Design Philosophy

My current work investigates the relationship between decorative craft and definitions of the technological ‘body’. My interests probe historic methods of object making and the evolution of digital technology as an evocative medium. I use digital technology as a divisive and informed force of efficiency. The objects I create teeter between digitized sketches and refined modeled surfaces that represent the textures and creases of the human form.

Meatball

I am interested in the tools of mass digitalization; technologies that shape the contemporary definition of skin/surface and object.  The objects that I create evolve from 3D scanning of the human body too algorithmic form modeling. Metaphorically the designs become bionic, radically evolving the connection of organic and artificial realities. In turn, the objects become digital prosthetics, amplifying the body and augmenting the transformation of its personality.

Presently my smaller work is manufactured by Stereolithography and the Selective Laser Sintering process. Each object started as a Standard Tessellation Language or (.stl), which carries the x, y and z coordinates of the surface of the object. The surface of the object is then sliced into .004 inch layers. These layers control the direction of a L.A.S.E.R that scans the surface of a vat of photopolymer resin. This photopolymer resin cures with the exposure of UV light which the L.A.S.E.R. provides. Larger pieces of sculpture I construct confront the viewer by scale and noise, employing embedded circuits and controllers. Within these pieces, I am interested in ambiguous technology, and the mediation of our physical awareness. These larger constructs question my own identity and value as a craftsperson. My questioning of quality and poetic handicraft juxtaposed with modern values creates tension between manufactured processes and the diffusion of specialized labor.

Rhino 3D animation of a Grasshopper definition.