ABOUT

DESIGN, FABRICATION & CONSULTING SERVICES

I’m an expert in 3D design, 3D scanning, and 3D printing applications. I help sculptors and foundries incorporate new digital design and fabrication techniques into their traditional workflows. I also do a lot of design and fabrication for innovative, industry-leading universal access exhibits and wayfinding solutions for blind and low-vision users.

For my professional design, 3D scanning, fabrication, and consulting services, please visit CONCEPTREALIZATIONS.COM

ACTIVISM

I’m also an open access activist. I argue that museums and private collectors should make 3D scans of important public domain works freely available to the public. With 3D scanning and related technologies, private collectors and museums have an unprecedented opportunity to become engines of new cultural creation. They should digitize their three dimensional collections and project them outward into the public realm to be adapted, multiplied, and remixed in new, unpredictable ways that will shape the arts for millennia. They should do this because the best place to celebrate great art is in a vibrant, lively, and anarchic popular culture. My Freedom of Information-related projects are at COSMOWENMAN.COM

I live in Southern California.

20200821 Cosmo Wenman 500x500

MEDIA COVERAGE OF MY PROJECTS

RODIN MUSEUM FOIA PROJECT
NEFERTITI FOIA PROJECT
NEFERTITI HACK HOAX
VENUS DE MILO SPINNING THREAD
PROFILES
OPEN ACCESS & PUBLIC DOMAIN
GENERAL INTEREST

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RODIN MUSEUM FOIA

Background on my project:
cosmowenman.com/bmamuseerodinthinker3dscan
Since 2014 I have been trying to access several institutions’ 3D scans of Auguste Rodin’s sculptures, all of which are in the public domain…

NextINpact
Le scan 3D du Penseur de Rodin est un document administratif communicable
(The scan of Rodin’s Thinker is a communicable administrative document)
(PDF in English)

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NEFERTITI 3D SCAN FOIA

My story original story, published at Reason.com
A German Museum Tried To Hide This Stunning 3D Scan of an Iconic Egyptian Artifact. Today You Can See It for the First Time

My story, republished The Aura in the Age of Digital Materiality (PDF)
An anthology by The Factum Foundation focusing on changing attitudes towards owning, sharing, preserving and displaying cultural artefacts. (Order a copy)

Slate
The Nefertiti Bust Meets the 21st Century

Creative Commons
Reproductions of Public Domain Works Should Remain in the Public Domain

Smithsonian Magazine
3-D Scans of the Bust of Nefertiti Are Now Available Online

Artnet News
An Artist Has Won a Three-Year Legal Battle to Force a German Museum to Publicly Release Its 3-D Scan of a Bust of Nefertiti

Techdirt
The Curious Case Of The Bogus CC License On A 3D Scan Of A 3000-Year-Old Bust Of Nefertiti

Daily Star
Ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertiti bust finally revealed in secret 3D scans

Newsweek
Secret 3D Scans of Ancient Egypt’s Queen Nefertiti Bust Have Finally Been Revealed to Public

Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Queen of all FOIA Denials; The Foilies 2020, Recognizing the Year’s Worst in Government Transparency

Live Science
Long-Hidden 3D Scan of Ancient Egyptian Nefertiti Bust Finally Revealed

Hyperallergic
Official 3D Scans of Nefertiti Bust Are Released After Three-Year Battle

Fox News
Long-hidden 3D scan of Ancient Egyptian Nefertiti bust finally revealed

Club Innovation & Culture France
Neues Museum de Berlin: les scans 3D du buste de Nefertiti sont maintenant disponibles en ligne, après 3 années de bataille juridique

Kottke.org
An Official High-Resolution 3D Model of the Bust of Nefertiti Is Available for Download

Rebecca Watson
Germany Finally Releases Scan of Stolen Egyptian Sculpture

Islamic Republic News Agency
اسکن سه بعدی تندیس ملکه مصر منتشر می شود

Open Culture
Download Stunning 3D Scans of the Bust of Nefertiti, Now Released by Berlin’s Neues Museum

Stephanie Pearson, Museums Love
Nefertiti in Berlin: Discovery and Debate

Travelo.hu
HÁROM ÉVIG KÜZDÖTT EGY MŰVÉSZ A MÚZEUMMAL A 3D-S NOFERTITI-KÉPEKÉRT

Ancient Origins
The Battle Is Over. Nefertiti 3D Is Finally Available

Sputnik News
Freedom of Information: Artist Makes Famous Nefertiti Bust Available Online

Fabbaloo
Nefertiti Is Free!

