Printing Time 

Printing Time, 2015, 12 3D printed objects, gypusm, ink, resin, binder. 10 cm diameter to 4 cm high (variations)

Exhibited at

• 2015, Aesthetics of Manufacture, Sheffield Design Week, Butcher Works Galley, UK, curated by Carle Baugh, Sheffield, UK.
• 2015, Paramor Prize for Art + Innovation, winner, Casula Powerhouse Art Centre, Liverpool.
• 2014, Dominik Mersch Gallery (earlier version) 

Printing Time is a result from a research project Erica undertook as an inaugural 2014 ANU Vice Chancellors College Artist Fellows Scheme (VCAFS)

Investigating 3D printing with time-resolved volumetric data, Erica experimented with sequential volumetric datasets capturing the time-lapse of germinating seeds. Through this process she discovered that virtual datasets could be overlaid in the printing process to create new forms. By embedding one moment of growth over another, time is represented in each object as non-linear. Using this technique she developed a group of twelve 3D prints for Printing Time. Creating tactile objects from virtual data, time is materialised in each form. 

The circular discs refer to biological experiments in petri dishes, such as starter cultures of bacteria or other life forms. While not an intentional outcome, Erica was interested in how the work lent itself to ideas of testing the threshold of life in the scientific laboratory, alluding to attempts to master nature, or perhaps to failed experimentation. Playing on this on this interpretation this work is exhibited as an arrangement on a plinth and lit with white LEDs to create an artificially illuminated effect of grow lamps in a laboratory.