MakerBot, the organization that creates automated home fabrication machines, has announced the launch of its new Artist in Residency program and introduced the first selected participant. Norwegian 3D abstract machine artist Marius Watz (on Twitter) will have free access to all the MakerBot printers and all the plastic he can melt for the next two months.
Watz will spend his residency working on art for a forthcoming show in Oslo and says that as part of his work “I will be developing a new Processing library for 3D model building, to be released as Open Source along with a series of models I’ll publish on Thingiverse (see thingiverse.com/watz) in the MakerBot spirit of openness.” MakerBot says its next Artist in Residence has already been selected and artists interested in applying for subsequent openings should apply now.
Above, a photo of the MakerBot Thing-o-Matic, released in December.
The MakerBot is exciting because it represents a democratization of physical manufacturing. The Artist in Residency program is exciting because it offers an opportunity to see what an artist, a specialist, dedicated and with unlimited resources, can do with the platform.
