Dr Theo Harper Davis gained his doctorate in April 2022.

Theo Harper’s sculptural practice begins with the coiled vessel, it is one of the earliest human inventions and could be considered in this exploration as the origin of human recorded geological impact on Earth (Neolithic Period, 1200BC). It marks the beginning of the Anthropocene;a geological time period that we are currently living in.

His sculpture aims to express through the materials we live within, Ceramic, Glass, Insulation and technology, expressive sculptural abstractions and feelings from our experienced internal and external environments.

Believing in a material first approach I take the position that there is a systemic problem within the detached process of Computer Aided Design (CAD). Byre-integrating the body, hands and clay as sensors within the computational design process does it create a larger space for new formal outcomes? And can the ceramic 3D printing process be used to re-invigorate hand-coiled ceramics? The overarching objective is to create a framework in which the creative practitioner, concerned with their physical making movements, can generate more meaningful 3d printed objects and computer models, whilst being involved with the interaction of material at the CAD stage.

Formal decisions are being made more and more by computer programs with little to no material origin. My sculptural practice requires a conduit between the different processes involved within CAD and 3D Printing, so that the physical experience of hand printing (variation on coiling) can be better digitally expressed. The categories are outlined as being concerned with Clay, Movement and Interaction.

This research project will bring together successful aspects from past sculptural iterations into a hybrid form of making, focusing on unique hardware and coding scripts, that enable tracking repetitive hand movements over time whilst simulating a clay extrusion https://vimeo.com/413878714. The aim is to introduce new ways of thinking about the printed object by understanding its process in reverse, by going from source to sea. By doing so, create more meaningful interactions with the printed object.

Theo’s research is funded by the AHRC, via the CDT partnership and supervised by Professor Andrew Livingstone and Colin Rennie.

http://theoharper.com