Blending Art with Science

Scott Zanio, Metrology Sales Engineer at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, recently published an interesting article about a project made successful by blending art with science. He tells the story of California artist, painter and sculptor Lance Jost who has embraced scanning technologies available from Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, particularly those featuring the versatile and portable ROMER Absolute Arm. When Jost was approached by California Baptist University (CBU) in Southern California about developing a 10-foot-tall version of the University’s mascot, The Lancer, he knew exactly how he could quickly deliver a beautiful new piece of installation art for their new events center, while keeping a sharp eye on his cost structure for the project.

The Lancer

When CBU planners started collecting bids for what turned out to be an ambitious project featuring a 10’ tall statue, they approached Jost for his proposal. Already known to the University for creating a 3½-foot wide bronze bible, project planners were confident in Jost’s ability to deliver an aesthetically- and artistically-sound rendering of the University mascot, The Lancer.

Metrology to the Rescue

In the formative days of his career, Jost would have been very challenged by The Lancer commission. Taught in a classic technique called the Point Up Process, Jost was educated to take a measurement from a point from a maquette and multiply it to scale up to a life-sized sculpture. The Point Up device that sculptors used for centuries is a pointing needle that can be set to any position and then fixed. As an enlarging tool, it is effective but very time consuming – and it is not known for producing very accurate results. The net effect of this methodology is that the artist must spend a lot of time refining his design as he scales it up from a model to the actual work, which is a slow and costly means to work on a large piece of installation art. Without a modern technique, sculpting The Lancer would be a very time consuming and very expensive process.

In recent years Jost has begun to leverage a new approach to scaling his projects that was only a dream when he was training to become the artist that he is today. Although metrology, the study of measurement, has been around since the late 1800s, tools that enable people like Lance to get rapid, accurate renderings of a design have not. This is where the ROMER Absolute Arm from Hexagon made The Lancer project possible. Focusing on creating a 10-inch version of The Lancer statue, Hexagon’s metrology service professionals were able to rapidly scan his model quickly and easily scale the design to the required 10’ final dimensions. With the help of Kelly Hand at Satellite Models (selected due to the organization’s extensive experience with large sculpture projects) of Belmont, CA, The Lancer was CNC machined to the exact proportions specified by the ROMER Absolute Arm scanning process.

Most importantly, however, manufacturing intelligence services from Hexagon are what enabled Jost’s operation to stay on time, and on budget. Since he has very limited manpower resources (himself), his time must count when he is working on a commission. Because the metrology work is fast and very affordable, he can build those costs and time allotments into his workflow to become more efficient and accurate. In this way, the ROMER Absolute Arm truly provides the quality and productivity his operation demands to remain profitable.

New Facility and Dedication

In 2017, California Baptist University in Riverside completed a $74 million events center on campus. The Lancer is sited in front of the events center, and delivers the dual impact of inspirational icon and aggressive, intimidating symbol to visiting teams that they are in hostile territory. Thanks to Jost’s artistic skill and modern advanced manufacturing capabilities available from the ROMER Absolute Arm and Hexagon’s premier team of metrology services professionals, The Lancer will be enjoyed by students, athletes and visitors alike for decades to come.

Read the full article here.