by r'honest | Feb 10, 2020 | 3D PRINTING, ALL, PROJECTS
For the 2020 exposition ‘(Re)Design Death’ I’ve been responsible for the realisation of two of their exhibits; ‘B1 Chair (2014), Max Kuwertz, Yanik Balzer, Willem Rabe (D)’ and ‘Digital Shaman Project (2017), Etsuko Ichihara (JAP)’. “A recent project at the University of Seattle, WA explores the potential for using 3D printing technology to create any shape imaginable from pulverized bone material. The B1 Chair proposes to repurpose the bone matter of a deceased person, typically between 5 and 10 kilograms after dehydration, to create an entity that acts both as an object of remembrance and utility.” I produced a prototype B1 Chair as close as possible to the intended appearance using Bone PLA as a material on the Itomec i500 3D printer with a build volume of 500x500x500mm (through MakerPoint), and added steel rods to connect the parts while simultaneously adding the required weight up to 7 KG. “The Digital Shaman Project revolves around robots for domestic use wearing 3D-printed faces of deceased people, and manipulated with specially developed programs to imitate those people’s speech, behavior and other physical characteristics. The idea behind this is to propose a new form of funeral in which robots spend 49 days after a person’s death with the members of his or her family.” The production of these masks was done using a Mimaki 3DUJ-553 full-color printer with the help of...
