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Digital technologies have upset the conception and fabrication of objects, transforming the practice of architects, designers, and artists. What is the status of the author in this era of the production of “non-standard” objects, be they unique or industrial? What is the status of an object “printed” in 3D – simultaneously an everyday object, a technological object, a work of art, a designer piece, or an architectural prototype? How can we explain is its generalization in the digital era to all production domains?

Qualified as “disruptive technology”, 3D printing has been widely available for the past 15 years via “open source” software platforms and continual development in industry from aeronautics to biotechnology. From micro (printing living cells) to macro (printing architectural elements at a scale of 1:1), from the visible to the infra-visible, additive fabrication raises multiple questions concerning the status of a work, in the industrial world and in scientific research. The exhibition “Imprimer le monde” (Printing the World) questions the emergence of a new 3D printed digital artifact in artistic creation.

From a design object to an architectural prototype, from the production studio for innovative objects to the lab, this exposition brings together a young generation of artists, designers, and architects who use 3D printing as an analytical tool for experimentation. In its selection of some 40 or so artists, “Imprimer le mode” questions the mutations of forms at the heart of “digital materiality” where the new typology of objects appeared and where 3D printing is a common denominator. Modes of representation in the digital age are at the heart of artistic endeavors that question the status of the image, the boundaries between the physical and the virtual. Achraf Touloub questions the circulation of digital images by transferring them in three dimensions. The 3D printed busts by Jon Rafman refer to the archetypes of the past, like hypertechnology. The artifacts of Morehsin Allahyari reactivate the memory of historical monuments destroyed by the war in Syria using 3D printing as a tool to repair history. The notion of the temporality of an object is also questioned by the designer Dov Ganchrow via his flints carved from 3D printed shells. The same speculative approach is at work in Matthew Plummer-Fernandez’s dysfunctional objects or in Jesse Howard’s hacked objects.

The installations produced by IRCAM take over the acoustic spaces. Be it sound or matter, the digital race generates new forms. How does one perform and compose a space through the dimension of sound and with new techniques for spatialization? In Disenchanted Island, the composer Olga Neuwirth and the video artist Tal Rosner bring the visitor-audience member to San Lorenzo in Venice, virtually, venue of the premiere of Nono’s Prometeo performed in a set designed by Renzo Piano. Using 3D convolution, the sound identity of the Venetian church is transferred to the museum’s gallery space.  With Jardin d’Eden, the artists Raphael Thibault and Hyun-Hwa Cho present an immersive installation, with a double video projection, 3D printed sculptures, a sonorous and musical panorama. The sound spatialization echoes the images. The process of digital simulation concerns every artistic domain, 3D simulation of a sound space or digital simulation of a landscape via 3D scans of Thibaut Brunet’s photographs.

Curators: Marie-Ange Brayer / Olivier Zeitoun, Mnam/Cci-Centre Pompidou.

This exhibition is supported by

Photo : François Brument et Sonia Laugier, Digital Crafts, l’atelier
Installation
Production Les Arts Codés : In-Flexions, Magnalucis, Polyrepro, Nouvelle Fabrique, CERFAV et Atelier Gamil, Pantin