Heise
Creative Commons: Nofretetes 3D-Scan nun frei verfügbar

Vrroom
Berlin’s Neues Museum Now Offers 3D Scans Of Nefertiti

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NEFERTITI 3D SCAN HOAX

My original investigation & story
The Nefertiti 3D Scan Heist Is A Hoax

The New York Times
Nefertiti 3-D Scanning Project in Germany Raises Doubts

Ars Technica
One of the greatest art heists of our time was actually a data hack

Popular Science
Artists Likely Faked Surreptitious Scan of Nefertiti Bust

Smithsonian.com
Since this story was originally published, the veracity of the scan has been called into question.

Instapundit
Anonymous Sources Aren’t Supposed to be Anonymous to the Reporter

Gigazine
「ネフェルティティの胸像」をKinectでスキャンして盗み出すことは不可能だと専門家らが指摘

Gizmodo
That Secret 3D Scan of Nefertiti’s Bust Was a Hoax

The Daily Dot
Is the world’s first 3D-scanner art heist just an elaborate hoax?

Mentalfloss
Artists’ Sneaky Nefertiti Bust Scan May Have Been Faked

Yahoo News
Nefertiti 3D scan heist appears to be a hoax say experts

The Verge
The impossibility of stealing a 3,000-year-old head with a video game controller

BoingBoing
Covert scan of museum’s Nefertiti bust appears to be hoax

International Business Times
Nefertiti 3D scan heist appears to be a hoax say experts

Kotaku
Kinect Involved In Ancient Egypt Kerfuffle

Digital Trends
Illicit 3D scans of Nefertiti bust raise questions about digital art

Fusion
These artists say they snagged a priceless piece of art with a 3D scanner. But is it a hoax?

ARTFIXDaily
The Nefertiti 3D Scan Scandal Highlights Museum Data Security

Hyperallergic
Could the Nefertiti Scan Be a Hoax — and Does that Matter?

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VENUS DE MILO SPINNING THREAD

Original Slate.com story
What Was the Venus de Milo Doing With Her Arms?

Daily Mail
Was the Venus de Milo a PROSTITUTE?

The Guardian
Why we’re still up in arms about the mystery of the Venus de Milo

Paris Match
Prostituée et fileuse ? – La vie secrète de la Vénus de Milo

The Times
Venus as you have never seen her . . . a prostitute with time on her hands 

The Independent
Just what was the Venus de Milo doing with her arms?

Smithsonian.com
The Mystery of What Venus de Milo Was Once Holding

ΜΗΧΑΝΗ ΤΟΥ ΧΡΟΝΟΥ
Τι πραγματικά κρατούσε η Αφροδίτη της Μήλου στα χέρια της

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PROFILES

NPR Morning Edition, All Tech Considered
3-D Printing A Masterwork For Your Living Room
Wenman hopes he’s leading the way to a future where 3-D prints of sculptures by greats like Rodin or Michelangelo are as common as posters of a Van Gogh.

Bloomberg View
3-D Copying Makes Michelangelos of the Masses
The masterworks of three-dimensional art are joining the digital commons. For art lovers, this technological moment represents a tremendous opportunity.

Tested.com
Maker Profile: Cosmo Wenman’s 3D-Printed Art
His sculptures are 3D-printed replicas of ancient works of art, capturing the look and feel of those works of old but reproduced in a way that could only be done with the advancements (and limitations) of modern technology. Here’s how he does it.

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OPEN ACCESS

Slate
Good News: Replicas of 16th-Century Sculptures Are Not Off-Limits for 3-D Printers
Publishing his own files of works like the head of a horse of Selene from the British Museum’s Parthenon collection or the Getty’s Caligula on Thingiverse is worthwhile in its own right… But [Wenman is] also trying to help create awareness and demand for museums to release their own high-quality 3-D scans to the public.

The Atlantic
Art Museums Better Hurry Up and Get Ready for the Future of 3D Printing (6/20/2013)
Rodin, meet Napster

Public Knowledge
3D Printing, Matisse, and the Arbitrariness of Copyright Terms (10/28/2013)
One of the side effects of [Wenman’s] project is to throw some light on the fundamental arbitrariness of copyright terms.

