
Each individual piece is connected to multiple others using bolts to ensure the piece stays together. It also makes for easy breakdown in the event the coral needs to be transported.
Below is Professor Goebel in his studio last week, assembling a part of the 3D sculpture:
Background: Unique origins
The coral replica is taken from Burns’s work digitally visualizing coral reefs around Hawaiʻi using a technique called photogrammetry. Photographs are taken of an object, such as coral, and stitched together to form a 3D model. For the project, Goebel took one of the corals Burns had recorded from a reef at Waiʻōpae at Kapoho Bay.
Much of the bay was encased in lava during the 2018 Kīlauea eruption, including the coral-filled tidepools. To Goebel, using the buried coral for the project was a chance to give it a second life and allow the viewer to interact with it once again.
“The theme I’m kicking around in terms of how I envision this is resurfacing,” says Goebel. “Not only as a coral that has been resurrected and preserved virtually, but to actually see something solid. It brings to the surface something that was lost.”
The piece also plays with perspective, being 800 times bigger than the original coral. It invites the viewer to see the coral in a new light and reevaluate their relationship with coral as they usually see it.
“Maybe you’re the fish or a coral polyp, but the perspective is small in comparison to the coral,” explains Goebel. “To see it when you’re small in comparison changes the psychology. I tend to see it in a way that I would not normally see it. Something larger than it is in real life.”
Despite their importance to underwater ecosystems, coral is often overlooked by beachgoers and the general public. A giant coral, though? That may be cause to stop and observe for a little longer.
As for the finalized piece, plans have changed in the past six years. Goebel will still texture the piece with the natural bumpy look many corals are known for, but rather than finish with the natural colors of corals as was originally planned, he will now work with another artist who will finish it entirely in white.
“It’s going to be white because it’s meant to be a canvas for light projection,” Goebel explains. Visiting artist Joseph Gray is now the one behind the eventual design to be projected onto the coral’s surface. Goebel says it could be stationary, moving, or even interactive. It’s entirely up to Gray. “It’s kind of exciting now to hand somebody else this piece as a blank canvas to see what they do with it,” says Goebel.
Check it out!
Goebel says he plans to continue working and collaborating with others to display the coral in the future.
“We’re gonna have visiting artists, whether that’s just Gray or other artists down the line,” he says. “To project on it is to change it. It’s pretty neat. It’s a collaboration tool that will allow me to work with visiting artists and scientists and see it from a different perspective.”
As work on the piece comes to an end, Goebel plans to display it next spring at Mokupāpapa Discovery Center in downtown Hilo, where it will be available for the public to see. Educational groups and visitors frequent the center, making it a perfect place for the collaborative project. The finalized project will be on public display in April 2027.
Story by Samantha Dane, a biology major at UH Hilo.
