Stencils Are like Pencils. On the Ambiguous Visuality of Laser-Cutting Templates from Model Making – Substance Versus Cutout as Constructive Vagueness

Abstract

Stencils focus on what ought to be painted, printed or sprayed on other surfaces by omitting it. Hence, a plus-minus ambivalence is introduced where a negative (cutout) allows for a positive (message). This yin and yang resonates in areas such as information design with airbrushed words and numbers as well as stencil art, ranging from political messages to abstract graffiti. With the advent of cost-efficient laser cutting for model making, cutout form templates – in contrast to stencil carriers – emerge in great numbers in dumpsters that can be considered illegible leftover waste (the cutout substance missing) or as off-cuts that spur imagination. We see visible and therefore substantial contour forms that are fundamentally empty in terms of the immateriality of the enclosed areas, oxymorons of ‘substantial’ omissions in 2D. Likewise 3D. 3D plastic printing of sophisticated objects requires interim support structures. Once exposed in the cleaning process, these support structures reveal impressive 3D balances of geometric reasonability and visual arbitrariness. Such 2D and 3D templates inspire to view geometry and graphics differently, to flip through the pages of art history, and – and most intriguingly – consider artistic reuse.