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17-25 October 2026

Making Messes

Hosted by flavie liu

This project is now archived and was part of DDW26

Event type

Exhibition

Sometimes the right way to use a 3D printer is to make it go wrong, and see what the wrong can do. Making Messes interferes with a working 3D printer to produce failed prints, mostly loose strands, as raw material for further making.

How

There may be one correct operation, but there are endless ways to make the print go wrong:
messing with parameters, registration, physical intervention, customized G-code… each time releasing different messes of clusters, strings, and loose strands.

Then

The messes are collected as raw material for further making, by hand and by heat:
to melt, soften, flatten, fold, wrap, knot, tangle, twist, weave, overlap, gather, pile, scatter, drape, hang, drop, stretch, tear, split, fray, fuse, loosen, mix… until something comes into form.

Plus

Making Messes uses the machine to produce material rather than objects. It works against the hierarchy built into the process: function over malfunction, successful prints over failed ones, objects over residues. It lets go of certainty, precision and completeness, moving back and forth between construction and deconstruction.

About flavie liu

Flavie Liu is an artist and designer based in Eindhoven. She graduated with an MA in Social Design from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2023.

Partners

Sponsored by Making Messes