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Northern NY News
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Written by Contributor
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Tuesday, 27 October 2009 09:24 |
 Dave Beck, director and assistant professor of the Digital Arts
& Sciences program at Clarkson University, has created a series of
seven sculptures using a process that bridges the gap between the arts and
the sciences.
While the final product was created with the help of
Clarkson's facilities, the process originated halfway across the country at
the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City,
Neb.
While in residence as a fellow, Beck worked with community members
by tracking their movements via a GPS device. He then plugged the data
into a 3D digital modeling program and created curvilinear forms based
on their path around the city.
His goal was to create "unconventional
portraits" of local citizens based on their movements during their daily
routine. He chose to include no pictures of the subjects, but instead created
unique three-dimensional drawings in space, each of which possess
qualities that help to define the sculpture. He shadowed a variety of
citizens, such as farmers, police officers, pizza delivery boys, and school
bus drivers.
After returning to campus this fall, Beck began to work
with engineering lab supervisor Doug Leonard to make his digital files a
physical reality. In addition to managing the wind tunnels at Clarkson,
Leonard is also the technician for the stereolithography machine on campus.
The machine is a cutting-edge piece of equipment that allows
engineers, doctors, and artists to help see their designs and ideas take
tactile form.
The digital models of the GPS paths that were created in
Nebraska City were transformed into small sculptures with the help of this
machine and Leonard's expertise. The artist also worked with Ted Ritzko, head
of Clarkson's CNC machining shop, to use a computer program to
drill hundreds of holes into acrylic plates for mounting (this allowed
the sculptures to line up exactly with the holes).
Beck then framed
each sculpture individually in a shadow-box style presentation, referencing
the form of a scientific specimen on display.
This type of
cross-disciplinary collaboration is very rare to find, but is beginning to
appear more and more in both the educational and commercial world. "Only at a
place like Clarkson University could I ever see my creative research take
shape through the unlikely partnership of an artist and an engineering lab,"
said Beck.
The sculptures, each titled using the first name of the
piece's subject, are being exhibited at the Overture Center for the Arts, in
Madison, Wisc.
The show, "The Interior Plot," opens on October 23 and
is on display through January 3. The Overture Center http://overturecenter.com
with over 380,000 square feet of space is one of Wisconsin's premiere
arts venues.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 27 October 2009 09:49 |
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