– Jonathan Keep –
An opportunity eighteen years ago to investigate digital media highlighted for me the possibilities of using computers to extend and explore my artistic understanding of natural systems, patterns and codes. This presentation will outline how as an artist who makes pots, who works mainly in clay I have developed a working process whereby the shapes of my pots are generated in computer code and then how this digital information is passed to a studio based, self built ceramic 3D printer to be made into physical form. Layer by layer the pots are printed out – a sort of mechanical pottery coil building.
My way of working is rooted in a world view informed by evolutionary and ecological theory so I talk a lot about experience, material and process. It is not nature out there in the wilderness that interests me but the very same systems and psychological processes in each one of us that intrigues me. I will discuss individual series of works and the thoughts behind them, but also attempt to tease out topics or themes that have arisen out of the many digital projects that I have been fortunate enough to participate in.
In the elemental forces of earth, fire and water, pottery has traditionally drawn on nature for inspiration, but in using computer code to create my work I have added a further dimension, to include the elemental mathematical patterns and structures that underlie all forms. The appreciation of these works illustrates just how much we are connected at a very deep level to the natural world.