I live between two bridges in San Francisco. One arguably fuels the area’s economic engine, while the other, despite far less of a pragmatic role for the region, inspires us and enlivens the city’s horizon with the grace of its sweeping parabolic curves. One speaks to our reason while the other ignites our passions. Left brain vs. right brain, in terms of bridges.

This contrast between the ever-practical Bay Bridge and the scenic Golden Gate comes to mind when I hear discussion of the emerging roles of Digital Fabrication. We see extensive studies of how it contributes to reduced time
to market, of digitally-manufactured air ducts for the Boeing 787, of bespoke maxio-facial/cranial, hip and dental solutions, and of optimizing workflow and process. And these are exciting new solutions to long-sought-after challenges, to be certain. But to leave the story at that point misses another valuable role of Digital Fabrication.

As much as these tools open new doors to engineers, they also invite new avenues of expression for the artists and designers, allowing us to explore areas previously off-limits due to technological limitations. In lifting these limits, we can suddenly see before us what until recently had only been imagined. One of the roles of the artist is to call our attention back to what we have long since dismissed or overlooked in our day-to-day activities, challenging us to explore ideas beyond the physical world as we know it, to consider something otherwise unimagined or simply obscured in plain sight. The artist may make physical and real a concept in order to place us into an entirely new vantage point.

Sculptors, artists, and designers work with a wide range of materials and processes to embody our ideas, and we create within the limitations of these mediums. What Digital Fabrication—and related digital tools of this domain—offers over the traditional set of tools is a new means by which we can actualize, or make physical, things that previously may not have been possible to create beyond the 2D image. The following is a short list of design attributes made available by the digital tools now accessible to any designer.

Scale. Working with extremes of scale comes easily to the digital artist. A dust mite or a mountain range is equally manageable as a reference point. For architects, this tool allows a 3D representation of an otherwise impossibly large or complex form to be realized and expressed for all to see. As organically driven architecture becomes ever more the norm, the removal of traditional fabrication constraints of geometric complexity and scale become vital in the expression of their art.

Momentary snapshots. High-speed photography allows us to examine an ephemeral moment at our pace. The iconic images depicting a bullet piercing an apple, of a jet crossing the sound barrier, or of a horse breaking into a gallop, allow us to see what we had only imagined before. The ability to embody that moment in a physical form takes our understanding or appreciation that much further, inviting us to explore the process in physical space. Marcel Wanders’ groundbreaking series of vases appropriately titled Snotty Vase froze a sneeze in the moment, scaled it, and presented it to us via selective laser sintering (SLS) as an organic form, both familiar and unlike anything that we have seen or contemplated. The result is a work that explores frozen time while showing us the beauty from an unlikely inspiration. Wanders did not create the final form in the way that we traditionally think of form-giving. Instead, he set the preconditions under which a form came about, and left the intersection of technology and the sneeze to do the rest.

Other artists are also freezing space and time, such as Geoffrey Mann, who uses digital capture and fabrication to manifest the beauty and complexity of something we can’t ordinarily see in physical form, such as a moth circling a flame or a bird landing on a perch.

Many more natural elements—fire, smoke vortices, wind, wave or particle motion, migratory paths, cloud patterns—have yet to be explored in this manner, though offer a rich vein waiting to be captured and presented through these means.

Decontexturalizing. Taking a form, an entity, or a principal out of its familiar or distracting surroundings often allows a richer perceptual experience. To an orthopedic surgeon, for example, the complex trabecular structure within the bone may showcase natural engineering at its finest. To the rest of us, the same sight may appear only as a stomach-turning anatomy lesson. But reinterpreted by the artists at Freedom of Creation, this natural morphology within us all inspires a complex and intriguing physical form to behold.

Physical Representation of Abstract Concepts. A mathematical equation—beautiful to few beyond those who actually comprehend it—can be seen and appreciated by all, even if understood only by few. When presented in a visual or physical form—as the works of Bathsheba Grossman often do—the math becomes the basis for the art, and suddenly becomes accessible to the less-than-math-minded among us.

Prohibitive complexity. When traditional machining constraints such as wall thickness and undercuts are removed from the discussion, the designer can shift focus to the artistic intent, rather than the constraints imposed by the traditional fabrication process. From the viewer’s perspective, a subtle shift takes place as well, as forms they have never before experienced are presented to them. The viewer may not even notice this shift, since simply difference is not the designer’s intent. But the experience will be original and unique, as the by-product of an emerging technology.

Materialise has long been at the center of this convergence of Digital Fabrication and the arts, presenting works of stunning complexity by digital artists and designers. Luc Merx, one of several such artists, presents a provocative and visually intricate lampshade that defies any traditional fabrication methods.

While Digital Fabrication is certainly becoming increasingly important for consumer products, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that beyond the pragmatic, it provides the means to realize the artistic.