Jeff Koons’s self-professed pursuit of perfection is now legendary. But just what kind of perfection is at stake seems to keep changing. And just how hyperbolically high that level of perfection is today is not widely appreciated—least of all in the realm of technology and fabrication. Indeed, over the course of his career, Koons has increasingly amped up the technological ambition and complexity of his production, so that his fabrication standards now may easily—and incredibly—exceed those of advanced industry, whether aerospace or military. Today, nearly one hundred and fifty employees spend countless man-hours powering the Koons studio: researching, coding, rendering, painting, polishing. Yet both the effort and the outcome remain mysterious, shrouded in secrecy and cloaked by impossibly shiny surfaces and impeccably applied paint. What type of thing, exactly, is Koons making now?

This talk explores the ambitious fabrication technologies behind Koons’s work, which are at the forefront of new kinds of industrial and digital production—and which are redefining the very concepts of standardization and customization, likeness and singularity.

Michelle Kuo is the editor in chief of Artforum