Digital Fabrication In The Arts: Just Another Technical Reproduction Advance Leap Or A New Artistic Revolution?

The present paper aims at discussing the use of rapid prototyping techniques for the production of artwork. This discussion is based mainly on Walter Benjamin's (1968) and William Mitchell's (1992) ideas, respectively about reproduction techniques and the use of digital media. Benjamin points out three aspects of the use of reproduction techniques: for pedagogical purposes, for diffusion of an artist's work, for forgery, and as a new means of expression. The use of rapid prototyping to produce artwork is herein analyzed from these four points of view. In the same way that Benjamin asserts that certain techniques, such as photography and moviemaking, resulted in a change in the whole concept of art, Mitchell suggests that digital synthesis techniques can also result in a new artistic revolution. It is possible to extend Mitchell's ideas to the generation of 3D digital form, which can be output with RP techniques. © 2008 Taylor & Francis Group.717721Benjamin, W., 1936). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1968) Illuminations, pp. 217-251. , or, New York: Schocken Books, ppLevoy, M., Pulli, K., Curless, B., Rusinkiewicz, S., Koller, D., Pereira, L., Ginzton, M., Fulk, D., The digital Michelangelo project: 3D scanning of large statues (2000) Proc. of SIGGRAPH, pp. 131-144MacDonald, S., History and Philosophy of Art Education (2004) Cambridge, James Clarke & CoMitchell, W.J., (1992) The reconfigured eye: Visual truth in the post-photographic era, , Cambridge, MA: The MIT PressSalles, L.R., (2003) Unidades Fugidias, , Doctoral thesis. São Paulo: Escola de Comunicações eArtes, University of São PauloShlyakhter, I., Rozenoer, M., Dorsey, J., Teller, S., Reconstructing 3D Tree Models from Instrumented Photographs (2001) IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 21 (3), pp. 53-61Stiny, G., Gips, J., Shape Grammars and the Generative Specification of Painting and Sculpture In (1972) Information Processing 71, pp. 1460-1465. , C V Freiman ed, Amsterdam: North-Holland, p