A student at The AA School of Architecture, London, has won the October’s People Choice prize in Roland DG’s Creative Awards competition. Winning a feature-packed Canon Powershot SX 230 HS digital camera, this intriguing entry received a staggering 3,599 votes from all over the globe.

‘Interference_Thick 2D’ was produced by Selim Halulu on a Roland MDX-540 milling machine, beating over 40 other UK entries.  Halulu’s innovative entry involved a fascinating experiment using a large transparent acrylic block, and was the outcome of a series of explorative tests, using the Roland MDX-540 as part of a second year project.

“In these experiments, I was producing prototypes that sought to blur the boundaries between 2D and 3D,” explains Halulu. “What’s unique about this piece is that although the MDX-540 milling machine is a subtractive process, due to the transparency, the milled drawings look additive when viewed from any side and any angle. Interference_Thick 2D not only creates an in-between dimension but also creates a solid/void effect through the reflection of light within the piece.

“The acrylic block was very dense and earlier prototypes had started to lose their transparency due to the amount of heat being generated during the milling process, causing milled out bits to stick back to the block. So, over the 50 hours it took to make this piece, we constantly sprayed water onto the acrylic block as a lubricant to remove the carved out debris. Doing this also meant that it did not need polishing post milling.

“The Roland Creative Awards competition is a great platform to showcase academic experiments in materials and processes, providing essential experience for designers and students just like me, but also in helping to inspire others to get experimenting with their Roland machines. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Daniel Christiansen, Jeroen Van Ameijde, Chris Matthews and Chris Pierce who were part of this project, along, of course with all the voters,” concludes Halulu.