IS 2005 / 4th
Digital
Sculpture Competition / Jury
Pr. Dan COLLINS
bionarrative
I am an Associate Professor of Intermedia
within the School of Art at Arizona State University and Co-Director of
the PRISM lab--an interdisciplinary 3D modeling and rapid prototyping
facility. Within the School of Art, I coordinate the foundation program
in basic art instruction (artCore) and teach advanced courses in
Intermedia.
My work of the past several years
utilizes computer modeling to control the kind and degree of distortion
imposed on a given object or data set. Scaling operations, proportional
shifts, eccentric vantage points, morphing processes, and 3-D montage
are some of the techniques explored by this body of work. Part of the
challenge has been how to get forms "out of the box" (the computer) and
fully realized in an actual, tangible form. I am interested in the gap
between the virtual space of the computer and the tangible, body-felt
reality of sculptural objects.
My research has included working with
"input" devices such as 3D laser scanners (at Cyberware in Monterey,
CA) and various medical diagnostic tools (CT, MRI). I continue to
explore various 3D software modeling programs such as 3D Studio Max,
Maya, Rhino, etc. as well as custom, proprietary programs. I have
worked with a broad range of "output" technologies such as CNC milling,
stereolithography, laser sintering, and fused deposition modeling. The
conceptual thread that connects much of this research is my attempt to
better understand problems of representation with respect to the human
form. For example, how does our ability to "read" an x-ray of a breast
or an MRI image of a heart reveal changing notions of what it means to
be human?
I am currently in the midst of
working with researchers from across the university on an
interdisciplinary 3D visualization project called PRISM (Partnership
for Research in Spatial Modeling) See http://prism.asu.edu. PRISM links
research in disciplines as diverse as Industrial Technology,
Archaeology, Anthropology, Biomechanical Engineering, Bioscience,
Computer Science, Architecture, Industrial Design, and Sculpture. It is
a strategic research focus project funded in part by the Office of the
Vice President for Research. For the past 9 years, PRISM has focused
largely on NSF funded research in visualization and 3D data base
development. We have recently launched an interface ("Visual Query")
for searching a custom database of Native American pottery and are
currently involved in creating three full-scale sculptural tableaux of
George Washington for a new museum at Mt. Vernon.
For several years I have been
involved with SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group Graphics), an arm of ACM
(Association for Computing Machinery). For the annual conference in the
summer of 2001, held in San Antonio, Texas, I was chair of a venue
called the STUDIO. The STUDIO is a creative environment that encourages
SIGGRAPH attendees to work with the latest technologies for 2D and 3D
production, animation, and VR. For the 2004 SIGGRAPH at the convention
center in Los Angeles, I led a team that built a 25 foot x 15 foot
“sand painting” machine that created huge bitmapped images with
½” pixels comprised of silica sand.
I continue to involve myself in the
research and publication of theoretical texts that reflect the larger
concerns of my studio practice and my teaching. I recently
co-edited an anthology of essays on the work of Eduardo Kac entitled The
Eighth Day: The Transgenic Art of Eduardo Kac.
dan.Collins@asu.edu
Dan
COLLINS Web page