If you are in the Greater Los Angeles Area, stop by the Affordable Art Fair this weekend to catch Keith and myself as we introduce the brand new MakerBot Replicator to the West Coast!¹ The remaining hours are today until 8pm and tomorrow (Sunday) from 11am until 6pm.

We have been running “Keith It!”² versions of 3D scans of people like Laurie Anderson, Bre Pettis, Keith Ozar, Phill Niblock, and others, as well as a few other favorites such as a (newly revised v18!) Barrel of Octopi, giant chess pieces, cows, work by Micah Ganske, and others.

We have been visiting with AAF neighbors and presenters such as ArtStar.com, the filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, and the LA-based Toy Art Gallery. We are even making 3D printed versions of vinyl art toys by awesome Art Toy heroes Luke Chueh and Dave Bondi for the Toy Art Gallery staff, work the gallery hasn’t yet had the opportunity to produce.

Quite a few MakerBot Operators such as Miles Lightwood (TeamTeamUSA), Theron Trowbridge and the crew at CRASHspace, and MakerBot’s Taylor Goodman (based in LA) have spent a lot of time with us at the booth, sharing things for us to print and generally introducing us to the wonderful design and DIY community here. We are hoping that Cliff who designed Chess Set I (that we are making giant) and other Thingiverse superstars will stop in also.

At night, we have been running all over town, introducing the machine to CRASHspace, UCLA’s engineering students, galleries and museums, and other hackerspaces. We have also been printing “Keith it!” busts of a cleaned up Beethoven model at night and placing them on the Thomas Organ in the lobby of The Standard – Downtown. To date, these custom 3D printed sculptures have been either stolen or disposed of by the hotel staff within a couple of hours of appearing. But we have photos to document.

Check out our photo gallery below!

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1. Wanna visit for free? drop a request to griffin at makerbot dot com by 11am on Sunday and he’ll see about adding you to the list with a comp’d ticket! [↩]
2. The software engineers working on revisions of ReplicatorG for our new machines created a button called “Keith It” to created maximum-sized objects to suit the new three-times-Thing-O-Matic build volume by Keith’s request. This name will only persist if you request it… [↩]

Laurie Anderson joins the growing roster of artists creating original work on a MakerBot, with her latest exhibit, “Forty-Nine Days in the Bardo.” The multimedia exhibition is running now through November 19^th at the Fabric Workshop & Museum in Philadelphia.

The team at MakerBot performed a 3D scan on a clay model of Laurie Anderson’s dog Lola, creating a virtual 3D object.  From this object, we printed out over 20 plastic models of the scan. The pack of plastic dogs is currently on display in the museum’s lobby, alongside a Thing-O-Matic.

Have you printed dozens of heads from our New York Notables series?  Guess what: Thingiverse modeler Thaed has created a clever new use for them.  Bookends!  Now, instead of being constrained to the hidebound bookend-bust choices of yore, the Aristotles and Kierkegaards of your parents, you can print exciting, modern-day media stars like Cory Doctorow or Ronen Verbit!  Thaed (and family) have chosen living legend Laurie Anderson.

The story behind Thaed’s desire to create these bookends is also worth a read.  Kudos for creating a helpful, stress-reducing household necessity.

Untitled by Thaed

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We recently had the honor of scanning the amazing Laurie Anderson.  If you’re not familiar with her work, it’s mesmerizing stuff and you should really run out and get a few copies of her newest album, Homeland, as well as her 1982 classic Big Science.

Laurie is also a long-time maker; she’s made a number of experimental musical instruments over the years, including the famous tape-bow violin. Her work has always pushed the limits of technology, especially when it comes to manipulating the human voice, something she’s mastered to great dramatic effect.

It’s a real honor to host her likeness on Thingiverse; I plan to print out her bust and set it right next to my audio workstation as a source of inspiration.  I suspect I won’t be the only one to do so.

Untitled by Friends

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