Within the scope of this research, a project The 3D printer is printing a seat (to enable the viewer to sit down and watch the 3D printer printing a seat (until the end of the exhibition.)) is indeed a reversal in digital that is not constituted as an aesthetic resemblance. It translates a recursive definition, often used in mathematics, linguistics, and programming, into the exhibition space and the work’s title. A recursive definition defines something as a simpler version of itself. The work is the recursive expansion of its title.
At the same time, the work refers to Duchamp’s ready-made and Heidegger’s notion of “ready-to-hand”. While the printer was printing a seat, most viewers entering the room assumed that the printer was the work or was printing it since the already printed seats were deliberately arranged to invite the viewer to sit on them. Another reason for this assumption is the time it takes to print one seat. It took about four hours, and depending on the printing stage, the seat might not have looked like a seat.
At the same time, the work refers to Duchamp’s ready-made and Heidegger’s notion of “ready-to-hand”. While the printer was printing a seat, most viewers entering the room assumed that the printer was the work or was printing it since the already printed seats were deliberately arranged to invite the viewer to sit on them. Another reason for this assumption is the time it takes to print one seat. It took about four hours, and depending on the printing stage, the seat might not have looked like a seat.
On top of that, for technical reasons, it was printed upside down to save the printing of the support inside the seat --- a hilarious coincidence to the fact that The Fountain is always exhibited upside down.
Each time the printer finished printing a seat, the artist detached it from the print bed to arrange it in the exhibition room, which was kept relatively dark. At that exact moment, some of the viewers sitting on the seats would jump up, assuming they were sitting on the artwork, only then recognising the printed object. This moment of surprise marks the moment in which the viewer’s encounter with the seat shifted from “ready-to-hand” to “present-at-hand”. Even though the seat was not *found* object but designed by the artist, it was designed as a seat and through the process of 3D printing, it was becoming a seat. In this sense, it is perhaps more accurate to speak of this seat in gerund form as a “founding” object, foregrounding the work’s processual (and algorithmic) nature.
Furthermore, while it is clear from the title that the work is completed when the exhibition ends, it must be clarified that the title is articulated only at the end. The number of seats printed during the exhibition is a halting condition of the recursion in the title, which specifies when a recursive loop should stop and is only known after the exhibition ends. Since the number of seats printed was ten, the title of the work is:
The 3D printer is printing a seat to enable the viewer to sit down and watch the 3D printer printing a seat to enable the viewer to sit down and watch the 3D printer printing a seat to enable the viewer to sit down and watch the 3D printer printing a seat to enable the viewer to sit down and watch the 3D printer printing a seat to enable the viewer to sit down and watch the 3D printer printing a seat to enable the viewer to sit down and watch the 3D printer printing a seat to enable the viewer to sit down and watch the 3D printer printing a seat to enable the viewer to sit down and watch the 3D printer printing a seat to enable the viewer to sit down and watch the 3D printer printing a seat to enable the viewer to sit down and watch the 3D printer printing a seat until the end of the exhibition.
