File_Under_D_for_Data (2020) - 3D Prints, Generative Code

 

The objects you see before you are files, or rather are derived from files. Files used to be physical, taking up space in filing cabinets and boxes. Now they are, for the most part, a digital phenomenon, taking up little physical space that we can touch but many terabytes, petabytes, exabytes, zettabytes and yottabytes of digital space in faraway servers. I wanted to be able to touch my files and feel the shape of them in my hands.

These objects were made by extracting file data from system files on my laptop. I then placed this data into a spreadsheet and ran it through Processing code to generate a three-dimensional series of points, these points were then processed by Meshmixer to create a 3D printable object, which was printed and displayed.

These objects represent data. Data was not made to become physical; it was not meant to be understood in this 3D form. In this form humans can make assumptions about what the objects are meant to be, like the way we speculate about the shapes of clouds above us. However, without a computer to tell us what the objects are, we can only speculate.