 My name is Shirley Tsé, and I want to share with you the thinking process of incorporating free printing in my sculptural installation, Negotiate the Differences 2019-2020, a case study presented by M-plus Hong Kong for this conference. I will now share screen with you a PowerPoint. First of all, I want to take the opportunity to thank the organizer for including me, the artist's viewpoint in this discussion, and a big shout out to M-plus for embracing experimental and innovative approaches. When it comes to free printing, I will begin by saying my work is driven by concept rather than techniques. The use of free printing was motivated by the idea of bringing differences together, such as between the analog and the digital, between old technology and newer technology, between handmade and ready-made, between the unique and the reproducible. In a 2016 solo exhibition title, Lift Me Up So I Can See Better, I was making a grip of a sculpture using as many different kinds of wire as possible. Physical wire, steel wire, copper wire, coated steel wire, and I thought, what's next? What other wire can I use? What about wire mesh object as in digital space? I was amused by the digital terminology wire mesh object. How scumorphism is dependent on its analog counterpart. I began teaching myself how to 3D print from preparing a STL file to making G-codes with various print settings to experimenting with different kind of filament. This one was printed in KLA and also experimented with printing wood and metal filament in this installation negotiated differences. Negotiated differences brought together old technology, which is wood turning in the wood spindle part, and new technology, which is 3D printing, which is the connection part, and the functional and the non-functional original and found object. Here's another view of the installation. In this detail, the wood spindle may look like a variety of different functional objects. They might look like readymade, as if I've been going around and collecting table legs and whatnot. But they're not. All the wood spindle you see here are actually hand carved from wood blanks into spindle using a lathe. And now they look functional, but they're not. For example, you see some bowling pins here. They were made according to the specification of real bowling pin. They are in different scale, but the big ones are the actual bowling pin scale. But because I need to connect all the spindles together in the installation, the logic of the piece is that I need to make extra wood at both ends of the spindle for them to be connected. So you can imagine these bowling pins with the ends on the bottom, they would never be able to stand flat on the ground and function as bowling pins. And then now the connectors module, which you can see a number of them, these are metal. And that's wood. This is wood and so far. And this one is copper's metal metal. And they look like they were designed by me as a regional design, but they're not. They are actually 3D printed from open source file available to everyone on the internet to download and customize and modify. Indeed, they come from this file by Captain Blind on this site, Thingiverse, which is one of the bigger 3D printing community online. And this file is under a kind of Creative Commons license that allow everyone to download for free and use them freely as long as you attribute to the maker of the file. And in this community, I see a lot of file available. And for everyone to download and use. And a lot of them are gadgets such as hardware for a bookshelf or play structure, you know, the hardware for putting a play structure together. And now. And they are a lot of them are again under this, you know, Creative Commons license that you're free to download and use it. And in my mind, these objects slash file existed in cyberspace. So they are they're ready made. They are the this cyber object is the 21st century ready made. You know, these objects existed in cyberspace. And all you need to do is to get a 3D printer and actualize them. To me, someone who were using a lot of ready made in my sculpture in the past, this is a very exciting concept to think about these objects that existed in cyberspace. And they are the 21st century ready made to me. And now back to the bowling pin cluster. You can see that the connectors. I printed them in, you know, with different numbers of openings. So there's a lot of possibility for the pieces to be connected. So they are functional. They function to connect the wooden spindle together. But on the other hand, they are also aesthetic. Because not all the opening of being utilized. And that is totally on purpose that I want to have a lot of opening that is unattached to suggest an aesthetic of possibility. So now this is the installation shot of the installation being installed in a different venue. Instead of Italy, this time is at the N plus Pavilion in Hong Kong. And each time the piece is installed in a different place, the configuration changes. And the way that it's put together is mostly by improvisation. So there's not a fixed form to it. And by the same token, the sort of changing and variation and flexibility also apply to the connecting module. It's not important to get the same print every time from the same file. Indeed, differences and variation are the key idea. Even with the same file, I would adjust the setting of filament in each print. So, for example, in this detail, you can see that the bracket I used for in order for the piece to engage with the architecture of the ceiling of the N plus Pavilion. I used the same file of the bracket. But in this case, this one is printed in PLA plastic. This one was printed in wood filament. This one is also printed in wood filament. But this time, three different kinds of wood filament sandwiched together. So in a way, you can say that each 3D print in this work is unique. But to me, the idea of a single file yielding, generating variation is more important. Now, the concept of public domain is another overarching notion for negotiated differences. While I was developing the piece for the exhibition title Stakeholder in Venice, as well as the stakes and holder, a slightly different title for the exhibition at N plus Pavilion in Hong Kong. And as I mentioned with the file I get from the internet that I was able to download and freely use, having the Creative Commons license. And the Creative Commons really cultivated a community where people are sharing their creativity. And it challenges the idea of ownership and private property to which Stakeholder theory is also calling attention to. And now this idea of using it freely, also being called Copy Left. And I really like this logo for Copy Left. The C, instead of pointing to the right hand side, is pointing to the left hand side. It's Copy Left. And now this is an image of a 3D printer connector that is so-called misprint. So instead of the print following the specified coordinate, it's shifted at the middle of the print. It's shifted to the right, the bottom part. This is the top part. And the bottom part kind of shifted. Whoops, go back. The bottom part kind of shifted. And I use it in the installation. I want to embrace interesting accident because that is part of the idea of having variation and differences and also the non predetermined. So, in other words, it's not the unique object I like to see preserved, but rather the idea of a Copy Left digital readymade that I like to see continuing in the future. Despite the possible obsolescence of earlier technology, I can actually stop share now. So what I mean is that so let's say in 10 years time, maybe even less, the 3D printer will be different. The kind of filament available will be different. And by that time, if we need to have a connector replace in the installation, I think it's really exciting to include that using the future technology. So I think it's very exciting to have future generations of these Copy Left digital readymade to be part of the work. So now in conclusion, in my view as an artist, I think the conservation. I see the conservation of contemporary art as concepts, rather than objects. So what is what need to be conserved is the concept rather than the object.