26.10.07- writing about perception [and making moulds]

Monday was spent reading about perception and starting to put down some words towards that section of the thesis.
I remember coming across the writings of Richard L Gregory FRS, the Emeritus Professor in the Department of Neuropsychology at Bristol University last year and was interested in his work on illusion, which he uses to further his investigations into how sensations are interpreted as perceptions. In looking for online definitions of perception I came across his website. It’s a valuable resource that allows readers to download all his research papers. What is particularly useful about Richard Gregory is that he is at the forefront of current research.
Philosophers since the Ancient Greeks have studied perception. Since that time the dominant theory has been ‘passive perception’ – whereby perception came predominantly from the interpretation of sensations, in a linear way. However, the theory of ‘active perception’, is gaining momentum. Richard Gregory states that perceptions are 90% or more stored knowledge governed by rules generated through experience as we grow up.
In other words, when I look at a container, my brain doesn’t have to rely on very much visual information, as it knows what to expect from the countless times it has previously encountered a container. It will contain something or have the ability to. As a potter who has made many thousands of ceramic containers my brain is taken up with the aesthetics and function of the object, rather than identifying it. But I suppose that is what most of us do to a greater or lesser extent.

On Friday some tests came through that are part of my attempt to disrupt this process. I have thrown a series of cylinders; one without a base, one with a cone instead of a flat base etc. each was decorated with one matt black surface and one black metallic shiny glazed surface. I am interested to see if the glazed surface appears to float or loose definition due to the reflections.

The other big project this week was the making of the mould of the torus 03 CNC milled model. When I arrived on Tuesday Stephan was already at work, so I helped him by mixing plaster. Later on he left me to make the top half, which seemed to go smoothly. The following day we separated the two halves but it wasn’t until the evening that I finally removed the model. The mould is a success, but now we have to work out how to slip cast from it. Before catching the train home on Friday I went to speak to Robin Levien who is involved with Ideal Standard, makers of sanitary ware. He was very welcoming, showing me around the workshop below the studio where the team makes highly skilled models from blue Styrofoam. Robin will contact the manager of the Middlewich factory to arrange for me to visit and discuss the casting of the piece. Ideally I need to make the visit before my French trip.

18.10.07 – The Actual and the Virtual

On arriving at College I went straight upstairs to the Darwin workshops to see how Neil had got on with the CNC milling of my torus 03 form. I felt like Christmas had arrived! It was finished and looked superb.
The difference between visualising the virtual form on Rhino 3D and having the real thing in front of me is profound and also shows up the difference between what I have carefully designed and the thrown test forms. 3D modelling software has many advantages, which include the ability to visualise a design, to create an extremely realistic render of it and to save that information to fabricate the design by various methods such as CNC milling and rapid manufacture.
On close inspection of the model various slight imperfections could be seen, there was ‘stepping’ on the curve at the centre of the form, and a slight ridge where the two halves met. Neil was as interested as any craftsman in how the tool had performed under skilled guidance regardless of the fact that he controlled the tool through the computer keyboard. The making of the form was not an automatic process; there were choices to be made in planning it as there are with traditional methods.

From there it was back down to unpack some tests from the kiln. The metallic black glaze from a recipe that Liz had given me, which I had ball milled, had come out quite differently; this time it looks very much like steel. Not the same high ‘chrome’ gloss of my first glaze recipe, but still an interesting surface.
The matt black underglaze fests looked at first less successful, unpleasant to the touch and marked easily. After speaking to Martin on Wednesday I tried using wet and dry on the surface, but revealed some of the white clay body.

On Wednesday I spent the morning in a tutorial with Martin discussing the writing of the thesis. We allocated each section a number of words and started to work out an order for the writing of it. In looking at my practical work Martin suggested that I research using sanitary ware slip as it is designed for large items and would be preferable to press moulding the piece. I emailed Martin Hunt for advice, who suggested I speak to Robin Levien. On Friday I gave him a call and arranged a meeting for next Friday. I mentioned the mentoring scheme, which he told me he had helped to set up.
I had another glaze firing this week, having painted another coat of underglaze on the two test pieces. They came out just before leaving College on Friday and were a definite improvement. They were sanded with 1000 grade wet & dry, giving the jet black one a silky very matt black basalt-like surface. It may be exactly what I’m looking for to contrast the mirror like black glaze.

I have designed a series of pieces to explore that contrast, each a pair, one with the matt inside, its partner matt outside.

The value of our research cluster was again made evident this week at the first of our Seminar room meetings and from a couple of conversations with Steve. The first was a comment that my glazed test torus looked like an event horizon. Looking up its meaning I thought how poetic a reading it was. It is a term used to describe the boundary of a black hole beyond which nothing is ever seen again or ever comes out of. It is also used to describe the edge of the visible universe, as the universe isn’t old enough for light to travel to us from beyond that point. Steve also raised the point that the white of my biscuit fired pieces isn’t much different to the black of the underglaze tests. My wish is to create a light-absorbing surface and white doesn’t have that quality. But it’s an observation worth thinking about.

12.10.07 – The Craft of Rapid Manufacture; Drawing and Making

The week started with a return to teaching on the Foundation Ceramics degree course in Carlisle. The CIA [Cumbria Institute of Art} has become part of the new University of Cumbria, which I don’t think will affect me very much. I’m teaching throwing to the first years and overseeing the second years. Both groups are small so that seems manageable and interesting.

