South West artists use new technology to create 3D art

A new partnership between Exeter Phoenix and The University of Exeter’s Centre for Additive Layer Manufacturing (CALM) has enabled 30 artists to explore the possibilities offered by 3D printing. Neoreplicants, a new exhibition at Phoenix Gallery, showcases the artwork created using this incredible technology.

Given training and access to CALM’sfacilities, artists were able to create objects in computer modelling software, that were then printed through a process of laser sintering - whereby granules of a densely packed nylon powder material are welded together by laser, layer-by-layer.

This rapidly developing industrial design technology opens possibilities to create, replicate and adapt complex objects (including bespoke replacement body parts and prosthetics), sharing 3D files on the internet and printing them in a variety of materials. It immediately raises allusions to the utopian/dystopian technologies of science fiction, many now on the cusp of becoming science fact.

New possibilities too are inevitable for the creation of art, both as a fabrication technique and as a way to visualise and make tangible the (often  abstract) digital information that is ever more pervasive in our lives.

The results of this opportunity reflect a breadth of interest and enquiry; from those seated in formal, manufacturing process to a more conceptual engagement with this emerging technology.  For some this offered a completely new approach to their practice, for others an extension of theirexisting interest in digital formats.

Although many of the works on show exist in the form of experimental sketches, the first step perhaps in understanding the possibilities and potential for further development, someemerge as finished artworks in their own right, and one artist has been selected to develop their concept further into a solo presentation in early 2013.