A study of additive processes (see previous article Scenario: Additive) begs a look at it’s opposite, namely subtractive processes, which are a means of three-dimensional making by deleting material from a single chunk that is larger than the desired final form. Counter-intuitively, the subtractive process of color involves the combination and mixing of varied pigments, which seems an additive action on it’s face. But instead of arriving at the total cumulation of color, i.e., white, the process creates darker and darker tones, manifest of an absence or absorption of every spectrum of light, thus making it “subtractive”.

Another example of subtractive design is Michelangelo’s Slaves, which appear as human forms struggling to emerge from stony confines instead of the miraculous chipping away of gargantuan pieces of rock that they are. “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to…