Terence Quinn – MA Research Question – 2016

The context for my Research Question

MA Project Proposal – How technological innovation can provide new opportunities for the artistic presentation of the life model

Making to date – Digital to Physical: Primarily of a female life model – experimentation with full body 3D scanning, laser cutting, 3D digital sculpting, high quality digital printing on canvas, 3D laser sintering (3D printing), video & voice recording/editing, Arduino with sensors and conductive materials, bronze casting, and combining the previous elements (for finished artworks see Addendum)

Future making – Entirely Digital: For the human form – projection mapping, 3D digital sculpting/painting, and 3D holographic (Peppers Ghost) display/projection

Research Question – Short list of three

What I am writing about, what I don’t know about it, and why I want to know about it (rationale) – Subject, enquiry, and rationale for discovery

Is the life model as much an artistic contributor to the artwork as the artist?

I am researching the views of artists, the artists’ muse and informed observers because of my interest in giving the model a voice and to understand the artistic contribution of the life model in figurative art

Digital to physical – made to last: An examination of the unintended consequence of built in obsolescence in purely digital art. Will only physical artworks survive intact over the passage of time?

I am researching the practice of Alex May and Antony Gormley to compare artists whose work relies on today’s digital processes, and to use them as examples to understand whether purely digital artworks can continue to operate in the distant future and thus provide a digitally functioning legacy for generations to come

Breaking the mold: Research into new digital approaches for casting bronze and aluminium sculptures of the life model.

I am researching innovative digital technologies for making bronze and aluminium sculptures due to the current lengthy and inaccurate procedures involved in the 5000 year-old lost wax casting process. I hope to discover whether casting techniques can be substantially speeded up and improved on so that metal sculptures of the human form can be more easily made by the 3D ‘digital’ artist.

 Addendum (finished artworks)

1. Contoured one metre full body sculpture of a nude woman in 244 pieces of MDF
2. ‘Unrequited Love’ – A large touch narrative head and shoulders painting of a woman
3. ‘Giving the Model a Voice’ – A touch narrative 2.25 x 1.0 metre triptych digitally printed on canvas of a morphed nude woman from an enhanced 3D scan
4. 3D printed hollow bust of a nude woman (25 cm tall) with touch narratives
5. 3D printed hollow full body sculpture of a nude woman (70 cm tall) in ‘Rodin style’ with touch narratives
6. Bronze hollow bust of a nude woman as an ‘industrial style’ artefact recovered from the sea
7. ‘Metamorphosis’ – submission to Lumen Prize 2016 of the above full body sculpture and bronze (submerged in salt water) mounted on transparent acrylic plinths with touch narratives made by the model