3D Printed Project (Part 2)

The 3D printing process took almost a week, due to the biggest printing machine had trouble with the extruder according to the operator in charge of the machines the extruder starts to melt again what it printed created a misshaped base. To avoid this the model was made smaller so it now measures 4 inches by 3×3.

On the right side you can see a comparison of the original sculpture made out of clay in which is a pretty flat yet curved sculpture. The reason while the 3D printed version differs greatly on some details if because I wasn’t trying to replicate it completely. I was trying to experiment and be able to see something I’ve been Imagining for quite a while finally as a 3D figure that I could physically turn and observe.

As you can see both have the same concept or at least the main figure is. The biggest difference of course is seen in the 3D printed model where the gears and that bend is happening. The bend is necessary as without it the gear would look like a hat. And without the gears this 3D model would have no purpose.

The cogs as you can see on your right were downloaded from an on-line depository. The were more detailed as the main purpose of the cog was to be actually used in some sort of mechanism, instead it lies restfully on the temple of the model. Other gears were added to provide more candy for the eye.

The sculpture is a quick representation of the invasion of the Caribbean in 1493 by the Spanish conquistadors. The figure in panic represents an Arawakan or to be specific from the Taino group  being struck by a gear. The gear represents  the Spanish conquistadors and that with their technology, syphilis and weapons were able to enslave the population and use them to drain the islands of their gold and precious metals. In which contemporary representations of the work preformed by the slaves are done on a cogged turntable where the were forced to push to control the flow of the rivers to allow the Tainos to collect the gold for the Spaniards.

When presenting the assignment I felt a sense of bemusement. Some of the audience saw it as an industrial revolution or the thought of technology. And when explained most of the audience didn’t understood and that escalated to the insinuation of me appropriating other people’s culture when In fact I’m expressing my own which I found extremely offensive.

The fact that most of the audience didn’t understood or quickly went to cliché accusations, means that some audience doesn’t know more than the surface of western culture or at least just concentrated on just one period or types of people. It is not just knowledge of the western culture in overall but also history of the US or the Americas. As the land who suffered the specific narrative I am bringing it is now part of the U.S. (Florida, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Insular United States Virgin Islands) I expected to have the knowledge of the events or at least an idea as is part of the History but It might be my fault to think that, I should’ve made something more generic or save it to display it to an audience (possibly in the south) that can understand or at least get a glimpse of it.

In overall I am greatly satisfied with this assignment and I feel that I did a great job. As I always heard that art should bring a conversation and I did in fact brought one to the table that for me was tense and difficult conversation but at the end I was able to send the message where it was then discussed and brought back to me as feedback.

The only thing I would’ve done differently is to make it bigger, paint the eye differently and that’s about it.