Schlagwort: 3D printed art

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The Open Heritage initiative is a joint project between Google Arts and Culture and nonprofit CyArk to preserve monuments around the world in 3D and make them available to the public.

Many people’s dream is to travel the world and see its wonders. But, this dream may never be realized, especially if some of these wonders are ruined by earthquakes, uncontrollable tourism or even religion-motivated vandalism.

CyArk is a nonprofit organization which was founded by Ben Kacyra in 2003 to preserves endangered sites around the world in 3D. He explains that he was inspired to start the nonprofit after seeing the destruction of Buddhist statues in Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2001.

To capture at-risk monuments, Kacyra and his team use detailed 3D images using methods such as laser scanning, drone imaging, and photogrammetry.

Now, Google has partnered with CyArk to help the nonprofit in their mission. Their joint initiative is called the Open Heritage project.

It uses CyArk’s technology to capture the 3D data, then this information is made available online for the public to explore, whether using a mobile or a virtual reality headset.

“With modern technology, we can capture these monuments in fuller detail than ever before, including the color and texture of surfaces alongside the geometry captured by the laser scanners with millimeter precision in 3D. These detailed scans can also be used to identify areas of damage and assist restoration efforts,” Chance Coughenour, a digital archaeologist and program manager with the Google Arts and Culture division, said in a press release.

Explore the World from your Living Room

Google Arts & Culture is a platform which aims to help preserve art but also make it accessible in all its forms.

“Over the past seven years, we’ve partnered with 1,500 museums from over 70 countries to bring their collections online and put more of the world’s culture at your fingertips. This project marks a new chapter for Google Arts & Culture, as it is the first time we’re putting 3D heritage sites on the platform,” Coughenour adds.

Right now, Google and CyArk are working on mapping the Ananda Ok Kyaung temple in Bagan, Myanmar which suffered damage from an earthquake in 2016.

In total, the Open Heritage project currently has 25 locations from 18 countries around the world to explore. The hope is that by making this data publicly available, people around the world will come up with interesting ways to use it.

Would you 3D print Bagan temples or explore Wat Phra Si San Phet using an Oculus Rift? If you’d like to download CyArk’s data, you’ll need to apply to do so using a form which can be found on Google’s Open Heritage page.

Source: The Verge

Website: LINK

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Morehshin Allahyari is an Iranian artist and activist. For her latest exhibition, she is using ancient illustrations of Middle Eastern dark goddesses to create sculptures using 3D modeling, scanning, and printing. Her aim is to fight against “digital colonialism” with the display called She Who Sees the Unknown.

Digital colonialism, artist and activist Morehshin Allahyari explains, is when a company goes to a Middle Eastern cultural site and begins a reconstruction project which then isn’t made public. She adds that corporations are even using traditional mythologies and cultural artefacts to make a profit.

However, Allahyari is countering this by using 3D modeling, scanning, and printing to redistribute forgotten cultural artefacts. By using modern technologies to create 12 sculptures, she is archiving dark female figures worth remembering.

Her source material is ancient illustrations of Middle Eastern dark goddesses. The interesting results are her way of reclaiming ownership of traditional mythologies.

The work, called She Who Sees The Unknown, is now on display at The Armory in New York City. The display explores the “forgotten histories and narratives” of female figures in North Africa and the Middle East.

“It’s a meaningful archive that’s focused on these kinds of dark female figures in the Middle East. We don’t have that archive at all,” Allahyari explains.

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She Who Sees the Unknown Made Using Ancient Sources and Modern Technology

Allahyari explains that she is not a sculptor and that she wouldn’t know where to begin. But 3D modeling and printing is something which she knows how to do well.

“The first time that I saw an object getting 3D printed, I was really fascinated by this idea of seeing a digital file, a digital model from a platform becoming a physical object. It blew my mind actually watching that process,” Allahyari said.

To create She Who Sees the Unknown, Allahyari began by researching Middle Eastern ancient texts. She wanted to make sure her prints were as accurate as possible.

Next, she created a scan of each sculpture and 3D printed it. To print, Allahyari used resin and the Stratasys J750 printer at New York University’s LaGuardia Studio. Each sculpture takes between fifteen and twenty-five hours to print. Allahyari then sands down and paints the resulting prints.

Finally, to ensure the information is clear and available to the public, Allahyari has included a video essay or storytelling component with each of the sculptures. The stories link each goddess to a modern source of oppression.

