Each piece in this series of three is a hand-blown glass hollow “head” containing a hand-folded piece of paper with curved creases. The glass heads were blown after an experience (documented in video) of blowing a glass head while blindfold, touching the glass with wet paper to feel the shape, making hot glass blowing a more haptic experience. Paper folding is more naturally a haptic experience. Together, the folded paper inside the glass head represents the human experience of haptic interaction.
Watch the video
The glass head represents the human experience. Hand-blown glass is shaped and formed at 1600-2000 degrees Fahrenheit. This high temperature makes the glass untouchable and, although it is shaped with metal tools, it is primarily shaped by visual cues. We experimented with making glass blowing a more haptic experience by making a piece of blown glass blindfolded. This experience led to a new appreciation for the tactile aspect of glass blowing, as we focused more on "touching" and shaping the glass through soft wet paper as an interface. In a sense, we used paper to help provide the physical sensation needed to make the glass head. After the experience, we returned to making glass while sighted, and found that our perception changed and the physical sensation was heightened.
Origami is a true haptic experience, where touch defines how the paper is folded. With practice, touch becomes more important than visual cues. We use computers to design our curved-crease sculptures, based on algorithms from the field of computational origami. Here we fold paper along concentric circular creases, a design originating at the Bauhaus in the late 1920s. Creases set the memory of the paper so that it tries to return to a specific dihedral angle, while uncreased paper tries to remain flat. Confined to open within a glass enclosure, the paper finds new equilibrium forms.
Paper is the haptic connecting medium: wet paper helps shape the hot glass into a head-like form, which holds paper folded along curved creases. We view the sculpture as a representation of the human experience (the head) of haptic interaction (origami). The small hole at the bottom of the head makes for a “ship in the bottle” effect, representing the challenge of inserting and extracting ideas to and from our brain.
Material: Elephant hide paper, hand-blown glass.
Dimensions: each 8" × 8" × 10" tall.