The laser cutter was extensively used for this exhibition. Credit: Courtesy of Andrew Frueh.
Combining highly sophisticated technologies and organic materials, a new exhibition at Hopkins Hall Gallery explores the boundless possibilities of creation.
“Cut, Scan, Mill, Print, Render, Tweak, Shuffle, Repeat” features the work of three artists who have been exploring digital technologies for several years and applying it to artistic creation. Molly Jo Burke, a Ph.D. student in Arts Administration, Education and Policy and one of the artists featured in the show, said it is designed to prompt reflection about sustainability, focusing on organic components such as wood and the opposition between nature and technology.
Andrew Frueh and Nathan Gorgen, artists featured in the show and staff members at the Studios for Art & Design Research in the Department of Art, teach students how to manipulate sophisticated technologies ranging from traditional woodworking to digital processes.
Frueh, a lab supervisor and lecturer in the Departments of Art and Design, said he has a solid background in the digital domain with software development and e-learning and gradually came to use his various skills to produce artworks. Frueh is in charge of the complex technologies of the SADR, and he said he has the scanner and the 3D printer figured out from front to back.
The laser cutter is a silicon tool used to cut surfaces such as paper and cardboard with a high degree of accuracy and resolution. Frueh said it is extremely expensive — about $16,000 — but also easy to figure out, making it a popular tool for students.
“Most people don’t have access to it outside of a university or college setting, so I encourage them to use it over here,” Frueh said.
The 3D printer constructs a three-dimensional, high-quality model out of plastic. Frueh said this technology requires more experience and easily frustrates newcomers.
“It’s constructing something in space; you have gravity to contend with. The plastic can sort of fall or droop or do strange things also in the 3D model,” Frueh said.
For the show, Frueh said he used the 3D printer to scan a long chunk of wood from an art show he attended in Africa. That became a 3D model on the computer, which he rehandled into a paper model in order to create 3D-printed spirals. Frueh said he would hang about 20 of the spirals from the ceiling for the show.
Gorgen said he’s interested in the way that people and artists can move work from analog to digital.
“We took some real world objects and scanned them into the digital realm. We started to play around with them and then exported them back into the real world with a variety of different techniques,” Gorgen said.
For one piece of the show, Frueh scanned a sculpture that Gorgen made in collaboration with Burke, his wife. Working on the 3D model, Frueh said he manipulated the texture — originally a bark texture — and remodeled it on the computer into a collection of shapes, which they used as a model to make other forms. Then, Gorgen said he used Photoshop to paint over the digital images.
Another piece of technology that Gorgen said he appreciates is the Computer Numerical Control machine, which processes pieces of material such as wood or metal through computer commands. Gorgen said the machine perfectly translates his skill in physical woodworking to the digital realm.
Burke said digital technology is very art-compatible because artists can save different versions of their work and undo tweaks they make, changing things more easily than they could with physical art.
“It frees you up from the feeling that everything is so precious. What I think is really important for our making is to have freedom to take those risks,” Burke said.
Gorgen said he wishes students would come into the studio already thinking about using more than one process of creation.
“The best work that gets created in here is work that starts to involve many of the different processes that we offer,” Gorgen said. “Digital art and analog art-making are not exclusive of each other; I want to show that there’s a place for both of those things.”
The exhibition is on display at the Hopkins Hall Gallery from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. through April 7 and viewable on the Urban Arts Space website until April 25.
