Shine

Shine puts ancient traditions of representation in a new digital context, which, while it provides on the one hand, a ‘true’ optical likeness, on the other, has its own disruptive mannerisms and modus operandi. Shine addresses the wide spectrum of art, craft and design practitioners and questions how people perceive technologically crafted objects.

The making of ‘Shine’ involves  the exploration through practice of the potential role of new digital technologies in traditional craft processes. ‘Shine’ was an attempt to make physical the ephemeral qualities of traditional materials through the application of digital scanning and modelling: in this case the reflective qualities of a polished silver candelabrum.

Reference information was gathered as raw data via a planar 3D scan of the candelabrum. When scanning a metallic object the laser beam is unable to distinguish between the surface and its reflection, and produces ‘spikes’ that protrude from the virtual model that represent the intensity of the reflection. This spiky virtual model was then 3D printed, and cast back into silver, the material from which the original candelabrum had been made.

Collections - Museum of Art & Design New York, Craft Council England and Dallas Museum of Art