Aug.9, 2013

A large 3D printed sculpture is currently being built by Smith|Allen Studio on Series 1 3D printers from Type a Machines.

Smith|Allen is participating in the Project 387 Residency located in Mendocino Country from August 4-18, 2013. Project 387 is a multidisciplinary residency program that has offered six artists an opportunity to develop their proposed projects in the quiet of giant redwoods.

In the heart of a 150-acre redwood forest, the collaborative duo will be creating a site-responsive, 3D printed architectural installation: Echoviren.

Echoviren measures 10 x 10 x 8 feet. Echoviren is a translucent white enclosure, stark and artificial against the natural palette of reds and greens of the forest. Walking around and within the structure, the viewer is immediately consumed by the juxtaposition, as well as uncanny similarity, of natural and unnatural: the large oculus, open floor, and porous surface framing the surrounding coastal landscape.

Echoviren is being fabricated, 3D printed, and assembled on site by the artists.

Echoviren is composed of 585 3D printed parts, whose sizes range from 5 x 9 x 8" to 0.5 x 9 x 9". All the parts have been 3D printed on eight Type a Machines' 3D printers: four standard Series 1 and four Series 1-X 'Vert' tall machines.

The artists started 3D printing in early June - so far they have done just over 10,000 hours of printing, and used 64 kg of PLA. If the parts were all unrolled that would be 21.32 km of PLA filament, says the company.

A graft within the space of the forest, Echoviren is a space for contemplation of the landscape, of the natural, and our relationship with these constructs. It focuses on the essence of the forest not as a natural system, but as a palimpsest. The hybridized experience within the piece highlights the accumulated iterations of a site, hidden within contemporary landscapes. Echoviren exposes an ecosystem of dynamic natural and unnatural interventions: the interplay of man and nature moderated by technology over the centuries.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Applications

 

 

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