genesis

This work goes back to the very beginning of my exploration of digital manufacturing as an artistic process. Around 2005, there were no widely available commercial 3D printers, Make magazine had only just appeared, and the maker movement was still in its early stages. At the time, I was interested in finding ways to access digital environments directly and turn them into physical objects. That curiosity led me to buy a CNC machine that I barely knew how to use and begin experimenting with three-dimensional files pulled from video games. One of my starting points was Second Life—very much of its moment—and it became a space for thinking through how virtual forms could be translated into material ones.

The images here document some of that early work, now more than twenty years old. In one, I am standing beside a machine milling objects derived from Second Life. Other pieces from this period include milled avatars, experiments where I intentionally disrupted the toolpaths to introduce distortion, and block prints made on the CNC from screenshots taken in the virtual world. I also exhibited some of this work back inside a virtual gallery, creating a loop between digital space, physical production, and digital display. Looking back, these projects mark the beginning of a long-running interest in using digital tools not simply for fabrication, but as a way of engaging critically and creatively with virtual culture.