Bloomberg View
3-D Copying Makes Michelangelos of the Masses (6/14/2013)
The masterworks of three-dimensional art are joining the digital commons. For art lovers, this technological moment represents a tremendous opportunity.

Obsession
Quand La Mode S’Imprime En 3D (1/10/2014)
Les artistes et les créateurs de mode s’emparent de l’imprimante 3D pour réaliser des oeuvres surprenantes. Le début d’une révolution. [English version here]

Libération
Domaine public : Camille Claudel en 3D sur ta cheminée (1/9/2014)
Demain frappe à notre porte donc. La sculpture, elle non plus, n’échappera pas à la question du partage de la culture sur Internet. [English version here]

The Independent
3D printers revive the art of casting your own Venus (12/27/2013)
Cosmo Wenman, a California-based 3D printing artist and entrepreneur, has just published the first ever printable 3D surveys of the two works. In the 10 days since being published online, the designs have been downloaded close to 14,000 times.

Quartz
With 3D printing, you’ll be able to replicate the world’s famous sculptures (6/21/2013)
Wenman’s plan is to make all of his 3D files publicly available in the MakerBot Thingiverse, where anyone could freely recreate sculptures that are currently accessible only in art museums.

Bloomberg View
The Dawn of Point and Print (10/31/2014)
Museums are increasingly putting high-resolution scans of two-dimensional artworks online. Wenman is on a crusade to convince them to do the same with three-dimensional scans…

3D Today
Некоторое время назад ему в руки попали 3д принтер. И это было одно из значимых событий для нашей цивилизации, без шуток.
There’s this guy Cosmo Wenman, he’s an artist from California. Some time ago a 3D printer came into his hands. And that was one of the most significant events for our civilization, no kidding. Thanks to Cosmo the masterpieces of ancient art have become available to us.

El Diario
De un dinosaurio a la Venus de Milo: convierte tu casa en un museo con una impresora 3D
Las esculturas más famosas del mundo también pueden imprimirse en 3D gracias a Cosmo Wenman, un artista que promueve la democratización de los museos. [English version here]

FARO
Die moderne Form des Gipsabdrucks…
Seine Skulpturen sind 3D-gedruckte Kopien der antiken Kunstwerke, mit denen er den Blick und das Gefühl der alten Werke auf eine Art und Weise einfängt, die nur mit den Fortschritten der modernen Technologie ermöglicht werden kann. [English version here]

Bloomberg View
Crowdfunding Is Not a Scam, It’s Market Research (3/28/2014)
Crowdfunding has enormous potential to expand entrepreneurial opportunity and reduce business risks.

GeekBeat.TV
Winged Victory Available for 3D Printing (12/19/2013)
One of the most amazing things in the world, absolutely free [Segment starts at 22 second mark]

3DFAB
Donner accès au patrimoine mondial grâce à l’impression 3D (11/25/2013)
[Wenman] veut apporter un peu de « disruption » dans les musées. Faire prendre conscience aux musées qu’ils pourraient scanner par eux-mêmes leurs oeuvres et qu’ils devraient les distribuer gratuitement.

Studio
Mi faccio un Van Gogh (8/29/2013)
È l’incontro tra i maker e il mercato – anche sommerso – dell’arte, ma anche una rivoluzione concettuale

artdaily.org
Revolutionary 3D scanning and 3D printing project to make ancient sculptures available to public (6/14/2013)
Supporters of the project will be enabling a revolution in the way we interact with art

Very Short List
3D Printing Is Gettin’ Real Folks (6/19/2013)
This Kickstarter project plans to replicate artefacts and create an open source database of artwork from the world’s museums. Access for all!

Andrew Sullivan
Print-At-Home Sculptures (6/26/2013)
They’ve arrived… Wenman thinks 3-D printing could change the way we learn about and experience art

Reason/Hit & Run
3D Printing: Important for Art History, Not Just Weapons (6/13/2013)
Cosmo Wenman is one of the men on the cutting edge of doing supercool things with 3D tech, and he’s focusing on its art and archeological history implications, via a very interesting Kickstarter project that he calls Through a Scanner, Skulpturhalle.

