3d Printing – Andrew Reach

October 26, 2022March 3, 2023

ESCAPE HASH – 3D Printed Sculpture – Tactile Touchable Art

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3d printed interconnected blocks
Material: PLA
Dimensions:
Hash Sign 16″h x 17.25″w x 4″d
Base 2.5″h x 13.25w” x 8″d

Blocks printed in Ultimaker 2+ 3d printers
The excess material on the blocks is support material which was removed. In 3d printing, parts that overhang need this temporary support material.

My 3d printed tactile artwork ESCAPE HASH is being shown at W/O Limits: Art, Chronic Illness, & Disability at the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve https://www.artistsarchives.org/event/w-o-limits/
I’m glad to contribute a touchable artwork for the exhibition, as it is one of many other accessibility and adaptive measures to be most inclusive of the disabled art viewing public.

I would approach the design, with an architectural/engineering methodology. The 3d printed sculpture is made from 74 individually printed interconnected blocks. The blocks are modular, designed to fit together in multiple ways. With a master block that all the blocks are derived from, its shape is a rhombohedron. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhombohedron

Strategies I employed to make it accessible to the visually impaired are 3 things; contrast, pattern and relief to make it tactile to the touch. The blocks alternate between hash symbols in negative relief and positive relief form. Primary colors and black and white provide bold contrast between the parts, making them more visible. The deep cuts into each block project shadows making it both tactile and with a sharply delineated pattern also making it more visible.

The blocks were printed at Think[box] at Case Western Reserve University. Each block took 11 hours to print at high resolution. Director of Prototyping, Ainsley Buckner ran 6 printers simultaneously for over two weeks. Thank you Ainsley!

Hidden between where the blocks connect to each other is a wooden dowel that fit into holes in the blocks. They are alignment pins, assuring that the blocks fit precisely together and align properly. To adhere them, I used 3m VHB Tape, a super strong, super thin double sided tape.

June 8, 2022June 27, 2022

# Work In progress – 3d printed sculpture Visualization in Blender

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Scroll down to read narrative below.

I’m honored to be one of several artists to be in the upcoming show in December “W/O Limits: Art, Chronic Illness, & Disability” exhibition curated by Megan Alves and Mindy Tousley of the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve. The Artists Archives has been awarded a grant from the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities where the organization will be able to incorporate strategies to increase accessibility with among others the use of braille and a 3d printed tactile sculpture for the visually impaired.

Megan asked if I would be interested in doing the 3d printed sculpture and I accepted, excited with the anticipation of revisiting shifting into 3 dimensions and also working again with Think[Box] at Case Western Reserve University. I had worked with Think[box] in 2015 where I printed 2 sculptures I call MODEL CITIZENS.

For the W/O LIMITS exhibition, In progress is a 3d Hash symbol with elements that make it accessible to the visually impaired. A modular system of 80 individually printed blocks (each block 2″ high) connected together and alternating between hash symbols in negative relief and positive relief form a bold singular Hash symbol. Primary colors and black and white provide bold contrast between the parts, making them more visible. The deep cuts into each block project shadows making it both tactile and with a sharply delineated pattern also making it more visible.

As an art object unto itself, the hash symbol with its use in hash-tagging represents our modern times, good and bad; where data is turned into meta-data; where information is categorized and made searchable; where so many find their voices amongst the billions of souls vying to be seen and heard to share joys, beauty, injustices, sadness…and so much more, elevating our humanity. But other voices use it to tear down our humanity and the beauty of our multicultural world. With this sculpture, however, I choose to express it as a symbol of empowerment.