301 Research Blog

SCULPTURE STUDIO TLA

University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts

Teaching and Learning Agreement 2014

Course: SCUL301

Student: Mary Tamblyn

Lecturer(s): Louise Palmer

Proposed Programme of Study:

Aim:

The aim with this project is to develop and express characters or a loose narrative surrounding them through the use of combining old technology, ceramics and new technology, computer systems. Infusing the forms with care, in order to give them life.

Objectives:

1. Content, ideas, concept:

I am interested in how my work “Unsatisfying” changed over the course of how I made it. I became more attached to it, personifying it and even giving it a name (the final version of the its code being saved as “gerald3.py”, being the third revision since I had named it). It was hard to stop the code after the show had completed, as stopping it would be killing the entity that had existed during the show. Restarting the code would create a new entity, as it will have not had the same experiences as the previous one. It will not of interacted with the same people, not sensed the same world as the other. I am very interested in personification and build up into character. Characters are something very easy to connect and engrossed with. I want to express certain characters from narratives I have developed over the years, in creating a character I have found that it is important to let them sit with you, and allow them to guide the way their own personalities. Their opinions, fears, desires all become apparent the longer they stay with you. The focus for this term will be on a set of characters from a story loosely titled, “I Went For A Swim”, about a teenage girl, Mia, who discovers a water spirit in a red-zoned building, post Christchurch earthquake. I want to work through the characters inner conflicts through both ceramics and digitally made art.

2. Context:

One of the first materials and methods of expressing ideas within the third dimension, was with clay. Discovering a material that begins soft and malleable and can be fired and made stable and water tight. Ceramic making has been passed down through human history, glazes have been developed and electric kilns have been invented to help with the process. 3D printers can even print out ceramics. Ceramic kitchenware is owned by a large percentage of humankind, and ceramic parts are used within machines. They can withstand high temperatures, which makes them useful for food as well as pieces within machines. Because they have such a practical use and have followed humanity so long, they are often undervalued within the art world. Making ceramics is seen as a craft, because the skills were discovered in more ‘primitive’ times, but also because, especially now, in a time where they can be made entirely by machines, and are produced on factory lines. But while they do have very practical uses, people have also always used them to express themselves. Beautiful vases, both elegant in shape as well as the designs painted onto them. Grayson Perry states that his interest in the material is the modesty of it. Saying: “…I like the whole iconography of pottery. It hasn’t got any big pretensions to being great public works of art, and no matter how brash a statement I make, on a pot it will always have certain humility…“. Ceramics are a dependable resource, it is not grand or exciting and new. But it is a part of humanity. Clay is bodily, many creation stories explain the creation of humanity was by Gods’ building forms out of clay. Humanity is inherently connected to this material. It is not new, or exciting, but it will always have a part in human lives. The time and care put into each piece, puts a part of the soul into the ceramic form. I find this accessible material really easy to work with in the sense that in the instant you touch it, I can feel the history within it. I feel connected to the land as well as human ancestry. Especially since my Mother used to work with this material. It is nice to have conversations and connections like this, passing down information from generation to generation.

Although I am so interested in this rich history of humanity and ceramics, I also find new technology, computers, very compelling. While there is not such a historical connection with this medium, and it has largely practical uses for humankind, it has also broadened possibilities in what can be made creatively. Computers are getting smaller and more advanced, and more and more integral into everyday human life. The dependency we have on this technology is reminiscent of humanity’s relationship with pottery. Both require skilled hands to build, and both take a lot of time to learn these skills. Computers connect us to the rest of humanity, just like ceramics connect us to our ancestry. The internet is this big invisible space, buzzing around the world, and filling up the air. The internet is the sky, clay is the land. Humans exist between these two plains and connecting the two mediums is the logical next step. They help us with our day to day lives and express our needs and desires.

New technology art, digital art is very popular, because it is so new. There are more possibilities in what can be achieved. New virtual worlds and entities. We are at the point of questioning whether what we are doing is ethical - for example, if you create code that is able to interact with input it is given and respond: is it then ethical to delete that code, or stop it doing what it is programmed (born) to do? At what point does sentience begin and become valid?

God’s created us from the earth and from the earth we created our own life.

Computers are not undervalued, I think through the combination of the two mediums will help highlight the significance of pottery. As well as drawing attention to their relatedness. Parent and child.

3. Processes, procedures, materials and techniques:

4. Proposed works:

A series of ceramic forms, bodily busts and figures. All hand-built, using a coiling technique, where an internal structure is uses and flat strips of clay are coiled around it, building upwards. This allows for bigger scale hand built work, while keeping the clay thin enough not to explode when fired. They will be glazes with one or two colours at most, keeping the forms quite ambiguous in their appearance. Some of these forms will hold water and some will house screens or projectors, playing personified animations/code. Integrating both ceramics and computers. I also plan on making a series of rectangular 'tanks’ to hold water as well. Possibly placing a screen under the water - protected by glass or Perspex. The figures and tanks will represent characters or aspects of characters from "I Went For A Swim”, mainly focusing on issues that the characters face outwardly and internally - dealing with life, death, sexuality and purpose. Giving life to the ceramics and code, in order to develop a sentient water creature - from the story. 

Duration:

Week Three: Focus on making 6-10 ceramic forms, in order for them to be fired in weeks four and five. Drawing alongside to investigate texture and colour - in order to aid with the decision making around the ceramic forms.

Week Four: More ceramic building, and development of the code/animation that will be integrated with the ceramics. Potentially firing some of the tanks and testing water proofing with glass. Tests and decisions made about glazes to be used.

Week Five: Glaze firing, and testing placing the screens, code/animations with the ceramics. Determine whether sound is needed to enhance the characterisation of them forms.

Week Six: Methods of display, setting up the installation of the works together, making sure display is appropriate for the work - plinths, shelves, tables? And making sure everything is working.

Signed:

Lecturer

Date