Meet Eric, Research leader in CAD and 3D printing!
By Emilie Walsh
Interview of research leaders at ResBaz2018
One of the exciting part of working for Research Platform services as a CAD and 3D printing ResCom*, is to get to meet researchers working with 3D in all disciplines. Eric is currently undertaking a master by research at the VCA, and has been helping with my trainings for a few months now.
Eric Jong, Master student in Fine Art at the VCA, ResLead* for CAD and 3D printing
I’ve asked him to tell me about his use of CAD and 3D printing in his research and art practices.
Tell us a bit about your art practice?
My background as a photojournalist heavily influences my art practice, in that I am most interested in exploring social phenomena with an ethical approach and outcome. Previous to this project I had been working on globalisation and the shipping industry.
Eric Jong, 8x8x20 project
Tell us about this work. What was your inspiration for this project?
I’ve been undertaking a project exploring Destitute Funerals, which are the funerals provided by the government to persons whom at the time of their death cannot pay for them themselves.
Through this year I have been spending time at a funeral parlour that specialises in Destitute Funerals, and have been fascinated by the intersection of administration ritual and burial ritual.
Eric Jong, unattended funeral, destitute funeral project, 2017
Why did you use 3d printing for this project?
I slowly built up a collection of objects that I had recorded at the funeral parlour and was looking for a appropriate medium for the project. What became most interesting to me was that Destitute Funerals are a prescribed ritual, and one that is performed through offices and with the tools of administration and bureaucracy. Working with this archive of intensely personal objects, 3d printing became a way of talking about representation and authorship.
While I was figuring this out I came across the work of the Canadian artist Duane Linklater, and felt his use of 3d printing in working with these problems analogous to my project.
Duane Linklater, Salt 11, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 2015
For my project 3d printing became a way of removing the human hand in the process of making as a reflection of a bureaucratic detachment to individuality. A way of subtracting elements of authorship and history from the objects that I had recorded at the funeral parlour.
How did you design your work?
The scale is based off the containers that are used by crematoriums (cremation being the default method of treatment in Destitute Funerals) to house the ashes of the deceased, the actual print design of which would be the void of the container.
The 3D models were designed with TinkerCAD, which proved to be very effective for building up an intricate model from a set of predefined shapes.
Eric’s model, designed in TinkerCAD, 2017
I wanted the design of the sculptures to reference a cellular structure, the complexities of which were allowed by having it 3d printed.
Eric Jong, view of the install with the 3D model inside the photocopier, 2017
The assembled work consists of three 3d prints aligned on a office printer, with the light of the scanner relaying back and forth to illuminate them.
Check the video on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/p/BXkHX96Fc4h/?taken-by=roundabouthere
I have also been making photocopies using the 3d on paperwork from Destitute Funerals that have been handled by the funeral parlor.
How has 3d printing brought new directions to your work?
It has been hugely exciting to explore 3d printing: the materiality of 3d printing, the process of it as a system, seeing the digital and physical results, I think that every step has introduced me to new potentials for my practice.
I’m excited to learn the language of 3d printing, and to see how I can use it to tell new stories.
