Serpents and Snails

“Serpents and Snails” is a group of ceramic sculptures I made during a three-month residency at the European Ceramics Workcentre (EKWC) in Holland. The project was funded by an AHRB Research Leave Award in 2001 and was inspired by my interest in the CALM Project, an arts and technology initiative, and a large scale commission I received from Sculpture at Goodwood.

My main aim was to explore relationships between sculpture as a process, materials-driven activity, and the more design-oriented context of 3D computer modelling. The reciprocity between computer modelling and the more direct form-making procedures associated with sculpture became the main focus of my research and led to the development of new techniques for integrating algorithmic information with craft-based procedures.

The sculptures contribute to a phenomenological understanding of the experience of working digitally; for example, by making equivalents between ceramic glaze and electronic pixelation, or the graphic window referencing the space in which objects reside. The “grounding” of the digital in the material integrates the two realms, often separated in experience, offering an original perspective which alters the ways in which objects are consciously perceived .

Sculptors, namely Kapoor and Gormley, employ 3D modelling as a design tool to realise large scale projects. The significance of my work focuses on the interactive process of the digital/material nexus, embedding this process in the sculptures themselves.