New Artificiality

Catherine Leutenegger is a photographic archeologist with a fascination for technological shifts. At the beginning of the third millennium, the rise of digital technologies has opened up unprecedented new avenues of experimentation. One that may have a major impact in the years to come is 3D printing. Her ongoing body of work named New Artificiality – divided in different chapters – investigates the role it could play in revolutionizing various business sectors as it becomes increasingly democratized and offers ever more possibilities. From its initial primary use in prototyping, 3D printing has become a rapidly growing medium with a wide range of applications in the last decade. Catherine Leutenegger explores the current limits and future developments related to 3D printing. Additive manufacturing’s potential seems endless, but what are its limits? With what degree of precision can 3D printers replicate reality? And what happens when the computer or machine fails, or when a glitch in the 3D digital model is materialized as a physical object in tangible space? With the decreasing prices of 3D printers, personal manufacturing will certainly become more available and gain wide appeal. Although this is very exciting, there are also some ethical and safety concerns regarding what will be mass-producible in the near future.