← Workbench

025·July 2026

Manty Moore the manta ray

A 3D-printed manta ray on living hinges, made to wobble on the dance floor

Physical space3D printinglightfestival

July 2026

Manty Moore the manta ray, made for our camp at the Bass Coast festival, July 2026: a beacon on a pole, so we could find each other on the dance floor. By day fabric streams from its wings, and at night it is lit.

I wanted to explore living hinges, wings that would wobble in space as we danced with it. It was drawn to size and stood beside a human figure on screen, then cut into sections for the printer: a black head, and teal and blue wing plates joined by printed lattice hinges. The connectors were made to be replaced. Threaded inserts were pressed into the plates with a soldering iron and the sections bolted together, so a hinge that broke on the dance floor could be swapped out for a different one. For the night, lights run along its edges.

Moving: the beacon held high over a crowd by day, fabric streaming from its wings, in front of a stage of white fanned archesThe beacon by day at the camp, on a stand among chairs and blanketsMoving: a blue and teal wing section bending on its hinges, in a carThe manta ray drawn on screen from above, with two dimensions marked: 2′-6″ and 1′-0″On screen: a human outline standing on a green floor, the manta ray on its pole aboveOn screen: the manta cut into numbered sections for printing, the head in orange outlineA teal wing section on the printer's bedPrinted teal wing pieces and a plate of flexible lattice that joins themThe black head being printed, standing among its supportsA soldering iron pressing a brass threaded insert into a teal plateA hand holding the black head with blue and teal wing sections bolted onThe manta assembled on a workbench, a coil of wire on its headA teal wing tip held in the hand, a glowing line of light along its edge