If “Art is anything you can get away with,” for which Warhol is quoted, then the polarizing artist would appreciate what has been done with his signature in the hands of 3D printers. Work once thought lost to history by the famed artist has been reclaimed. The art is purely digital and found on a floppy disk from 1985. Each piece is dated by the ability of the digital format from the time period, but it has given a special opportunity to 3DP. Modern software utilized by Josh Ajima of Design Make Teach was able to capture the likeness of Warhol’s signature with stunning accuracy and bring the image into three dimensions.
Patiently waiting on Amiga floppy disks, the experiments by Andy Warhol have seen the light of day thanks to a multi-institutional team of new-media artists, computer experts, and museum professionals. The images had been stored in an archives collection of The Andy Warhol Museum and found by members of the Carnegie Mellon University Computer Club with aid from AWM’s staff, CMU’s Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, the Hilman Photography Initiative at the Carnegie Museum of Art, and New York based artist, Cory Arcangel.
Luckily, the photos permit pixel perfect recreations of the original art. With meticulous analysis of photos, information could be used for the manual placement of 2D pixels to create an image map. Serving as a reference for manual placement of voxels, the image map could be used to create a 3D sculpture. Finally, the voxels convert to an STL and are 3D printed in PLA plastic
In its retro-digital look, the 3D printed signature certainly echoes the philosophy espoused by Warhol concerning mass production and commodification. This kind of pop art is definitely for everyone. As an L.A. native and contributor for this site, it seems appropriate to include Warhol’s statement about plastic, “I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They’re beautiful. Everybody’s plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.” The man has finally been granted his wish, available as a Thingverse download.
