John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

uses the physical nature of the glass. i.e. it gets soft and is formed from its own
heaviness by gravity in the kiln. You have a piece that looks like this – the dome
created by the soft glass bending in the kiln. This is unexpected where the glass
kinks over the edge it creates a dark edge that is very clear to see that 3D line
and also as you photograph these pieces the dome of the piece in the middle
almost becomes invisible so you can almost just see the line there. The rest of
the glass just sort of flops over and it is quite nice just to have an element of the
material doing what it does. You can’t control it – or there is not much control
there. But you can also trim it back so you have the bowl exactly to that line and
you can see these pieces in the exhibition as well. Again, the bowls become
almost invisible as you photograph them as the light goes straight through them
- so you only really see that line from the drawing in the pieces.
Motion in Form
Another step further to finding genuine intention or the genuine data of when
you are recording is using the point data. The lines in some way are a little bit of
a fraud. The lines are calculated by the computer - it kind of helps by doing a
line between the points that are recorded. So really all you are recording are
coordinates in the space. Instead of using the linear data you can also use just
the point data and that is very accurate in terms of what is really recorded of the
movement of the hand. Again you can use that – instead of using sheet metal
you can use rods set in a laser cut, cardboard section with holes pierced by the
laser. And then to the line of the template again place a disk of glass and heat it
up and you end up with a piece like this so that you get that dot data. Again, the
material does whatever it does during the heating. It really is a combination of
the digital recording of the motion and a material doing things in the physical
world.
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