Nothing defines American sports quite like the Super Bowl, a traditional gathering of the year’s two best NFL teams which (to me at least) is basically a national holiday at this point . Whether you spent last week’s Super Bowl rooting for the defense of the vicious Denver Broncos, mourning the loss from Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers, or just enjoying the insanely expensive commercials and/or Beyoncé’s halftime performance, you just so happened to witness the 50th Super Bowl in history. Now, thanks to the art collab benitez_vogl, made up of Kent State University Fashion Technologist Margarita Benitez and University of Akron Assistant Professor in Art Markus Vogl, you can own a piece of your favorite Super Bowl game in 3D printed form, from the very first showdown in 1967 all the way up to the matchup from last week.
The series is called “VERSUS 0.02 [gridiron]”, and is the second sporting event-related artwork collection released by the collaborative duo (the first was an interactive data sonification of a billiards game). Benitez and Vogl were able to visually evoke the entirety of each Super Bowl game onto their own respective 3D printed frame by condensing all 60 minutes of play into a set of data. This data interprets how far the ball travels for each team during the championship game, creating a variety of arcs that make up this 3D printed artistic representation of the Super Bowl. The two artists then printed the set of arcs using their Gigabot 3D printer and biodegradable PLA.
benitez_vogl explained the way that their 3D software works with the data sets from each game in order to create a unique representation of each historic match:
“Our 3D software then builds arcs based on the distance the ball travels. In order to keep the flow of the game recognizable, the teams are assigned a side, Penalties are factored into the beginning of the play. Touchbacks are registered 2 yards behind the goal line, Touchdowns 5 yards, extra points 20 yards, Field goals 15 yards and safeties 9 yards. If a ball is brought out from the end zone it registers at the 0 yard line of the respective team. In order to keep the flow of the game recognizable, the teams are assigned a side and remain on that side.”
All 50 of the 3D models that the make up the VERSUS 0.02 [gridiron] collection are available on the benitez_vogl Shapeways store, available for print in SLS nylon, sandstone, and a variety of metals. Depending on the chosen material, the 3D printed data depiction for each Super Bowl matchup can cost anywhere from $180 (in nylon) to $600 (in stainless steel, gold steel, etc). This might seem like a pretty hefty price to pay, except for those die hard NFL fans who wish to relive the priceless and historic moment of their team’s Super Bowl victory in an artistically driven 3D printed form.
