Discussion | Ceramics in the Digital World, Clay Art Center’s Symposium: Future Now

PORT CHESTER, New York—Clay Art Center is hosting a panel discussion you won’t want to miss. Moderated by Bryan Czibesz, Associate Professor of SUNY New Paltz, the Center’s Symposium: Future Now investigates the future of ceramics and technology in the digital world, September 23, 2017 from 2:30pm to 5pm. The program includes the symposium, an exhibition, workshop and dinner event.

The ceramic medium has always involved technology. For ease of production all the way to specialized mark making, the art and craft of clay uses specialized tools and machinery for its creation. The potter’s wheel is a piece of technology, emerging from hand-powered banding wheels to foot-powered treadles to the now widely used electric wheel – an advancement for the medium with spectacular aesthetics. Naturally, humans are both curious and advantageous to develop technology – the realm of the digital is a natural step in this evolution.

In this new frontier of the digi-modern era we find artists who use laptops right next to their potter’s wheels, computer culture is neck-in-neck with critical craft discussions, and the digital world is expanding into age-old institutions like art museums.

Concurrent to the exhibition REINVENTED (September 23 – November 11, 2017)— an international invitational of artists who combine digital technology with traditional studio techniques and curated by Adam Chau—Clay Art Center brings a symposium that will focus on the emerging technologies within ceramics and how artists, museums, and industry alike are inventing new ways to push the envelope with Czibesz, leading a panel of innovators and forerunners of the digital age.. In 21st century culture what are the advantages and disadvantages to using digital fabrication methods? How are artists hacking this technology to fit their needs? Panelists include Martin Bechthold, Professor of Architectural Technology, Harvard University; Marco Castro Cosio, Research Fellow, Brown Institute for Media Innovation, Columbia University School of Journalism; Aaron Knochel, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Art Education, Penn State; and Elizabeth New, Production Ceramicist, SHAPEWAYS

Participating REINVENTED artists include Andy Brayman, Jeremy Brooks, Dr. Katie Bunnell, Brian Caponi, Bryan Czibesz/Shawn Spangler, Sharan Elran, Brett Freund, Chris Gustin , Mia Mulvey, Megumi Naitoh, Paul Scott and Joey Watson.

Cfile will have a catalog of the exhibition available soon.

Upcoming Concurrent Events:

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