Well, this changes everything

Here at the ART Lab at the Banff Centre they have a 3D printer, and I feel like a kid in a candy shop. If you don’t know, a 3D printer is a device that converts a computer graphic model into a real object. It works by building the object up in thin layers, one at slice at a time.

I was eager to try this, so I made a little computer graphics shape, wrote a program to write out in the file format that the 3D printer expects, and tried it out. The shape itself was really simple. I just created a sphere and used some procedural noise to vary the surface, so it would look nice and bumpy:

My new collaborator at the ART lab, Travis Kirton, who is a whiz at using the 3D printer, loaded in my data file, and several hours later the following wonderful object emerged:

The real object is so much more interesting than the computer graphic model. It’s got texture, translucency, weight (although not much). Unlike the computer graphic version, it’s got size — the ball is about two and a half inches in diameter. And best of all, you can hold it in your hand.

After years of creating things that existed only in a computer, it felt miraculous to be able to hold one of my creations in my hand, here on this side of the screen. The thought I had was something like “well, this changes everything”.

This afternoon I brought the little bumpy ball to a meeting, and I noticed a funny thing. Everyone seemed fascinated by it. People would pick it up, roll it around in one hand, explore it with their fingers, or just enjoy the feel of holding it. When one person would put it down, another would pick it up and start to play with it.

I’m not really sure why this is so, but I’d love to find out.