3D Printing + Contemporary Art
Justin Reid
Creative applications for the world’s trendiest industry
3D printing (or additive manufacturing as it is known by industrial engineers) is currently one of the hottest tech buzzwords within many industries and the mass media. It prompts conversation around innovation and the future possibilities of industrial engineering, and not a day goes by where somebody hasn’t found a way to 3D print something previously thought impossible.
From modular homes, to food, to cars, and even human organs, 3D printing has taken the world by storm. Bedroom tinkerers are churning out paperweights by the truckload with their small machines, and engineers and scientists are driving this technology’s future applications for science and medicine in labs the world over, and yet somewhere in the middle, artists and designers have a found a niche to utilize 3D printing technology in more creative ways.
3D printing intersects the digital and the physical, and contemporary artists like Nick Ervinck have begun to use this technology to create things that wouldn’t have been possible without it. Ervinck is a Belgian contemporary visual artist and sculptor, and his complex, digitally-designed 3D shapes and forms have been given realization through 3D printing. Levels of intricacy and flow permeate Ervinck’s work, and the detail in the material could not be achieved by human hands.
Ervinck’s vision and creative imagination has been elevated by 3D printing’s capacity to manufacture complex structures that hand-crafting tools have historically been unable to. Creativity isn’t lost in this process, it actually calls for innovative methods of thinking about how we can create art in new ways.
Art hasn’t always been known for its practicality in a general sense, but wearable art is one way that artists and designers have taken their vivid imaginations and injected them into fashion and culture. Neri Oxman from MIT, alongisde Stratasys’ Research and Development Team, have collaborated on multiple series’ of 3D printed artworks, ranging from abstract sculptures to striking wearable artworks. They have seen the application for 3D printing within the art world, and the design capabilities of using new materials to create not only vividly attractive sculptures, but also sculptures that people can actually wear.
The ‘maker revolution’, as this 3D printing explosion is being referred to, provides a lot of potential to take this technology in a multitude of different directions, some more practical and beneficial than others, but the place of art in culture is firm and important. So, it only makes sense that art should progress, and it’s exciting to see innovators at the forefront of the arts utilizing this technology in creative ways, ways that pave the road for other artists living in this contemporary space to see where they can take it. Who knows, perhaps in a few years time, these 3D printed houses that people are living in could be designed by your favourite artist. Why not?
Justin Reid will be presenting a workshop and talk about the applications for 3D printing within contemporary art in promotion of the +ONE Alumni Exhibition. Find out more at the exhibition Facebook page.
