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

purposely exploit computer-based technologies beyond the pragmatic aspects of
increased speed and productivity. However, paradoxically in these examples the
digital tools are being used in ways that are more like how the technologies
would be used in an industrial or commercial context. This is a point expressed
by Barbara Pollack in her review of ‘BitStreams’ (Art in America, September,
2001):
“…this breed of sculpture may be new for an art museum but is barely
innovative in comparison to the props and special effects routinely seen
in Hollywood movies.” (Pollack, 2001)
“The curators of "BitStreams" would like to argue that digital technology
creates a paradigmatic shift tantamount to the invention of
photography… the exhibition merely demonstrated that artists, like
everyone else, use computers. Once curators cede the intellectual high
ground on this issue, exhibitions of digital art become indistinguishable
from the range of products regularly on view at Circuit City.” (Pollack,
2001)
Unlike the objects shown in the artist-led survey exhibitions none of these
artists is showing discrete, unmodified objects. Although these objects (except
for ‘SCUMAK’) apply the formal tactics of traditional sculpture in that they
provide visual phenomena for aesthetic contemplation, these artists are making
objects of a different order than those of digital sculpture. These works also
question the conventional models of authorship and start to probe the scope of
both digital manufacturing and the arts.
2.4 Developing critical discourse
One particular aspect of the use of 3D modelling software that is obvious from
the ‘digital sculpture’ examples is the fact that visually complex objects can be
arrived at by using pre-programmed features of the software that modify and
transform an object. These objects have been compared to the objects 14 carved
to show the mastery of 17 th Century artisans (Ganis, 2004, p.29). In CAD
applications these operations can be easily performed and can result in objects
with formal qualities that are unlikely to be achieved without the aid of a
computer. However, many of these practitioners are engaged in what has been
14 Giovanni Ambrogio Maggiore in 1582 invented the art of turning one ivory ball inside another to form what has
become known as ‘Contrefaitkugel’.
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