A translation image will sit here.TODO(David): photo of the painting translation
Painting
Drawing to a large canvas. A change of scale. The gesture stays, but differently.
The Human Trace
What happens to a creative gesture between the hand, the material, the copy and the viewer — and can context from the maker restore what gets lost?
I explore and communicate what happens to the creative gesture between making and seeing.
A trace is what remains of a gesture when it moves into another material — a canvas, a grid, a knit. Some of it is lost. Some of it can be carried if the copy travels with context from the maker.
Why it matters
- Most of what we see reaches us as a copy.
- More and more images have no maker behind them.
- Context from the person who made it may carry what the copy loses.
Three translations of one gesture
A translation image will sit here.TODO(David): photo of the PIXEE translation
PIXEE
Gesture to a digital grid. The loss is literal: one pixel is one stitch.
A translation image will sit here.TODO(David): photo of the HILY translation
HILY
Gesture to industrial textile. A painting you can wear.
The method in three steps
- Capture — The gesture and the maker’s spoken thoughts at the same moment.
- Translate — Carry the same gesture through painting, the PIXEE grid, and HILY knit.
- Test — What viewers feel with that context, and without it.
In progress
No public notes yet. They will appear when there is more to say than that the work is underway.
Reading
TODO(David): Reading list