Making the virtual real

Gyroid by Bathsheba (made using additive layer manufacturing)

Amazing insights yesterday into a technology that looks set to revolutionise our relationship with manufactured objects. It all happened as part of my participation in the Exeter Phoenix Digital Art Commission, in partnership with the Centre for Additive Layer Manufacturing (CALM) at Exeter University.

Additive layer manufacturing allows you to take highly complex digital designs (for example, filigree/lace, chains, gears, hinges, bone implants, origami, mathematical models) and construct them in a single process, layer by layer, as if you were printing them from your computer. No need for tool-making, machining, moulds or assembly. No need to worry about undercuts or hollows. You can make models in plastic, metal, plaster, resin, paper, wax...and soon (we're promised) in chocolate or ice. Artists and designers are already doing amazing things as you can see here. 

I'm still digesting the possibilities for my practice, but also the huge learning curve required to master the technology that will allow me to submit a design for printing later this summer.  I know that I'll be revisiting my work with flight, but I have a lot of technical issues to iron out.

In the meantime, I'm inspired by Markus Kayser's Solar Sinter Project. Venturing into the Sahara with portable technology, he replaced the lasers used in the high-tech sintering process with the energy of the sun to fuse ordinary sand into glass sculptures.