In his Ph.D. project ceramicist Flemming Tvede Hansen studies the potential interactions and clashes in the encounter of ceramics and some of the new digital media. For example, the project asks how one might use digital 3D simulation tools to explore ceramic design in new ways. The project has many stakeholders, as its funding stems from many different sources.

By Mads Nygaard Folkmann

Flemming Tvede Hansen’s Ph.D. project falls within the category of practice-based research, and this is exactly why several different parties with an interest in the development of ceramics and craft have joined forces to back the project. The project, which Flemming Tvede Hansen initiated on 1 February 2006, is funded by Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center, The Danish Museum of Art & Design, The Danish Design School and the Danish Centre for Design Research.

Digital output materialised in ceramics. In his project, Flemming Tvede Hansen has examined how the designer interacts with the material, and how the material interacts with the digital simulation. First, the digital simulation (Phase 1) is represented in a 3D-print (Phase 2), which is then reproduced as a plaster cast and covered with liquid clay (Phase 3).

Cultivating a New Knowledge Area

The core of Flemming Tvede Hansen’s project is a series of questions about the integration of the digital medium in ceramic craft, both in terms of possible approaches and in terms of its potential contribution to the design process. “Essentially, I want to explore the possible effect of the digital medium on a ceramic design process,” says Flemming Tvede Hansen. “Often, the digital medium is approached as a series of 3D sketching and visualisation techniques, where the design process takes place on the computer as an analytical process. In that mode, there is no contact with the design material, in my case, clay. My research goal is to go a little deeper. I’m exploring how shape is not just something that’s developed analytically within the framework of the computer software but something that can be actively generated in an interactive process, with the digital medium as a material in the design process.”

The goal of the project is to cultivate a productive dialogue between digital design tools and the tangible material. “In this project, I’m operating within a fundamental field of tension. On the one hand, I have the materials, which are sensuous and accessible to physical experience, and which respond and adapt to processing. And on the other hand, I have the digital tools, which are non-plastic, pure, calculated and controlled. I work within a dialogue between sensuous nature and a sort of analytical and mental presentation of nature. It’s a key objective for the project to examine how this dialogue might take on a tangible expression. This represents an overarching issue for design,” says Flemming Tvede Hansen.

“I have established a series of landmarks for my work,” he adds. “First of all, it’s crucial to produce a physical outcome of this dialogue between material and digital tools. It’s a fundamental experience for a craftsperson that clay has its own unique material properties, which define the design conditions. Shape isn’t something that can be imposed on the clay; it’s something that arises during the work process. It was crucial for me to maintain the physical, sensuous aspects but to study them specifically within the framework provided by the digital medium.”

Phase 1 – inside the computer. In the computer’s simulation space, an ‘object’ drops onto a liquid surface and leaves behind an impression and a number of concentric circles. See animation here

Digital Material Experiments

Another aspect of Flemming Tvede Hansen’s work is his choice of digital tools. “I chose graphic simulation tools because they address processes that are comparable to physical processes. For example, they make it possible to generate processes with different types of materials, like liquids, for example, in order to study their pure, ideal properties,” Flemming Tvede Hansen explains.
“I’ve worked with a number of programs, but I had something of a breakthrough when I discovered the program Real Flow," says Flemming Tvede Hansen. “It can simulate liquids, and it’s a program that’s used in the film industry, for example. At the same time, I soon discovered that this too was a program that might be capable of handling the process itself, the pure simulation, but that it wasn’t capable of producing the right result, like a tool that offers the designer a high degree of interaction with the material.”

Method Objectives

In order to overcome the difficulty of establishing a dialogue between these fundamentally different media, the physical and the digital, Flemming Tvede Hansen established three objectives for his work: “Precisely because the digital medium is capable of offering pure simulations without me interacting with the material, it is my objective to examine how one might transfer knowledge from the tangible materials to the digital medium. My question is how one might apply the digital media in a way that lets them act as more direct interaction tools. That’s one of the upcoming tasks for me to address in my work,” he says. 

Phase 2 – digital print. The computer animation is fixated in a moment, and a 3D-print is produced in plastic, which forms the basis for a plaster cast.

