Bronwyn Holloway-Smith

Whispers down the lane, 2012, mixed media

Bronwyn Holloway-Smith uses the occasion of this exhibition to challenge the boundaries of sculpture, especially its willingness to step into the new expanded field offered by digital cultures and communities. Her project functions as a model for new ways of digitally making and disseminating sculpture, while attempting to bring those sculptures more firmly rooted in the physical world along with her. With echoes of the Pied Piper, Holloway-Smith calls to some of the other artists in this exhibition, negotiating to make digital replicas of their work. The project is ongoing, with the cast of replicas growing through the three-month cycle of the exhibition.

The small, intricate replicas on display work on purely sculptural terms, beguiling with their material qualities and provoking questions around process, about how they are made. First, digital files are created in a CAD programme based on measurements and  photographs or drawings of the sculptures. Different fabrication technologies are then employed in the making of these objects. The first method takes a file and prints it three-dimensionally using a RepRap printer, which builds the object up by laying down successive layers of PLA plastic. A second approach uses a high-power laser to cut a pattern for a multi-layered object, which is  then assembled by hand. Holloway-Smith’s two processes are a digital echo of that old sculptural battle between carving and modelling.

Yet for all their wonder and beauty, these objects are really just surrogates for their digital existence as freely downloadable files that can be saved, altered and built on by users through a Creative Commons licence. This process offers sculpture a radical new way of entering the public realm, but in doing so challenges many core values of the medium, especially around the primacy of physical encounter, a heavy investment in the original, and a strong adherence to traditional models of ownership. Control is taken away from the artist, the collector and the gallery, and placed in the hands of the user. Gallery restrictions on even taking photographs of artwork, based on protecting the copyright of the artist and preserving the role of the gallery as the authentic site to experience art, start to look archaic and self serving. Holloway-Smith’s project is more interested in issues around the democratisation and control of culture than with the making of the objects for display.

The project delights in the difficulties that sculpture poses for these new technologies. Some sculptures in the exhibition resist the process of replication through their scale, complex materiality or the tension between multiple parts. The title of this project nods to Holloway-Smith’s interest in mistranslation, with what gets lost or altered through the process of replication and the intervening hand of the artist. New technologies may offer perfect tools for replication, but those mysteries and vagaries of cultural transmission and exchange will or must endure.

I’ve just come across this white paper by Michael Weinberg of Public Knowledge titled “It Will Be Awesome if They Don’t Screw it Up: 3D Printing, Intellectual Property, and the Fight Over the Next Great Disruptive Technology“. Although it was written just over a year ago, it’s a fantastic read and still highly relevant as 3D printing technology continues to evolve towards the domestic market. He’s released it under a Creative Commons BY-SA license so you can read & share it from here.

It’s an interesting look at how this new technology might be seen as a threat by those that hold Intellectual Property rights over 3-dimensional items (copyright, trademarks, patents…). As 3D printers enter the domestic market it will become very difficult to enforce these kinds of rights as people start imitating and modifying objects in the privacy of their own homes. As we’ve seen in the recent copyright battles over the internet (spurred by music and film downloading) some rights holding organisations are resistant to adapting to new technologies, rather using the law as a way of clamping down on the freedoms this new technology provides to individuals.

Following suit, it is highly likely that 3D printing will spur a similar battle between public versus private rights. As Weinberg emphasises, the challenge lies in being prepared to advocate for laws that protect creativity and innovation before these vital ingredients for progress are eroded from beneath our feet.

So how close are these things to the domestic market? You can put a RepRap together for between US$500-1200 (as estimated over here and available over here). If you prefer an out-of-the-box model the biggest yet, dual-colour Makerbot: the Replicator has just been released for US$1,749.00 and these things are just going to get cheaper.

And to end on a shameless self-endorsement, to see what 3D prints can look like check out this art project (printed with an earlier version of the RepRap): Ghosts in the form of gifts.

Ghosts in the form of gifts: Game On installation

Ghosts in the form of gifts is hanging out with Colin McCahon and Judy Millar at Hastings City Art Gallery from 9 July – 2 October 2011 as part of the exhibition “Game On”.

As the HCAG website puts it:

“Game on” is being staged within the spectacle of a major international sporting event and we aim to present a selection of New Zealand’s finest contemporary art to both visitors and local New Zealanders…As always, art reflects life and the selectors Scott and Walsh have surveyed the latest New Zealand players to present a winning team that collectively visually articulates our nation…this exciting exhibition showcases some great New Zealand art leaders or coaches to emerging run away stars, offering a long look at our New Zealand identity while presenting future possibilities for national and international exchange.”

Read more at the HCAG website.

Ghosts in the form of gifts is the winner of the inaugural award for Open Source in the Arts.

The Open Source Awards recognise New Zealanders’ contributions to open source projects, use of open source products, and promotion of the free and open philosophy.

Read an article about the work & award by Courtney Johnston  on Best of 3: http://best-of-3.blogspot.com/2010/11/congratulations.html

Bronwyn Holloway-Smith will speak about the work at the Girl Geek Christmas Dinner on 15 December.

A second print of the work is scheduled to be exhibited in early 2011 – stay tuned!

Ghosts in the form of gifts has been nominated for an Open Source Award.

Ghosts in the Form of Gifts – the use of open source technologies and design to recreate some of the lost treasures of the Te Papa collection from photographs and drawings.

Winners will be announced on 9 November.

A new work by Bronwyn Holloway-Smith is to be unveiled today (8 December, 2009) at Massey University Wellington. The work, titled ‘Ghosts in the form of gifts’ has been commissioned by Massey University Wellington as their most recent acquisition, marking their 10th Anniversary at Wellington.

The artwork comprises ten objects that are replicas of artifacts imagined as lost, hidden or misregistered during the Museum of New Zealand’s tenure in the former Museum Building on Buckle St, now occupied by Massey University’s College of Creative Arts. The objects have been created through a process of drawing, digital 3D rendering, and finally printing with an Open Source 3-dimensional printer – the RepRap.

The digital files for the artefacts are freely available for educational re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license.

The work is on permanent display in the foyer of the Executive Seminar Suite, Block 5, Gate A, Wallace St, Mt Cook with the web-based aspect of the work found at http://bronwyn.co.nz/projects/gifts.html