CreativeBits/Mediabistro
Cosmo Wenman’s Cast of Thousands (6/11/2013)
In the 19th and well into the 20th century, the museums of the world, as well as the homes of collectors, were filled with … plaster casts made from the bronze or marble originals of the more notable examples of Greek and Roman sculpture… So there’s a certain coherence in Cosmo Wenman’s current mission, which is to use 3D printing to make these classics even more broadly available than before… Hopefully his Kickstarter project will catch fire and get funded, as a significant first step in freeing the world’s sculptural riches from vaults, museums and the private collections of the lucky few and making them broadly available.

Wakefield
How 3D printing could revolutionize the art world (6/27/2013)
When artists get a new toy, there’s no telling what they’ll do. Consumer photography had only been around 30 years before Man Ray started creating his surreal masterpieces. The way California artist Cosmo Wenman uses the 3D printer has the same potential to change the world of art.

Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities
3D Scanning in Museums: A Q&A with the Smithsonian’s “Laser Cowboys” (6/2/2013)
This Kickstarter campaign got me thinking that we are about to experience a new and improved 21st-century version of cast collections and open access to art.

Greek Reporter
Greek Ancient Sculptures Through 3D (6/14/2013)
The Skulpturhalle Basel museum in Basel, Switzerland will host a revolutionary 3D scanning and 3D printing project, under the title, Through a Scanner, Skulpturhalle, introduced by Cosmo Wenman, a 3D printing pioneer based in Southern California.

Tested.com
Support Cosmo Wenman’s 3D Scanning Project (6/6/2013)
Cosmo has just launched a Kickstarter to get him to the Skulpturhalle Basel museum in Switzerland, where he plans to scan 20 archetypal plaster sculptures and replicate at least one of them in life-size for a future 3D Printshow. The best part is that Cosmo plans to release these scans as copyright-free files on Thingiverse. It’s a cause worth supporting.

3D Printing Industry
Cosmo Wenman – Making Art Accessible with 3D Scanning (6/14/2013)
Cosmo Wenman is a man with a dream. His dream is to allow anyone who has ever wanted a sculpture that can only be found in a museum or a gallery the chance to have one.

Patrick Hussey
3D Printing Ancient Greek Sculptures (6/14/2013)
the digital files here are the really important bit, sucking the sculptural forms into computers so they can be preserved, shared and studied with liquid ease. Surely a good thing, if you consider the swathes of culture lost through the ages to rot, fire, theft…

Tomodachi
At-Home Artist Prints Out Masterpieces (7/9/2013)
Cosmo Wenman is quickly making a name for himself through his 3D printing… [He] believes that the advent of 3D scanning and printing has allowed priceless artwork like this to be accessible across the world…

GCN
Print your own Venus de Milo, and add some arms! (7/9/2013)
Wenman’s idea has great potential for schools — from kindergarten to the university level, especially if it catches on elsewhere. Art history classes might not have to study Rodin’s or Michelangelo’s sculptures only from a picture in a book. And 3D printing could be applied in other areas, such as historical artifacts or models of ancient cities.

3D Printer World
3D Printable Statues from Skulpturhalle (6/16/2013)
The Skulpturhalle Basel museum in Basel, Switzerland houses approximately 2,000 plaster casts of ancient Greek and Roman sculptures. Thanks to the work of a Southern California-based 3D printing artist named Cosmo Wenman, you may soon be able to download the plans and print them yourself.

LiDAR News
Through a Scanner, Skulpturhalle (7/19/2013)
a very interesting project

Benchmark Reviews
Cosmo Wenman Announces 3D-Scans of Ancient Greek and Roman Sculptures (6/17/2013)
By making the scans available to anyone, Wenman hopes to further the goal of digitizing the world’s cultural heritage.

Adafruit Industries
Colossal bust of Ramesses II / Ozymandias by CosmoWenman (6/20/2013)
As a demonstration for what he hopes to accomplish with his project Through A Scanner, Skulpturhalle, artist Cosmo Wenman has started making good on his promise to scan, cleanup, and share notable masterworks of art and sculpture with world early — his crowdfunding project is just getting started, and he is already sharing artwork for free on Thingiverse!

Sketchfab
Supported Project – Through A Scanner, Skulpturehalle (6/22/2013)
This is a fantastic opportunity to make art history come to life in 3d…

3D Printer
Cosmo Wenman wants to liberate sculptures from museums with 3D printing (6/23/2013)
There’s a great article in The Atlantic Cities this weekend that is likely giving heartburn to museums around the world.

