Part of the initial prompt was to take inspiration from this collection as we undertook this project. I found this ask fairly difficult, as the pieces therein had immensely complex patterns that seemed quite difficult to emulate. So, this piece (right) caught my eye, which not only a deep and interesting pattern, but a unique shape, most likely due to its assumed purpose. Taking vague inspiration from this, I decided to encase whatever design I ended up with within a shape very different to the rectangular grids these algorithms were accustomed to. I elected not to hard-code the external shape into the design process, as it would surely dramatically change the resulting pattern. Instead, I would select a design, and then superimpose an outline.

With this in mind, I needed to select a very specific kind of design. Patterns with large blocks of single color would potentially result in parts of the design becoming disconnected, particularly after being laser-cut. Conversely, an immensely simple pattern would be structurally sound, but a somewhat uninteresting final product. After reviewing a number of posibilities, I selected these two images, respectively, as my cellular automata and outline:

This was my first time doing anything significant with the Fimbel space. However, with the help of the amazing student workers, I was soon able to convert the image, and start the cutting process. To the right is a selection of images taken during the cutting/engraving process.

I made a few mistakes during the set-up for the cutting process. First, the tail of the bird was placed too close to the edge of the board. This resulting the laser going slightly off the edge, leaving the final bird with its tail very slightly snipped. Second, I didn't entirely get the result I wanted with the internals of the bird. I had attempted to make it so that the white internal areas of the bird would be engraved/darkened. In some of the midway photos, you can see this effect, with the dark areas engraved, and the dark areas still the bare wood. However, instead of stopping there, the settings I used proceeded to cut out those lighter areas. this was unintended, and made the final piece much, much more fragile than it needed to be. Additionally, it resulted in a bunch of small pieces of wood falling into the cutting bed, which is something to be avoided. I'm not entirely sure how to fix this, but I will certainly experiment next time.

Since the piece was so fragile, I elected to mount the cut on another piece of scrap wood, which I sanded to straighten and remove mild burns. The final result can be seen below. i am fairly happy with it, all things considered, although I do which I used a little less glue (it is more noticeable in photos that in person, thankfully).