Cross Media artist uses 3D Warehouse for electronic performance

You may already be familiar with Max Grüter in Google 3D Warehouse; you'd recognize him by his ubiquitous blue jumpsuit and green cap, though sometimes he sports an iconic EVA space suit. Max is perhaps the first "downloadable artist." In the physical world, Max is a successful cross-media artist, and public installations of his sculpture can be found around Switzerland and Germany. In actual fact, Max is a new world unto himself! Be sure to take a look at his website.





He sees 3D models on Google 3D Warehouse as a new medium for expression. "Google 3D Warehouse is my art space. It's a virtual playground full of dreams and visions of this age. I decided to do a kind of virtual performance there."

Max is exploring. His models are personal, electronic/artistic interventions in the flow and exchange of virtual reality. "The Warehouse is a launchpad for my downloadable sculptures. When my creations are downloaded, they start an adventurous journey -- like crew members of the world's virtualistic dreams -- moving from computer to computer around the planet. The models get injected into peoples' virtual contexts. They participate in missions conceived and brought to life by anyone. In a sense, they become entities in a global performance and are the most far-flung expression of my art."

Max was an artist from an early "One day, when I was three or four, my family got a little table with a slate board. With a chalk piece in my hand, I started to draw my experience on the surface of the dark stone. This was the beginning of this what i am now."

Max is Swiss and grew up in a working class family near Zurich. While he didn't excel in academics, his drawing and painting skills saw him through a degree in Fine Arts. He has done freelance illustration in advertising and publishing to fund his art. In fact, Max conceived NZZ-Folio's cover concept, which now has a cult following. For many years Max has evolved his "personal artistic language."

Electronic expressions of this language often take the form of his persona (complete with blue jump suit and green hat) in various poses and a variety of associated objects, like firehouses, flags and parachutes. His collection Downloadable Sculptures has subcollections reflecting the artist's interests: working class heroes, firefighters, and one of his most interesting endeavors: "My Private Space Program".







Max took his first steps into the virtual environment in 1995. Of course, he'd worked for years with clay, paint, brushes along with 2D design software. Working in 3D electronically was a revelation. "The XYZ axis controller in my 3D applications became my existential trinity of head, heart and hand. Virtuality is always the root of my ideas and projects. But the way I realize them, I try to keep absolutely free from a proscribed process. In all art, the final realization, whether it's as a real sculpture, painting, print or animation are is subordinate to what I am trying to say."

As far as 3D software, Max often works with Maxon Cinema 4D, Google SketchUp and 3D Coat. He likes the free modeling and deforming tools in Cinema 4D which easily convert in finished form to SketchUp models as a final step before they launch out to the world via the 3D Warehouse. Astronauts and Cosmonauts are the starkest metaphor for Max's vision. His "Private Space Program" of which these models are realizations, "travel beyond the screen as emotional symbols of my own breakup in virtual space--metaphors of my impressions as a human being and artist. The space suit is a reversed visualization of my own barriers, boarders and armor inside myself."







Without a doubt, Max's models represent one of the most unique uses of the Google 3D Warehouse and invite all of us into a new kind of world!

Posted by James Therrien, Google Geo Team

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