Sunday 31 July 2011

Already made

Rob Myers, Urinal, 3D file

Like Duchamp Myers has enabled an art work to exist by an idea alone. In keeping with Duchamp's iconic Fountain (1917) the artist (Myers) has removed his hand from the work - albeit by employing another to create a potential object to exist, rather than appropriating an existing object and nominating it as art.
Myers Urinal was created by Chris Webber a software engineer who generated the model as three dimensional image so that the digital file could be physically rendered by a 3D printer. The file has been made available by the artist for anyone to download, print and sign (see thingverse download page). Alternatively (if you don't happen to have a 3D printer to hand) Myers 3D printed Urinal is also available to purchase through shapeways. Although technically Duchamp did not completely remove the Urinal's possible function I do believe Myers Urinal to be purely ornament.

Sunday 10 July 2011

Rebel Relief

Sam Burford, Star Wars Relief, 2011

Sam Burford's Star Wars Relief is a timelapse photograph taken from the film Star Wars IV. Burford uses a bespoke capture device to record the film footage that is then rendered as a series of extended (and abstract) film stills (see example here). In this instance the image has been transformed into a surface relief made from silicon - a material previously used in film production to create sets and props. The relief work subsequently has allusions to pre-digital cinematic model making methods and aesthetic reference to the surface structure of the Empires Imperial Starships and Space Station.

Sunday 3 July 2011

The Pond of Tranquility

Matthew Day Jackson, Reflections of the Sky, 2010

With presentation cue's to Monet's Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond Jackson's Reflections of the sky depicts a surface area of the moon that has been rendered by laser etching gypsum board (wallboard or Drywall) - a mass-produced material often used within domestic interiors. The etched pits and troughs that create the images surface topography also retain a gritty interference quality that exists somewhere between the production process and the transmission reception of such distant images.