SAIC Alum Jump Starts the Motor City with 3-D Printing

SAIC alum and Detroit-based artist, Matthew Angelo Harrison recently spoke with Blouin Art Info about his 3D-printed sculptural works that examine the role of manufacturing in the post-industrial era. In a number of museums and galleries across the city such as Detroit City/Detroit Affinities at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), Harrison exhibits both his 3D-printed sculptures as well as the machines that make them.

“What happens when nothing is really made yet, and everything is a prototype? The conversation shifts to ‘possibilities.’ Working with 3-D printers is perfect. My hand is removed from the material; but I do have control over what is made, and at what time, and I can make similar objects with slightly different outcomes,” he said to Blouin Art Info. Harrison is also an employee at Ford Motor Company, where he creates prototypes for the, automobile company that kicked off America’s Industrial Revolution and where the assembly line was invented.