Digital Matter

This is a post from the weareoca.com archive. Information contained within it may now be out of date.
 
Three-dimensional Digital Graphics is still in its infancy when we relate it to our vast Artistic History. As a culture we have continued to innovate the materials and technology that we employ to make our Art, from oil paint on canvas, to the invention of Photography, to the stylus on an ipad as rejoiced by David Hockney. OCA Sculpture tutor Doug Burton reports:
I was introduced to the medium of 3D Computer Graphics in 1996 whilst on my foundation course at Falmouth College of Arts. I was using one of the first generation of Apple Macs and was learning a rather clunky French 3D program called ‘Amapi’. The sense of moving primitive objects around a virtual space was beguiling and made me feel like I was looking at a new aesthetic that must have been as captivating to the viewer as Italian Frescoes using perspective in the Early Renaissance or seeing that infamous steam train at La Ciotat Station coming towards an aghast audience at the dawn of cinema.

My natural urge as an artist is to gravitate towards a sculptural language and much of my work uses physical materials to create sculptural installations and objects. As my practice has evolved I have been interested in the way that I can manipulate a virtual matter, with similar characteristics to the wax and resin materials that I use in the ‘real world’, in order to create animations and drawings that manipulate materials to create a technological version of a world beyond. In 2010 I created a large scale ‘matter drawing’ at the Schwartz Gallery in London that took a leap forward in my artistic practice. I sculpted a floor and walls entirely within the 3D computer generated space, the resulting print was also made to pop out in ‘3D’ when stereoscopic glasses were put on by the viewer. The effect of putting on the glasses and entering the installation was one of levitating over the ground of the space viewing a surface of the earth that was fracturing apart. The installation was also theatrical in nature as the viewer moved through the space and became a performative part of the work.

Two new works have been selected by Nesta (National Endowments for Science Technology and the Arts) as part of their ‘call for artwork’, to be installed in their head offices and conference rooms in London. The enticing prospect of having over 10’000 people a year going to Nesta and seeing the work was an opportunity not to be missed. The Matter Drawings that I submitted had been made but did not exist and so when I was selected for the show I started the process of having the work realised from virtual to printed form.

My ambition for the drawings was to create a spectacle in the conference rooms, where the viewers visual field is encompassed by the material realism of the work and the virtual space draws the viewer within. The drawings creative process starts from a single found object, a piece of matter that is scanned into the virtual space and then repeated and manipulated to form the entirety of the work. I use both a sculptural visual sensibility, to carve, dig and mould the forms, and a photographic language utilising depth of field, lighting and varying points of focus to give structure to the final artwork. The most technical challenging part of the creative process was rendering out the final image. This is where the final scene is setup with a virtual camera and the computer is set to work to make all the calculations for each individual pixel within the work, because of the size and complexity of these works the render took two weeks for each image. I then had to do some research in finding a printers that would deal with large format printing to the photographic standards that I wanted and on a medium that would work for this installation. I choose to use ‘Supersize Print’3. for both their cost and proximity to London. They printed the images directly onto a Poly Vinyl Carbonate board that was lightweight but fairly rigid which would be perfect for each panel as they measure approximately eight feet by four feet each.

The installation at Nesta went surprisingly smoothly. The works were hung using a hidden mounting strip and I had my friend around to give me a lending hand. The Matter Drawings are located on opposite walls in the main conference rooms that seat about three hundred people. Its interesting not showing work in the contemporary gallery environment that I’m so used to, the hope is that the work distracts people from the business that they have gone to Nesta for long enough to be enticed into my world!
1. The ‘New Aesthetic’ also a term coined by James Bridle in his 2012 lectures on the ‘New Aesthetic’, an observation and critique on the interpretation and permeation of a pixelated style of Digital Graphics in contemporary Life, Design and the Arts, these videos can be seen on the internet.
2. The Steam Train film shown to Cinema audiences “L’arrivee d’un train en gare de La Ciotat” 1895, has become part of Cinema’s mythology. It is said to have caused audiences to run away screaming fearing the train was about to run over them.
3. Supersize Print can be found at www.supersizeprint.co.uk
All images copyright Doug Burton as follows:
‘Continuum’, 3D Stereoscopic image installation, H 244cm x W 700cm x L 1200cm, 2010
‘Fools Gold’ (Installation View), 2012, Digital Print onto PVC Foamex, W 420cm x H 240cm
‘Fools Gold’ (Installation View), 2012, Digital Print onto PVC Foamex, W 420cm x H 240cm
‘Rockpool’ (Installation View), 2012, Digital Print onto PVC Foamex, W 420cm x H 240cm