Tech Hive
Help Cosmo Wenman scan masterpiece statues for 3D printing (6/25/2013)
Cosmo Wenman wants to capture dozens of masterpieces in 3D so that anybody can freely print them at home.

Sculpteo
Making sculptural masterpieces accessible to all through 3D printing (6/29/2013)
We are looking forward to see his print … and we can’t wait to own our very own 3D printed Venus de Milo.

Fabbaloo
Free 3D Scans Of Famous Sculptures? (6/10/2013)
Cosmo Wenman is well-known for his incredibly realistic and large-size 3D prints of ancient sculptures… Now he’s taking the concept to a much higher level…

3Ders
On Kickstarter: Set the world’s 3D art free through a scanner (6/10/2013)
Wenman believes all 3D printable designs of the entire world’s cultural heritage of sculptural masterworks will eventually be available to everyone, and he wanted to start a project that helps it to happen…

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GENERAL INTEREST

Invaluable
How 3D Printing is Changing the Game for Artists and Designers (4/8/2020)
It may look like a traditional work, but [Wenman’s] clients know it was made faster, more economically, and with more precision and versatility than would have been possible with conventional techniques

ARTnews
B.C. in 3-D: Rise of the MakerBot Printer (5/21/2013)
All of this raises new and old questions about the relationship between the artist and the museum, and about art as intellectual property.

BoingBoing
Full-size museum replicas from a MakerBot (10/20/2012)
… extraordinary achievements, which have really pushed the limits on 3D printing using low-cost, home-model printers.

Maria Popova, Brainpickings.org
You know the future is here when sculptures – indistinguishable from the Ancient Greeks’ are 3D-printed with @makerbot (10/24/2012)

3D Printing Industry
Life-Sized 3D-Printed Portrait Raises Mortal to Godly Status (4/22/2014)

Wenman urges more cultural artifacts, particularly of a historical nature, to be made accessible to the greatest number of people possible.

Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence
Cosmo Wenman’s mind-blowing 3D-printed sculptures (10/22/2012)
Cosmo Wenman is a California artist who has just reminded us not to limit our imaginations when it comes to what can be made

Adafruit Industries
Cosmo Wenman’s Head of a Horse of Selene (11-08-2012)
Cosmo Wenman has been consistently blowing the tops off of preconceived notions concerning what is technically possible for DIY 3D scanning and printing, as well as bringing up big important questions about what these tools can and should be used for.

MakerBot
Cosmo Wenman’s Mind-Blowing Sculpture Made On A MakerBot (10/20/2012)
These sculptures are incredibly authentic looking and feeling, which caused several people in the office to wonder why we had them. ‘Are we going to scan these and make them on a MakerBot?’ No, no, we explained. These were already made on a MakerBot.”

Reason/Hit & Run
3D Printing Meets Fine Art (6/15/2012)
It’s a chance, in Wenman’s words, “to spread faithful reproductions of treasured artwork far beyond the walls of elite palaces”

Jay Leno, for some reason

Bruce Sterling, Wired
Showtime: Through a Scanner, Getty (6/6/2012)
Vernacular video is great for getting one past the stage of abstract comprehension and into a state of “Oh lordy.”

Bruce Sterling
Propaganda of the deed. (6/6/2012)

MakerBot
Using A MakerBot To Make Plastic Molds For Casting (7/18/2012)
Some people are just designed to push the limits of things. They see possibilities where others see limitations. And then there’s the special breed of person who finds all these new answers and then shares them with everyone else. Cosmo Wenman continues to prove himself one such person.

MakerBot
Whodunit: Mysterious Statue At MakerBot Booth (7/16/2012)
Maybe these requests themselves are an art project, or maybe Cosmo’s trying to make a point about the responsibility we each bear to digitize the world. Or maybe he’s just trying to tell the rest of us to use photos and other resources that are available to turn these things and everything else into 3D models.

Andrew Sullivan
brilliant… Creativity and diligence wins the day. (1/10/2012)

Bre Pettis
It’s on! (6/4/2012)

The J. Paul Getty Museum
What art love looks like. In 3D. (6/5/2012)

The California Historical Society
What an interesting project, love to see more items as they are modeled (6/5/2012)

B3dge.com
#3dprinting ftmfw (6/5/2102)

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