3D Printed Mysterabbit Interrogates Life's Mystery

My wife just sent me a Huffington Post article titled “14 Ways 3D Printing Has Changed The Art World”.  Running down the list, I saw the 3D printed Van Gogh flowers (and ear), Ioan Florea’s 1971 Ford Torino, and Joshua Harker’s 3D printed self portrait. Somehow, in the midst of all of this large, attention-grabbing 3D printed art, we had missed Mysterabbit, from designer Ji Lee.

Lee explains on his website:

Everyday, we spend our time constantly doing things: Going from one place to another, working, shopping, checking our phones, thinking about the past and worrying about the future. We rarely stop and enjoy the moment. In doing so, we end up missing the beautiful moments of life that go by us without ever being noticed. Mysterabbit was created to disrupt this cycle.

Mysterabbit is a tiny, almost imperceptible, 3D printed sculpture of a rabbit sitting in a meditative pose.  Together, with several friends, Lee began placing copies of Mysterabbit around the world with the intention of interrupting the daily happenings of our endlessly distracted species (and, possibly, a few cats and dogs).  Confronted by the enigmatic rabbit, Lee suggests that people might become aware of their surroundings and notice the beauty of ordinary things.

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In my mind, it’s possible that passersby might wonder where it came from, what it’s purpose was and lead them down a rabbit hole of thought towards questions like: where did anything come from, where are we all going, why do we exist in the first place? Then, as humans tend to do, they’d return to their everyday lives with that seed of ontological uncertainty transforming their thoughts and perceptions forever, often leading to a sense of wonder and ecstasy stemming from the very mystery of life itself.

*Returns to everyday life* To participate in Lee’s global intervention, you can download the .obj file for Mysterabbit and print it yourself, or you can receive ten through the project creators directly if you live in one of six different cities. If you do want to take part in the daily disruption, you should be sure to photograph Mysterabbit in its location to add to the growing gallery of over 10,000 little rabbits in various places on the Mysterabbit site.