Conceptual Artists and Designers Push Boundaries of Design at London’s First 3D Print Show

London's inaugural <a href="http://3dprintshow.com/" target="_blank">3D Print Show</a> recently launched, showcasing plenty of eye-opening technologies and products - including the European debuts of <a href="http://makerbot.com/" target="_blank">MakerBot's Replicator 2</a> and <a href="http://formlabs.com/">Formlabs' Form 1</a> desktop 3D printers, a live catwalk show featuring 3D-printed fashion, and <a href="http://inhabitat.com/cantilevering-protohouse-is-a-fibrous-3d-printed-home-waterproofed-on-the-inside/" title="ProtoHouse: A Cantilevered, Fibrous Home Created With a 3D Printer">Softkill Design’s eyebrow-raising fibrous ProtoHouse.</a> But the pieces that made the most lasting impression weren't on the trade show floor, but in the downstairs art gallery. Among the works by conceptual artists and designers in the group exhibition were several that had a poetic quality, offering not just examples of technical prowess but commentary on the 3D printing process and the current state of technology in our lives. Read on for our favorites!

Kinesis by artist, architect and designer <a href="http://www.danielwidrig.com/">Daniel Widrig</a> is "wearable sculpture" jewelry made from laser-sintered polyamide.

In <a href="http://sjeon.com/Virtual-City">Virtual City</a> by Sang Un Jeon, a computer keyboard is the setting for a cityscape of 3D-printed buildings, with the keyboard letters corresponding to some of the Internet's largest communities.

With a clear nod to the artist and designer's training as an architect, including several years with <a href="http://inhabitat.com/index.php?s=zaha+hadid+architects">Zaha Hadid Architects</a>, the sculpture plays with the ideas of architecture, jewelry and fashion.

Ceramicist <a href="http://www.keep-art.co.uk/index.htm">Jonathan Keep</a> pushes the boundaries of his medium with 3D-printing technologies. The Random Growth series is inspired by the growth patterns of natural structures like stalactites.

In Jonathan Keep's Sound Surfaces series, 3D-printed ceramics are physical representations of digital music recordings.

<a href="http://showtime.arts.ac.uk/francescasmith">Francesca Smith's Memento</a> explores the Victorian era's rituals surrounding mourning and recreates classic designs from that era with modern 3d-printing technology.

<a href="http://www.edenceramics.co.uk">Michael Eden's Bloom</a> references classic decorative forms, but it's made by a process of additive layer manufacturing.

Artist Michael Eden often combines traditional craft skills and digital technology in his work.

For <a href="http://mayabendavid.com/SAVE-AS">SAVE AS</a>, Israeli curator Maya Ben David called for designers from around the world to submit their impressions of the Arab Spring.

Exploring the nature of collective memory and human experience, SAVE AS includes five 3D-printed objects that embody selected designers' online experiences of the Arab Spring.

Everyday objects like watering cans, spray bottles and toys were 3D scanned using a digital camera, and then their shapes were distorted and abstracted, or remixed, according to various algorithms, rendering the forms almost unrecognizable.