'Wrestling' with 3D printers, searching for materiality – Morten Modin

3D printing might be considered boring
for artists engaging with exploring contemporary
conditions for life, society, and
existence. Do digital technologies offer any
possibility to go beyond the accurate, the
predicted and the calculated? How is it possible
to produce a 3D printed artefact of any
consequence to a contemporary discourse
dealing with the big questions?
Of course, this rather polemic entrance
disregards recent Artificial Intelligence (AI)
development where deep learning processes
offers one visual piece after another inviting
everybody to prompt their text-based request
for a visual product.
The scepticism about 3D digital modelling
and print questioned in the hands of the
Danish artist Morten Modin when he tests
its limitations and expands possibilities and
not least inquires the becoming of living a
contemporary life entangled with digital
technology.
This article is based on conversations
with Modin during the Nordic project on
3D digital modelling in visual art teacher
education, where a group of art educational
researchers gathered to explore 3D
digital modelling and was inspired by him.
Furthermore, it is based on Modin’s written
material that he generously has shared with
the authors. The following provides an insight
into his exploring of aesthetic qualities
as well as digital and analogue materialities
in 3D digital modelling and print where he
pursues ‘the imperfect’ in various settings.