017: Digital Fabrication

Discussions about 3D scanning and printing technologies have started to gain momentum in the museum world, as they seem to offer museums significant new ways to engage with their collections, and audiences. Whether its 3D Hackathons (held to some consternation) or experimentation to replicate a 19th-century statue with 21st century technology, museums are seeing new possibilities for enabling new forms of access to collections, and fresh ways to engage with the public. In this episode, the Punks talk to Liz Neely, formerly of the Art Institution of Chicago and President-Elect for the Museum Computer Network (MCN) board and Secretary/Treasurer for the New Media Consortium (NMC) board, and Tom Burtonwood, the first Ryan Center Artist-in-Residence at The Art Institute of Chicago, to unpack digital fabrication processes in museums, and discover how and why museums might want to invest in a 3D printer. For those wanting a primer on all things 3D in museums, Liz Neely and Miriam Langer’s MW2013 paper Please Feel the Museum: The Emergence of 3D printing and scanning is a great place to start.