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Invitation card from the Center for Book and Paper Arts (Chicago) 2014 |
While
observing the 3D printed objects in the Art2
Make exhibit and
listening to the first half of the 3D printing roundtable panel discussion that
corresponded with the CAA conference, I thought about the relationships of
these specific digital methods to the printmaking discipline. A basic print
concept I considered is the creation of a matrix to generate some form of
multiples. This was presented by the descriptions from the representatives on
the 3D panel concerning how the 3D digital modeling software enabled them to
generate a “matrix” or digital file to print multiples of a particular
sculptural form. These digital files have been internationally distributed and
printed at site-specific locations. This process of digital distribution and
the Internet has ties to the historical roles of printmaking as a Democratic
Voice. This form of public access is acknowledged in the Art2 Make exhibit Internet presence.
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Image from physical gallery exhibit 2014 |
The
Art2 Make exhibit has two sites of presentation. The first
is the physical gallery exhibit at the Columbia College Chicago, Center for
Book and Paper Arts and an Internet-based presence on the v1b3 website. The
v1b3 website presents curatorial and creative research projects that focus on
experiencing media artworks in various locations.[1]
The context of the Art2 Make exhibit was intended to initiate an expanded
dialogue concerning digital technologies and the social media relationships
between artists and audiences. This blog post will contribute to the
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Screenshot from online presence |
dialogue
of the Art2 Make exhibit by examining the modes of digital media
and contemporary art within the two presentation sites (the gallery and the
Internet).
Meredith Hoy’s exhibit text, Digital
Materiality: Expanding Sculpture Through 3D Printing, references the Art2 Make 3D printed
objects within the sculptural discipline. Hoy references individual artists
artworks, such as Sol LeWitt’s sculptural piece Incomplete
Open Cubes and Felix Gonzales-Torres’s Candy
Spills to indicate the conceptual
sculptural approaches of algorithmic process toward construction and the components
of social interaction.[2]
While both of these artists have a connection to producing multiples within
their work, I identified a broader art theory from some of my current research
in presenting my own web-based artwork.
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The Center for Book and Paper Arts gallery wall with Art2Make project information |
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Detail of QRCode and "online" presence information |
In
viewing the exhibit for the first time, I was intrigued by how the aspects of
the digital medium, for example the digital files and 3D printing process, lead
to a bridge of interdisciplinary concepts between printmaking and sculpture. My
second visit to the exhibit that included the roundtable panel discussion
focused my attention to the display and social interaction in the exhibit.
Hoy’s essay does extend the idea of social interaction or democratic voice from
the digital files to a current non-art world object, Cody Wilson’s 3D printed
gun named the Liberator. She does reference the rhetoric of
gift-giving, along with the social and political implications of free exchange
to the instructions of the 3D printed objects.[5]
This
type of social implication with the Internet or digital files enables the
printed objects to exist beyond the physical gallery space. Taking into
consideration that the Art2 Make exhibition has an ending date, the artists’
digital instructions are maintained on the website for continual public access.
The variables I mentioned earlier now have a role in a postmodern use of the
instructions and the 3D printed objects. Miwon Kwon’s essay, Exchange Rate:
On Obligation and Reciprocity in Some Art of the 1960’s and After, investigates Lippard’s broad concept of the
dematerialization of art. Kwon examines the side were the participants refuse
the gift giving or interactive process. She uses Felix Gonzalez-Torre’s
retrospective exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum as an example. She describes the
museum visitors as happily gathering pieces of candy and collecting sheets of
paper, then to her astonishment viewing overfilled garbage cans in the lobby of
the museum and just outside of the museum with Gonzalez-Torre’s sheets of
paper. Kwon describes from this experience the devaluation of the artist’s gift
and the participants’ assertion of their superior positions.[6]
While actual physical objects were being “given away” in Kwon’s example, the
future documentation of public access to the digital files and even the count
of the 3D printed objects will contribute to the understanding of the role of
digital media in the agency of the social interaction arrangement of the Art2 Make exhibit.
I
am unable to include my social media relationship of the Art2 Make project beyond my viewing with the information on the v1b3 website,
because I currently do not have access to the specific software or a 3D
printer. My current research on community libraries and their development to
offer various digital media sources for public access could change my
accessibility to the digital files. Of course, Timing is one main factor to the
circumstance with accessibility to 3D printing and forming the media arts
historical background. My writing is not intended to be a critique of any
portion of the Art2 Make project. I view my observation as a contribution
to theory and practice that will continue the conversation in developments of
digital media.
Visit Art2 Make to explore the catalog, artist’s statements & digital files, and
corresponding writings
Visit the v1b3 website
for past projects and to keep current of the Art2 Make traveling
exhibition schedule
Thanks to the staff at ColumbiaCollege Chicago, Center for Book and Paper Arts and the v1b3 curatorial team
for taking the time to answer my inquiries about Art2 Make.
[3] Olga Goriunova, Art Platforms
and Cultural Production on the Internet (New York: Routledge, 2012) 1- 2
[4] Lucy R. Lippard, Six Years: the
dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972…(Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1973) Introduction
[6] Miwon Kwon, “Exchange Rate: An
Obligation and Reciprocity in Some Art of the 1960’s and After,” in Work
Ethic , Helen
Molesworth, (University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003) 90- 93
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