Dec 2, 2015 | By Andre

3D Printing as a tool for artistic creation and expression is something that has been growing as fast as the industry itself has in the last few years. Just take a look at some of the creative designs available on sites like Thingiverse and Shapeways to see for yourself. You'll quickly notice that for every available lug-nut model, there's a beautiful work of the imagination with real-world reproduction in mind.

And while a great number of these truly are magnificent, some of the most complex and compelling pieces ever produced are the brainchild of long-time 3D printing enthusiast Joshua Harker.

He is someone that has been playing with the technology in a limited sense since the 1990s, but really exploded onto the scene when he raised $77,281 (of an original goal of $500) with his Crania Anatomica Filigre Kickstarter.

Using high-resolution SLS 3D Printers to produce his works, he eventually went on to successfully Kickstart two other projects in a similar fashion. Both Anatomica di Revolutis and Mazzo di Fiori funded easily (although the next-generation printer in the latter currently sits in limbo).

His newest creation, Taurus Geodesica has veered him away from the 3D printed world and into the large-scale - yet still state of the art realm - of animated projection art.

Commissioned for the Birmingham Weekender City Center Art Festival, Rugby World Cup and launch of their Grand Central Station, the piece is a 16 foot geodesic sculpture that was ultimately viewed by an estimated 2.2 million visitors.

Disco Bull, as it has been nicknamed, was designed in the virtual world just like all of his most popular creations and then hand-assembled over the course of several days before the real beauty of the piece was unleashed.

In conjunction with the 3D software necessary to develop the sculpture, he used 2D imagery to projection map the masterful light-show onto the behemoth of a sculpture.

After watching some video and viewing some photos of what he produced, it is no wonder he was honored as one of the top 25 innovators by Cool Hunting & Cadillac and was invited by Adobe to give a keynote speech.

To add further intrigue to his outlook on things, he has stated that he is fond of using open source software like Blender and Meshlab, not entirely for reasons of convenience/ease of use, but because of what the open source community stands for. Of course, he also uses commercial software like Solidworks and Z-Brush when needed.

Still, he seems to have a sweet spot for the little guy.

While sticking with industrial EOS SLS printers for his Kickstarter projects, he has spoken highly of the lower-cost DLP/SLA machines out there as well. This was further made apparent with this Kickstarter update on the Form-1 / 3D Systems lawsuit from a few years back.

I’m sure it won’t be long before he re-enters the 3D print world with the same passion he’s shown for the technology in the past. Asked about what he thought about the future of 3D printing, he suggested that “the future is so now it’s hard to look very far, you turn around and it’s happening now.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Application

 

 

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