Geoffrey Mann

Artist Geoffrey Mann gave a talk at Plymouth College of Art on Wednesday evening and followed it up with tutorials with students, one of them being me.

I really like Geoff's work, which uses digital technologies to translate intangible phenomena (right word?) into visual forms.  Here's two examples :

Time into Shapes

One example he gave in his talk was tracking the flight of a moth - see the photo below.

I think this particular work is in 3D printed nylon, which gives it a similar texture to a moth's wing.

In order to create this, he put a couple of special "dots" on the wings of a moth and let it fly around a confined space, tracking its movement with multiple cameras.  He then processed that info to create this ribbon which if cut at any place reveals the outline of the moth at that particular moment.

In my tutorial, I asked him how he learned that this was possible, and how he learned how to do it.   The dot idea is used all the time in film animation, apparently, and Geoff has developed a network of people in this sort of area that can help him.

Geoff has repeated this idea with a pigeon and translated the 3D prints into other materials - notably some really large scale glass and bronzes pieces.   I suppose he smooths the 3D print and makes a mould from it to do this.

Geoff told me that he's never had a failure with his glass projects, which I find truly remarkable - bearing in mind how often I have chipped casts while cold working.  He says he does all his cold working in the evenings when he's not distracted and there's less risk of contamination.  He also uses acid on occasions.

Noise into Shapes

Parts of another of Geoff's projects, called Crossfire, are on display in the Echo exhibition in the College gallery at moment.

In this case, Geoff turns noise into shapes.   He started off by blowing on a cup of hot tea and noting the waves it produced.  Then he got the idea of converting "directional" noise into waves that distorted objects in their path.

The foundation of Crossfire is this video of an argument over a dinner table.

Here's an example of the result - a china teapot with a sound-wave traveling through it:

 The teapot on display in the College gallery was made in a conventional way, copied from a larger 3D printed pot derived from Geoff messing about with sound and video.  The same is true of the wine glass on display - it was made by lamp work, copied from a 3D print.   Geoff says the 3D prints themselves didn't have the flowing, organic feel to them that he wanted.