Gallery View, Museum of Brisbane

CNC Cut Foam

Form #1

3D printed polymer

Samuel Spielman's Catalogue

temperature
Contemporary Queensland Sculpture Museum of Brisbane, 2004

art+technology

(re)creating nature, forms#1 and 2
Digital prints, laminate glass, each 100 x 50cm
3D printed polymer objects, each 8 x 8 x 7cm
CNC cut foam, each 80 x 80 x 80cm

Our relationship to things is changing and some of the assumptions we have about the fundamental characteristics of things in the world seem uncertain. We assume that, say, trees are authentic, and that they have a characteristic that is natural. Similarly, aspects of art theory assume that the object, which is considered authentic, precedes the image; a photograph is of an object.

Increasingly, we are intervening to shape things in the natural world to suit particular needs or outcomes, such as the genetically modified tree, grown so that its fibres optimise digital print quality when it is converted to paper. Beyond aesthetics, this tree is fundamentally different and calls into question our assumption of what is natural or authentic.

These computer-generated forms and the resulting objects, some of which are ‘printed’ using 3D technology, question our involvement with nature. The objects are preceded by the image in the same way that enframing (Heidegger's term) produces outcomes that reinforce its correctness as an approach to the world.