A few weeks ago, two artists carefully placed a bronze bust of Edward Snowden atop a vacant war monument in a Brooklyn park. It was quickly removed, of course, by police, who fined the artists $US50 each for trespassing. But now anyone can bring a Snowden statue to their city — the artists have shared the 3D printing files.
Andrew Tider and Jeff Greenspan told Wired that even though their monument was toppled, they want other activists to christen their local parks with the head o’ Snowden:
“It would be great if people put these in public spaces and Instagrammed them, or put photos on Twitter and Facebook to project them around the world,” says Greenspan. “Anywhere it can get people thinking about surveillance, your rights and liberties, it would be wonderful.”
Tider and Greenspan were smart enough to digitally document their original bust — made by sculptor Doyle Tankina from clay — with a handheld scanner. It was then cast in fibreglass and concrete and coated with bronze. Even though police removed the bust from the pedestal they did allow the artists to retrieve it from a city storage facility. They plan to sell it to a gallery.
The 3D file of the bust is available on Thingverse, however the current file isn’t optimised for fused deposit modelling or FDM, which would make it easy to print on a Makerbot. But that hasn’t stopped some from experimenting with more advanced printers. The possibilities are truly endless.
@kcimc #putASnowdenOnIt pic.twitter.com/f0etfB476M
— Paolo Pedercini (@molleindustria) May 9, 2015
[Wired]