Balloon Dog
by Rob Myers
A downloadable freely licensed 3D model of an artwork to print and remix
Balloon Dog forms part of a series of shareable DIY 'readymades' for an era of digital copying and sharing. Iconic objects from the history of appropriation and remixing art are recreated as 3D-digital models. Users can then download and send the digital model to 3D printers via the Internet to receive their own physical artwork through the post at a scale of their choosing.
You can find a review of Shareable Readymades by Mark Hancock here: Disrupting the Continuum.
Balloon Dog - How to
Balloon Dog is a free-as-in-freedom licensed 3D computer model of a balloon animal suitable for 3D printing. You can do what you like with it as long as you maintain attribution ('Model by Bassam Kurdali. Commissioned by Rob Myers') and place any copies or modifications under the same licence. Visit the Creative Commons site for the licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.
You can print Balloon Dog using a 3D printing service such as Shapeways, in which case you'll need to scale it to a size you can afford to print using a 3D modelling package such as Blender and then upload it:
http://www.blender.org/
http://www.shapeways.com/
Or you can print it using a 3D printer that you have access to. For low-cost 3D printers such as the MakerBot or RepRap you'll need to take steps to support the model's overhangs, for example using Skeinforge:
http://fabmetheus.crsndoo.com/wiki/index.php/Skeinforge
http://www.makerbot.com/
http://reprap.org/
Commissioned by Arts Council England