Artefacts of a New History

Herbert Read stated in 1936 that ‘The real problem is not to adapt machine production to the aesthetics of handicraft, but to think out new aesthetic standards for new methods of production.’

The limited edition Artefacts of a New History (2016) is a collector box featuring nine different intricate ceramic 3d prints produced using Unfold’s finest printing capabilities. The collection resembles a set of artefacts like those you might find in a natural history museum, on one hand they look ancient, like fossils, but on closer inspection they reveal their strange technical nature…

Artefacts of a New History started in 2011 as a research project into the intrinsic qualities of the extrusion based ceramic 3D printing process. Early on it was observed that traditional thin walled objects pose a challenge during printing with objects collapsing under their own weight during printing. Resembling the idea of the buttresses used in gothic architecture, lighter and stronger structures can be created by integrating a scaffolding into the design of the object itself. Instead of building objects out of thin and unstable walls, they can be printed using complex geometric structures. These types of structures would be very difficult to obtain with traditional ceramic processes, where extra complexity requires a more complicated and expensive mould, but with 3d printing there is no penalty when an object is made more complex.

Artefacts of a New History has been acquired by the following institutes for their permanent collection: CID Grand Hornu (BE); Design Museum Ghent (BE); Porzellanikon Staatliches Museum für Porzellan (DE), Molda, Caldas da Rainha (PT) & Musée National Adrien Dubouché Limoges (FR).

Artefacts of a New History has been exhibited in, amongst others: INTERSECTIONS #4 at Art & Design Atomium Museum, Brussels (BE) and Unfold Recollected soloshow at Gallery Valerie Traan, Ceramics and its Dimensions: Shaping the Future, a traveling show.

Numbered edition of 10 + 2AP
D 205, W 415mm, H 65mm
maple wood box with silkscreen print, nine 3d-printed porcelain artefacts