MutationMatter

I have six concerns and one method of making that I think will continue to appear in my work. Two concerns began developing as an undergraduate in sculpture: awareness of presence and moments of pause. They may be a part of who I am; I've been attempting to explore these concepts in a related piece of writing. Adventures around the corner, awareness of grade and the experience of discovery are concerns that developed during the program at RISD. An iterative process, or repetitive disposition, first started appearing in college as well, and has developed to a strong undercurrent. The use of mass plantings and a repeated material palette are indicative of this process.

In my sculpture work, one example of this repetitive disposition is what I term a sculptural investigation. It was an assemblage of plasticine panels that recorded a particular process of making as a landscape. The panels were photographed and bound in an album which I titled: "System: Elevation".

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The earliest reference to repetitive disposition that I can find was when I took a Foundations studio in Sculpture, in the autumn semester of 2003. I created two sculptural investigations in this course, split into two materials -- wood and ceramic. The wood investigation resulted in a fabricated construction of 20 identical copies. The ceramic investigation resulted in one object, but was built with 586 (I counted while making) balls of clay.  The two slabs of clay seen below the investigation represents my recording of counting.10230006

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I also have interest in the sensory experience of light. I attempted to write about this in a theory paper. My thesis was: How does luminance define and radiance transcend depth perception in relation to abandoned unnoticed objects in a landscape? I could not arrive at a conclusion because I could not quantify the ephemeral condition of light. Perhaps it is more appropriate to design for such qualities than it is to write about them.

I think what still needs to be examined is testing all of these concerns for the breadth of ages, time, and seasons. How would these experiences differ for a child of small stature versus an adult of great height? What would that same child consider important and what would the adult notice differently as an awareness of presence? How would one experience adventures around the corner on a summer night versus a winter afternoon? How can you design an ephemeral awareness of grade dependent on time?