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

29. How have computer technologies had an impact on your
practice?
It’s probably a new generation thing. Designers today they see shapes and
objects from the CAD world or from the real world, rather than the model
making world as they did before. I feel that I’m in between; I’m not new or old
generation so I fit in both worlds. To use computers in that way is, to me, very
substantial for how I define myself as a designer. The piece itself would not exist
without these technologies, even if I started the exploration by bending wires by
hand and casting shadows from things that I built myself, from that moment on
I put them into the computer, they really have a personality and quality that is
very precise.
30. What (for you) is the key benefit of using these technologies?
Freedom, in combination with rapid prototype or digital manufacturing
machines, it’s up to you what you’re doing. There is not much limitation
anymore in terms of shape or design. The complexity is the key benefit; you can
deal with much more and still handle them as an individual without having a big
development team behind something.
31. What (for you) is the key limitation of using these technologies?
Depends on what direction you look at it from. It can be an aesthetic limitation,
you limit your thinking to what the tools do best or fastest or easiest…or what
you understand, rather than what the shape should look like. I would say in
most cases, it’s not really bad because that’s where it comes from. You can
choose a different process to come up with design ideas.
32. What is most important to you the finished object or how it was
made?
For me the computer has more to do with the design that with other parts of
what I’m doing. The things I’m working on at the moment, technology-wise, are
rather simple and general.
33. What do you consider constitutes ‘sophistication’ in the use of
these technologies?
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