Shane Hope Uses 3D Printing to Synthesize Nano Digital Data into Intriguing Organic Art

So far, 3D printing has given us solutions for creating <a href="http://inhabitat.com/janne-kyttanen-imagines-a-future-of-downloadable-3d-printed-dinners/" target="_blank">food</a>, intricate parts, on-demand toys, <a href="http://inhabitat.com/organovo-3d-prints-the-worlds-first-tiny-human-livers/" target="_blank">body parts</a> and even <a href="http://inhabitat.com/liberator-pistol-worlds-first-3d-printed-wiki-weapon-fired-successfully-in-texas/" target="_blank">guns</a>. Now the technology is being used to create delicate and organic art. <a href="http://shanehope.info/" target="_blank">Shane Hope</a> is a digital designer, printmaker and painter who synthesizes raw digital data into art. Using <a href="http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page" target="_blank">RepRaps</a> 3D printers, Hope prints out tiny parts, objects and bits of molecules, DNA, nanotubes and much more, which are then assembled in a painterly style into chaotic collages.

<a href="http://shanehope.info/?page_id=597" target="_blank">Shane Hope</a>'s recent works explore technology, materials and art and questions whether or not we can really predict what the future will bring.

He wonders how our progeny will use the things we create or if they'll merely scrap them for parts for their new creations.

Hope uses molecular modeling software to create custom code and algorithms that generates new molecular designs.

These nano-sized models get upscaled into slightly larger versions, big enough to see with the human eye, but still pretty little.

Then the objects get <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/3d-printing" target="_blank">3D printed</a> on one of his many RepRap machines in colorful shades of PLA.

With a large collection of these nano-bits, he then collages them onto an acrylic substrate.

It may be completely fictional, all these bits, tubes, helixes and spheres all jumbled together, but the result is fascinating.

A nanoscopic world blown up to a size we can see. His <a href="http://www.winkleman.com/artists/1457" target="_blank">latest works</a>, “Nano-Nonobjective-Oriented Ontographs”, “Qubit-Built Quilts”, “Post-Scarcity Percept-Pus Portraits” and “Scriptable-Scalable Species-Tool-Beings,” are dizzy with detail and will have you questioning your very own makeup.

Detail of "Nano-Nonobjective Oriented-Ontograph No. 2"