How dislocated are we from our environment? When do we perceive the unreal as real? To what extent does our digitally recorded history influence our memory? Using digital object manufacture and sculptural methods of pixelisation Greg Lock explores these issues by presenting the viewer with objects that appear analogue yet upon closer inspection are overtly digital.
Artist's statement
This work concerns the perception of our physical world and the virtual worlds that we navigate using new media technology. Our visual perception of an environment is in part reliant upon optical acuity; by the resolution of the visual detail we see before us. It is common for us to analyze, interpret and understand our surroundings by examining a recording of this sensory information - for example: by digital video or photography. In challenging and exploring this two dimensional method of understanding our world, I am constructing digitally generated sculptural objects. When viewed from a distance an object appears ordinary and as a normal component of the environment, but when approached the pixelated surface becomes apparent. When this happens the sculpture becomes abstract; the object departs from reality while the optical clarity of the environment remains. The moment the sculpture is perceived as not being a part of the understood world is crucial to the work's success. It addresses our willingness to believe what we 'see' and brings into question how much we really understand our everyday environment.
Technical statement
The artist replicated a large, real log in 3DS Max creating an accurate 3D mesh. The real log was documented using digital photography and it's pixelated surface was engineered into the 3D model, resulting in the three dimensional surface of the 3D model being covered in square plates. The computer model was then printed out using a ZCORP LOM printer and each pixel painted to match the original documentation of the log pixel for pixel. The pixelated log object is elevated on pins to echo the weightlessness of the 3D environment where it was created.
The same 3D model was also printed in a starch material which was burnt out using the 'lost wax' process and made into bronze. The Bronze object has a liver of sulfur patina and combines one of the oldest sculpture making technologies with one of the newest.
The digital prints are renderings made directly from the computer. The pixel to inch ratio of these prints far exceeds that of digital photography and presents a hyper-real representation of an object that does not really exist.
Above: Pixelated Object #1 (LOG) . 30cm x 7.5cm x 7.5cm. Painted Vinyl / Gypsum compound. 2008
Above: Pixelated Object #1 (LOG). Bronze. 46cm x 12cm x 12cm. 2007.
Above: Floating Log. Archival Digital print. 60 cm x 90 cm. 2008
QUICKTIME MOVIE (3.8MB) - Augmented Reality Movie (low resolution for web), Pt 1. LINK