Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Edinburgh
Shine
The making of ‘Shine’ involves the exploration through practice of the potential role of new digital technologies in traditional craft processes. ‘Shine’ was an attempt to make physical the ephemeral qualities of traditional materials through the application of digital scanning and modelling: in this case the reflective qualities of a polished silver candelabrum.
Reference information was gathered as raw data via a planar 3D scan of the candelabrum. When scanning a metallic object the laser beam is unable to distinguish between the surface and its reflection, and produces ‘spikes’ that protrude from the virtual model that represent the intensity of the reflection. This spiky virtual model was then 3D printed, and cast back into silver, the material from which the original candelabrum had been made.
‘Shine’ puts ancient traditions of representation in a new digital context, which, while it provides on the one hand, a ‘true’ optical likeness, on the other, has its own disruptive mannerisms and modus operandi. ‘Shine’ addresses the wide spectrum of art, craft and design practitioners and questions how people perceive technologically crafted objects.
The output was included in the Crafts Council England touring exhibition, ‘LabCraft: Digital Adventures in Contemporary Craft’, curated by Max Fraser which attracted over 50,000 visitors across a nine-venue UK tour over two years, from 2010 - 2012.
It was included in the Victoria & Albert exhibition, ‘Power of Making’ which attracted over 300,000 visitors over a four-month period in 2011. The exhibition was a cabinet of curiosities and showed works by both amateurs and leading makers from around the world, presenting a snapshot of making in our time. The output will be shown at the Museum of Art & Design, New York, ‘Out of Hand; Materializing the Postdigital’. The Craft Council England acquired the piece for their permanent collection in 2010.
