Hourglass study
Parametric geometry and digital art
A shape I first imagined became an interactive drawing. A smooth hourglass forms the throat of a surface with a passage through its center.
- Status
- Interactive study
- Kind
- Data & geometry
- Stack
- Python · TypeScript · WebGL · Web Audio · Parametric geometry
The problem
I had a mental image of an hourglass turning into a three-dimensional object. I wanted to draw the intermediate forms and understand how the inside and outside could join.
What was built
- A Python tool that serves an interactive visualizer with a profile view, an open hyperboloid, and a closed surface.
- A radial model with independent profiles for the inner throat and outer shell, joined by annular rims.
- A GPU-rendered browser edition with a cutaway, adjustable resonance, and five synthesized notes that send waves through the same geometry.
What I learned
A parametric model let me turn an ambiguous image into a set of specific, testable choices about shape and topology.