Guest Post: DIYLILCNC, Part 3 – The Napster of Industrial Production, by Chris Reilly and Taylor Hokanson

DIYLILCNC carves a model of a wind turbine blade in high density foam. Evidence of rough cut is erased as the machine runs its finishing pass.

Computer-aided fabrication processes demand reinterpretation of our expectations of authorship and value.  A CNC mill, for example, can be used to reproduce a complex digital model (such as a map of the surface of the moon) in actual material with absolute accuracy.  Yet, this level of precision can only be achieved at a remove from the author’s hand (in that their hands are not literally involved in the shaping of physical material).

Depending on the context, an object that reveals the process of its own making can be either increased or decreased in value.  We rely on the fact that certain products are identical:  individual cars, cell phones and laptops work best when they are exactly the same as their siblings in a particular make/model set.  Still other objects are prized for a sense of uniqueness or aura (family heirlooms, folk art and other irreproducible objects come to mind).

We’ve seen this discussion before in regard to both print and mold making.  It’s well established that the market tends to prefer one-offs over multiples, even when the object in question is just as much a product of a designer’s vision.  Traditionally, if an edition of cast objects was released, the producer would carefully regulate the number of casts in the set, often literally breaking the mold when the run was complete.  Although one can point to scarcity as a basic tenant of economic valuation, this scarcity is artificial.  Even a technology as ancient as mold making works so well that it must be interrupted, lest its function push the economic value its product too far towards zero.

Despite the high function of traditional production modes, their contemporary, digital counterparts push this discussion to its ultimate extension.  While an illicit mold could be used to pull illegal copies of a particular work, this approach still requires the efforts of a skilled (if dishonest or misinformed) technician.

Digital files, on the other hand, can be copied perfectly and infinitely with only a casual understanding of computer technology.  A trained individual, armed with a 3D scanner and the appropriate output device, is capable of capturing and recreating nearly any object (from simple/decorative, like jewelry, to immense/complicated, such as the body of a car or the design of its engine) with incredible precision and at any quantity.

DIYLILCNC carves a demonstration pattern in walnut, with each row subject to one additional finishing pass (culminating with the completed row at far left).

Although these tools have yet to reach the average workshop, it’s bound to happen sooner or later.  Falling prices, increased computer literacy, and the availability of Do-It-Yourself projects like DIYLILCNC put rarified, commercial-grade design tools and vocabulary in the hands of the average consumer.  In fact, the accessibility of CNC expands the label “consumer” itself by providing an individual with a way to both produce and consume the objects that precisely meet their needs.

This situation threatens the traditional model of industrial production that provides inexpensive, high-volume, lowest common denominator objects to a historically disenfranchised consumer class.  Audio tape, the VCR, and Napster all caused a similar panic when they first arrived, in that they interrupted economic structures that enriched big business.  We’ll watch with great interest as the design community adapts (and fails to adapt) to the incredible opportunity posed by truly accessible CAD/CAM tools.

Taylor Hokanson is an Assistant Professor of Art at Oakland University in Detroit. His art practice uses technology as material to address technology as concept. The presence of altered or hacked electronics, such that their operation is impeded, is a common theme in his work (see the Sledgehammer-operated Keyboard, for example). Hokanson also works in conjunction with The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he performs research into computer-aided fabrication and education.
www.taylorhokanson.com

Chris Reilly is a Chicago-based artist, writer and teacher. He received his BFA with a focus on New Media from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006. Chris is currently employed as manager of SAIC’s Advanced Outptut Center, and a part-time faculty member teaching between SAIC’s Design and Film/Video/New Media departments. Since 2003, Chris has shown work in several solo and group art exhibitions in the US and Europe; he works with modded video games, virtual/augmented reality, scripting/programming and kinetic sculpture.
www.chris-reilly.org
www.rainbowlazer.com