Hasta La Ideas

Including objects made from soundwaves and self-generating forms, Lab Craft brings together traditional craft skills and digital technology “to create objects that move beyond the limitations of the handmade”.

The Crafts Council show, full name Lab Craft, adventures in contemporary craft, features work from 26 of the most experimental names in craft and design. Although it originally debuted in a preview event as part of the London Design Festival, the show now goes on tour, starting at the Turnpike Gallery in Leigh from October 30.

All the works explore the idea of using digital technologies such as rapid prototyping, laser cutting, laser scanning and digital printing to distort or manipulate materials and forms.

Included in the show are the Bravais Armchair (top), a collaboration between Liam Hopkins of Lazarian and artist Richard Sweeney who featured in CR’s first Monograph. The chair is formed in triangular columns of corrugated cardboard sourced locally from John Hargreaves’ factory in Stalybridge, which produces paper from recycled pulp using machinery originally installed in 1910.

Shine by Geoffrey Mann “investigates the reflective properties of a metallic object; in this case the subject was a Victorian candelabra. The reference information was generated through documenting the reflection by using raw data via a planar 3D scanner. When scanning a metallic object the laser beam is unable to distinguish between the surface and the reflection. The spikes represent the intensity of the reflection.”

Gary Allson and Ismini Samanidou‘s Woven Wood “explores how digital making methods can be used to translate magnified textile weave structures into timber”.

Zachary Eastwood-Bloom‘s Information Ate My Table attempts to convey the collision of the material and digital worlds

And Michael Eden‘s Babel Vessel “combines actual and virtual experiences” via the QR code on its surface.

After the Turnpike Gallery, the show will visit Plymouth College of Art, the New Brewery Arts Centre, Cirencester, Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum and The Civic in Barnsley. Details here