What first attracted you to the Internet?
As soon as I was introduced to it, I realized the Internet had a huge potential for artists. Imagine being able to show your portfolio to anybody in the world, anytime they wanted to see it, and essentially for free. (The thought of getting away from having to duplicate and send out sheafs of 35mm slides also was distinctly attractive.)
I had realized, by this time, that the major problem artists were facing was isolation- from the media, from the public, and from each other. The Internet, both in the Usenet newsgroups and the WorldWideWeb, gives me hope that this can be overcome. I can, for instance, converse with an artist in Australia, view his work, exchange technical tips, and clash over points of theory. In fact, participating in some of these newsgroups is a lot like being in art school; and being exposed to different people's ideas about art gives me something to think about as I'm working on my own projects, much as the spirited discourse between fellow students spurs the growth of ideas in a school setting.
In spite of my somewhat reclusive tendencies in real life, I found myself to be more gregarious online. Although I hadn't done much of it since leaving school, I found myself writing more, both to help others with problems I'd dealt with already and to clarify my ideas for myself. I even branched out into writing fiction, since the internet makes it so easy to publish written materials (if interested, go to http://thetherapist.com and look for Peter Hossfeld under Former Patients)
Since I was getting a lot out of these online exchanges, learning some things as well as being stimulated to organize my own thoughts on matters art-related; I started a couple of newsgroups on the Usenet: alt.sculpture and alt.art.marketplace. I decided to make my website into something that would be helpful to other artists, by organizing, and commenting on, some of the sites being constructed by suppliers, institutions, and individuals which had information that I found useful. I began archiving some of my opinions and comments on technical matters, and also those of some other people who regularly write knowledgable replies to technical questions. And I started putting together a registry of highly-skilled artists who work on a custom basis, hoping to tap some of the Internet's potential for getting people with obscure skills and those with particular needs together.
After a while of answering sculpture-related questions online, I started my regular "Ask A Sculptor" column in the Visual Voices section of the Artspeak site (http://www.artspeak.com/vv/sculpture.html). As an outgrowth of my research in translating real-world objects into computer-mediated sculpture, I recently started an online business selling the hardware and software tools I'd discovered to be valuable in this area, at http://www.computersculpture.com.
Does the Internet allow you to show your work as you would like: How could it be improved to suit you?
Any time one has to present 3-dimensional work in a 2d media, the photo is not going to give more than a faint impression of the actual art, although it can convey an idea of what the work is about. Having greater bandwidth to work with would help somewhat; formats like Quicktime VR allow a sculpture to revolve on the screen, so one sees the whole thing as if on a turntable. But for now, it takes too long to load. Once we all have cable-tv modems, that sort of thing becomes a real possibility.
But that said, I like the idea of linking texts and images together in a non-linear way, which is something the Web is good at. It is difficult to think of a way to make a connection between the various things I think and do that makes sense for everybody, and includes everything relevant; but hyper-text makes it possible to connect the data with multiple nodes and leave the audience to find its own path through it.
What kind of artwork do you expect to be doing in the next 12 months or so?
Although I have a lot of work in process that I need to finish, or at least push forward, I keep wanting to try new things as well. I've become fascinated with the possibilities afforded by the rapidly converging fields of Computer Aided Design and Rapid Prototyping, and I plan to develop some sculpture that could only have been done using a computer.
For quite a while now, I've focused on the use of information from natural forms in sculpture and design. I've built up a library of molds using a wide range of specimens from the natural world; animals, plants, and minerals. I draw from this to construct what are essentially three-dimensional collages, and I produce them in a variety of media, from bronze and ceramics to holograms and plaster. . My newest direction is an extension of the work I've done previously with molds and impressions, but with the new ability to capture the information from a specimen digitally, which gives me much greater freedom in the way I can use it.
Instead of taking a mold of an object, I can scan it, getting a 3d representation of the form into the computer. Once this is accomplished, it can be manipulated in ways I'd only dreamed of before. From a left-facing part, I can easily derive a right-facing one. Scale becomes something I can determine, instead of something I'm stuck with. Bending, twisting, and other distortions can be done without losing the essential character of the form. And using the Boolean operations, I can add, subtract, and intersect one of these forms with another, producing visually surprising results. Once I have a composite that I'm happy with, I can then produce it as an actual object, using my miniature milling machine for small parts, or taking it to a service bureau with the capacity to produce larger ones. This part in turn can be molded and used in a piece of sculpture.
So far, what I've done with this has been experimental; I've managed to prove the process works, and to gain some familiarity with the tools and techniques involved. In the next year I will follow up on this, and produce some artworks that take advantage of this new technology and - I hope- will transcend the expected appearance of computer-mediated art.
Have you found other artists on the Internet like yourself?
One of the Internet's most powerful functions is its ability to put people with obscure interests in touch with one another. While art is a field which lends itself to almost infinite subdivision, there certainly are others out there with whom I have things in common. By linking our sites together, we can make an esthetic statement that transcends the limitations of our contributions as individuals. I'd certainly like to find more people interested in the confluence of computers and sculpture; so far we are rather few and far between.