Regardless of what political officials and mainstream pundits suggest, the revelations of Edward Snowden have provided evidence to the world of large-scale spying performed in collusion by corporations and world governments, with the US government at the helm. Thanks to the heroic decision made by the whistleblower to leak classified information to news sources, citizens of the world know that none of their information is private, regardless of the technological media used, and any of it could be used against them by government and corporate actors. It was for this reason that the bust of Snowden, dubbed “Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument 2.0”, was erected in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park in New York City on April 6, 2015.
In the early morning of April 6, the four-foot, bronze-plated bust was placed by a group of, then, unidentified artists dressed in white construction helmets and reflective vests atop the park’s Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument, a Doric column built as a memorial to the over 11,500 US POWs who died during the American Revolution. Releasing a statement on the Animals New York website, the artists wrote:
We have updated this monument to highlight those who sacrifice their safety in the fight against modern-day tyrannies. It would be a dishonor to those memorialized here to not laud those who protect the ideals they fought for, as Edward Snowden has by bringing the NSA’s 4th-Amendment-violating
surveillance programs to light. All too often, figures who strive to uphold these ideals have been cast as criminals rather than in bronze…Our goal is to bring a renewed vitality to the space and prompt even more visitors to ponder the sacrifices made for their freedoms. We hope this inspires them to reflect upon the responsibility we all bear to ensure our liberties exist long into the future.
Shortly thereafter, the bust was covered in a blue tarp before being removed by NYPD. It wasn’t long before the Illuminator Art Collective brought the work back to life via smoke and projection equipment, which resulted in a “holographic” image of the missing sculpture above the pillar, with the collective saying, “Our feeling is that while the State may remove any material artifacts that speak in defiance against incumbent authoritarianism, the acts of resistance remain in the public consciousness. And it is in sharing that act of defiance that hope resides.”
Despite the seizure of the unauthorized piece of work, the bust of Snowden lives on. And, while you may have missed it during the brief 12 hours or so that it was up, you can 3D print the bust yourself. The artists, since outed by a police summons to retrieve the bust as Andrew Tider and Jeff Greenspan, have now made it so that anyone can have a copy of the Snowden statue. After sculptor Doyle Tankina designed the bust and before it was unveiled to the public, the statue was captured with a handheld 3D scanner. The resulting 3D model was then uploaded to Thingiverse, with the artists telling Wired:
We thought, ‘Let’s put the data out there, and find a way for it to proliferate to anyone who wants it.’ We’ve heard from people that they want one for their lawn or to put in their home … so we’re letting the world do whatever it wants to do with this. It would be great if people put these in public spaces and Instagrammed them, or put photos on Twitter and Facebook to project them around the world. Anywhere it can get people thinking about surveillance, your rights and liberties, it would be wonderful.
Since then, Sketchfab team member James has uploaded a new version of the model, complete with the original Doric column. The model, embedded below, can be downloaded for home printing or ordered directly through 3D Hubs.
This means that anyone can 3D print a copy of Snowden. And, if they have a printer, or a community of 3D printer users, large enough, they might even be able to create a full-scale replica to erect in public places, such as, say Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park.
