Soft(ware) sculpture

Abstract

Soft(ware) Sculpture is a re-articulation of the notion of sculpture developed to reflect sculpture's new relationship with software and the consequent emergence of new forms of sculptural practice and sculptural artefacts, which through digital technology are able to sense their environment and become reactive to it. Soft(ware) Sculpture is therefore composed of a multitude of fluid relationships in constant motion across time, dimensions and realities. The notion of ‘Soft(ware) Sculpture’ was developed from a re-articulation of expanded arts practices that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. These practices were re-evaluated and extended upon through the application of current digital technologies overlaid on my existing sculptural practice, thus connecting material, time and space in order to explore possibilities previously beyond the remit of sculpture. The body of work that accompanies this research advocates the fusion of the conventional sculptural ‘object’ and the digital medium to create both a ‘sculptural ecology’ and a ‘sculptural situation’, read within this study as macro and micro-states of a new breed of sculptural artefacts that are fluid in both appearance and behaviour and that in themselves are also capable of creating artistic artefacts.