CNC SCULPTURING ESSAY

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CNC SCULPTURING ESSAY

CNC Sculpturing:
Opening New Horizons for Artistic Creativity

OVERVIEW

While 2D digital media has advanced into artistic realms utilizing drawing, painting and CAD programs, I have been primarily focused on employing CNC technology to create sculptures in various machinable materials. Since I began working with CAD/CAM systems and programming CNC tools I have always been cognizant of new ways of expressing artistic conceptions through the use of this exciting technology. New horizons for artistic expression are opening up with this technology, which I discuss in this essay. Ultimately, my own long range aspirations are moving in the direction of a CNC machine shop for the artisan replete with CAD/CAM, CNC and reverse engineering technology to produce 3D artworks by sculptors, designers and for my own artistic creations.

Although I have worked extensively in various industries utilizing CAD/CAM skills to engineer manufactured articles for production, my dream has always been to employ them for creating sculpture. In this essay I will explore the artistic dimensions of CNC Sculpturing and the widely anticipated acceptance of various modern high-tech tools that can benefit sculptors in the production of their works of art.

HI-TECH SCULPTURING TOOLS

Sculptors have traditionally utilized tools in addition to their own hands to model various materials into creative forms. Clay is a pliable material which is favorable to modeling by hand, but wood is a harder substance which requires the use of carving tools. Creating metal sculpture involves the use of cutting and welding equipment. With every advance in terms of new tools and new materials, another realm of creative consciousness is born for the artist to explore and for the public to enjoy. Modern trends in art evolve as innovative processes are adapted, because these new tools and materials expand artistic consciousness to another level. Rapid prototyping is a recent technology which artists have capitalized upon. They first create 3D CAD solid models. Then through an additive process the exact replica of the 3D model is produced layer by layer. Convoluted shapes and forms impossible to produce by other means have been readily rendered from 3D CAD models by rapid prototyping processes, as witnessed in recent exhibitions by Michael Rees and others.

All processes have their limitation in scale, in scope of potential form and in materials available for the process. While rapid prototyping is limited in terms of material and scale, it is not limited in terms of form. Any shape that can be conceived and modeled in CAD can be produced by this process, even shapes contained within fully enclosed shapes. The materials available to this process are laminated layers of paper, clear and opaque plastic resins, sintered metal powder and others.

The reason that I am attracted to CNC technology as my process of choice for creating sculpture is because of the wide array of materials to choose from. My favorite materials are clear acrylic plastic, aluminum and Ren-Shape machinable plastic foam. These are all easily machinable on CNC equipment. The machined pieces can then be manually sanded or polished to a matte or high gloss finish. I am also attracted to the creative process of 3D modeling and the machining practices of the typical CNC machine shops where I have been employed. The entire CAD/CAM process of creating the 3D CAD models from scratch, then programming the toolpaths and producing the code for machining a block of acrylic or aluminum on the CNC machine tool fascinates me.

This hi-tech process has generated unique artistic creations for myself and others. Recent designs have been remarkable. Today many industrial designers are capitalizing on this "art to part" process because of the immediacy of high speed methods to convert their designs into reality. There are vast new creative horizons to be explored by sculptors once they recognize the artistic dimensions inherent in this process.

REACTIONARY THINKING

In exploring the issue of CNC Sculpturing being widely accepted as a practice in the modern art world, one should consider that the conventional thinking seems to relegate it almost exclusively to a manufacturing process. The entry for sculpture in a recent Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition (©1997) is: "the action or art of processing (as by carving, modeling, or welding) plastic or hard materials into works of art". I recommend that future editions contain other traditional processes which were omitted, such as casting, mold making (Latex Rubber, Moulage, plaster, lost wax, etc.), glass-blowing, assembly and many others. I would go further to propose including such newer processes as milling, turning, CNC programming, CAD/CAM, rapid prototyping, vacuum forming and reverse engineering.

Since all artists use certain tools to create their works of art and sculpture, these newer tools should be included along with the more traditional ones. Lest many artists, dealers, art buyers and educators who may have a vested interest in the status quo succumb to tunnel vision of the arts fueled by reactionary thinking and force of habit, I would advise the keepers of the databases for dictionaries and encyclopedias to update their definitions of sculpture accordingly. The evolution of art and sculpture should keep up with the advancement and development of hi-tech tools.

I have certainly encountered this reactionary thinking many times in my pursuit of CNC Sculpturing. Recently I was at a gallery where I noticed a striking acrylic sculpture. I could easy detect that the process used to create this piece was CNC machining, as I noticed evidence of the tiny toolpath stepovers in the material. When I asked the dealer how it was produced, he said it was "carved" out of solid acrylic. I asked pointedly, wasn't it CNC machined, and he answered "no", it wasn't machined, it was routed by hand. After I revealed my involvement with CNC technology, he finally confessed that the piece was machined on a Gerber CNC router. He felt that there was a stigma attached to CNC machining, that this process strips a work of its' artistic value and reduces it to a manufactured article in the eyes of the public.

Recently, I received an enthusiastic email from a fine arts student in the U.K. who is implementing various industrial technologies to produce her sculptures. At times her work has been dismissed by instructors because, as she explains, they say that the artist is removed one step and replaced by the technology. She was encouraged by my Web site, which advocates the use of new technologies to produce sculpture and said that she will continue along this path because it fascinates her.

