Every Robot Needs a Human in Silica Valley
Exploring the interplay between technology and human creativity in a digital age
The show’s title is a play on Silicon Valley, the California technology hub that is home to many of the top computing and media companies, and silica, a compound key in the production of glass. This connection demonstrates that the components of technology and art are not so separate and can mesh in interesting new ways, as shown by the various fusions created by the artists in their works.
Silica Valley Intro Video (2020-03-06/2020-07-28) by John SharvinPittsburgh Glass Center
Though technological innovation is key to the development of the works in Silica Valley, the final products tend to only express this subtly. This is reminiscent of how the beauty of technology often goes unnoticed because of its ubiquity in our daily lives.
There are nine artists featured in the show.
They are an international cohort, from both the US and UK. Some have pioneered new techniques using CNC-driven waterjets to cut and shape their works in unique ways. Others focus on machining and 3D printing to create new molds and structures.
Alabastra by Brandyn Callahan & Phirak Suon
Phirak Suon is a designer based in Seattle, WA and Brandyn Callahan is a glassmaker based in Seattle, WA. By combining their unique skill sets Brandyn and Phirak continue to explore methods between and beyond traditional glassblowing techniques and 3D printing technology, with the desire to change and modernize a 2,OOO year old craft.
Alabastra by Brandyn Callahan & Phirak Suon
“It came from a background in ceramics and architecture. A lot of what we do is exploring digital technologies, through the lens of craft.” -Brandyn Callahan
Gender (2020-03-06/2020-07-28) by Vanessa CutlerPittsburgh Glass Center
Vanessa Cutler
Vanessa Cutler is an artist, academic, and consultant. Her work explores how the machine can push a perception of industrial made items and in return produce a unique handmade object.
Flight (2020) by Vanessa CutlerPittsburgh Glass Center
“Being inquisitive is part of the human make up..."
"...and a major part of my practice. By exploring application of traditional practice and industrial process the work builds on developing an intimacy of understanding between direct “hands on” application and the indirect methodology of industrial processing.”
Chitter Chatter (2019) by Vanessa CutlerPittsburgh Glass Center
Chitter Chatter
In this work, Cutler uses handwriting to investigate technology and see how machines can replicate our identity. Over 500 glass medals were produced, micro-waterjet cut and distorted.
Chitter Chatter detail (2019) by Vanessa CutlerPittsburgh Glass Center
Each medal is held on its own pin allowing the medal to hang freely and move in response to its environment. Sometimes the chatter is still other times busy letting you hear its voice.
Jenn Figg & Mathew McCormack are a collaborative team, creating together since 2OO9 to develop site-specific installations and objects with glass and light that are expressions of our complex relationship with our environment.
Light Shaker 3.1.B and Light Shaker 3.2.B
Figg and McCormack's interactive, sensorial sculptures connect performers and audiences in a new way with human generated light by merging the materials of light and sound, directly connecting these phenomena with movements of the body.
Light Shaker 3.1.B and Light Shaker 3.2.B
Their works analyze, critique and complicate the interconnections between ecology, science, industry, and identity, drawing contextually from spaces, environments, technologies, and histories (both real and imagined).
Object of Desire: Mount Olympus (2020-03-06/2020-07-28) by Daniel CutronePittsburgh Glass Center
Daniel Cutrone
Daniel Cutrone is an artist and educator living and working in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Honey Birds (2020-03-06/2020-07-28) by Daniel CutronePittsburgh Glass Center
Honey Birds
“I am working on mountains, very big mountains made very small, and digital birds, and tree branches, and the act of looking. I have been interested in how the worlds of art, craft, and design overlap."
Honey Birds detail (2020-03-06/2020-07-28) by Daniel CutronePittsburgh Glass Center
"I am also interested in creating intimacy. It is inquiry, curiosity, and a desire for understanding that moves us to intimacy."
Object without Desire: Buhhda's Footprint (2020-03-06/2020-07-28) by Daniel CutronePittsburgh Glass Center
Object Without Desire: Buddha's Footprint
“I am interested in the “What ifs?” not about certainty. I believe that the most fertile ground is one littered with inquiry," Cutrone explained.
Figures Within Space by Jo Mitchell
Jo Mitchell is a UK artist based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Her work combines glass and controlled air bubbles to make solid, sculptural pieces which possess an ethereal quality.
Figures Within Space by Jo Mitchell
“Through kilnforming perfectly transparent layers, glass becomes the space and the window. Air then becomes the medium through which is it possible to create intangible sculptural forms," Mitchell said.
Multiple Fred Kahl Sculptures (2020-03-06/2020-07-28) by Fred KahlPittsburgh Glass Center
Fred Kahl
Fred Kahl is an artist, designer, magician, sword swallower, and inventor using technology, imagination and play to create experiences invoking magic and wonder.
Ajna (2019) by Fred KahlPittsburgh Glass Center
"My work in the last decade has focused on bridging the divide between our digital and physical lives," Kahl said.
Vishudda (2018) by Fred KahlPittsburgh Glass Center
His sculptures use 3D scanning, modeling, and printing.
"Glass is a medium of choice where I find myself drawn to explore its connection to light and architecture," Kahl said.
Mining Industries: Planned Industrial Community
Norwood Viviano’s work is about change. Utilizing digital 3D computer modeling and printing technology in tandem with glassblowing and casting processes, he creates work depicting population shifts tied to the dynamic between industry and community.
Mining Industries by Norwood Viviano
“I find myself looking at the world as a surveyor – telling stories through objects," Viviano said.
Manufacturing Cities is comprised of 24 blown-glass forms based on three-dimensional rotations of statistical data for major urban centers in the United States. Each individual piece explores the specific history of its namesake city — tracking shifts in population growth and decline relative to their dependence on the expansion and contraction of local industry.
“I hope that this show will encourage people interested in engineering, computer science, and robotics to consider the connections between creating with technology and glass,” explained Sharvin, who wants to try and bridge the gap between engineering and art.
Silica Valley Gallery Tour (2020-03-06/2020-07-28)Pittsburgh Glass Center
Photographer: Nathan J. Shaulis
