What was taking our time? Art centre Z33 in Hasselt, Belgium commissioned Unfold to create an installation 'featuring a 3d printer' for the exhibition "Design by Performance". The Installation is called L'Artisan Electronique and combines traditional pottery craft with 21th century digital techniques. Its still on display till the end of May. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, we will be operating the printer the 29th of may.
From the catalogue:
The world of design has been witness to how the boundaries between art and experimental design are becoming ever more blurred. The exhibition ‘Design by Performance’ is a showcase for performative trends in contemporary design, which focuses not on the production of a finished product, but on the production process itself: objects whose realisation is a continuous project, affected or formed by either the environment, the specific situation in which they find themselves, or onlookersAs such, processes and performances constitute a crucial part of Design by Performance, thus lending the exhibition its unpredictable and spontaneous character, and converting what is otherwise a pure ‘exhibition space’ into a space for events, interventions and actions by designers, artists and the public.
Participants
Atelier NL (NL), Maarten Baas (NL), Pieke Bergmans (NL), David Bowen (USA), Oscar Diaz (UK), Edhv (NL), Front (Sw), Martino Gamper (UK), Simon Heijdens (UK/NL), Eric Klarenbeek (NL), Sofie Lachaert & Luc d’Hanis (B), Laurent Liefooghe (B), Lawrence Malstaf (B), Bruno Munari (IT), Markus Schinwald (Au), Studio Glithero (UK), Studio Libertiny (NL), Tjep. (NL), Unfold & Tim Knapen (NL/B)
For L’Artisan Electronique, Unfold created - aside from the ceramic printer you all know - a virtual pottery wheel in collaboration with Tim Knapen. This pottery wheel gives visitors a chance to ‘turn’ their own forms. At regular intervals, a selection of these designs is printed in clay and exhibited in the space.
In L’Artisan Electronique, pottery, one of the oldest artisanal techniques for making utilitarian objects, is combined with new digital techniques. The virtual pottery wheel was realsied by means of a 3D-scanner and digital design software. However, the installation still clearly refers to the artisanal process of working in clay. The printing process imitates the traditional technique used by ceramicists, in which the form is built up by stacking coils of clay.
The other Reprap on display is in David Bowen's Growth Modeling Device that has been featured on a few Reprap blogs in the past. Its a fantastic piece that copies a growing union plant at regular intervals. David, who together with his wife also happen to be wonderful people, build his own Darwin style printer using a Makerbot extruder and gen2 electronics. The fun thing is that the printer has no top frame and is still very stable. I think he did a better job at integrating the Reprap technology in his installation than us, we didn't try :) More info at http://www.dwbowen.com/gmd.html