Next, he is focused on the areas where the dialogue between ceramics and digital media produce results. “My research suggests that it’s especially in the fields of ceramic presentations of the immediate, of transformative states and of the fleeting that this dialogue is productive,” says Flemming Tvede Hansen. “Furthermore, it’s this combination – of the sensory experiences represented in the computer as a simulation and the material execution with liquid clay, which holds something actually sensory, where the clays moves and gives – that holds the real potential for new developments.”

In terms of method, the goal is to visualise the project’s approaches and processes to others. “The main thing for me has been to attack my field of work artistically, and I did this by exploring my field through experimentation. That suited my particular approach to research. Next, I incorporated reflection in order to shore up my material conceptually and theoretically. The result is a more abstract approach to the design process, where my primary aim is not to create concrete products but rather to address the process – and the structure underlying the process,” Flemming Tvede Hansen explains.

Networking and Specific Rewards

The general exploration of the potential within the field ceramics is one of the overriding perspectives that Guldagergaard sees in the project. “In addition, there are some very specific rewards,” says Priscilla Mouritzen. “We usually do a series of courses and workshop sessions with recently trained ceramicists, and here, Flemming has provided an important contribution with his knowledge about 3D-modelling, and he has also helped organise a number of workshops.”

Phase 3 – interaction with the concrete material. The liquid is poured; it adheres to the shape of the 3D-print, but in the drying process it also lends the object a layer of something that was ‘happened’ and was ‘actually sensed’.

In autumn 2008, Flemming Tvede Hansen is in charge of a seminar at the Danish Museum of Art & Design with the working title “Cross Fields”. Here, the relationships between practice and theory and between analogue and digital techniques and materials are on the agenda. In a cross field of design and research, the seminar focuses on a very fundamental aspect of design: the relationship between the virtual, open quality of the design process and the real, tangible quality of the design object. The seminar is based on presentations and concrete products by invited practitioners and theorists who share their experience and knowledge.

Flemming Tvede Hansens Ph.D. project has also provided Guldagergaard with an opportunity to further expand its domestic and international network. “Through Flemming’s work, we have come in touch with Falmouth School of Art, among others, where Flemming spent some time. With his project he is drawing in both knowledge and interesting people – we’re getting in touch with new environments. People have noticed Flemming and his work, and we’re going to benefit from that. In the long term, we’ll be able to use Flemming as a sort of consultant, so we will continue to reap the benefits of his work,” says Priscilla Mouritzen.

“Most importantly, Flemming has paved the way for Denmark to be able to work with practice-based research in ceramics. This is something we wanted to incorporate in our institution as a developmental perspective for our work with ceramics. I’m actually considering whether we might be able to put together a new co-funding model for another Ph.D. project, so that we might cast the net again and see whom we might catch,” says Priscilla Mouritzen.

Stakeholders in Flemming Tvede Hansen’s Ph.D. Project Guldagergaard is located in Skælskør in the Southern part of Sealand, Denmark, and since 1997 it has been an international research centre specialising in ceramic art, craft and design. The centre’s activities include workshop sessions, seminars and lectures focusing on current topics in relation to, for example, materials, techniques and artistic expressions. In addition, Guldagergaard has the capacity to house 15 artists and designers, who can apply for a workshop residence. Additional information available on www.ceramic.dk The Danish Museum of Art & Design in Copenhagen is an exhibition venue for Danish and international industrial design, applied art and craft. Since its inception in 1890, the museum’s main task has been to communicate a concept of quality in design. The museum carries out research in art and design history based on its own collections and conveys the findings through exhibitions, publications, education etc. Additional information available on www.kunstindustrimuseet.dk The Danish Design School in Copenhagen is an educational institution under the Danish Ministry of Culture with the mission of ensuring the international position of Danish design, promoting the competitiveness of Danish businesses, and contributing to setting international standards for design education and design research. The Danish Design School combines traditions for art and craftsmanship with artistic activity and design research. Additional information available on www.dkds.dk The Danish Centre for Design Research was established as a collaborative effort by the Aarhus School of Architecture, The Danish Design School, Designskolen Kolding and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, School of Architecture. One of the goals of the DCDR is to help develop a strong research environment for design that embraces both the architecture and the design schools. The main office of the DCDR is located at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, School of Architecture in Copenhagen. Additional information available on www.dcdr.dk

Additional information available about Flemming Tvede Hansen’s project on http://www.flemmingtvede.dk/

Mind Design #10, 2008