As well as the sculpture, She Who Sees the Unknown will include Ha’m-Neshini or “intimate public performances”. These involve Allahyari sitting together with other activists, artists and even scientists from the Middle East.

“In this whole body of work, these figures and retelling their stories is the idea about what it means to embrace monstrosities and to take this power that these jinns have and use it against the powers that oppress,” Allahyari says.

Find out more about each of Allahyari’s figures and their meanings along with her own story on her website.

Source: The Verge

Website: LINK

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On display at the Super Bien! greenhouse for contemporary art (yes, that’s a thing) in Berlin is the sculpture Portrait of a Birch by artist Martin Binder. What’s special about this particular piece isn’t that it’s on display in a structure designed to grow vegetables — no, it’s that it is entirely drawn by hand using a 3D printing pen. Some 4 meters of hand drawn woodfill sculpture.

To make a point about digital media consumption, identity and originality as well as the difference between what’s real and what’s not, Martin Binder set about 3D printing a tree.

The project took 250 hours and was completed using a 3D printing pen and wood-plastic composite filament. The result is a 4-meter long sculpture which, when behind glass, looks completely realistic.

However, when you get up close, you can see the filament lines and that it’s only an imitation of a real tree after all. The sculpture is now being exhibited at Super Bien! Greenhouse for contemporary art in Berlin.

“I spend a lot of time on instagram, where I consume images behind a glass screen. This work is a three-dimensional equivalent to digital media consumption. A fragment of a tree can be visually experienced behind the glass walls of the unconventional exhibition space,” Binder explains.

Eyes for a 3D Scanner, Hands for a 3D Printer

While researching his design, Binder spent hours studying birch trees. He explains: “My eyes were the 3D scanner and my hands were the 3D printer.”

His design isn’t perfect and has broken branches and imperfections to make it look like a real tree, frozen still and conserved in time. But, when you look up close, the 3D print is extremely impressive and clearly meticulously created.

If you get the chance to see the birch, consider the questions Binder is asking, such as; what is real, what do we perceive, why do we perceive something?

The public can visit the design 24 hours a day at the greenhouse located at Schwedter Strasse 232, 10435 Berlin. The Portrait of a Birch appears to be floating in the exhibition space and will remain there until March 8th, 2018.

Want to know more about Binder and his work? He studied product design at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. He also completed a degree in Art in Context at the University of the Arts, Berlin. Visit his website for more insight into his projects.

Source: Design Boom

All images: Asaf Oren, via DesignBoom

Website: LINK

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Last year, artist Chris Templeman began a project in Boston’s Chinatown which had the aim of creating 2,000 plastic roosters using a 3D printer before the end of the Chinese New Year. He now views the project as a success. 

The Chinese New Year of the Rooster is now over and the year of the dog begins. As the year of the rooster ends so does a project by artist Chris Templeman.

The project began at the beginning of the Chinese New Year last year and had the aim of spitting out 2,000 tiny sculptures from a 3D printer. Templeman now views the project as a success.

He debuted the 3D printer in Boston’s Chinatown last year and, although he’s faced many issues throughout the year, the machine worked in a vending machine style. To do this, he used an automated outdoor 3D printer.

However, sadly the machine would regularly fail due to being outside. As a result, some of the prints weren’t all successful. “It was a long year,” he says. But, he’s certainly learned a lot about the subtle art of 3D printing.

Saying Goodbye to the 3D Printed Rooster and Hello to the Year of the Dog

Templeman explains that the project became quickly known by locals who would regularly check whether the 3D printer had produced anything. He adds:  “It was really interesting that I was able to be a tiny part of people’s routine.”

Each of the prints would take hours to create. As a result, many people would check the machine but would often be unable to take a print home.

When Templeman heard about this, he decided to hold a giveaway with the help of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, who commissioned the project.

Together they created 200 extra roosters and gave them all away to locals who’d been unable to take one of the initial 2,000. Templeman explains that this caused a stir with people lining up to receive one.

Amazingly, they ran out of roosters within the hour. “People were like, ‘I’ve been waiting all year to get one!’” he explains.

Going forward, Templeman explains that one of the roosters will be traveling with the Museum of Fine Arts exhibit. This inclusion is predominantly due to the fact that the roosters were created from a scan of a sculpture at the MFA.

Sadly, they are not creating 3D printed dogs for this year but the project will continue. Templeman even adds that he will help others who want to work with the technology. He says: “It’s a strange expertise I find myself having. If somebody happens to want to print lots of things outdoors I kind of know how to do that now.”

Source: Boston Magazine

Website: LINK