Illuminating Golour: Grosseteste in Glass Part 2

The project to undertake a major exhibition at the National Glass Centre Sunderland in response to the writings and thinking of Bishop Grosseteste occurred through a collaboration with the Ordered Universe Project and the research interests of Colin Rennie and Dr Cate Watkinson. Several new artworks were created responding to different texts and concepts that were drawn out of the manuscripts by the OUP team. These ideas were further explored In the Through a Glass Darky project that generated a series of seminars and meetings between the teams at Durham, Oxford and Sunderland. The intention in making the artworks was to give form to these interactions and discussions reflecting on interpretations to date and to bring a new perspective and material understanding to Groseteste’s theories. The creative response started with the premise drawn from the texts; if colour is light embodied in a diaphanous medium then glass could be used as a metaphor that mediates between light and matter. Through collaborative reading and discussion with the team, the ideas evolved from initial representational approaches to a series of new works that used glass, metal, and digital technologies in consort to rephrase the ideas in physical form and to open up dialogues. The resulting works appraise the thinking from individual and collaborative perspectives; a method that Rennie and Watkinson have been successful with in several previous public art projects. The presentation will open up the artistic process and discuss the making of these new artworks through, integration, collaboration and shared knowledge

Digital Glass Interface

The presentation explores the emerging and expanding relationship between glass making as a craft form and new digital capture and manufacturing processes. Presenting 3 case studies that involve digitiastion of glass objects from Rennie, and related PhD and BA students work the presentation explores different approaches to blending the updated toolset of scanning and CAM processes with more established making processes using glass. works presented include Rennie's works "Capture" 2014 "Emmitter" 2014 and "Modulator" 201

Crafted Computation

The presentation focuses on the relationship between the changing pedagogical approaches to craft practices in light of the rapid development of digital tools for design and manufacture. A parallel can be drawn between the craft of making and the craft of mathematics and geometry that underpin the digital design and manufacturing process. A call can be made for a need to apply theoretical mathematical and computational learning to more practical means, through engaging with materials, clay and glass in innovative ways and applying learning in geometry and algorithm to the making of art objects new approaches to integrated learning can be found