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Creating complex objects of desire layer by layer By Michaella Janse van Vuuren | My passion for
realised or 3D printed, layer by layer, by the melting
creating technically complex design and artworks
or depositing of manufacturing materials. This
has its roots in my schooling at Pro Arte High School
manufacturing process, developed in the 1980s,
for the Arts in Pretoria. Here I made marionettes
was initially intended for the manufacturing of cus-
that were highly detailed, using innovative con-
tom engineered parts and prototypes for industrial
struction and manipulation methods. Many years
product development. In recent years the technol-
on, my work has drawn me once again into a direc-
ogy has become accessible not only to engineers,
tion where the technical and artistic meet. Today, I
industrial designers and a select few, but also to a
work as an electrical engineer – my day job – and in
wider range of designers and artists like myself.
my private time I focus on designing 3D printing or
This change has been driven by the reduction in
additive manufacturing. I enjoy designing and I find
cost of the hardware and software needed to cre-
the limitations and difficulties a fascinating chal-
ate the large prototyping files and also decreased
lenge. I love the challenge of creating something
the cost to manufacture objects – mass or one offs.
that is planned and then designed on computer and
Increased Internet bandwidth has also made it pos-
seeing if my idea ‘printed out’ as I envisioned.
sible to send the larger files required for manufacturing and a number of start-up companies have
The intersection of art, design and technology is
emerged who now provide short-run manufactur-
currenttly undergoing a time of exponential growth
ing services for individuals who produce their own
enabled by digital manufacturing. Digital manufac-
objects. The designer/artist can now lie at the cen-
turing methods such as additive manufacturing
tre of this exploration. More than in any other dis-
have changed the way that objects are designed
cipline he or she has the ability to create and ex-
and manufactured. Additive manufacturing refers
plore without the limitations imposed by
to the process where an object that has been cre-
traditional sculpting materials and their inherent
ated in the virtual world of the computer is then
properties.