Discovering More About Digital Art through the Mind 2 Machine 2 Material Exhibit

Considered as the center of the next industrial revolution, 3D printing and other digital manufacturing firms are starting to become popular. As a matter of fact, there is an increasing number of exhibits solely for 3D printing. Different kinds of art such as traditional sculpting, drawing and painting will always be there, but as we all know, technology has evolved through time. Just like those artists that practice traditional art methods, 3D media artists are now beginning to get the same acknowledgment and respect.

This coming April 19 to June 10, eight artists will be displaying their work in an exhibition titled “Mind 2 Machine 2 Material: Digital Technology and Sculpture Today”, to be held at Northern Arizona University. The NAU Art Museum will hold its first ever exhibition, which is also the first in Northern Arizona that focuses on digital technology specifically 3D printing.

The coordinator of New Media at NAU, David Van Ness, said that 3D printing is not just a technology. It allows an artist to explore and not be bounded by the traditional art methods. There is no doubt that you can create anything if you can just imagine it.

Some of the artists who will participate in the exhibit may be familiar to you. The Chicago teacher and artist Tom Burtonwood will be there. He is famous because of the 3D printed books he published and inventive tools like the Sharpie-based color printing device. Dan Collins is an Arizona State University professor specializing in digital sculptures and interactive installations. For his mechanically-inspired pieces, Ryan Buyssens uses 3D printing together with other emerging technologies. Sophie Kahn makes use of 3D printing and scanning to discover the history and relationship between the past and future. An internationally known Belgian artist Nick Ervinck is very popular through his different works of art. Another professor from the Arizona State University Mary Bates Neubaeur is a creator of “data visualizations” and 3D sculptures. Last but not the least is an Austrian software artist LIA, who utilizes codes to produce multimedia artworks.

Aside from exhibiting the different digital artworks, this exhibit will also include gallery talks, videos and 3D printing demonstrations. Since computers and virtual media are widely used today, 3D show would be a natural fit in enriching the awareness of students.

For those people who are not familiar, but are interested in getting to know more about 3D printing, Mind 2 Machine 2 Material is a miniature of the digital art world. Just like the traditional art methods, 3D printing also has the discipline with the same depth. The term “digital art” is misleading that some people think it is about the images you see on the screen. But through this exhibit, you will know that digital art is used as tools in creating art, but the art is tangible and real. According to NAU’s event notice, you will see sculptures with different sizes and colors in the exhibit.