Sonic Loop fruitbowl 2006, Serpentine Tray 2006

Abstract

Research has shown the capacity for digital fabrication to facilitate ‘rapid prototyping’ of design concepts in physical form. Software and hardware technologies are known to enhance the accuracy and predictability in the fabrication of products. However, the aesthetic transition between virtual and physical states of design that occurs in the process has been largely unexplored, particularly the potential for simulating a range of invisible sensorial experiences in objects created in this way.

The ceramic baskets Sonic Loop and Serpentine materialise virtual processes by translating the ‘unseen’ into physical form. In generating a unique ceramic work the reconfiguration of sonic musical information transforms sensorial intentions into the corporeal. Via this process of making sonic data physically tangible, the work Sonic Loop has become a novel indicator of sensory experience in the field of object design/craft. It reveals new understandings about digitally informed ‘hybrid’ objects that materialise phenomena invisible to one or more human sense, and emphasises simulated relationships that are constantly negotiated in technological society.

This research provides a model for developing an embodied understanding of the complex interface between natural and technologically encountered experience in the identity of ‘hybrid’ objects. The value of this research is acknowledged by its inclusion in the exhibition Smartworks: Design and the Handmade, at the Powerhouse Museum in 2007 and the funding of its development through an Australia Council Grant, special projects grant, MMM, in 2005.