We believe technology can open up new perspectives, providing us with the means to challenge the structures, ideas, and institutions that maintain the status quo. But technological change is - almost by definition - tied to the functions of capitalism: a system that profits the few, often at the expense of civil liberties or the natural environment. The 3D Additivist Manifesto calls creators and thinkers to action around a technology filled with hope and promise: the 3D printer. By considering this technology as a potential force for good, bad, and otherwise, we aim to disrupt binary thinking entirely, drawing together makers and thinkers invested in the idea of real, radical, change.
Founded on those principles, The 3D Additivist Cookbook will be published freely online in 2016 under a Creative Commons License. Your submissions will also lay the groundwork for a series of symposia, exhibitions, and events to be held in 2016, exploring the potential of Additivist technologies to provoke affirmative action and systemic reorganisation in light of grand narratives such as Accelerationism, Posthumanism, and The Anthropocene.
What is Additivism?
The 3D printer is a profound metaphor for our times. A technology for channelling creative endeavour, through digital processes, into the layering of raw matter excavated from ancient geological eras. Considered as a tool for art, design and engineering, and gesturing towards a forthcoming era of synthetic chemistry and biological augmentation, 3D fabrication technologies are already a site of common exchange between disciplines and forms of materiality.
3D fabrication can be thought of as the critical framework of #Additivism: a movement that aims to disrupt material, social, computational, and metaphysical realities through provocation, collaboration, and ‘weird’ / science fictional thinking. Additivism embraces the 3D Printer in the same way that Donna Haraway embraced the figure of the Cyborg in her influential text A Cyborg Manifesto (1983). By considering the 3D printer as a technology for remodelling thought into profound, and often nightmarish, new shapes - Additivism aims to expose inbetweens, empower the powerless, and question the presupposed.
How do I take part?
A successful 3D Additivist Cookbook submission will disrupt common boundaries, exhibiting a conceptual malleability reminiscent of plastic. Our aim is for The 3D Additivist Cookbook to be filled with .obj and .stl templates, critical and artistic texts, algorithms and code, as well as propositions that are antagonistic to the timescales, infrastructures, and social givens layered into every 3D print.
Your submission could probe:
Please explore our website for more Additivist ideas, browse interviews and press on the project, and watch/read and share our Manifesto, and this submission text with any interested parties.
Submission Guidelines:
The deadline for submissions is Friday July 31st 2015
Please submit to [email protected] including this information:
1. Your name, the name of your collaboration, or a declaration to remain anonymous.
2. Your website or other URL that we can use for linkbacks.
3. Your twitter and/or facebook information, so we can keep in touch.
4. Your submission should be attached to your email. If your submission is over 10MB then please send us a link to your submission safely stored on a cloud server.
5. If you are sending 3D print templates please use .OBJ or .STL format.
For text please use .PDF or .DOC format.
For sketches or images please use .JPEG format.
For executable files, algorithms, working code, or other formats please send inside a .ZIP file or link to a Github page.
6. Please include an image or screengrab of your submission (if applicable).
7. Please include a short text of no more than 400 words outlining your submission. This text should explain:
a. What your submission is:
This may include a title for your speculative machine, essay, or disruptive 3D print technology. We would like you to paint us a picture of your submission, give it some context and background. If you are proposing a speculative intervention, please use this 400 words to describe clearly how your final submission will be realised.
b. How your submission functions:
How does your submission work? What does it do? What materials will be necessary for its construction? If your submission is entirely speculative then you will have to extrapolate accordingly.
c. Why you believe your submission contributes to #Additivism:
This is perhaps the most crucial question. Please channel your enthusiasm for Additivism, and help us expand our knowledge. What are your influences? Why does Additivism appeal to you? Why now?
Send your submissions to: [email protected]
We will carefully consider every submission we receive, but submission to The 3D Additivist Cookbook does not guarantee inclusion. We will endeavour to get back to everyone who submits to The Cookbook, and ask for your patience. We value your creative labour and input, and will do everything in our power to respect and support your work.
The 3D Additivist Cookbook will be published online, and possibly in print, under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence. This means that it can be freely distributed, altered, and copied, as long as due credit is given, and its contents are not used for commercial purposes. Please be aware that we consider this openness as a crucial feature of The Cookbook. We intend to adapt and mutate The 3D Additivist Cookbook into as many forms as possible, including print, exhibition, performance, conference, and otherwise. We would LOVE to invite you to any exhibitions, lectures, presentations and/or seminars we hold, and intend to keep in touch with the community via twitter, facebook, email, and our tumblr. We also encourage you to follow/use the #Additivism hashtag on all social media platforms.
The 3D Additivist Manifesto was created by Morehshin Allahyari and Daniel Rourke, with sound design from Andrea Young.