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

33. What do you consider constitutes ‘sophistication’ in the use of
these technologies?
Whoa. Well it’s not enough just to do something new to use the technology; you
have to use it well. So we’re talking about a range of different technologies, so all
I can do is talk about the one I know. You can’t just model anything. I’ve held
my nose with a few questions/answers these past few days, because the idea that
you can get into a modelling package and press a button, then say; “Ooh, look
what’s turned up!” that’s just abhorrent to me. It’s a bit like me walking into the
clay workshop, picking something out of the scrap-bin, sticking a tool in it and
saying; “Marvellous, I’ve never seen that shape before!” I think it comes with the
naivety and it will be eradicated when more people are doing it, when these
tools aren’t freakish and new and you’ll have to use them in a more clever way.
You have to use the tools with some consideration, some reflection and some
knowledge. You have to educate yourself in the tools. It’s a bit like the argument
of stunt rider or a horse in a Western – you have to learn to ride well before you
can fall off.
34. What does the term ‘3D computer technologies’ mean to you?
Well, exactly that. The only thing that’s computer based/object based rather
than text or audio based.
35. Name up to 5 practitioners that you would identify as exemplary
users of 3D computer technologies.
Ok. From my field – Freedom of Creation, Patrick Jouin, Bathsheba Grossman,
don’t like them but I have to include them – the guys who do the pepper
grinder. Austrians. I can’t remember [Fluidforms]. I’m stuck for my fifth. That’s
purely because I’m going for my particular area.
36. In terms of discipline where do you do you locate your practice?
I see it on the design/art fringe. Some pieces that I do that are art, some pieces
that I do that are design and some that are going to be straight on the boundary
of the two somewhere.
[Engineer. Is that something you still hold onto?]
Yes. There’s a technical element to what I do that is essentially engineering.
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