Future Biometrics by Jillian Weise, a 3D Printed Broadside

cults3d

Future Biometrics is a poem by Jillian Weise first published in the March 2015 issue of Poetry ( http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/250084 ) and presented here as a 3D printed broadside. It has been translated into braille by Sean Tikkun ( http://www.thingiverse.com/jaqtikkun/about ) and transformed into modular forms by Tom Burtonwood. Poetry Foundation blog post: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2015/04/come-say-hello-at-awp-see-the-first-3d-printed-broadside/ http://www.jillianweise.com/http://seantikkun.net/ The inspiration for this project came out of a conversation I had with Fred Sasaki from the Poetry Foundation last summer. Fred visited my studio at the Art Institute of Chicago when I was Artist in Residence there in 2014. I had just published “Folium,” my second 3D printed book, which includes braille page numbers and corresponding braille descriptions for the 3D scanned bas relief works published in it from the AIC collection. Fred and I started talking about the possibilities of a 3D printed broadside using braille. “Folium,” like “Future Biometrics,” is shared via the website Thingiverse. With “Folium” I used an OpenSCAD braille generator designed by Sean Tikkun to create the braille elements. OpenSCAD is an open source solid modeling tool used by many people in the 3D printing community. Sean and I had been looking to collaborate on further projects and so this project with the Poetry Foundation seemed like a good fit for us. Sean translated Jillian Weise’s poem “Future Biometrics” into braille and sent me the files saved as STLs. I designed the modules using Rhino 3D a computer modeling program used by industrial designers, architects and artists alike. At first I wrapped the braille dots around a form modeled to resemble the DNA double helix. But we worried that this did not reflect the fracturing and trauma inherent in the poem. The next iteration was for an angular, Vorticist object with braille running along the faces on both sides. In this version I tried to represent a sense of anxiety while at the same time facilitating easy access to the braille. The final version came about from a thought to make each line from the poem an individual module and to connect them in a line with a popcorn joint embedded in the left side of each piece. We were concerned that the prior two versions, while impressive in size as 3D printed objects, would not be easily realizable on the average desktop 3D printer. In response to this I decided to break the poem up into smaller sections none of which any taller than 140mm, which most desktop machines can accommodate comfortably. “Future Biometrics” is written in six couplets with one single line at the end. I designed each set of two modules with different extrusion profiles so that the couplets could hopefully be discerned purely by touch. On the right side of each module is also a braille number to indicate the order in which the pieces should be connected.