Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Dream Machine
17
Dissolving the boundaries between imagination and
physical reality.
W
RITTEN
BY
K
EVIN
M
ACK
P
HOTOGRAPHY
BY
K
EVIN
M
ACK
As an artist, I've always been driven to create
art that no one has ever seen before. My
search for the innovative led me to comput-
ers in the early '80s. I recognized the poten-
tial for digital technology in art and
immersed myself.
ted in unique virtual artifacts that imbued
my digital objects with a surreal and myste-
rious quality. They were new.
As these newfound capabilities enabled my
wildest art ambitions, along came 3D print-
ing, which made it possible to manifest my
digital creations in the physical world. It was
like a science fiction dream come true.
One reason I find 3D printing so compelling
is that it enables production of objects that
could not be made in any other way. Rapid
prototyping lacks many of the limitations of
traditional object-creation methods. By ex-
ploiting these capabilities, I'm able to add a
powerful dimension to my sculptures: not
only are they new, but they appear to be im-
possible.
Humans are immersed in the world of man-
ufactured objects, and our brains have an in-
tuitive understanding of how things are
made. We've come to expect certain artifacts
of the fabrication processes, such as seams,
limited part complexity, and lack of com-
pound curvature. 3D printing enables the
creation of objects that conspicuously defy
A career in visual effects put me at the cut-
ting edge of this technology, where I could
explore and experiment with digital 3D tools
like procedural modeling and volumetric
sculpting, and apply them in unintended
ways. I learned to build brand-new tools and
processes that made no attempt to emulate
traditional methods. These processes resul-
