3D Printing

Marcy Milks’ 3D Printed Population of 20,000 Mutations

Welcome to Marcy Milks’ world, it’s one of neutrality and mutations, space and form. Milks, a New York-based designer and sculptor, has redirected her focus from traditional methods of sculpting to a modern 3D print design process. Milks began to work more sculpturally while attending the Pratt Institute and receiving her Master of Fine Arts in 2004; she began exhibiting her art in Brooklyn around this time, too. Her latest installation (which is still in progress), The Population, is an entire world of beautifully mutated human figures who are neutral in color and detail, but quite intriguing in form. Milks aims to 3D print 20,000 individual figurines by the time her project is ready and done, using 3D printing technology to create a large scale land of strangely formed citizens.

The Population, which she designed and made entirely with 3D printed nylon plastic, is crafted in a neutral fashion on purpose. Milks’ intention was to give these no gender or details outside of their body shape, creating a focus on the mutations taking place within each individual figures shape. Her desire was to create a world of freshly evolved and developed bodies, creating shapes that resemble the human form, but that are also slightly mutated in comparison to our reality. Granting different shape and form to each set of figures, Milks is cultivating an impression of various figures being born straight out of their environment. Her shift from sculpting by hand to sculpting with 3D design software has allowed her to create these figures in a timely fashion, while still allowing them to retain unique shape and form.

3D printed population installation

Using ZBrush digital sculpting software, Milks begins the process by creating the basic figure form with spherical shapes, as is the default with this particular design program. She then adds additional details to each individual 3D form with various ZBrush sculpting tools. Lastly, Milks poses the figure in 3D space and renders the file to create an image of the particular person. The nylon plastic creates smooth and unique forms, which Milks then places into the grand setting, a world where all 20,000 of her sculptures will live together. It’s quite an ambitious project, but her utilization of 3D printing technology and design software makes her large scale ambitions very obtainable. It’s a bizarrely beautiful world that Milks is creating with 3D printing technology, showing us all that we can go beyond 3D printing for this world and create a brand new one ourselves.