Boulding Blocks: Puzzles that are “outside the box”
Beyond Legos™ and Rubik’s Cube™, a new discovery of spatial relationships is being called “Conjoined Space Theory” by Mark Boulding, a designer and artist who lives and works in Denver, Colorado and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Boulding Blocks are the result of a yearlong design project to create forms with equal volumes substance and space. Giving “space” substance is the organizing principle behind a plethora of new products in the planning stage. The first viable product is a cube puzzle, dubbed “insane” by one observer.
“Think of a film negative. It’s a two dimensional negative image that is the flip side of a positive print. Now imagine a three dimensional negative being the flip side of a three dimensional object. You have Conjoined Space Theory.”
Boulding started with a cube that has two differently shaped pieces. One piece is white representing “positive” form. The other piece is black representing “negative" form. It takes four white pieces and four black pieces to make a cube. Here is where the fun begins. When it is disassembled it can take a long time to find the solution to the cube, but one gets magically lost in making things other than a cube. The number of possible combinations of the eight pieces is large, very large.
Add to the mix, a sphere and a cylinder with the same properties as the cube and the possible combinations are astronomical.
With the slogan: “Think outside the Blocks™ ”, a team of designers and marketers is exploring ideas beyond the mechanical puzzle, such as building block sets, branded collectibles, 3D portraiture, architectural components, interactive art installations, interlocking tiles, even cyberspace interaction with physical pieces.
The Boulding Block Cube is being made available right now on Kickstarter through a campaign that ends January 1, 2015. Sphere and Cylinder will soon follow.
All rights to images in this release are reserved by copyright 2014. Images may be used with credit given to Mark Boulding Art. All images shown are 3D laser print models. Cube, sphere and cylinder each fit in space 2.25” cubed. Patent Pending.