ART AND SCULPTURING PROCESSES

At this point I would like to offer my definition of art and the processes utilized by an artist or sculptor. I will also describe my own artistic revelations which led to my present desire to create sculpture by CNC processes. The dictionary states only reflexive definitions such as: "the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects". But this definition falls short because "creative imagination" and "aesthetic objects" refer reflexively back to "art" itself.

I will attempt to go deeper into the matter. I would say that art is the process of creation, by means of utilizing specific tools for the visual expression and communication of an intense inner discovery and self-awakening to a truth inherent in life, nature or ones' own imagination. This definition actually comes from my 30 years study of the Life Philosophy of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism which expounds the concept of the "Ten Worlds". In brief, the Ten Worlds is a practical theory which simply explains the various conditions of human life through subject-object relationships. For instance, Hunger, the 2nd condition is a strong subjective desire for food. The object of one's hunger nature might be a juicy sirloin steak. One can consummate the subject-object relationship in the world of hunger by eating the steak. Artistic pursuits fall into the 8th world, the condition of life known as "realization" or "partial enlightenment" and can also be identified as an epiphany or revelation. This condition is characterized by a self-awakening to an inherent subjective truth by the process of creation or discovery involving specific phenomenon in one's environment. It may be a realization as grand as an artistic epiphany or as commonplace as discovering a new recipe for apple strudel. In the case of art, for instance, the object may be a huge mountain which causes an intense subjective experience. One may realize a powerful feeling of his own diminutive scale in comparison to the grandeur of the mountain. In this example an artist would use available tools such as a paintbrush and canvas to express his visual glimpse of the eternal in the mundane, thereby consummating his sublime subject-object relationship.

ARTISTIC EPIPHANIES

Throughout my college years at Stonybrook University, where I majored in Studio Art, I had never experienced such an artistic epiphany, or partial enlightenment of a scale that would impel me to change the direction of my life. I would like to elaborate on two major ones occurring in the ensuing years after college which altered the course of my life.

The first one occurred during the Summer Workshop for Artists and Craftsmen at Williams College. At the time I was working in the position of a shipping clerk in my father's retail gift shop in Great Neck feeling unfulfilled. I signed up for this workshop, which was sponsored by the Great Neck Continuing Education program, to rouse my buried passion for creating art.

Williams College is a picturesque campus with landscaped promenades and historical white-shingled buildings nestled in the north Berkshire hills in Massachusetts. Many classes were offered. I chose acrylic sculpture, silk-screening and clay modeling. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire program, especially the course taught by an acclaimed acrylic sculptor. As he was cutting and fabricating blocks of acrylic into geometric shapes, it started to dawn on me that this is a material that I would love to work with. As he showed us the process step by step of sanding the machined acrylic edges with progressively finer grades of sandpaper until the machining marks disappeared and a high gloss appeared, I was spellbound. I remember working on a sample block myself and as I went through the same process, an inner sensation, a luminous glow as clear as the polished acrylic surface welled up within. With another student, we came up with the name A.R.T.S., the acronym for 'Art Renaissance of the Total Spirit' and decided to bring our inspiration home and start a new artistic movement together. Later on I changed the acronym to read Art Renaissance of Technology and Sculpture.

The day after I returned home from the summer workshop, reality set in along with opposition to my new endeavor from my family. Although they said may plans were impractical and unrealistic, I immediately purchased several cut to size pieces of acrylic sheet and began fabricating on the side in the basement of my father's store. Within a couple of years, I had a growing acrylic fabrication shop where I was successfully producing and marketing my own acrylic designs for a line of giftware and accessories. You can see some of these items on the Acrylics page.

The second artistic revelation occurred while I was working at Precision Prototypes Inc., a custom model shop where we machined, cast and fabricated precision industrial appearance models. My boss, Joe Melo was a brilliant engineer who spent many hours alone in a room working with expensive computer systems and strange CAD/CAM equipment in the early 1990's when no one had ever heard of these technologies. I would see him generating these strange colorful wireframe images and proudly machining them on his Techno-Isel CNC router. I dismissed it as being beyond my scope. Then one day, after hours, he invited me into the computer room and showed me Mastercam and an advanced 3D solid modeling program. He asked me to take the mouse and draw a few points on the screen and then connect them with lines. Now, rotate them around an invisible axis, and there it was, a colorful geometrical solid form! Next draw a rectangle, extrude it and subtract it from the revolved solid model. Another similar exercise or two had me convinced. I became excited and exclaimed to him that we can produce sculpture

this way, but he dismissed the idea as too expensive and unrelated to his business pursuits. However, I was sold. I was beside myself with enthusiasm. This moment determined the subsequent direction of my life.

I almost immediately began purchasing books on computers and taking evening courses in DOS, Windows, Mastercam, AutoCAD, Computer Graphics, 3D modeling, CNC technology and so forth. My boss sold me a used 386 with 4 MB of ram and a 60 MB hard drive and I played with it until the wee hours, with a vengeance until I could catch up with all the geeks who were miles ahead.

From that time in the early 90's to the present I have honed my skills in CNC programming, machining and 3D modeling which I employ on a daily basis in my current position. These two experiences have led me to my present sphere where opportunities for creative expression abound. I perceive a brilliant future for CNC Sculpturing and it's wide adoption for a renaissance in art combining sculpture and technology. To play an active role in this pursuit, I plan to open a high-tech machine shop for artists and craftsmen in the near future.