Couldn’t sleep. Thought I’d go down to the studio and watch the sunrise over the Danube. Instead I ended up downloading Sketchup, sort of learning how to use it, making a 3D model of some lines and sending it off for 3D printing in time for the website’s 11am postage deadline. That was productive.

I’d been wondering about 3D printing for a couple of days, as a means of addressing the flatness of the image I’m projecting on the wall — specifically the video with pens being flung at the wall, which I posted on December 4th or 5th. The model I’ve made is a 3D rendering of the flat linear structure you see in this video, which was itself rendered on the computer by joining the all dots the pen leaves behind on the paper. I want to see what it’s like to see the real, plastic 3D model beside the projected video.

I had to get the model done and sent off today so I can receive it in time to spray it black (various technicalities mean it has to be printed white) and test it before the exhibition opens on the 18th. I’m prepared for it to look fairly tacky when it arrives, and it might finally be unuseable — 3D printing is still a new technology so it’s a bit unpredictable as far as I can see — but it’s a useful experiment either way. And anyway, what a brilliant thing to be able to invent a completely imaginary structure on a computer and then be able to hold it in your hands.

(Here are some snippets of the modelling I did this morning.)