No. 81
Smokejack Tiles
By : Heleen Sintobin
Entrant’s location : Belgium
LINKS
Description
Smokejack explores the aesthetic language of digital crafting within contemporary ceramics. The collection showcases CNC milling on wet terracotta clay exploring the fingerprint of the machine. As the tool collides with the clay, digital imperfections reveal themselves. The project unpacks CNC technology from a craft perspective and looks at the digital tool in the historical craft process of retooling. Smokejack explores the origin of clay in a collection on 48 terracotta tiles showing the topographical landscape of the terracotta pit 'Smokejack' in Cranleigh, England. Each tile is encoded with its unique GPS coordinates and milled by CNC. Terracotta clay, ash frame, 970mm x 1260mm, 2019 www.heleensintobin.com www.instagram.com/heleensintobin
What did you create?
Smokejack explores the aesthetic language of digital crafting within contemporary ceramics. The collection showcases CNC milling on wet terracotta clay exploring the fingerprint of the machine. As the tool collides with the clay, digital imperfections reveal themselves. The project unpacks CNC technology from a craft perspective and looks at the digital tool in the historical craft process of retooling. Smokejack explores the origin of clay in a collection on 48 terracotta tiles showing the topographical landscape of the terracotta pit 'Smokejack' in Cranleigh, England. Each tile is encoded with its unique GPS coordinates and milled by CNC.
Why did you make it?
I am fascinated by the movement of postdigital artisans in which designers and artists look at digital tools from a craft perspective and see this change within the historical craft process of retooling. The tool I explored was the CNC machine which is normally used for very accurate milling on hard materials e.g. wood and metal. I however combined it with a soft ‘living’ material: wet clay. As the clay was still wet I used it as a canvas and medium to transfer the programmed toolpaths. The accurate digital toolpaths when transmitted reveal digital imperfection as parameters like humidity, speeds and direction of the tool everytime react differently when it’s translated into clay. Every piece is therefore unique. In the end result I reveal the CNC milling process and turn it into an aesthetic exploration of digital vocabulary mixed with contemporary ceramics.
How did you make it?
I first looked into the origin of the clay I wanted to work with. From aerial maps I draw the topography lines of the mining pit which I used as an input to then generate toolpaths from with the CNC. Next I slabrolled the clay by hand into square tile shapes. They were then milled by CNC all together while the clay was still wet. While the toolbit is spinning it pushes the wet clay away which results in a extruded looking like texture. The tiles are then dried and fired at a temperature of 1240 degrees and puzzled all together in the landscape format.
Your entry’s specification
1 tile in terracotta clay: 135mm*135mm*5mm, in total 48 tiles // 6x8 tiles wooden ash frame: 970mm*1260mm*(50mm-160mm) weight 40kg