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3D PRINT SHOW, LONDON 2012
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Right-click images to view full size. Click here for a PDF of my press kit for the 2012 London 3D Print Show 
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British Museum Scans and Prints Presented at the 2012 London 3D Print Show:
Portrait of Alexander the Great, -300 in Lost Bronze and Head of a horse of Selene in Epic Bronze. 
In August 2012 I photographed a number of objects in the British Museum,
including "Marble Portrait of Alexander the Great"
, and "Head of a Horse of Selene". I used
Autodesk's 123D Catch application to process my photographs into 3D wireframe models. I printed them on a MakerBot Replicator, and I metalized and patinaed
them with Alternate Reality Patinas. Then I published the scans and design files into the public domain.
I made these pieces for the first annual 3D Print Show in London, 2012, in an attempt to show that, with the right finishes
and attention to detail, 3D printers can produce objects of art worthy
of public and private display. Not just miniature
figurines, or toys, or practical household objects, and not just
prototypes. They can
do more than evoke the desired object, they can be objects of
desire.
But I chose these subjects in particular — elemental, archetypal museum pieces — to try to advance a different but complementary idea, that with 3D scanning and 3D printing, private collectors and museums have an unprecedented opportunity to recast themselves as living engines of cultural creation. They can digitize their three dimensional collections and project them outward into the public realm to be adapted, multiplied, and remixed. 
They should do this because the best place to celebrate great art is
in a vibrant, lively, and anarchic popular culture. The world's back
catalog of art should be set free to run wild in our visual, and now
tactile, landscape, and whether it turns up lit in pixels on our
screens, rematerialized in our living rooms, or embedded in our
architecture or clothing, it's all to the good.
And for forward-thinking, innovative institutions and collectors, and for everyone involved in this young industry, there's prestige, money, value, meaning, and beauty to be made in making this a reality. - Cosmo Wenman October, 2012 
Portraits of Alexander the Great, -300, 1440, 1945 in Lost Bronze, Firenze, and Wrecked Iron. 
Portrait of Alexander the Great, -300 in Lost Bronze. A bronze precursor to the British Museum's marble, with a variegated green patina that might form after 2,312 years of weathering. 
Portrait of Alexander the Great, 1440 in Firenze. A deep, dark bronze, cared for its entire life, with shiny highlights on its brow, nose, lips, hair, and chin, where its admirers have touched it and inadvertently polished it bright over the centuries. 
Portrait of Alexander the Great, 1945 in Wrecked Iron. The conqueror king as rusted, abandoned industrial wreckage. 
Head of a horse of Selene in Epic Bronze. A well maintained, lightly patinaed outdoor bronze, its muzzle polished bright where people have pet it as they would a real horse. 
Print and finish progress photo, with protoype from Through A Scanner, Getty. 
Print progress photo. 
Print progress photo. The British Museum calls the original "perhaps the most famous and best loved of all the sculptures of the Parthenon." I've seen a few references which state that plaster casts of this sculpture were extremely popular in the 19th century, and I can believe it — I find it extremely expressive and stirring in person, and I hope my reproduction captures and transmits at least some of that experience. 
Portrait of Alexander the Great and Head of a horse of Selene. "Work in progress" teaser video, October 8, 2012 2012 London 3D Print Show Teaser Promo, published October 8, 2012 |