This incredible and skillful demonstration of virtual and real glass-blowing took place on Thursday 15 March 2012 at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. The event was part of an international workshop on Mediating Presence, organized by EIT ICT Labs and with researchers, designers and artists from Konstfack, KTH and TU Delft.
The glass-blowing session was entitled: 'the im/material hinge in contemporary making practices & artistic research'
Rolf Hughes, Professor of Design Theory and Practice-based Research, Konstfack and acting Head of the department of Ceramic and Glass, spoke on the topic of Im/materiality in Artistic Research.
He was followed by Anna Carlgren (directeur, VRIJ GLAS Foundation): Glass art and/as artistic research: on starting a glass laboratory for artists who wish to undertake artistic glass research. www.vrijglas.org
After this, glass artist Charlie Stern's presentation sketched im/materiality in terms of the material culture of glass craft with reference to Småland, the industrial glass area of Sweden. It was contrasted with the practice of 3D visualisation and designing with digital tools.
As seen in the filmclip, Charlie Stern's presentation was accompanied by a glass-making demonstration by Reino Björk, glass artist and lecturer at the Department of Ceramics and Glass, Konstfack. Several master students also contributed.
In this combination, the im/material hinge in contemporary making practices was staged for participants.
(For more on Charlie Stern, see World of No Craft
http://vimeo.com/26760133)
