In August, 2012 I launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to manufacture a small-scale version of Theo Jansen's Strandbeest kinetic sculptures. This playful desktop sprite recast the organic appeal of its giant cousins for a domestic space, creating a meditative wooden toy designed to scuttle over countertops and coffee tables.

New models available on Etsy

Play with the digital simulacrum

New York, NY

2017-present

In early 2017, after the Trump administration announced it would no longer be revising the $20 bill to include Harriet Tubman, I created a stamp that replaces Andrew Jackson's face with hers, using the Federal Reserve seal on the bill as a registration mark against which to align the stamp. https://vimeo.com/showcase/3553903

This project touched a political nerve in 2019, being featured on MSNBC and displayed in exhibitions by the Smithsonian and The British Museum, as well as appearing in advertising, magazines, books, and posted widely across social media. 

By offering stamps for sale on Etsy, I was able to raise over $40,000 for charities such as the ACLU, the Lakota People's Law Project, Planned Parenthood, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

Design files, links and info all available on Thingiverse https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2537926

New York, NY

2018

Inspired by an idea presented in a biomedical journal, I designed and built a low-cost, open source version of this unique robot. Its bio-inspired mechanism uses the waves generated by a servo-driven helix to get around. An Adafruit board controls the behavior of this bot, which can detect when it bumps into things and use a simple algorithm to navigate around. 

Design files, instructions, and BOM available on Thingiverse https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2850763

New York, NY
SXRVXVE Art Collective
January 23-27, 2018 Center at West Park, NY

This data visualization project sprang from a desire to transform datasets into tactile objects. Raw data on its own lacks the ability to be picked up, turned over, and passed to a friend. The 3-dimensional physicality of these maps changes how we interact with the data they represent, and this inversion of how we typically read data is what the artwork is intended to explore. The maps were created in OpenSCAD and 3D printed using a thermoplastic polyurethane filament adhered to magnetic backings cut with a laser cutter.

STL files and links to each dataset available on Thingiverse https://www.thingiverse.com/danowall/collections/united-stats-of-america

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum and Adam Savage partnered to commemorate this historic event by constructing a replica of the Command Module door. I was invited to participate by 3D printing one of the door latches for this door, which was assembled on-site by Adam Savage and his team into the crowdsourced reconstruction.