Thanks to the technology behind 3-D printing, anyone in the world can have their own eight-inch-tall version of the statue of the most famous former NSA contractor ever.
The same artists who created the 4-foot-tall, 100-pound bust of Snowden have uploaded a 3-D printable file of the likeness to Thingiverse, the world’s largest repository of 3-D printable files.
“We thought, ‘Let’s put the data out there, and find a way for it to proliferate to anyone who wants it,'” artist Andrew Tider told Mashable. “We’ve heard from people that they want one for their lawn or to put in their home … so we’re letting the world do whatever it wants to do with this.”
Tider and fellow artist Jeff Greenspan had remained anonymous until being outed by a police summons to retrieve the massive Snowden head earlier this week.
The NYPD seized the bust after parks officials removed from the Prison Ship Martyr’s Monument in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, where Tider and Greenspun installed it in April under the cover of night.
— Kyle McDonald (@kcimc) May 7, 2015
The artists were each were fined $50 for illegally being in the park after hours.
While the pair said they are not encouraging people to place the busts in public places, Greenspan admitted he would be excited to see people around the country or world copy his campaign.
“It would be great if people put these in public spaces and Instagrammed them, or put photos on Twitter and Facebook to project them around the world,” Greenspan told Mashable. “Anywhere it can get people thinking about surveillance, your rights and liberties, it would be wonderful.”
The pair has had success inspiring imitators. On the same day police removed the bust from the park, a separate group of artists, calling themselves The Illuminator, projected a hologram of the statue at the same site.
Tider and Greenspun were able to free the bust from police custody with the help of New York civil rights lawyer Ronald Kuby and Magdalena Sawon, owner of the Postmasters Gallery, which is displaying the sculpture in a show focused on surveillance.
— Anonymous (@YourAnonGlobal) May 8, 2015
The Brooklyn bust is not the only statue of Snowden to appear in recent weeks. His likeness was on display in Berlin, too, alongside statues of fellow whistleblowers Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning. Meanwhile, a 9-foot mobile statue of Snowden has been touring New York parks.
This is not even the first 3-D printable version of Snowden uploaded to Thingiverse. McGill University professor Gabriella Coleman created Gnowden, a Snowden gnome designed to be printed around the world.
