iMAL, Center for Digital Cultures and Technology

GEAR & GADGETS / PRODUCT NEWS & REVIEWS

That time a bot invaded Thingiverse and created weird new 3D objects

Shiv Integer is a bot whose entire purpose in life is to create bizarre objects for 3D printers. It has been living for several months on 3D printer project site Thingiverse, posting objects cobbled together out of dozens of other objects listed on the site. The results are art or spam, depending on your perspective. Last month, artists Matthew Plummer-Fernandez and Julien Deswaef finally came out as the humans behind Shiv Integer, showcasing the results of the bot’s work at an event called (appropriately) The Art of Bots in London’s Somerset House.

‘Shiv Integer’ by Julien Deswaef & Matthew Plummer Fernandez → 

After all the testing of the last 10 month i felt ready to actually produce some series of models.

From now on i only used black filament which at the end i really got to like a lot.

First i repeated several test models (that i already described here) but this time with the purpose of making complete series of models where you can actually see the changes of parameters.

Then i also came up with the idea to draw the bezier curves inside a vector programme first and then just import the points of these curves into Processing to work with, which led to a new “breed” of models with some really astonishing filament behaviour:

With this “butterfly” model you can see at the bottom of the wings (on the left side in the photo) that the filament is actually building up on … nothing !!!

With a documentation video in mind i started to take a lot (!) of photographs, which was hard enough at the time of the year with the longest nights. A daylight lamp can help, although it might disturb your sleeping patterns a bit when you work too late with it, so don’t take this as an advice! ;) 

For the video i made a story board to get my ideas about the research a bit better organised and of course i also needed a title for the video: So from now on i call my little models “Filament Sculptures” which i think brings it to the point (Thanks Damian for the suggestion !)

In general the most important thing for me on this research journey was to figure out how i could bring my working methods that i am used to when creating software art also into the world of 3D printing. And it was also rewarding to see it becoming manifest in something that is not only bits and bytes.

I will now stop writing about the research process here (for now), but you can

- watch this video online which contains more “animations”: https://vimeo.com/85913081

- have a look at some more photographs: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lia_lia/sets/72157640641280584/

- check out the rest of my work at: http://www.liaworks.com

Material Want

Exhibition from Matthew Plummer Fernandez and JODI explores process of auto-assemblage of 3D scans and models to produce both virtual and physical sculptures:

Material Want is an assemblage of interrelated elements: mined 3D models, 3D-printed objects, a shop-front installation and an online shop, powered by both software automation and human computation. Material Want enacts a Ballardian scenario where content from 3D modelling and 3D scanning archives is mined for the production and sale of 3D printed objects, transforming junk files into saleable items. A present/future that follows the past, mirroring a history of material and labour exploitation, new production systems, and irrational material desires. MW uses both software automation bots and repetitive human activity to mine, select and sort. Amongst the many toys, body parts and household items, we also find reminders of our past wants for exotic animal products, rare minerals and priceless archeological discoveries. Materials require some transformation to render them as valuable commodities, and this is attempted by fusing models together, slicing and resizing them, and exhibiting these under ideal conditions, but what does this new source material want to be? The banal online shop, alike much e-commerce, is a front that masks the involvement of algorithmic automation, distributed human resources and manufacturing, and going further back; the amateur modellers and 3D scanning enthusiasts behind the source files. It remains unclear as to which degree bots or humans behaving like bots are behind the end product. 

The exhibition is currently shown at iMal, Brussels, which you can find out more here