” No one cares about made things anymore, Les”

(Doctorow 137)

This is a curious statement made by Perry. It seems that many people care a whole lot about things anymore. What would it take, what would it look like for people to stop caring about made things? Does Perry’s statement imply that there is a difference between things and things made?

In the CST lab this week I was thinking about how the 3D printed objects we are making are distinguishable and possess specific defining characteristics, whereas some of the objects we saw online, printed from metal other materials, do not. I talked to Student B about making rubber ducks with the MakerBots in the lab, and got to thinking that we wouldn’t necessarily be able to call them rubber ducks anymore if they were printed out of plastic…

The objects printed by the team using grocery bags had a unanimous color that was definitive of the material used to produce them. What if color was consistently used in 3D printing to convey information and meanings? What if color codified material, strength, lifespan, origin, or worth of 3D printed objects?

“These are art, or community, or something”

(Doctorow 141)