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Articles Inside the 'New White Cube' III What this means for us, is that ceramic art works (or any art works for that matter) are experienced 2nd or 3rd hand, without ever seeing the work. The image becomes in Susan Sontag's words "the reality of the event". In her classic book titled On Photography, Sontag goes on to say that " ultimately, having an experience becomes identical with taking a photograph of it, and participating in a public event comes more and more to be equivalent to looking at it in a photographed form". Experiencing the world through pictures is a method of learning that no-one questions. Some people may argue that the tactile qualities of a ceramic work are essential to its experience, but this experience is already denied us in the public gallery environment, where untouchable art works are kept behind glass, or in the commercial gallery where a 'you break it, you pay for it' policy usually applies. Art is a type of illusionism, exemplified in the works of MC Escher, 17th century Delftware or 18th century German Renaissance ceramics, or on a more contemporary note, the work of Elisabeth Fritsch or Wayne Higby. With Virtual Ceramics, this is even more so the case, although trompe l'oeill isn't necessarily the intention. But the possibilities of today's software go far beyond what we might be able to recognize. Today we can create realistic images, which are difficult, if not nearly impossible to distinguish from the 'real thing'. Of course this raises the question of what sort of world we are living in. Is it a world of visual lies? Are we already in 'The Matrix'? When shown an image of a manipulated pot at College in Melbourne, one lecturer's response was 'oh, when did you make that?' My reply was 'I didn't'. Since then the realism of the imagery of Virtual Ceramics in my own work and that of others has increased considerably. The stereographic image of the Virtual Ceramic lends even more credibility to the illusion, the eyes perceiving a 3D virtual scene that is deceptively real. The next step from here will be to create a fully immersible 3D Virtual Reality environment, perhaps a ceramics gallery, where, with the help of a Head Mounted Display (HMD) and data gloves, you would actually be able to move around in the environment and pick up and touch things. I suspect that you may be able to experience this type of technology in a few years time. The philosophy behind these explorations is not mere CAD/CAM, not the use of the computer as another design or production aid, but rather the use of the technology to broaden the horizon of traditional crafts practice, to create new unforeseen methods and new unforeseen real and virtual craft objects. The intent of these explorations is not to jettison traditional crafts practices and replace them with industrial techniques, after all, this is a phase we already went through in the 19th C, but it is the intent of these explorations to add new elements, techniques and results to what we already know and have. No, craft will not die. As long as we have material and aesthetic needs, craft will fulfill many of them. But as our intellects evolve, so too will our needs concerning craft - and crafts practice will evolve or perhaps revolutionize itself. To stop now and say "you can't drink from a virtual cup" would be stepping backwards. Virtual cups were never made to drink from in the first place. Rather, armed with a new set of tools, we will create virtual objects for virtual purposes, with the very real possibility of artful and craftful manifestations. Today the craftsperson can become a programmer, and the programmer can become a craftsperson; what is of interest, and what will reinvigorate the crafts in the 3rd millennium, is where the two areas intersect. No, craft is not dead, but it will never be the same again. Inside the 'New White Cube' Part I
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course much of Virtual Ceramics is based on imagery and to a degree illusion.
In a majority of cases, our visual knowledge of the world, it's art and
ceramics, is based on what we know from books, magazines and other media.
Knowledge is brought into our living room via television. Ceramic objects
we have never seen in the flesh are brought to our attention via magazines
and catalogues. As we may never have seen the actual ceramic objects,
this is also a form of virtuality. In contrast to previous ages, today
the dominance of the image is complete, with mass media, photography,
video, television, and now affordable digital photography, scanners, high
quality inkjet printing and ever cheaper, more powerful computers. In
fact the material value of a computer is less than $100, and in the US,
some companies are starting to give them away, paid for by advertising
that flashes up on the side of the screen.