ersatzteil or fantastic plastic

The industrial and design revolution that will make makers and engineers of us all with the rapid introduction of three-dimensional printing is patently exciting, and it will bring in its wake consequences that we cannot foresee in form and function that is instant, intuited and mediated by a collective inspired for its own sake.

The majority of these knock-on effects will be positive, creative—and I think there will be a revitalization of the neighbourhood copy shop, repurposed to print custom extruded plastic dinguses and in the commons of internet cafes and lounges, besides all the workshops and laboratories unhinged with no need to conform to the dimensions of traditional industry. There is a great sense of expediency, of course, which does mark a difference, but plastic smithies are not far removed from the village forge, whose smiths required skill to work the material and envision their product, and I can remember a wonderful, though limited, replicating machine from my childhood: at a metropolitan zoo, there was a contraption that would allow one to choose a souvenir animal, from a selection of molds, and before one’s eyes, inject molten plastic into the form and dispense it—still warm and a bit malleable.
I got a blue elephant, but with this modern invention, I suppose one could wish for anything, from a replacement bumper, a personalized action-figure, a key to leave with the house-sitter, a bicycle-helmet, a scale model of my block, a watering can with a long, thin spout at the right angle to reach the plants without spilling, a pedestal that’s just the right height, to a prosthetic foot, tailor-made. I think the un-apprenticed will quickly acquire the spatial- and stress-knowledge for their Goldie-Locks cobbling, working up to ever bolder and artistic departures from the template through trial and error. The movement would I think bring back a sense of community, things, piece and part being no longer exclusively in the estranging and ransoming hands of business, which is excellent, but I hope the fabric of the revolution is managed in such a way that we are not splintering the problems of manufacturing from a few areas to something omnipresent and contributing more towards pollution and consumption.
Safety and durability should always be a factor along with resource-fulness and caring for the environment, but I suspect that the clever architects of a technology that is continuously progressing will see to that the 3-D printers will become more and more energy efficient (not reduplicated factories in miniature) won’t remain finicky machines (like cheap paper printers with their exacting and costly refill cartridges) but will be able to process plastics presently destined for the recycling bin and sort-yard. It will be nice to see the return of collection drives, as well, as recycling too becomes an immediate process.