Matthew Plummer-Fernández (School of Digital Arts – SODA, Manchester)

This talk reflects on a body of art work, spanning the last ten years that have taken shape using 3D models either found online or produced from scans of existing objects. The project Shiv Integer for example, is a bot that automatically sourced and combined 3D models from a file-sharing platform and online community called Thingiverse, resulting in a vast collection of randomly generated assemblages. I shall also discuss a possible conceptual framework for understanding artistic practices that make use of large sets of data found online. The framework specifically differentiates practices that respect the norms of the digital commons, and actively contribute to it, to those taking a more extractivist approach.

British/Colombian artist Matthew Plummer-Fernández works across sculpture, print, software, and installation. After receiving an MA from London's Royal College of Art in 2009, he completed his practice-based doctorate at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2019. Plummer Fernández's interests in copyleft culture, digital fabrication, and social-computational entanglements interrelate to form a varied body of work that is influenced by the artistic traditions of Generative Art, Critical Design, and Internet Art. Plummer-Fernández's work has been exhibited extensively, and commissioned by institutions including the Victoria & Albert Museum and Somerset House in London, ZKM in Karlruhe, AND Festival in Manchester. His works Digital Natives and Disarming Corruptor are in the collection of Centre Pompidou in Paris, and in 2014 Disarming Corruptor received an award of distinction at Ars Electronica. Plummer-Fernández is represented by Nome gallery, Berlin.

https://www.plummerfernandez.com/

https://www.thingiverse.com/shivinteger/designs

Moderated by: Beate Anspach, Fabian Hesse

An event organized by HFBK Hamburg and the University of Hamburg as part of the Hamburg Open Science (HOS) project.