Dematerialising sculpture

To interrogate these possibilities the research asked the following questions: 1. How might visual ambiguity affect material certainty in sculpture? 2. To what extent can moire patterns induce the dematerialisation of material sculpture?

In seeking to answer the questions, my research draws upon Donald Schön's (1983) concept of reflection-in-action. By combining theory and practice, it produces a cyclical process of continual reflection on the sculptural models during making and during the progression of theoretical research. This approach treats theoretical research and practice research as mutually reinforcing, and thereby iteratively enables the sequential production of models.

Each individual sculptural model derives from a specific change introduced within this cycle, and each change directly influenced the development of the research. By maintaining continuous documentation of the making process and critical reflection, I have been able to examine, test, nuance and maximise the relationships between the visual mechanisms of moire and its possibilities to induce dematerialisation of sculpture.

The principal contribution of this research to knowledge lies in developing and systematically testing gradient meshes for use in material sculpture, with mesh parameters designed to regulate the emergence and variation of moire patterns. This provides a practice-based pathway for examining how such regulation affects perceived spatial depth and the extent of dematerialisation, thereby extending existing discussions of visual illusion, material sculpture and sculptural dematerialisation.</p>