Flemming Tvede Hansen is a Ph.D. Scholar at The Danish Design School.

Flemming Tvede’s research is based on his own artistically creative and experimental practice as a ceramist.

In his Ph.D. project, which has the working title Eksperimenterende brug af det digitale medie i det keramiske fagområde (Experimental use of the digital medium in the ceramic field), Flemming Tvede explores whether he as a ceramist can use digital media and tools in his creative work with form (see examples here). Importantly, the resulting process should utilise both the digital processing power and the ceramist’s intuitive knowledge about form and materials.

Flemming Tvede’s working hypothesis is that tools for simulating physical processes (in existing 3D software, developed for film animation) can be used for creative work with ceramic form. If this is confirmed, he further aims to explore what artistic contributions these tools can bring to the design process. He expects that the digital tools will prove useful in artistic processes thanks to their capability, for example, of freezing and reproducing momentary states and transitions in changing form or physical states.

No techniques have been developed for transferring digitally created forms directly to a ceramic material. Therefore, Flemming Tvede will also be exploring possible ways of executing this transfer through existing techniques for producing prototypes of digitally produced models in other materials.  

In his research Flemming Tvede works experimentally to produce ceramics with a form that has been created exclusively through digital simulation. Since the success criterion is artistic, the physical outcome of the experiments must be subject to an aesthetic assessment, which makes it difficult to specify the theoretical basis and the methodology. Thus, another project objective is to explore how principles from the theory of science can be applied in assessing this type of output, preferably in a way that makes it possible to generalise the project experiences and make them useful in practice-based design research outside the field of ceramics.

The Ph.D. project is funded by:
- Guldagergård (International Ceramic Research Center – Denmark).
- Danish Museum of Art & Design
- The Danish Design School
- Danish Centre for Design Research

Flemming Tvede Hansen graduated as a designer, specialising in ceramics, from The Danish Design School, the Institute for One-Off Design and from the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.

Flemming Tvede Hansen’s Ph.D. project is the topic of an article in Mind Design No. 10, June 2008: Knowledge Building Through Experimental Design Research.

Key words Digital media, rapid prototyping, arts and craft, ceramics, analogue techniques, 3D physical form, interdisciplinary approaches, computer-aided design