Crafting the 3D object

The presence of this kind of equipment, facility and knowledge in the Art School environment presents opportunities for areas of practice and discipline traditions that may not have come across them in the ordinary course of things. It also provides a centre of interest in considering the impact of new/emergent technologies on practices, traditions, and the role of the designer, craftsperson and artist. This paper takes a broad view of some of the issues involved in this, and has three main topics: - An account of how the specialist 3-D design and 3-D printing facilities are being opened up to other discipline areas through a staff development project. This includes staff from Fine Art disciplines, Applied Arts (jewellery), and Graphic Design and Illustration. This will be illustrated by examples of 3-D printed objects produced during a staff development activity to promote the facility and widen access to the broader curriculum. A reflection on the ways in which the further development and deployment of 3-D printing technologies (sintering and multi-material systems) may reframe the inter-relationships of consumer-object-designer, and may introduce the notion of bespoke manufacture. This re-defines what a designer does and their role in the development of a consumer object, and also re-defines the role of the consumer from a relatively passive purchaser selecting from a range of predefined objects, to a relatively active customer contributing to the particularities of the object as instance rather than as mass production. This is illustrated by a case study in which 'consumers' were invited to design/define an object, and 3-D printed objects of their outcomes.