“The city in me – 3D-printed busts of residents with districts as an expression of their identity.”
Many factors shape my identity as a city dweller, and the environment I live in is one of them. I came up with an idea to express the identity of residents from different districts of Stuttgart through 3D-printed busts. My plan is to represent the part of the district where each person lives as a 3D model on the head of their bust. This will help visualize and make tangible the connection between the people and their surroundings.
My goal for this project is to create 3D-printed busts that represent the identity of residents from different neighborhoods of Stuttgart, with each neighborhood serving as an expression of their identity. By doing so, I hope to give residents the opportunity to identify with the project and feel like a part of their community.
Tobi – 3D print 2020
I have known Tobi since the first grade in primary school. And as chance would have it, our profession has drawn us both to Stuttgart. The houses of the sculpture were built in the style of Bad Cannstatt’s Badstraße, where he lived for several years in a flat share.
Alex – 3D print 2020
Alex and I work in the same company where he recommended me after graduation. We have known each other for about 25 years now. He lives near the Olgaeck in Stuttgart. The buildings shown here are based on the apartment building in which he lives and the nearby Café Babel.
Andi – 3D print 2020
Since our time in Stuttgart, Andi and I have often played some great games on the squash court. Just like Alex and Tobi, I have known Andi for a long time and am glad to have such long and good friends. The buildings shown represent the big gas boiler of Stuttgart, with which Andi is professionally involved. At the same time, the SWR building near Metzstraße is shown, where he lives nearby.
Snapshot of void I, II, III, IV – 3D print 2020
The presented project generates virtually (non-)forms and translates them into 3D sculptures. The sculptures are both independent artworks and a formal expression of the creation process. They focus on containing emptiness within a surface and balancing textile lightness with plastic-like stability.
To shape the sculptures, the project provided computer-simulated reference bodies with a digital, net-like fabric. The sculptures’ shape resulted from capturing a specific point in time and state of the fabric-like cover’s movement during the ongoing simulation. These snapshots were then implemented into the 3D printing process.
While the sculptures’ flowing contours are realized both virtually and physically, the simulated reference bodies remain immaterial calculations in digital space. They do not exist in either reality, but they define the form-giving collision moment. The absence of actual reference bodies emphasizes the ‘void.’ In a dynamic process of transformation, the sculptural form emerges and opens up an associative space in its veiling abstraction.