Back in College on Tuesday I headed straight upstairs to RapidformRCA to check on my SLA torus piece. The second attempt had again failed at the same place on the rim, so the technician Greg, had a more detailed look and suggested that he strengthen the support matrix at that point.
Like the new hand building techniques I have been using, there is a craft element to Rapid Manufacture. The practitioner needs to know the characteristics and properties of the material and understand the methods by which it can be processed. The main difference between my two recent experiences is that the hand is absent in the making part of an RP piece. That doesn’t alter the need to develop a tacit knowledge as in other skills.

From there it was back to the Ceramics workshops and the familiar, traditional skills of glazing, drying and firing. More time was spent in the workshops watching plaster-sledging demonstrations by the highly skilled technician Stephan, and tutor Tavs Jorgensen. There are some interesting techniques that may have possible applications in my project. The other workshop demonstration I attended was press moulding by Martin Smith. He chose to use one of the moulds for his forthcoming Barrett Marsden exhibition, so it was interesting to see what his current work is dealing with. His demonstration clearly emphasised that to realise an idea, appropriate techniques need to be used; as he said he doesn’t have a favourite technique or one he feels most comfortable with. The process is a complex problem solving exercise where a high quality end result is the goal.

In between the workshops I was also preparing for the torus 03 form to be CNC milled. The material was measured and cut to size, leaving me with enough excess to produce another form.

Back up in RapidformRCA the third attempt had successfully been produced.
Once the material had been cured I took one of the failed ones and the successful down to my workspace to remove the supporting matrix. It was fairly easily removed, but care had to taken not to snap the brittle form. As can be seen in the photographs, the material does not possess the tensile strength to completely support the form. Would another RM material have the properties required or will I have to redesign the form? It won’t be the finished object I have imagined as it’s only 25 cm diameter and the surface isn’t smooth.
I wish to produce an actual three-dimensional version of a form that I can visualise in the virtual world of Rhino 3D software. On the computer screen it can be turned, scaled and I can even pass through the form. With the precision that the software allows me I can explore and develop my particular ideas far more accurately than with paper and pencil. The forms are based on simple geometric models, which with my level of skill can be drawn up on the screen fairly easily. This particular software may not be suitable for more complex intuitive forms. However, haptic modelling software is being introduced into the department, so it will be interesting to see how other students make use of it. I have found that my sketching has become far more simplified, mostly being a rough outline of simple forms. I use them to quickly run through a series of ideas, from which I can select a number to develop in Rhino.

By Friday I was feeling pretty exhausted, having had an intense return to College. However, I have achieved what I had planned. Just before I left I saw that start of the CNC milling process, watching the machine roughing out the beginning of the torus.
I spent the afternoon at the Frieze Art Fair in Regent’s Park before walking over to Euston for the train home.
It was my first visit to Frieze and an enlightening experience to see so much current contemporary art from many parts of the world under one canvas roof. It was possible to detect some trends, for instance the use of graphic design to convey messages and statements. Oppression, sex and the city are reoccurring themes, though one gallery countered them with a makeshift cinema showing Woody Allen’s film ‘Bananas’!
I missed visiting Origin at Somerset House, but felt that Frieze was more important for me to see.

The train home was extremely busy, but a useful time for reflection, planning and sketching, preferring, on this occasion the less intense experience of sketchbook and drawing pen.

05.10.07- Realising the virtual

I was determined to ‘hit the ground running’ this week and am pleased to say that I managed to achieve virtually all that I set out to do.
I have spent time thinking about what I can realistically complete in the time available knowing that practical work takes longer than it would in the studio at home, partly because I am exploring new ways of working & I often need advice, sometimes from outside the ceramics & glass department.
I decided to concentrate on the cone and the torus, both of which are one-sided surfaces and are essentially the same form, the cone an angular version of the torus.
So the week started with a throwing session, attempting to create a larger torus than previously. By the end of the week 4 toruses were thrown and turned and two glaze tests had come out, one of which- the metallic black glaze that I’ve used at home, was particularly successful.
One of my aims for this week was to arrange for a torus spiral piece to be rapid prototyped and for a torus model to be CNC milled.

Unfortunately, the RP piece partly failed at the top edge, however it was still very exciting to see the piece with its supports still attached in the SLA machine.
I had hoped to CNC a 560mm diameter model from which to take a mould, but the material it will be made from is incredibly expensive- a 500X100X2000mm. sheet costs £250! I managed to get hold of an offcut that brought the cost down. It’s a dense material that should produce a fine surface without much extra sanding. Due to the sheet size I have had to scale down the model to 480mm. 560mm may have been too ambitious as the mould may have been unmanageable for slipcasting.

Martin Watmough from RapidformRCA gave me details of a French company who are producing a ceramic coating for models produced on the Z-Corp machine and a fast way of producing glass moulds for blowing or casting pieces. I contacted the Managing director who invited me to visit their laboratory in Paris. Martin Watmough is really keen for me to go with ‘Big Al’, one of the RapidformRCA technicians and will part fund a trip. I have to find additional funding so spoke to Tom in the Research office who was encouraging. I’m waiting for confirmation, but hope to go in November.

During the week I had an informal meeting with Martin Smith to discuss what I had done over the summer and my plans for the forthcoming term. He appeared positive and made some practical suggestions. We have arranged a time for a formal tutorial at which all my practical work and writing will be discussed.