Rise of 3D Printing Spam?

Shiv Integer is a bot developed by artists Matthew Plummer-Fernandez and Julien Deswaef which downloads CC licensed 3D models from Thingiverse, mixes them up into weird new shapes, adds machine generated titles and descriptions to them, and posts them back. It is mostly not printable on a common 3d printer.

It is a form of artistic exploration and it opens many questions about Thingiverse as repository, intellectual property and re-mixing vulture.
But, if we look at it from another angle: IT IS 3D PRINTING SPAM!!!  Well at least it is a precursor to spam :-) Proto-3DPI spam. Yes boys and girls, welcome to the 21st century, where spam is 3d printed.

First thing on Shiv's FAQ page is this:

 − Is it Spam?
No, this is not spam; it is done with good intentions and with the aim of contributing new, thought-provoking, poetic and even humorous ways of making things.

... that is what all spammers say :-) !!!

Here is a project description:

Shiv Integer is a bot that inhabits Thingiverse to find and download 3D models, make assemblages of these, and post its creations back on Thingiverse, whilst respecting and retaining the Creative Commons licensing of the source models. It also generates names, descriptions and renders for all of its designs. To date (6.5.16) it has made 298 objects. The bot was launched on the 15th February and our involvement in the project was kept secret until 9th April.

Here is a video showing the object the bot re-mixed:



Project homepage:

http://www.plummerfernandez.com/Shiv-Integer

Article about the project:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/05/that-time-a-bot-invaded-thingiverse-and-created-weird-new-3d-objects/

Shiv Integer Thingiverse profile and uploads:

https://www.thingiverse.com/shivinteger/about

Artist behind Shiv Integer also developed Disarming Corruptor software which can encrypt 3d models which is much more useful and thought provoking.

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.hr/2013/12/disarming-corruptor-3d-model-encryption.html

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