Hand-Crafting Through Digital Means

This project examines my collaborative practice with a digital craft practitioner developed over my design residency at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. It aims to illuminate ways in which craft making and hand-crafted objects can be translated using 3D modeling technology and addresses the following questions:

• What forms of knowing and meaning making are evolving through collaborative practice? How does this inform research creation?

• What does it mean to manipulate material in Computer Aided Design (CAD) through Virtual Reality (VR)? What are the explicit implications of doing so and how does this inform analogue material practice and experimentation?

Originating with a hand-knotted object – a replica of The Coffee Cup in my installation Paper World (2007) – the exploration began with the transformation of this analogue form into digital form using a range of techniques, including 3D scanning, CAD, Virtual Reality (VR), 3D printing, and slip casting. These activities act as both a survey of digital fabrication capabilities and a way of exploring new thinking mechanisms offered by this emerging form of practice. The project seeks to broaden our understanding of the maker's role within the capabilities and limitations of digital interface and fabrication.

Thanks: Aaron Oussoren, Sean Arden, Logan Mohr, Hélène Day Fraser, Keith Doyle, and Julie York.