MakerBot Announce First Artist-In-Residence: Marius Watz

MakerBot Industries, home to the open source 3D robot printer MakerBot, have announced their first artist-in-residence program. The recipient of the inaugural position is generative art scholar and abstract artist Marius Watz (you can read our interview with him here). They say over the next two months “he’ll have access to our 3D printers and as much plastic as he wants to make the things he can imagine.”

Watz has already produced some works—photos of which he’s uploaded to his Flickr stream—stating he’ll “be testing the MakerBot as a means to prototype parametrically modeled objects, building geometries in Processing and outputting them as STL files” along with producing pieces for his exhibition in Oslo next month. Concurrently as the project develops you’ll be able to download all his models from his Thingiverse page.

A preview of what’s to come? Marius Watz’s MakerBot models:

The role is going to be a regular position filled by different artists and there’s already a successor to the first residence lined up, but if any artist fancies being let loose in a 3D printer playground the position is open to all. Head to MakerBot’s blog to find out how to apply. It’s a fantastic and exciting idea because it gives a professional artist unlimited access to this additive manufacturing machine, giving us a glimpse of the high-end potential of this open source equipment.