Spiros Hadjidjanos Makes Art with 3D Printing, Fiber Optics and More

Sprios Hadjidjanos makes the mostly invisible world of technology tangible in his artworks made with fiber optic light, wireless routers, and electronic circuits, among other modern technology. In “Networked Gradient,” fire optics arch overhead in a darkened room, connecting wireless routers and creating a pulsing Arcade. The built architecture suggests the technological inventions of today are equally important to history as the development of the arch by the ancient Romans.

Connections between inventions of the past and present, as well as the man-made and organic, are central to Hadjidjanos’ art practice. Such works as “Network Topologies,” suggest an inherent harmony between the artificial and natural worlds. In these ultraviolet prints of microchips, one sees the same symmetry and nodal networks that are central to the beauty of flora and fauna.

In another series of works, Hadjidjanos used 3D printing to breath new life into a 1928 book, Unformen der Kunst, which philosopher Walter Benjamin noted for its innovative photography nearly 100 years prior. In Hadjidjanos’ revision, first-edition prints of botanical photographs were scanned, and then using complex information algorithms to add depth, were printed as objects composed of hundreds of sharp needle-like aluminum-nylon points. Despite their space-age methods, the plants appear fossilized. Each node and vein is perfectly preserved for posterity. Hadjidjianos further explored the topography of plants in the recent “Displacement / Height Maps.” The large-format technicolor images are made by taking UV prints of plants on carbon fiber. The botanical structures emerge with strong force, as if being propelled outward at lightning speed.