A Shadow of Craft
2020 - 2022
A Shadow of Craft is a research project focused on critical craft and the implications of digital technologies for makers. A core component of research has been geared towards the intersections art, craft, and design, as well as the materiality of digital processes and digitally produced objects, positioned adjacent to the objecthood of digital artifacts. Through a reflective practice in ceramic materials and processes, this project considers the importance of making in an increasingly digital world, by fusing digital methods such as machine learning and 3D printing into traditionally handcrafted processes such as wheel throwing and slip casting.
Why do we make things?
Why does it matter?
The Weight Project
I began this project seeking to better understand the relationship between the maker and his material and practice. I set out to throw my body weight in clay, as a way to relate closely to my material. I used an adaptable set of guidelines and recorded detailed notes about the form, the process, and the emotional experience of producing the work. The resulting vessels each represent a moment in time and reflect a personal, albeit subtle, story. The resulting body was a series of 60, where the form gradually evolved over time as my thinking about the process and my intentions shifted as a reaction.
The Digital Vessel
As our lives become increasingly influenced by digital objects, experiences, and artificial intelligence, I began to question what this means for makers and how this affects our experience and relationship to physical objects. Can digital objects replace our need and desire to experience the physical ones?
For this project I utilized emerging Machine Learning methods to evaluate the series of vessels from the Weight Project. I was able to use a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) to produce images of infinite new forms that fit within the series as though I created them myself. I was also able to distill the series down to a single vessel which reflects that totality of the Weight Project as a single form. This opens up more questions, and leads us to wonder if AI can ever reflect the emotional aspects that we put into making things.
Two thirds of these vessels do not exist. They were generated through a machine learning model.
The Weight Project
“The One”
The Digital Vessel
Experiments in Augmented Reality (AR)
The Hybrid Vessel
This project sought a way to distill my experience between the Weight Project and the Digital Vessel in a way that reflected both a systematic approach and emotional response. My intention was mix digital and handcrafting processes in the final object. I developed the form by analyzing shadows, vector silhouettes and outlines, and 3D models. I then produced the final form by 3D printing master molds, casting mother molds in silicone rubber, and production molds in plaster. The final piece was a slip cast urn, which reflects the emotional response through its form, and the digital fabrication methods in its surface and texture.
