Pressing on with a glimpse into the future

ITS tough being an entrepreneur. Life can throw up all sorts of roadblocks to stop you fulfilling your dream But a good entrepreneur will always find a way to, as the cliché says, make lemonade.

In 1439, or there about, an energetic young German was eyeing off the valuable religious relic market. His idea was to mass-produce polished metal mirrors. These mirrors, it was believed (or perhaps it was just his marketing plan) could actually absorb the light given off from religious relics, allowing pilgrims the chance to take home a small piece of the bones of whatever Saint they had come to worship. This was all in line with a large event to be held in Aachen that year. The city was to display its entire collection of relics related to Emperor Charlemagne (think of it as an early type of “Relicpalooza”).

Unfortunately just as they were gearing up, the city was hit by a huge flood and the whole event had to be called off. This left the young German businessman with a large supply of polished mirrors, no customers, and some very angry backers. But, as I noted earlier, a good entrepreneur is never defeated, just delayed.

He met his backers and let them in on a small secret he had been keeping for just such an occasion. This secret would go on to revolutionise Germany, Europe and in time the world.

The German in question was Gutenberg and the secret was the printing press.

Gutenberg had invented a way to use moveable type to print books. Previously all printing had taken the form of carved wood block blocks, or etched metal plates. It was a one off system. The plate itself could be used many times but it always produced the same thing. If you wanted to print page two of your steamy romance novel, you had to carve it from new. With the introduction of moveable type came the ability to quickly change the printing bed so that it could print page two, then page three and so on and so on.

The effect was dramatic. Until this point the ability to produce written works lay, chiefly, with the Church. Its thousands of scribes would hand copy text after text. Naturally this was slow, and naturally most texts were quite religious in nature. Knowledge and information were closed shops. The printing press didn’t just open the door to those shops – it tore them down.

Fifty years earlier, in England, a radical preacher called John Wycliffe translated The Bible into English (they had previously all been in Latin). His belief was that if the people were to understand God then, it followed, they should be able to read his biography. The Church disagreed and declared him an heretic, going to the trouble of digging up his bones decades after he died (in 1428) and burning them. His works had little effect because at the time he also had to hand copy his translations.

Fast forward 100 years and another translator, William Tyndale, who did have access to a printing press, was burned at the stake for his crimes. The printing press was a weapon that the ruling class, rightly, feared.

Moving forward a further 450 years or so and we find ourselves on the cusp of another printing revolution.

This time it is the 3D printer, a machine that allows you to make and produce practically any object out of any material you feel like – in all three glorious dimensions. Naturally, being human, one the of the first things we did was to make a working gun – just a little something that anyone could download the plans for and knock out on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Immediately the authorities pounced. It became illegal to publish the plans for making a gun. Not to own a gun, not to make a gun, but to have the knowledge of a gun. Again, information had become the problem.

The wonder of 3D printing is that it is taking place in our lifetimes. We will be the generation that, like those in Europe in the 1450s, will see our lives transformed by the ability to make what we want when we want. Already we are using 3D printers to build chairs, jewellery, bones, machine parts, clothes and houses. You can use your smart phone or tablet to scan an object, plug that scan into a printer, and make a copy of it (it is actually a lot harder than that but you get the picture). The idea that a part for your 1975 vinyl LP staking record player is no longer available will become obsolete – you can make anything you want.

This idea of making whatever you want, of pushing the boundaries of what 3D printing can and cannot do, should and should not do, is at the heart of the brand new exhibition at the WPCC – Shapeshifter:s3d printing the future.

A collaborative partnership between the WPCC and the Australian Design Centre, it features the works of some of the most innovative artists and designers currently working in the 3D printing field. It explores those who take their inspiration from classical forms and techniques to those creating things that have been hitherto impossible to make. It features works in plastic, metal and ceramics. It features works you can wear, works that can save your life and works that just look, well, cool.

The Australian Design Centre (ADC) and the WPCC have had a close working relationship for many years, and this is the first time we have collaborated to such a degree. WPCC Curator Kent Buchanan and WPCC Education Officer Karen Hagan have both been working alongside their counterparts from ADC and the result is a show that has both a futuristic gaze and a practical foundation. It is an amazing exhibition and will be an eye opening experience for all who visit.

The exhibition opens to the public on Saturday 23 January but the official opening is on Friday, February 5, at 6 pm. There will be complimentary food and drinks with the guest of honour being the NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for the Arts Troy Grant and a special guest being Steve Pozel, the Director of ADC and one of the most informed, passionate supporters of design and Australian production you could ever hope to meet.

I urge everyone to come to the opening to learn about its secrets from the curators and to look into the future yourself.

2016 is off to a great start.

“Knowledge and information were closed shops. The printing press didn’t just open the door to those shops – it tore them down.